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I would like to be able to watch Netflix on Ubuntu, but on the website it doesn't let me do so. I also attempted to download netflix-desktop but when I click the icon it doesn't do anything.

Thank you.

Elder Geek
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Trevor
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    This question reads as a duplicate, perhaps edit it to add more detail as to what the problem with netflix-desktop is? – Jorge Castro Aug 19 '13 at 14:00
  • @JorgeCastro There can't be any more info. It doesn't load when I click it. – Trevor Aug 19 '13 at 15:18
  • Ok I've flagged this to reopen to be more specific about fixing netflix-desktop. You might want to try running it in a terminal and putting the information it returns in your question. – Jorge Castro Aug 19 '13 at 17:02

4 Answers4

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Clearing the wine browser directory and then re-installing as described by chargedPeptide in the comments for the previous answer worked for me.

The commands are:

rm -rf ~/.wine-browser
sudo apt-get install --reinstall netflix-desktop
sickgemini
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I'll provide the solution, which worked for me. First, to get a terminal output from netflix-desktop, you should launch it like this:

netflix-desktop --showdebug

Second, when you install netflix-desktop from the ppa, it not always downloads and install a Windows version of Firefox. This installation is handled by the wine-browser-installer package, so one solution would be to remove ~/.wine-browser directory and reinstall the package, as recommended above. Sadly, it did not work for me, and terminal output was still stating:

wine: cannot find 'C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe'

What helped is that I've downloaded Firefox for Windows manually, using the link, that displays, when you install wine-browser-installer package (in my case it was this version). Then I've installed it, using normal wine. It was installed under ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Mozilla Firefox After that I've ran

cp -R ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/Mozilla\ Firefox/ ~/.wine-browser/drive_c/Program\ Files/

That solved my problem, hope it'll help.

trefmanic
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The same people who brought you netflix-desktop (which really works very well, you might want to run it from terminal and post the output) just released pipelight to integrate silverlight into linux native firefox - thus allowing netflix.

Instructions are found here.

But for those in a rush: 

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ehoover/compholio  
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mqchael/pipelight  
sudo apt-get update  
sudo apt-get install pipelight

And start firefox. This is a beta release though so nothing is guaranteed yet. As said previously you might want to give netflix-desktop a shot in the terminal and post the output.

Kevin Bowen
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chargedPeptide
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  • How would I go about doing that in the terminal and posting an output? – Trevor Aug 18 '13 at 21:10
  • Right, if you're on pure Ubuntu then push your homekey and enter terminal. It should pop up. Then enter the following: netflix-desktop Now there should be text on the screen. Mark it and copy by right clicking and chosing copy. Then post it here :) – chargedPeptide Aug 19 '13 at 15:16
  • also thanks to Michael below. He is completely right on both counts. – chargedPeptide Aug 19 '13 at 15:17
  • I did that and it returned nothing... – Trevor Aug 19 '13 at 15:24
  • Please keep in mind that you need to close your browser before executing the steps described by chargedPeptide. Otherwise you will need to follow these instructions after the installation: https://answers.launchpad.net/pipelight/+faq/2357 You will also need to install a User Agent switcher otherwise you will get some weird errors with Netflix. The required instructions are described here: https://answers.launchpad.net/pipelight/+faq/2351 – Michael Müller Aug 18 '13 at 23:33
  • Then something is seriously amiss with the install.. Sorry for the late reply btw. Give a reinstall a chanche with: sudo apt-get install --reinstall netflix-desktop – chargedPeptide Aug 26 '13 at 11:20
  • I've got the same issue. The first time it ran it installed mono and gecko but then nothing. I've tried re-installing and still the same issue. – sickgemini Sep 29 '13 at 08:26
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    Figured out the issue for me. See my answer below. – sickgemini Sep 29 '13 at 10:01
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I have had this problem over several versions of Ubuntu from 12.04 to date (currently on 14.04) This happens without fail when netflix pushes a requirement for a new version of microsoft silverlight. What always works for me is:

Close the browser netflix-desktop opened.

Open a terminal and issue the first command mentioned by @sickgemini

rm -rf ~/.wine-browser which eliminates the entire contents of the .wine-browser folder in the users home directory which is where netflix-desktop keeps its settings and configuration. to be specific the content is:

dosdevices        system.reg   wine-browser-installer.sha256sums
drive_c           userdef.reg  wine-silverlight5.1-installer.sha256sums
profile-settings  user.reg     wine-version

If you see something else there you may wish to save it elsewhere because it will be gone after running the remove.

After eliminating this directory and it's content the next launch of netflix-desktop performs exactly like the first launch and recreates the necessary information. At this point it operates as advertised. There is no need to reinstall, nor install additional plugins (assuming the original installation isn't corrupted)

Elder Geek
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