Linux OS with DRM enable & GPU hardware accelerated – How to

[2020 0]

Debian / XFCE minimal desktop

1. Download the latest current version of Bullseye (Panfrost drivers included) for your device and follow the instructions 
   https://www.armbian.com/download/
2. After the first login type ... 
   exit (exit from root, login with your new user id)
   sudo apt update
   sudo apt upgrade (if the kernel installation prompts for modifications, just say Yes or Ok)
   sudo apt install task-xfce-desktop xfce4-terminal firefox-esr network-manager-gnome gparted
   sudo reboot
3. Login graphically with your user id ...
   Open Firefox and check if you have access to internet
4. Open xfce terminal and add the basic xfce packages
   sudo apt install pulseaudio pavucontrol gvfs gvfs-backends policykit-1 udisks2 catfish mousepad xarchiver gdebi gigolo
   sudo reboot

Find out ...

1. ARM architecture of your computer processor
   https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ARM_microarchitectures
2. Latest Chrome version
   https://www.google.com/search?q=The+latest+user+agents+for+Chrome&oq=The+latest+user+agents+for+Chrome&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60l3&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
3. Download the user agents text file for the latest Chrome version with the platform Chrome OS
   ARMv7 (armhf / 32-bit)
   https://user-agents.net/download?browser=chrome&version=87-0&browser_bits=32&platform=chromeos&platform_bits=32&name=armv7l or 
   ARMv8 (arm64 / 64-bit)
   https://user-agents.net/download?browser=chrome&version=87-0&platform=chromeos&name=aarch64 (use the highest version)

Vivaldi browser installation

1.  Download Vivaldi (https://vivaldi.com/download/archive)
   ARMv7 (armhf / 32-bit)
   https://downloads.vivaldi.com/stable/vivaldi-stable_3.4.2066.106-1_armhf.deb or
   ARMv8 (arm64 / 64-bit)
   https://downloads.vivaldi.com/stable/vivaldi-stable_3.4.2066.106-1_arm64.deb
2. Open GDebi and install your specific Vivaldi browser

Create a desktop launcher

• Name: DRM browser
• Command: /usr/bin/vivaldi-stable --disable-seccomp-filter-sandbox --user-agent="Mozilla/5.0 (X11; CrOS armv7l 13505.40.0) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/87.0.4280.54 Safari/537.36"
   *** Use the latest user agents text string ***

Open Vivaldi with the DRM browser launcher and verify the parameters ...

• user agent: https://whatmyuseragent.com
• components: vivaldi://components (check if Widevine Content Decryption Module is loaded)
• gpu:  vivaldi://gpu
• flags:  vivaldi://flags Enable > Override software rendering list

Widevine-flash installation

1. Close any opened Vivaldi Browser
2.  Open xfce terminal and download the script that fetches a ChromeOS image and extracts the Widevine and Flash
   ARMv7 (armhf / 32-bit)
   git clone https://gist.github.com/e025024ecffa45ee4325a3915fd8dad1.git widevine-flash
   ARMv8 (arm64 / 64-bit)
   git clone https://gist.github.com/7e1e1c313843d6a8180cfc1f47bee6aa.git widevine-flash
   cd widevine-flash
   sudo sh ./widevine-flash_arm32.sh or sudo sh ./widevine-flash_arm64.sh (and follow the instructions)
3. Open Vivaldi with the DRM browser launcher and check if DRM is working
   https://bitmovin.com/demos/drm

Now you are ready to watch Netflix 🙂 Cheers!

This tutorial is based on my knowledge and experience in testing Tinkerboard. It has not been tested on other devices and I do not take any responsibility nor am I liable for any damage that may be caused through the use of this tutorial.