[tor-bugs] #17970 [Tor Browser]: Build against GStreamer 1.0 by default on Linux

Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki blackhole at torproject.org
Sat Jan 2 15:41:16 UTC 2016


#17970: Build against GStreamer 1.0 by default on Linux
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 Reporter:  slycelote    |          Owner:  tbb-team
     Type:  enhancement  |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Medium       |      Milestone:
Component:  Tor Browser  |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal       |     Resolution:
 Keywords:               |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:               |         Points:
  Sponsor:               |
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Comment (by intrigeri):

 Some data points (I'm still not sure what exactly should be done here):

 * Debian Jessie has GStreamer 1.0, and lacks the ffmpeg plugin for
 GStreamer 0.10 => MP4 video playback is broken in Tor Browser on Tails
 2.0~beta1 (scheduled to become stable at the end of the month), while it
 worked just fine on Wheezy-based Tails 1.x. Moving to GST 1.0 would
 improve things.
 * Debian Wheezy has gstreamer1.0 available from the official backports
 repository. It also has GSTreamer 0.10 in the main repo => moving to GST
 1.0 would break things but there is a relatively easy workaround.
 * Among currently supported Ubuntu releases, only 12.04 LTS (Precise) is
 lacking GStreamer 1.0, and only it has gstreamer1.0-ffmpeg; if we really
 want to keep supporting video playback on Precise, perhaps a backport
 would be doable there too: what applies to Debian Wheezy often applies to
 Ubuntu Precise, which is quite similar. In the current state of things,
 moving to GST 1.0 would improve things on all supported Ubuntu releases,
 except it would make them worse on Precise (but a backport would help
 there).
 * On Arch Linux it seems that gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg is available from the
 Extras repo only. And of course it has GSTreamer 1.0 too.
 * In the Red Hat world, no such thing like gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg in the
 official repos; but various third party repos propose that plugin. No idea
 if people running these distros actually trust and use these repos, so no
 idea if they currently have working MP4 video in Tor Browser.

 With my Tails and Debian hats, of course I would prefer if Tor Browser was
 built against GSTreamer 1.0. The above data suggests it would not make
 things worse on Red Hat and Arch.

 What other information do we need to make a decision?

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/17970#comment:11>
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