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Firefox v61 on openSuse Tumbleweed does not play videos on Facebook and on other sites. What to do?

  • 6 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by boncserz

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Hi, I setup my freshly installed openSuse Tumbeweed PC. I have installed Firefox, started Facebook on it and experienced that the videos does not start to play at all. In opposite how it worked on my old linux PC (as normally expected : video starts embedded on its place automatically) on the new PC the video opens in a larger popup but does not start when I press Start button. Another case when I try to start a mpeg video on my google photos site it says: "The video format is not supported." This whole stuff is supposed to work without any interaction as it work on Chrome on the very same machine. I saw some other problem descriptions from other users but no solutions so far. I'd like to remain with FF but if this is not solved I'll remove it. Any idea or better than that: a known fix? Thanks!

Hi, I setup my freshly installed openSuse Tumbeweed PC. I have installed Firefox, started Facebook on it and experienced that the videos does not start to play at all. In opposite how it worked on my old linux PC (as normally expected : video starts embedded on its place automatically) on the new PC the video opens in a larger popup but does not start when I press Start button. Another case when I try to start a mpeg video on my google photos site it says: "The video format is not supported." This whole stuff is supposed to work without any interaction as it work on Chrome on the very same machine. I saw some other problem descriptions from other users but no solutions so far. I'd like to remain with FF but if this is not solved I'll remove it. Any idea or better than that: a known fix? Thanks!

All Replies (6)

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Hi, should have set it up with the current version 62. Have you got Play Digital Rights Management (DRM) Content checked in Options ?

Try : SAFE MODE

In Firefox Safe mode these changes are effective:

  • all extensions are disabled (about:addons)
  • default theme is used (no persona)
  • userChrome.css and userContent.css are ignored (chrome folder)
  • default toolbar layout is used (file: localstore-safe.rdf)
  • Javascript JIT compilers are disabled (prefs: javascript.options.*jit)
  • hardware acceleration is disabled (Options > Performance > Uncheck to view)
  • plugins are not affected
  • preferences are not affected

TEST''''is issue still there ?

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Hi, thanks but I am over those support articles. None of them mentions the problem I am suffering with. I forgot to tell - though probably I should have done it - that on youtube the videos work. Safe mode did not make any change either. The only hope was the DRM that was not enabled, but it neither helped.

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Is there more detail available in the Web Console?

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boncserz said

Hi, I setup my freshly installed openSuse Tumbeweed PC. I have installed Firefox, started Facebook on it and experienced that the videos does not start to play at all. In opposite how it worked on my old linux PC (as normally expected : video starts embedded on its place automatically) on the new PC the video opens in a larger popup but does not start when I press Start button. Another case when I try to start a mpeg video on my google photos site it says: "The video format is not supported."

What do you get on https://www.youtube.com/html5/ as all check marks should be blue. If a couple are red then you may not have installed ffmpeg as it is not installed in a new Linux distro install normally such as with openSuse.

Yes I know you said Youtube videos you tried seemed to work but perhaps they were with formats that did not need ffmpeg.

Sometimes with videos on say Twitter I have to right-click the video and select Play for the video to start.

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cor-el said

Is there more detail available in the Web Console?

Dear cor-el., that was a good idea. It seems the codecs are missing: "Cannot play media. No decoders for requested formats: video/mp4; codecs="avc1.64001f", audio/mp4; codecs="mp4a.40.5", video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E mp4a.40.2", video/mp4; codecs="avc1.4D401E mp4a.40.2", video/mp4; codecs="avc1.4D401F mp4a.40.2", video/mp4; codecs="avc1.640032 mp4a.40.2", video/mp4; codecs="avc1.640033 mp4a.40.2"" The question is how can I add codecs to Firefox. I do some google research.

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James said

boncserz said
Hi, I setup my freshly installed openSuse Tumbeweed PC. I have installed Firefox, started Facebook on it and experienced that the videos does not start to play at all. In opposite how it worked on my old linux PC (as normally expected : video starts embedded on its place automatically) on the new PC the video opens in a larger popup but does not start when I press Start button. Another case when I try to start a mpeg video on my google photos site it says: "The video format is not supported."

What do you get on https://www.youtube.com/html5/ as all check marks should be blue. If a couple are red then you may not have installed ffmpeg as it is not installed in a new Linux distro install normally such as with openSuse.

Yes I know you said Youtube videos you tried seemed to work but perhaps they were with formats that did not need ffmpeg.

Sometimes with videos on say Twitter I have to right-click the video and select Play for the video to start.

Thanks you, James! This was also a good idea. H.264 and MSE & H.264 shows problem. The thing is that according to the YaST I have ffmpeg installed, though it says: "This build of ffmpeg is limited in the number of codecs supported." I searched for advanced ffmpeg version but found nothing so far.

Modified by boncserz