Tails

#1 Updated by intrigeri 2016-01-02 05:40:47

• liveleak.com:
  • 1.8.1 streams videos
  • 2.0~beta1 proposes to open with/download videos
  • bugfix/10798-fix-file-associations proposes to open with/download videos

#2 Updated by intrigeri 2016-01-02 05:54:50

• http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x15veet_top-10-funny-baby-videos-funny-videos-at-fully-silly_fun
  • 1.8.1 plays streamed video fine
  • 2.0~beta1 and the file associations bugfix branch say “Please update your browser or try a different one”

I should try installing gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg from oldstable since it seems to be the missing part:

• Tor Browser is built against GStreamer 0.10 (https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/17970) but gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg was removed from Jessie
• http://html5test.com/ says that 1.8.1 supports the MPEG-4 ASP video codec, while 2.0~beta1 doesn’t
• webm videos work fine on 2.0~beta1
• https://bugzil.la/806917#c135
• https://bugzil.la/947287
• https://bugzil.la/1190612#c4

Alternatively, having Tor Browser build against GStreamer 1.0 would probably fix this.

#4 Updated by sajolida 2016-01-07 12:31:16

I can’t play mixcloud on Tails 2.0 either (I’m pretty sure it works in Tor Browser on Debian Jessie but I could double-check if needed). It was working in Tails 1.8. For example: https://www.mixcloud.com/dstormrecordings/tails-from-the-darkside-vol1-bstorm-2013/.

I get “Oh snap, there was a playback error! Press play to try again.”

#6 Updated by sajolida 2016-01-25 10:45:58

Sorry for the delay. Actually:

• There’s no gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg in Debian Jessie, see https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg.
• mixcloud doesn’t work on Jessie in the latest Tor Browser (probably 5.0.7 but I could double check if needed).

#9 Updated by londonsilver 2016-02-07 13:58:04

Solution for this issue in 2.0 is for above video link, as well as youtube.com/html5 checks (as well as spiegel.de videos mentioned in #tails) the following changes to about:config

media.fragmented-mp4.exposed false media.fragmented-mp4.ffmpeg true
media.fragmented-mp4.gmp true media.mediasource.enabled true
media.mediasource.mp4.enabled true media.mediasource.webm.enabled true
media.mediasource.ignore_codecs == true <— this bool must be created

who doesn’t want to wait for 2.0.1 (and uses persistence):

- do a fresh reboot (to be sure to have a clean Tails prefs.js)

- do above changes

- save /home/amnesia/.tor-browser/profile.default/prefs.js
- after reboot restore it to /home/amnesia/.tor-browser/profile.default/

Note: dotfile feature doesn’t work for this. prefs.js from dotfiles is linked correctly but not recognized by TB and next config change the link is replaced by an actual file.

#10 Updated by londonsilver 2016-02-07 14:04:59

no option to edit a post a few minutes? :(

it’s media.fragmented-mp4.exposed == true

sorry.

#11 Updated by intrigeri 2016-02-08 12:04:30

> Solution for this issue in 2.0 is for above video link, […]

> media.mediasource.enabled true > media.fragmented-mp4.exposed true
> media.fragmented-mp4.ffmpeg true > media.fragmented-mp4.gmp true

I confirm that with these four changes, I can view the dailymotion video linked above. Also, https://html5test.com/ says I have H.264 support, which is not the case out-of-the-box on Tails 2.0. Thanks!

Next step is to check whether these changes might cause regressions in terms of functionality, security, or web fingerprinting.

My understanding of https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/16429 (found via https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/15703) is that mediasource should be safe in itself in current Tor Browser in terms of stream isolation, but this doesn’t tell me if changing the default handling of video is safe too. I’ll ask the Tor Browser developers.

Regarding the other suggested prefs:

> media.mediasource.mp4.enabled == true

… is on by default.

> media.mediasource.webm.enabled == true

This ticket is about MPEG-4 video, and as far as I can tell WebM video works fine in Tails 2.0 already, so I see no need to modify WebM handling and will skip this one unless I’m explained why it maters.

> media.mediasource.ignore_codecs == true <— this bool must be created

I could not find where it’s used in the Tor Browser source code, and I see no difference when I add it => I’ll disregard this one unless I’m explained why it matters.

#12 Updated by intrigeri 2016-02-08 12:09:58

> I’ll ask the Tor Browser developers.

Done: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/17970#comment:18

#13 Updated by londonsilver 2016-02-08 12:39:17

@intrigeri
The other settings were necessary to get the blue OK-marks on all features at youtube.com/html5
Regarding ignore_codecs you can check the difference between
media.mediasource.ignore_codecs == true
and ‘no entry’ yourself at youtube.com/html5 *.

BTW: Not that I minded (I solved it for me) but why would you wait for the next bug report if you can fix/support it all at once?

• can’t check it now, my 1.8.2 behaves differently than 2.0

#14 Updated by intrigeri 2016-02-08 15:12:49

Yay, but MSE doesn’t seem to be very mature in FF38ESR, so I’d rather not enable it for more than what’s needed to fix regressions that 2.0 introduced compared to Tails 1.x. My understanding is that MSE support for WebM would rather be a new feature, so it’s handled differently.

#16 Updated by londonsilver 2016-02-16 16:45:42

as “Target version changed from Tails_2.2 to Tails_2.4”

I advance my suggestion from “who doesn’t want to wait for 2.0.1” to “who doesn’t want to wait for 2.4”
Just see above. If your browser/system really becomes unstable (I cannot support such a statement from my everyday experience!): Just reboot and don’t/undo do the changes ;)