cefbrowser

Works together with vdr-plugin-web and remotetranscode to show HbbTV application and stream videos.

Dependencies (cross compile, Ubuntu 22.04)

arm

apt install -y zlib1g-dev:armhf libssl-dev:armhf libcrypt-dev:armhf libglib2.0-dev:armhf libnss3-dev:armhf \
        libatk1.0-dev:armhf libatk-bridge2.0-dev:armhf libcups2-dev:armhf libxcomposite-dev:armhf libxdamage-dev:armhf \
        libxrandr-dev:armhf libgbm-dev:armhf libxkbcommon-dev:armhf libpango1.0-dev:armhf libasound2-dev:armhf

arm64

sudo apt install -y zlib1g-dev:arm64 libssl-dev:arm64 libcrypt-dev:arm64 libglib2.0-dev:arm64 libnss3-dev:arm64 \
        libatk1.0-dev:arm64 libatk-bridge2.0-dev:arm64 libcups2-dev:arm64 libxcomposite-dev:arm64 libxdamage-dev:arm64 \
        libxrandr-dev:arm64 libgbm-dev:arm64 libxkbcommon-dev:arm64 libpango1.0-dev:arm64 libasound2-dev:arm64

Build (default is x86)

./setup.sh <arm, arm64 or x86>
meson setup build
cd build
meson compile
meson install

The whole binary including all necessary files/libs exists in folder build/Release.

Configuration

A default configuration can be found in folder config: sockets.ini.

🔥 All ports/ip addresses in sockets.ini must be the same as for vdr-plugin-web and remotetranscoder. It's safe to use the same sockets.ini for all of the three parts (vdr-plugin-web, cefbrowser, remotetranscoder).

Start

Change to directory build/Release.

./cefbrowser --config=/path/to/sockets.ini --remote-allow-origins=http://localhost:9222

or if you don't need the possibility to debug the application in Chrome

./cefbrowser --config=/path/to/sockets.ini

Parameters

cefbrowser knows parameters which exists exclusively for the browser. Apart from these parameter a huge list of other parameters exists. Nearly of parameters of Chromium can be used. See e.g. here. It's up to you to decide what you want to use and test ;)

-c / --config </path/to/sockets.ini>   (mandatory parameter)
-l / --loglevel <level> (from 0 to 4, where 4 means very, very verbose logging)
-z / --zoom <value> Zooms the http page to the desired width. 
         The result often looks much better than the default value 1280.
         The downside is, that more data needs to be processed or send.
         Valid values are: 1280, 1920, 2560 and 3840
-q / --osdqoi The images between the browser and VDR are compressed using 
         [qoi](https://qoiformat.org/) and are transferred via TCP/IP over 
         the network. With this option the browser can be started on a 
         different machine as VDR.                      
-f / --fullosd Normally only changed parts of the OSD are exchanged between 
         the browser and VDR. With this option the full OSD will exchanged. 
         This is much slower but could lead to visual better results.
-p / --profilePath <path> Defines the path where cefbrowser shall 
         save his profile data
-s / --staticPath <path> Mandatory static content can be found in 
         this directory. E.g. css, html, javascript and so on.
-b / --bindall The browser uses every network interface. Could lead to 
         interesting effects if Docker/Incus/LXD is also installed.                  

Logging

Log entries will be written to stdout/stderr.

Tested channels

• Das Erste
• ZDF

Releases

The binary releases can be used in VDR*ELEC.

Distro	Version	Release
CoreELEC	19	cefbrowser-armhf-openssl-3.tar.gz
CoreELEC	20	cefbrowser-armhf-openssl-3.tar.gz
CoreELEC	21-ng	cefbrowser-armhf-openssl-3.tar.gz
CoreELEC	21-ne	cefbrowser-arm64-openssl-3.tar.gz
LibreELEC	all	cefbrowser-arm64-openssl-3.tar.gz

VDR*ELEC, CoreELEC-19 (sample installation/configuration)

• Install Kodi docker addon

  • System
  • Addons
  • Aus Repository installieren
  • CoreELEC Add-ons
  • Dienste
  • Docker

• Add docker bin to PATH

  nano /storage/.profile 
  

  add

  export PATH=/storage/.kodi/addons/service.system.docker/bin/:$PATH
  

  reboot

Tested installation of cefbrowser in VDR*ELEC/CE-19

• Pull latest docker base runtime image of the cefbrowser

  /storage/.kodi/addons/service.system.docker/bin/docker pull ghcr.io/zabrimus/cefbrowser-base:latest
  

• Get and install cefbrowser binary (adapt version if desired)

  mkdir -p /storage/browser
  cd /storage/browser
  wget https://github.com/Zabrimus/cefbrowser/releases/download/2023-07-01/cefbrowser-armhf-openssl-3-5ab33f2.tar.gz
  tar -xf cefbrowser-armhf-openssl-3-5ab33f2.tar.gz
  ln -s cefbrowser-armhf-openssl-3-5ab33f2 cefbrowser
  

• Adapt sockets.ini accordingly and copy sockets.ini to /storage/browser/cefbrowser sample sockets.ini can be found in the repository /config/sockets.ini

  [vdr]
  http_ip = 192.168.178.12
  http_port = 50000
  
  [browser]
  http_ip = 192.168.178.12
  http_port = 50001
  
  [transcoder]
  http_ip = 192.168.178.20
  http_port = 50002
  

• Optional: hbbtv sqllite3 database

  For Vodafone West user a prefilled database exists in /storage/browser/cefbrowser/database/.

  cp /storage/browser/cefbrowser/database/Vodafone_West_hbbtv_urls.db /storage/browser/cefbrowser/database/hbbtv_urls.db
  

  All others needs to copy an already existing database or have to prefill the database. A channel switch to the desired channel and wait some minutes is sufficient.

• start the browser via docker (first test, manual start)

    cd /storage/browser/cefbrowser
    /storage/.kodi/addons/service.system.docker/bin/docker run -d  --rm -v /storage/browser/cefbrowser:/app -v /dev/shm:/dev/shm --ipc="host" --net=host ghcr.io/zabrimus/cefbrowser-base:latest -ini sockets.ini &> /storage/browser/browser.log
  

• start the browser automatically via systemd The systemd service start-scripte/cefbrowser.service contains a sample service configuration which i use on my system.

  [Unit]
  Description=cefbrowser
  Requires=network-online.target graphical.target docker.service
  StartLimitIntervalSec=400
  StartLimitBurst=5
  
  [Service]
  RestartSec=30
  Restart=always
  StandardOutput=file:/storage/browser/cefbrowser/browser.log
  StandardError=file:/storage/browser/cefbrowser/browser-error.log
  TimeoutStartSec=0
  ExecStop=/storage/.kodi/addons/service.system.docker/bin/docker container stop --time=2 cefbrowser
  ExecStartPre=-/storage/.kodi/addons/service.system.docker/bin/docker exec cefbrowser stop
  ExecStartPre=-/storage/.kodi/addons/service.system.docker/bin/docker rm cefbrowser
  ExecStartPre=/storage/.kodi/addons/service.system.docker/bin/docker pull ghcr.io/zabrimus/cefbrowser-base:latest
  ExecStart=/storage/.kodi/addons/service.system.docker/bin/docker run --rm --name cefbrowser \
  -v /storage/browser/cefbrowser:/app \
  -v /dev/shm:/dev/shm \
  --ipc="host" \
  --net=host \
  ghcr.io/zabrimus/cefbrowser-base:latest \
  -ini sockets.ini
  
  [Install]
  WantedBy=multi-user.target
  

  which can be copied to /storage/.config/system.d/cefbrowser.service An important configuration is RestartSec=30, otherwise the browser will be started, before docker is up and running.

• In VDR*ELEC i've added a configuration in /storage/.profile

  START_CEFBROWSER=yes
  

  and in /storage/.config/autostart.sh i've added the following entries

  . /storage/.profile
  if [ "${START_CEFBROWSER}" = "yes" ]; then
      systemctl start cefbrowser
  fi
  

• Choose a channel in VDR and goto Menu/Web. Wait or press directly the red button.