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I am trying to launch google chrome via startx on boot with systemd to create an Ubuntu 16.04 browser kiosk (based on this guide). Everything works great, except I am unable to play any videos in the browser.

I have tried installing ubuntu-restricted-extras. I have also tried installing chromium-codecs-ffmpeg and chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra. None of this seems to help.

Having said that, when I log into the user on the device and force launch chrome with startx videos do play, but if I close that session and relaunch it, videos stop working.

Is there something I need to run when starting an X server for codecs to be recognized?

Is there some google chrome setting I need to set to use the h264 codecs?

Thanks!

elfisher
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  • how do you launch chrome ? with startx or systemd whith what command, file ... ? so it does play once after all ? chromium-* package are for chomium not chrome. chrome!=chromium. How have you installed chrome ? or is it chromium ? – solsTiCe Sep 23 '16 at 15:57
  • I installed chrome, not chromium, assuming that all codecs would come pre-packaged. When I launch chrome with systemd on boot, it is using `/usr/bin/startx /etc/X11/Xsession /usr/bin/chrome/google-chrome`, which doesn't load videos. When I launch chrome as the user I just run in the terminal `startx google-chrome`. I installed chrome using the .deb package from the download on their website. This was the guide I used http://askubuntu.com/questions/510056/how-to-install-google-chrome. – elfisher Sep 23 '16 at 16:08
  • **Update** I also just tried running startx with chromium and firefox with the appropriate codecs installed. The same behavior occurs. When logging into the user and running `startx chromium` or `startx firefox` the first time running startx videos will work. Any subsequent application running a new startx X session seem to be unable to play videos. – elfisher Sep 23 '16 at 16:57
  • where do you start another session ? at the console prompt ? you can't run an X session inside an X session. Why do you use /etc/X11Xsession at all ? what video are you trying to play ? Or with what example video does this occur ? – solsTiCe Sep 23 '16 at 17:08
  • When I start a new session, it is after I kill the previous. It's at the terminal prompt. I should note that I'm not running Unity or any other GUI on boot, just terminal. I was using /etc/X11/Xsession because that was suggested in the kiosk guide. What should I be using? Thanks for the help! – elfisher Sep 23 '16 at 17:11
  • **Update** I launched `startx xterm` to keep the same x session, then ran chrome from xterm. The first time I ran chrome from xterm, video worked, but an error was logged to the console, `[:ERROR:ffmpeg_demuxer.cc(1510)] OnReadFrameDone result=-541478725 IsMaxMemoryUsageReached=0`. I then quit chrome (but not xterm) and re-ran chrome. This time there was no ffmpeg error, but video wasn't working. – elfisher Sep 23 '16 at 20:26
  • is this happening too on a "normal" desktop too ? like in a Window MAnager or gnoem or whatever ? – solsTiCe Sep 23 '16 at 20:45
  • yeah, when I do `lightdm start` and run `google-chrome` I run into the same issue – elfisher Sep 23 '16 at 20:54

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