Actually I forgot to mention that I’m not using the Opera snap but the actual .deb package, which was the only package I was aware of since…ever. So, to make it work with libffmpeg.so, I simply create a symlink in lib_extra to every new version of the library. It was the only way years ago and I reckon that I just never checked if there was a new way to do this
As for the new ffmpeg snap on the beta channel, I’m happy to report that is working beautifully again!
What is the best way to keep a heads up on the removal of old versions as the removal of version 115541 (which Vivaldi was still using) completely caught me off guard? It seems it will have broken most videos on the internet for all our Snap uses, since the 17th of Decemeber, until now. Also being so close to Christmas (and with many others away), it seems none of my colleagues caught it either.
Thanks very for much for this. I will have a proper look and perhaps tweak when I get a chance (might be after the holidays). It probably was not obvious but we do not always want the latest chromium-ffmpeg version. Vivaldi follows the ESR stream and does not release at exactly the same time as the Chromium snap. The chromium-ffmpeg package always provides multiple versions of the lib to choose between. Since we are not always totally in sync with the Chromium version we might require a different version than the latest provided. Using a too recent verison can cause crashes of other significant problems.
As for updating the “VIVALDI_VERSION” I do not want to query the download page because I am the person updating the download page. And my normal workflow is to update the snap packaging before the website so that I can run tests before we go live. But again I thank you for this, it will give me some ideas to work with.
What might work best is simply being aware that chromium-ffmpeg has updated at all or better yet is about to update so I can think what to do. Historically these changes were annouced in this thread. Is there a better place to monitor the discussion on this. AFAIK the package is provided for the likes of us and Opera, so it would be good to give us a heads up when a version is being removed from the chromium-ffmpeg snap, to ensure no breakage for users.
The chromium-ffmpeg snap at that point would already provide five different versions of the FFMPEG library, I dropped the older ones unaware that Vivaldi could potentially still use it. I’m sorry for that mistake, for years Opera was the only consumer, old habits die hard. ):
Could you send us an email message so we include you in the loop when new releases are due (or at least when old versions are dropped)? You can contact the Chromium Team administrators via Launchpad or just send me an email ({my user ID}@ubuntu.com) and I’ll include them as needed.
Checking with you before dropping a FFMPEG version, as well as simply not dropping it, is no problem on our side; the cleanup is only done to save build resources and time (space issues in the builders have been worked around). You don’t need to change what is already working for you.
Meanwhile I just submitted a build to bring back 115016 and 115541 and will release it to stable as soon as it is ready. Sorry for the inconvenience!
No problem. These things happen. I also should have updated to use 118887 long before now, as this also works for us. I have done so now and it is working, so perhaps no need to reinclude 115541.
As for the email adress to include. It is “packager” at our domain, i.e. vivaldi.com.
EDIT: Thanks for the super fast response and enjoy the holiday season.
