Browser support on Linux/Ubuntu (Firefox, Gnome Web etc.)

[puresick]

Hey Chime SDK team. :wave:

What are you trying to do?

I was checking out your documentation regarding supported devices and platforms and saw that for Linux, only Ubuntu is supported and only by using Google Chrome. That got me curious why other browsers are not supported on Linux (especially Firefox but also WebKit based browsers like Epiphany/Gnome Web).

Are there any plans yet or even work done to support these other browsers on Linux/Ubuntu?

How can the documentation be improved to help your use case?

Add entries for common browsers which are not supported on specific platforms and why they are not supported. This could help people by their estimation if this SDK might be viable to use or not for a certain project.

What documentation have you looked at so far?

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/chime/latest/dg/meetings-sdk.html#mtg-browsers

[devalevenkatesh]

Thank you for your interest in Amazon Chime SDK for JavaScript. I am not sure of a reason yet, but we have not tested the SDK on ubuntu for other browsers hence it is not officially supported. I am marking this as a feature request as of now.

[olafurw]

I support adding this feature as it would allow using Slack Huddles on Firefox/Linux which is currently not supported. (I got this information from Slack after sending a support request about Firefox and Huddles)

[c-mart]

@olafurw I'm on Firefox on Debian Linux, and Slack Huddles work fine when I spoof my user agent string to Chrome (using the User-Agent Switcher and Manager Firefox extension). I also ended up here from a support request to Slack.

It appears that @puresick and @devalevenkatesh are noting that Chime SDK isn't tested in Firefox on Linux, but this isn't the same as it not working!

It appears that Slack are running with this ambiguity, perhaps assuming that it doesn't work at all, and actively preventing Firefox users on Linux from using Huddles (based on their user agent string). Slack are doing this despite their system requirements indicating that Firefox is a supported browser, and not saying anything on that page about a reduced level of support for Firefox on Linux.

But huddles work completely fine for me so far. I was just in one for half an hour. We heard each other loud and clear. :shrug:

[puresick]

@devalevenkatesh Any news on this yet?

[olafurw]

Just tried the User Agent Switcher and it does not work well enough. I can start a call and I can hear the other person but when they turn on the webcam it says I don't support hardware acceleration (when hw acceleration works in other pages in the same browser), same error for when they share. (Fedora 38)

[tjyrinki]

It would work better if one wouldn't spoof the User-Agent and this library and its users like Slack wouldn't apply wrong browser specific code.

Can someone find the place(s) where the blocklisting of Linux version of Firefox is done, so we could do a PR?

[ieugen]

Hi,

I would also like to see this working in Firefox + Linux. It works if I spoof the user agent - so why block it?

I also came here from a Slack support ticket, which I reached from a Firefox ticket. Firefox seems to have everything it needs: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1626121

I am on Debian GNU/Linux 12, Wayland using Firefox 121 and I can make calls if I spoof the user agent.

Please re-evaluate the status of this feature on Linux.

[tmccombs]

chime also works fine, if you use it directly in firefox on linux, so I'm not sure why the SDK doesn't support it.

[ghomem]

I added further feedback here:

https://github.com/mozilla-extensions/webcompat-addon/pull/255

Any hope that this will be fixed so that Slack can work on Firefox on Linux? @devalevenkatesh

[tjyrinki]

That webcompat-addon thread is closed, but has anyone been able to test not by spoofing user agent but by spoofing OS? I fail to find/remember how that was properly done because I do know User-Agent alone is not enough to spoof to be a Firefox on Windows on nearly all sites.

In my understanding, what most people test as a (poor) workaround is spoofing to be Chrome/Chromium on Linux, and that uses different JavaScript code paths. In order to understand whether the unblocking of Firefox on Linux for ChimeJS would be a functional thing to do, it would be useful to test the functionality of Huddles with the Firefox codepaths of both Slack and its use of ChimeJS - the code paths meant for Firefox users currently on Windows and Mac OS.