FreeTube on Linux

[ljohn]

I wonder if anyone has been successful in getting FreeTube to function on Linux Mint. At one stage, it worked erratically on an earlier version of LM, but with 19 and 20, I get on the site, tick on an item, and there is nothing but buffering. I have tried several methods of installation, but nothing works.
Failing that, is there a non-google alternative? The ones I have come across seem to be for social interaction and not for watching, say, a concert or opera.

[01101111]

can you try running it from a terminal to see if you get any error messages that might be helpful in figuring out what is not working correctly?

[ljohn]

Thanks (again) for your help. I opened Free Tube in the terminal and got the following:

total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 7646804 2031036 2196692 79524 3419076 5277732
Swap: 2097148 0 2097148

I’m not certain this gets us anywhere, but I am often ignorant about such things.

[01101111]

the command you would need to run Free Tube from a terminal would be freetube. out of curiosity, i installed it in a virtual machine and got about the same result as you are reporting. one video played, but stopped about 3/4 of the way through. the others just seemed to buffer and never played. in my trial, there was not terminal output to give any indication as to why the video wouldn’t play.

i don’t use any programs like that on my computer, but there are some threads here about youtube-dl if you want to search for those. i tried the suggestion (tartube) in this post. it also failed to download or show the video.

i know it isn’t exactly what you asked, but on my phone i use an app called newpipe which is installed through f-droid.

[ljohn]

I am obliged, once again. I’m glad that the lack of success with free tube is not simply a result of my own ineptitude.
I have looked at newpipe, which would seem to be what I would like, but can f-droid be used on non-android systems; e.g., on an desktop using LM20?

Regards.

[01101111]

i haven’t heard of f-droid running on a linux distro. maybe on Android-x86? the last two posts in the thread linked below may be of interest. i just discovered invidious recently and haven’t used it much myself so can’t really say how well it works or not.

Dropping Google? What are your (and my) options?

Thanks Binary @01101111 As I would not have picked up on this - what a sad read - respect. I had been using yewtu.be but that link no longer works - drat So guess invidious.site may be used - ? https://invidious.site/ Could we develop a consensus on this?

[ljohn]

Thanks. I always learn something from your replies.

[Andy2 (Andy)]

Hi @ljohn and @01101111.

@01101111

so can’t really say how well it works or not.

I have just checked invidious.site again and done a search for a phone ROM or OS which resulted in the expected video by the respected Techlore security come privacy expert; in which he goes over newpipe and other apps. He also avidly promotes FOSS at every level which makes him a good guy in my book.

hope this helps?

Go directly to https://invidious.site/ and search for grapheneOS or freetube. EDIT - You should be able to find the videos as per screen captures shown above.
Select instance - Invidious
Select instance - Invidious

[ljohn]

Thank you Andy2. I have delayed a reply, because I wasn’t quite sure I understood and wanted to know more before making an awkword comment. I was a bit uncertain about anything involving invidious, since there seems a good deal of confusion at the moment about its future. When I ticked on the sites you provided, I only got the message "No video with supported format or MIME type found>. However, I followed your other links and had better luck. There is still some difficulty, since there are often long periods of buffering, or the video ends prematurely.
However, in trying to deal with those matters, I discovered that I could get on the free tube sites of other countries, and I have done well using a French one. I haven’t tried it all that long, but so far it seems to work.
Thanks for your suggestions.

[Andy2 (Andy)]

@ljohn

There is still some difficulty, since there are often long periods of buffering, or the video ends prematurely.

I’m not getting any problems so far using dongle to connect to web on old HP G60 laptop running Trisquel OS. Played 30 minute movie without any buffering at 7pm UK time - invidious.site is Dutch - Nederlands so still EU. Suspect you may have slight problems elsewhere? Have you tried at less busy times? Good luck and please do let us all know what works best for you.

[ljohn]

Update. I have downloaded the updated version of Freetube, and it works very well. I have experienced, so far, none of the problems that led me to raise the issue initially.

[clatterfordslim (mark)]

I have just installed FreeTube and using it with proton VPN in Firefox free by the way, link below. None of the videos I have watched have lagged out.
They do recommend to use a VPN to stop the lagging and thousands of requests that YouTube get.
Link to Proton pick the free version for Linux and follow the install instructions carefully.

ProtonVPN: Secure and Free VPN service for protecting your privacy

[Andy2 (Andy)]

If the top paid for VPNs can be hacked…
Are we sure any VPN is secure or protects user ID – is it the case you just have to trust what they have to say? They can see the in and out…!
Check out all the posts on this thread:

Tor or VPN - Any Security at All?

Hi All, Whilst continuing on my never ending device security quest I stumbled upon this: ( luckily before attempting to make OpeNyx phone clone after first flash of GrapheneOS on new Pixel ) Are NordVPN users compromised? Based on all available evidence, the answer appears to be no . NordVPN users have not been compromised by an attacker gaining access to one expired TLS key for a single server in Finland. First, the hacker would not have any access to server logs…

Update - If you get any problem with Invidious dot site try:

Invidious

[ljohn]

Thanks Andy. I gave that a brief try, and it seems good. I appreciate your help.