# Flash DRM content

DRM content on Flash still requires HAL to play. This is apparent for example with Google Play Movies, Amazon Instant Video, WatchESPN or Demand 5 (Channel 5 UK). If you attempt to play a DRM-protected content without HAL, you may see the following error: `an error occurred and your player could not be updated`.

To deliver DRM-protected content, Flash calls several functions provided by the HAL daemon and its libraries. While Flash-based players remain popular, HAL has been deprecated and is not commonly installed on newer systems. To provide the necessary HAL functionality on such systems, you can either install the full HAL package and run the HAL daemon or install a modified HAL library "stub" that uses the modern UDisks daemon instead.

Note: Google Chrome's Pepper Flash plugin for Chromium, pepper-flashAUR, does not support DRM. Adobe's flashplugin supports DRM, but that's stuck at version 11.2; too old for some video players.adobe-flashpluginAUR[broken link: package not found] provides an up to date version, but it's PPAPI, not the old NPAPI, so Firefox needs freshplayerpluginAUR.

## Using the HAL package

Install the halAUR package from the AUR. You will need to install hal-infoAUR first as it is a dependency for halAUR.

### Running the HAL daemon

The HAL daemon is managed by `hal.service`, which can be controlled by systemctl.

Alternatively, one can use the following script, which also takes care of cleaning the cache.

    #!/bin/bash

    ## written by Mark Lee <bluerider>
    ## using information from <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Chromium#Google_Play_.26_Flash>

    ## Start and stop Hal service on command for Google Play Movie service

    function main () {  ## run the main insertion function
         clear-cache;  ## remove adobe cache
         start-hal;  ## start the hal daemon
         read -p "Press 'enter' to stop hal";  ## pause the command line with a read line
         stop-hal;  ## stop the hal daemon
    }

    function clear-cache () {  ## remove adobe cache
         cd ~/.adobe/Flash_Player;  ## go to Flash player user directory
         rm -rf NativeCache AssetCache APSPrivateData2;  ## remove cache
    }

    function start-hal () {  ## start the hal daemon
         sudo systemctl start hal.service && ( ## systemd : start hal daemon
              echo "Started hal service..."
    ) || (
              echo "Failed to start hal service!")
    }

    function stop-hal () {  ## stop the hal daemon
    sudo systemctl stop hal.service && (  ## systemd : stop hal daemon
              echo "Stopped hal service..."
         ) || (
              echo "Failed to stop hal service!"
         )
    }

    main;  ## run the main insertion function

## Using the modified libhal stub

As an alternative to installing all of HAL, you can install a modified version of the libhal library from the AUR that uses the modern UDisks daemon instead of the deprecated HAL. Note that this libhal provides just enough of the HAL functionality to meet Flash's needs for copy-protected delivery: if you have other programs that require HAL, this stub probably won't satisfy them and you should use the full hal package instead.

### Installing UDisks and hal-flash

You will need to install hal-flashAUR from the AUR, which relies on Udisks.

### Running UDisks

Since the libhal stub passes its calls to UDisks, UDisks should be running before you attempt to play DRM-protected Flash videos.

Make sure that `udisks2.service` is started, see systemd#Using units for details.

## Remove Flash Player cached files

To get a fresh start after installing the package(s), remove some Flash Player cached files:

    $ rm -rf ~/.adobe/Flash_Player/{NativeCache,AssetCache,APSPrivateData2}

## See also

- Watching movies from Google Play on Arch Linux

Category:

- Multimedia players

Hidden category:

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