Other Chromium Legacy: Google Chrome for OS X 10.7 – 10.9

[f54da]

> with updated Widevine
haven't been following the widevine stuff, but shouldn't it be roughly the same library? I know chromium-legacy has an extra dylib to polyfill the missing functions, have you tried just applying that to firefox's widevine?

(you'll probably need to someone get it in the same address space. dyld_insert_libraries should work I guess. probably don't want to modify the widevine library mach-o headers to add an lc_load segment since there's probably some signature checks in there)

 

[Wowfunhappy]

@f54da Widevine no longer works in Chromium Legacy either. I have been trying for weeks now (and apparently still failing, I'm sorry!) to explain that Widevine is separate from Chromium Legacy and not necessarily fixable because it's closed source and obfuscated.

 

[f54da]

Oh if it doesn't work in chromium legacy either then you're basically out of luck, unless it's an obvious failure spotted from the logs which can be polyfilled.

 

[MacBiter]

Oh if it doesn't work in chromium legacy either then you're basically out of luck, unless it's an obvious failure spotted from the logs which can be polyfilled.

Though it's a separate 'blob', each browser's developers update to the latest Widevine as and when necessary. For example, Legacy wasn't updated the previous time Wvn was, so bluebox got to work and did whatever was necessary, and then Legacy streamed DRM video. AS Legacy isn't being supported currently, the latest upgrade to Wvn isn't reflected in Legacy.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

For example, Legacy wasn't updated the previous time Wvn was, so bluebox got to work and did whatever was necessary

Yes, we were lucky that it was trivially fixable. It may be fixable again, but I don't recommend holding your breath! Even if it can be fixed again, it is not going to continue working forever.

AS Legacy isn't being supported currently, the latest upgrade to Wvn isn't reflected in Legacy.

Yes it is. As I have tried to explain before, once Widevine is installed, Chromium will update it automatically. The information in chrome://components is accurate.

unless it's an obvious failure spotted from the logs which can be polyfilled.

For what it's worth, I've never figured out how to see logs from Widevine. Do you know how to do that? I would be interested in taking a look on my end.

Did you ever figure out the mechanism Bluebox used to polyfill Widevine the first time? IIRC you looked before and were confused.

 

[f54da]

>out how to see logs from Widevine
I think you could try dlopen'ing the library manually.

>mechanism used to polyfill
I did reverse it a bit, it ends up effectively calling into some private dyld methods to force a flat namespace after the fact. This then presumably allows hooking of certain functions. I did not bother checking what functions are actually hooked in this manner, since that was less interesting to me than the novel approach of dynamically setting dyld variables.

 

[RK78]

@f54da re. "morally questionable", as I was writing I had some nagging doubts about straying into that territory. Probably should have avoided getting into that area altogether or perhaps found some more nuanced way of expressing what I was feeling. Your comments are appreciated.

@MacB, for Mojave 10.14, check out http://dosdude1.com/mojave/. I'm also limited to HS. I ran the 10.14 some years ago in a separate partition. Remember it being rather straightforward, fairly easy to get going.

 

[MacBiter]

Yes it is. As I have tried to explain before, once Widevine is installed, Chromium will update it automatically. The information in chrome://components is accurate.

Yes, I've compared Legacy with Firefox 115 ESR and Chrome 116 (which both play DRM video in my 10.13 VM), and they all report the same version of Widevine. So why won't it stream in Legacy in Mavericks, ever since Wvn was updated?

Can you stream DRM video in Legacy?

 

[MacBiter]

@MacB, for Mojave 10.14, check out http://dosdude1.com/mojave/. I'm also limited to HS. I ran the 10.14 some years ago in a separate partition. Remember it being rather straightforward, fairly easy to get going.

I'd thought about that, but have been testing all the most important software in my 10.13 VM, much of which still runs I'm happy to say. I have serious doubts about whether the same will be true for Mojave, and anyway Mojave is only one OS up from HS so will experience the same issues soon. So I will shortly upgrade to 10.13 (keeping a Mavericks VM for some apps).

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Yes, I've compared Legacy with Firefox 115 ESR and Chrome 116 (which both play DRM video in my 10.13 VM), and they all report the same version of Widevine. So why won't it stream in Legacy in Mavericks, ever since Wvn was updated?

Because Widevine itself, as in the Widevine binary, is broken on Mavericks. Chromium downloaded the latest Widevine binary, but when it tries to run that binary, it doesn't work.

 

[davigarma]

I'd thought about that, but have been testing all the most important software in my 10.13 VM, much of which still runs I'm happy to say. I have serious doubts about whether the same will be true for Mojave, and anyway Mojave is only one OS up from HS so will experience the same issues soon. So I will shortly upgrade to 10.13 (keeping a Mavericks VM for some apps).

Google dropped Widevine support for 10.9 and 10.10 in May 2021. Those below CDM 4.10.2198.0 are now also dropped. El Capitan, which was maintained until not long ago, is now also dropped. Next up will be Sierra and next High Sierra. When Google support ends, platforms that always detect the OSX you are using also close the viewing or streaming DRM. You can buy decryption models for older browsers as long as the CDM decryption is the latest one supported by Google. For OSX 64 (non arm) it is: 4.10.2557.0

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Google dropped Widevine support for 10.9 and 10.10 in May 2021.

Even though they dropped support, it continued to work after some small fixes were applied. Now it's actually broken.

 

[davigarma]

Even though they dropped support, it continued to work after some small fixes were applied. Now it's actually broken.

Yes. In Mavericks it has worked fine for me in Firefox until May of this year 2024.

 

[MacBiter]

Because Widevine itself, as in the Widevine binary, is broken on Mavericks. Chromium downloaded the latest Widevine binary, but when it tries to run that binary, it doesn't work.

Ah, I see. And I guess there is no fix for that? Well, it looks like it's 'bye bye Mavericks' at long last. (weeps).

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Ah, I see. And I guess there is no fix for that? Well, it looks like it's 'bye bye Mavericks' at long last. (weeps).

It is theoretically possible that there will be a trivial fix, similar to last time. Even though Widevine is a closed source program, it might (key word) be possible to set up an environment that will allow it to run. As far as I know, no one has actually looked into this yet. But I wouldn't get your hopes up, because it was a massive stroke of luck Widevine worked for as long as it did.

 

[MacBiter]

It is theoretically possible that there will be a trivial fix, similar to last time. Even though Widevine is a closed source program, it might (key word) be possible to set up an environment that will allow it to run. As far as I know, no one has actually looked into this yet. But I wouldn't get your hopes up, because it was a massive stroke of luck Widevine worked for as long as it did.

If (when) I switch to High Sierra, I may be in luck with the most recent version of Safari that will run there, as Safari doesn't use Widevine?.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

If (when) I switch to High Sierra, I may be in luck with the most recent version of Safari that will run there, as Safari doesn't use Widevine?.

Correct, but I don't know how old a version of Fairplay (Apple's system) the providers will support.

I still think the best course of action if you need Widevine is to run Windows inside of a Virtual Machine (OS X host).

 

[davigarma]

Safari 13 works (as of today) on all platforms. I don't know about Netflix, but it should work because the minimum requirement is Safari 12.

 

[MacBiter]

Safari 13 works (as of today) on all platforms. I don't know about Netflix, but it should work because the minimum requirement is Safari 12.

Unfortunately it doesn't. I just tried to play ITVX in my HS VM, but it wouldn't. Apparently to enable Apple's Fairplay you have to click Safari / Preferences / Websites / Apple Pay, and that last option isn't in Safari 13 .

 

[davigarma]

Unfortunately it doesn't. I just tried to play ITVX in my HS VM, but it wouldn't. Apparently to enable Apple's Fairplay you have to click Safari / Preferences / Websites / Apple Pay, and that last option isn't in Safari 13 .

Look, I'm watching now the Shanghai tournament with Safari 13.1.2. And I've tested on the platforms, Max, Prime, etc, and it works without problems. Hight Sierra not virtualized. Installed on Imac 8.1 ssd. I'm putting a picture because the system doesn't support captures, that's one of the DRM security measures. Your problem is that you use virtualized Safari 13 on a lower system and it disables the DRM.

 

[MacBiter]

Look, I'm watching now the Shanghai tournament with Safari 13.1.2. And I've tested on the platforms, Max, Prime, etc, and it works without problems. Hight Sierra not virtualized. Installed on Imac 8.1 ssd. I'm putting a picture because the system doesn't support captures, that's one of the DRM security measures. Your problem is that you use virtualized Safari 13 on a lower system and it disables the DRM.

But how is it I can use Chrome 116 (horribly slow!) and Firefox 115 ESR in the same VM and Widevine DRM is NOT disabled ... (for now I can watch DRM content, at least until next March)?.

 

[davigarma]

But how is it I can use Chrome 116 (horribly slow!) and Firefox 115 ESR in the same VM and Widevine DRM is NOT disabled ... (for now I can watch DRM content, at least until next March)?.

Safari is not a browser like the others. It is built differently and integrated into the system. And it uses a different encryption/decryption.

 

[MacBiter]

Safari is not a browser like the others. It is built differently and integrated into the system. And it uses a different encryption/decryption.

So what you're saying is that even with no Apple Pay option in Safari 13 I'll still be able to watch DRM video with it if HS was my main system instead of a VM?
Another thought: I wonder if Chromium Legacy would run in OS X 10.13, as it seems to have the latest Widevine? .

 

[davigarma]

So what you're saying is that even with no Apple Pay option in Safari 13 I'll still be able to watch DRM video with it if HS was my main system instead of a VM?
Another thought: I wonder if Chromium Legacy would run in OS X 10.13, as it seems to have the latest Widevine? .

What I'm saying is that Safari 13 works fine on High Sierra playing DRM on all sites despite being unsupported for years. Legacy works on some sites and not on others.

 

[rampancy]

I finally sent an email to Bluebox in early September and he said he'd like to come back to the project but has been busy.

If he doesn't update it, I'm hopeful Firefox Dynasty will become stable enough to work as an alternative.

Thanks. I'm just grateful that anything tragic hasn't happened to them. While I've come to rely on Chromium Legacy much more now as my daily driver browser, I also fully understand that Life Happens and Bluebox may not be able to be as present as they'd like. Thankfully the mainline version of Firefox and ESR both work fine and are still supported on 10.15.

However those of us running Firefox 115.15esr on 10.12 - 10.14 have now gotten a reprieve. Mozilla will continue supporting Firefox esr at least until March 2025, and hopefully longer.

Firefox 115.15 can now be updated to 115.16 with security patches identical to the 128.3esr.

I'm super thankful to the Mozilla devs for that. I used to largely rely on Waterfox Classic, but with development seemingly dead and Waterfox's system requirements having shot up to 11.0+ I've been having to shop around for a replacement - current Firefox seems to fit the bill, since I need a browser that supports Mozilla's sync service. (Though I'm also seeing if I can switch to Pale Moon too.)

Someone else mentioned Firefox Dynasty, which I'd never heard of before, but from what I've gathered it's still very early in development and isn't yet fully stable.

I disagree. You didn't pay for it and get a promise of continued support with your purchase. There is no obligation from us developers who work on free projects in our spare time to owe anybody anything. Life happens. Things change. Be happy you got to extend the life of your machine for free due to the kindness of others.

I largely agree with this. Bluebox isn't getting paid for his work, and he doesn't owe the community any of the work he's put into Chromium Legacy, which makes me all the more grateful for what he's done for all of us.