Earlier this week, NVIDIA dropped a bomb on the gaming world by releasing the web-based version of GeForce Now. Much to the surprise of many, the service that lets you bring your games with you didn’t arrive for browsers of any flavor. Instead, NVIDIA made our day by launching GeForce Now as a Chrome OS exclusive. We can, and probably will wax philosophic about the implications this could have for Chrome OS as a platform. Today, however, I’m reaching out to the masses who were left out in the cold when GeForce Now debuted.
If you’re a Windows or macOS users, this really isn’t an issue as you can download the official GeForce Now app for your respective OS directly from NVIDIA. Linux users, on the other hand, don’t have a native option to use the streaming service. Thankfully, you don’t have to miss out on the action thanks to a little Chrome extension that happens to be offered by Google.
User-Agent Switcher
User-agent switchers and spoofers are nothing new. The extensions can be used for a variety of use-cases and they do exactly what the name implies. Users can quickly switch between user-agents to mimic a browser other than the one they are actually using. These tools come in especially handy when you’re developing for the web and need to see how your website loads on another browser. That’s just one of many applications but another purpose of user-agent switchers is to “spoof” your browser to make the website you’re visiting think you’re using a different web browser for any range of reasons. Google’s own user-agent switcher extension does exactly this and it will allow you to play GeForce Now in Chrome or the Chromium browser without a Chromebook.
To give it a try, you’ll obviously need to have Chrome or Chromium installed on your device. Then, head over to the Chrome Web Store and install Google’s User-Agent Switcher. Once you have it installed, head to Chrome’s settings and find the extensions menu. Look for the switcher and click the three-dot menu. Click “options” and now you can create a new user agent.
Under the name column, add whatever name you’d like so you can easily remember that it’s for GeForce Now. Under the “New User-Agent String” column, paste the following exactly as it is.
Have you ever used a Chromebook to watch online video or use a web app and it doesn’t seem to work even though the same site works on the Chrome browser for Windows or MacOS? Seems strange, but it happens.
Often, the issue has to do with the user-agent text string that identifies your browser and operating system for online services. It’s easy to determine your Chromebook’s user agent with a Google query of “what is my user agent”:
Some web sites are designed to work with specific browsers and platforms so the user agent information tells the service what device and browser you’re using. That can cause certain sites and services not to work on a Chromebook. I’ve seen this a bunch with streaming video services in particular.
But don’t worry; you can easily “spoof” or modify the user agent of a Chromebook to make a website think you’re using something other than the Chrome browser on Chrome OS.
The easiest way to do this on a Chromebook is to install the User-Agent Switcher for Google Chrome extension. It’s easy to use and can help get around limitations for online services that were made or tested specifically for browsers on traditional operating systems.
Once the extension is installed, you simply click on it and choose a different browser, version or even operating system platform.
Want to make it look like you’re running Firefox on a Mac or Windows PC? No problem.
Need to use a web app that hasn’t been updated in ages and only works on an older version of Internet Explorer? You can do that.
Your Chromebook can even appear to web servers as an iPad running iOS or an Android tablet. There are bunches of choices and you can even create custom user-agent strings if needed.
Note that there is similar extension developed by a third-party and now owned by Google called User-Agent Switcher for Chrome. It has the same general functionality but I don’t recommend it because the user agent strings haven’t been updated for some time. There’s no support for Microsoft Edge, for example, and the Firefox version shows as 33; the latest is 64!
Regardless, changing the user-agent string can be super handy since many online locations still don’t recognize the difference between Chrome on Mac or Windows and Chrome on Chrome OS. Some of them, such as SlingTV, see Chrome OS in the user-agent string and simply don’t work because the platform shown isn’t supported.
While Google Stadia needs nothing but your browser to work, the story is different for GeForce Now. Nvidia would like you to install its dedicated application for its game streaming service on Windows and Mac. But ever since GeForce Now is available on Chromebooks, we know that it’s capable of running inside Chrome, and where there’s a will, there’s a way. By spoofing your browser user agent with an official Google tool, you can use GeForce Now right in Chrome on your PC, Mac, or Linux machine — nothing but an extension required.
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To get started, you need to download Google’s official User-Agent Switcher for Chrome from the web store, which will allow you to make Nvidia’s website believe you’re browsing it from a Chromebook. Once installed, look for the add-on in Chrome’s extension menu, click the three-dot icon to its right, and head to Options. In there, create a new user-agent string (call it GeForce Now or Chrome OS, for example) and enter the following text:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; CrOS aarch64 13099.85.0) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/84.0.4147.110 Safari/537.36
Leave the Append dropdown in the Replace state and add an indicator flag, such as ASX.
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To change your user-agent for Nvidia’s domain exclusively (so that the rest of your browsing experience remains untouched), go to the Permanent Spoof list in the sidebar. In there, add the domain play.geforcenow.com and change your user-agent string to the one you just created.
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Once that’s done, you can head to play.geforcenow.com et voilà, you should be greeted by the same in-browser experience that’s available through Chrome OS. As soon as you’re logged in, you’ll be able to play all the games you own (that are available on Nvidia’s platform, that is) right inside Google Chrome. When we tested it, we haven’t come across any issues — it’s the same experience you’d get on a Chromebook or in Nvidia’s desktop application. You should also be able to replicate this experience on any other Chromium-based browser, like Vivaldi or Microsoft Edge.
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When we asked Nvidia if we could expect an official launch of in-browser game streaming outside of Chrome OS, we received the following statement: “We’re focused on Chromebook. It’s a new platform and audience that we’re excited about reaching and giving them the power to play PC games.” Unfortunately, that doesn’t sound like official support is high on the company’s priority list, but it also doesn’t seem like there’s any catch or known problem that would hinder you from enjoying your in-browser gaming session via the described method. And since streaming already works so well with the spoofed user agent, I wouldn’t be surprised if Nvidia eventually decides to make its service officially available through browsers, just like Stadia.
We haven’t tested this method on Linux just yet, but the workflow shouldn’t be any different. This spoofing approach would be the only way to stream GeForce Now games on Linux, as Nvidia doesn’t offer a dedicated Linux application for GeForce Now.
[appbox chromewebstore djflhoibgkdhkhhcedjiklpkjnoahfmg]
Say goodbye to waiting on hold for hours
Manuel is a tech enthusiast and Android fan based in Berlin. When he’s not writing articles for Android Police, he’s probably out and about as a videographer.
cum43546 2020-10-03 15:21:46 68 收藏
Not all browsers handle websites the same, and if they don’t support your operating system or browser, you could be denied access. Luckily, you can spoof the user agent on Chrome OS to make it look like you use a completely different system.
Websites identify incoming connections by their user agent—a line of text sent in the HTTPS header with the browser name, version, and operating system. The reason they do this is to determine how to render the page specific to your device. One of the more common uses is to differentiate the desktop view from a mobile layout. However, sometimes you might need to spoof the user agent to trick a site that claims it’s incompatible with your browser.
网站通过其用户代理来识别传入的连接，即在HTTPS标头中发送的带有浏览器名称，版本和操作系统的一行文本。 他们这样做的原因是确定如何呈现特定于您的设备的页面。 最常见的用途之一是将桌面视图与移动布局区分开来。 但是，有时您可能需要欺骗用户代理，以欺骗声称与浏览器不兼容的网站。
如何更改您的用户代理 ( How to Change Your User Agent )
To get started, open Chrome, click the three dots, and then select More Tools > Developer Tools. Alternatively, you can press Ctrl+Shift+I on the keyboard.
首先，请打开Chrome，点击三个点，然后选择更多工具>开发者工具。 或者，您可以按键盘上的Ctrl + Shift + I。
Click “Network Conditions,” located at the bottom of the Developer Tools pane.
If you don’t see this option, click the menu icon, and then select More Tools > Network Conditions to enable it.
Under the User Agent section, uncheck “Select Automatically.”
Chrome offers a long list of pre-configured user agent templates you can select from the drop-down menu.
If there is a specific user agent you want to use that isn’t listed in the drop-down menu, you can copy and paste a custom one into the text field underneath.
Afterward—with the Developer Tool pane still open in the current tab—go to any website, and the user agent is set to the custom one you specified until you close Developer Tools.
You can even get a little creative with it!
User agent spoofing is a temporary setting that stays active only while Developer Tools is open and in the current tab. After you close the Developer Tool, your user agent goes back to the default selection by Chrome.
The day those of us on Linux could log into the world’s most popular video streaming service, and watch movies and TV shows without having to jump through hoops, has been long overdue.
Netflix do not currently provide, offer or support any “official” way to watch content from their service on Ubuntu, Fedora or any other desktop Linux distribution. Subscribers have to use a supported platform, like Windows, Chrome OS or Android, or wrestle with a Wine-based workaround, the successes of which can vary from person to person.
Until now, that is.
Oodiful news.
Why It Works Now: DRM
It’s now possible to stream video content from Netflix on a Linux desktop natively in recent development builds of Google Chrome. How?
Earlier this year the web standards body the ‘World Wide Web Consortium’ (commonly known as the W3C) controversially pushed forward with plans to introduce support for protected content (‘DRM’) through HTML5 Video through the Encrypted Media Extension specification.
Google describes EME as “a JavaScript API that enables web applications to interact with DRM systems, in order to allow playback of encrypted media.” This works without the need to hand off to or make use of bloated third-party plugins like Silverlight or Adobe Flash.
Back in June Netflix announced support for HTML5 video playback on Windows 8.1 and Safari (Yosemite only) using EME. With Google being one of the chief backers of this plugin-free DRM approach, Chrome natively supports EME.
Put two and two together and you get…showtime!
By spoofing the user agent of an official supported EME platform (e.g., Windows 8.1) in Chrome for Linux we can get fuss-free totally native playback of movies and TV shows — for now, at least.
And while few of us like ‘Digital Rights/Restrictions Management’, most of us have come to accept that until the entertainment conglomerates devout in their pursuit of its use move with the times, we don’t have an awful lot of leeway. We have the choice to push back in choosing more open alternatives, but until then we can at least commit begrudgingly.
How To Watch Netflix on Linux
‘It’s not quite as easy as opening Netflix and hitting play, but it is easier than adding PPAs’
For Google Chrome users on Ubuntu this means you can, albeit with a little bit of extra tweaking, get Netflix video to play on Linux. No plugins, PPAs, no glasses of Wine needed. It’s not quite as easy as opening Netflix and hitting play, but it is easier than adding PPAs to download and configure boatloads of Windows dependencies, muddying up your install.
On to the part you came here for: how to get it working. The steps that follow are not as complex or as numerous as they appear at first glance. I’m simply walking you through each part by hand.
Prerequisites:
- Ubuntu 14.04 LTS* or 14.10 Alpha
- Google Chrome Beta or Dev (v37+)
- An active Netflix subscription or trial
- Have ‘Prefer HTML5‘ selected in ‘Netflix Account > Playback’
Get Chrome
As discovered by Nathan VanCamp on Google+ (via Phoronix) we can use User Agent String spoofing to fool Netflix into using EME-based playback on Linux.
Set ‘Prefer HTML5’ In Account Settings
The process doesn’t work first time for everyone who tries it, with some still seeing ‘Install Silverlight’ prompts, or ‘Aww, Snap!’ screens. Your own milage may vary.
So, first steps: you need to use Chrome Beta or Dev. Don’t stamp your feet, or try this in a stable build; you have to use the latest beta or dev build of Google Chrome for Linux for this to work.
Getting Google Chrome for Linux on either channel (in both 32-bit and 64-bit) is simple enough: just grab the appropriate installer from the links below. Note: this will upgrade your existing stable installation.
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Only
If you’re attempting this how-to on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS you must also upgrade your version of ‘libnss3’ to a more recent version.
Download the appropriate zip archive from those linked above, extract it, then move the three .deb files inside to your home folder. Open a new Terminal window and enter the following command:
User Agent Extension
With everything ready the last step is to modify the user-agent string of the browser to pretend we’re accessing Netflix from a platform it likes.
Modifying the UA string can be done in a number of ways but the easiest way is to install the free User-Agent Switcher Extension from the Chrome Web Store:
Installing this will place new icon in the right of the Chrome toolbar. Right-click on this item and select ‘Options’. We’ll now add the required HTTP agent with the following string (thanks to Mat Enders for these steps):
- Name: Netflix Linux
- String: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/38.0.2114.2 Safari/537.36
- Group: (is filled in automatically)
- Append?: Select ‘Replace’
- Flag: IE
If you fill this in correctly you should have something like this:
Click the ‘Add’ button at the far end to save your UA.
Now, load ‘netflix.com‘ in a new tab, and click the User-Agent Switcher toolbar icon, click ‘Chrome’ and select the ‘Netflix Linux’ entry. This will reload the page.
Optionally, you can set a permanent spoof rule to force this user-agent to take effect when loading Netflix:
Following that, you should be able to go to Netflix and begin playing your favourite films or TV shows.
With the new UA in effect simply load up a video and…
Success has so far been replicated by Arch, Gentoo and Ubuntu 14.10 Alpha users (both 32-bit and 64-bit builds). Those running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS with the updated libnss3* packages — which includes myself — also find things to be working a-ok.
There’s no guarantee that this spoof will continue to work. Netflix could stop it at any time. But since the only thing stopping support today is a single line of text, one suspect that it won’t be too much longer before we see Linux warmly embraced by our TV binging overlords.
- Source:Nathan VanCamp (h/t Daniel Droid, via Phoronix)
Home » How To » How To Watch Netflix on Ubuntu The Easy Way
* Also changes navigator.userAgent , as well generating convincing values for several of the other navigator.* properties.
– Translating “User-Agent Switcher” to a new language
Any help in translating this extension is greatly appreciated! To do so, simply visit our project on the WebLate hosted instance, create an account and either select an existing language or add a new one to get going. Thanks for helping out!
(Alternatively you may submit a merge request on GitLab with the updated translation files or send me the translations using the “Support E-mail”-Address.)
– Getting Help
Found a bug or want a new feature? Please use the GitLab issue tracker to submit these instead of just mentioning them as part of your reviews. This way it becomes much easier for me to keep track of reported issues and get back to you if additional information is needed to help you.
Please note however that “User-Agent Switcher” is mostly in maintenance-only mode now and new features will not be added by me (the primary author, Alexander Schlarb) anymore. I’m still open for patches from the community however and would also welcome your support through the linked BountySource buttons under each Feature Request issue in the tracker.
- Use a web service (such as UserAgentString.com) to see your currently sent User-Agent header.
- Use the built-in Network Analyzer (Ctrl-Shift-Q) to view the User-Agent header.
- Enter navigator.userAgent into the Scripting Console (Ctrl-Shift-K) to view the client-side User-Agent value.
To find out more about why these restrictions exist and how disable them if you must, please take a look at the following blog article:
In order to provide almost perfect emulation of User-Agent values, User Agent-Switcher bundles a stripped-down version of BrowsCap. This allows us to derive all relevant JavaScript navigator.* browser/OS identification values from just a single value: The User-Agent value you enter (and a bit of magic behind the scenes). Other extensions with a similarly complete level of emulation used to store all these values in huge tables along with the User-Agent value itself, making it very hard to add new entries.
Doing this kind of emulation without using BrowsCap would be extremely hard for us, as there are only few rules regarding the structure of User-Agent strings and the most interesting part end up in the extremely browser-specific comment section of the string. As such, we consider these extra 3MiB+ of data shipped with the extension a fair price to pay for having almost perfect out-of-the-box emulation of all these values with no extra user configuration required.
Unfortunately Mozilla decided to limit support for extensions on their new Fenix browser platform to just a limited set of recommended extensions. You can read their official “rational” for this on their add-on blog:
Report this add-on for abuse
If you think this add-on violates Mozilla’s add-on policies or has security or privacy issues, please report these issues to Mozilla using this form.
Please don’t use this form to report bugs or request add-on features; this report will be sent to Mozilla and not to the add-on developer.
Following the recent announcement, Google has finally brought the ability to install Android apps on Chromebook without Developer Mode. This is truly great and path-breaking for both developers as well as the Chrome OS enthusiast community. You can finally install Android APKs on your Chromebook which are not available on the Play Store, and for that, you don’t have to sacrifice your security. So without any delay, let’s go ahead and learn how to sideload Android apps on Chromebook.
Note: Want to learn how to sideload Android apps on Android TV? Follow our linked guide to find out.
Sideload Android Apps on Chromebook without Developer Mode in 2021
Before we begin, make sure your Chromebook is updated to Chrome OS 86 or above. You can update your Chrome OS build from Settings -> About Chrome OS. Apart from that, note that you don’t need to move to any other update channel or Developer mode. The ability to sideload Android apps on Chromebook has already moved to the Stable channel.
Set Up ADB on Chromebook
1. Open Settings and turn on Linux (Beta) from the left menu. If you don’t know how to do it, follow our guide and learn how to set up Linux on Chromebook.
2. After setting up Linux, open Settings again and navigate to Linux -> Develop Android Apps -> Enable the toggle for ADB Debugging. Now, restart your Chromebook and an ADB prompt will come up after the reboot. Click on “Allow” and you are done.
Note: In case, ADB toggle is not turning on then you will have to reset your Chromebook. A similar thing happened with our machine and power washing the Chromebook resolved the issue.
3. Now, open Terminal from the app drawer and execute the below command to install the ADB platform tools.
4. After the installation, run the below command to connect the Android system with Linux on Chrome OS. Remember, your Chromebook should be connected to a WiFi network for this to work.
5. A window will instantly open up to “Allow USB Debugging”. Enable the checkbox for “Always allow” and then click on the “Ok” button. By now, you have successfully set up the base.
6. If you are getting an error saying “can’t connect to 100.115.92.2:5555 connection refused” then open Settings -> Apps on the left pane -> Google Play Store -> Manage Android Preferences -> System -> About Device. Click on “Build number” for 7-8 times continuously. It will enable the Developer Options.
7. Now, go back to the System page again and open Developer Options. Here, enable “ADB Debugging”.
8. If the Terminal shows “Permission Denied” or “Command Not Found” error then run the below command and then try again with the adb connect command mentioned above.
Install Android APK on Chromebook
1. Now that you have set the foundation, go ahead and download the Android APK that is not available on the Play Store and move it to Linux files. For example, I have downloaded the Firefox APK to install on my Chromebook without Developer Mode.
Note: Rename the downloaded APK to something shorter, just so you can easily type it on the Terminal.
2. Open the Terminal and type the below command to sideload the Android app on Chrome OS. In your case, you will have to change the app name in place of firefox .
3. If you are getting an error saying “more than one device/emulator” then run the command in the below syntax. Here, you need to change the firefox part.
4. Now, open the app drawer and you will find the Android app that you just installed. Keep in mind, the Android app is using its ART (Android Run Time) framework and not running in a Linux container. So, the performance is great and similar to other apps downloaded from the Play Store. Enjoy!
Install Any Android App on Your Chromebook
So that was our guide on how to sideload Android apps on Chromebook without Developer mode. While the solution is not that straightforward, it’s immensely helpful for geeks. Also, once you set up the ADB, you just have to download the APK, and then it can be installed via the adb install command.
So that was all from our side. If you want to learn more hacks about Chromebooks and Chrome OS then stay tuned with us as we bring some interesting guides for you in the coming days. As for now, we have covered the best Chrome OS apps and Chromebook games in detailed articles so check that out.
A browser’s user agent string (UA) helps identify which browser is being used, what version, and on which operating system. When feature detection APIs are not available, use the UA to customize behavior or content to specific browser versions.
Like all other browsers, Chrome for Android sends this information in the User-Agent HTTP header every time it makes a request to any site. It’s also available in the client through JavaScript using the navigator.userAgent call.
# Chrome for Android
Chrome for Android reports its UA in the following formats, depending on whether the device is a phone or a tablet.
Phone UA:
Tablet UA:
Here’s an example of the Chrome user agent string on a Galaxy Nexus:
If you are parsing user agent strings using regular expressions, the following can be used to check against Chrome on Android phones and tablets:
- Phone pattern: ‘Android’ + ‘Chrome/[.0-9]* Mobile’
- Tablet pattern: ‘Android’ + ‘Chrome/[.0-9]* (?!Mobile)’
# Chrome for iOS
The UA in Chrome for iOS is the same as the Mobile Safari user agent, with CriOS/
Here’s an example of the Chrome UA on iPhone:
For comparison, the Mobile Safari UA:
Up to Chrome 84, when the Request Desktop Site feature is enabled, the Desktop Safari UA is sent:
Starting from Chrome 85, when the Request Desktop Site feature is enabled, the UA is the same as the Desktop Safari UA with CriOS/
# WebView on Android
The Android 4.4 (KitKat) Chromium-based WebView adds Chrome/_version_ to the user agent string.
WebView UA in KitKat to Lollipop
If you’re attempting to differentiate between the WebView and Chrome for Android, you should look for the presence of the Version/_X.X_ string in the WebView user-agent string. Don’t rely on the specific Chrome version number (for example, 30.0.0.0) as the version numbers changes with each release.
WebView UA in Lollipop and Above
In the newer versions of WebView, you can differentiate the WebView by looking for the wv field as highlighted below.
One of Google’s Chrome’s flagship features is the ability to sign in with your Google account and sync your history, bookmarks, apps, and extensions across multiple PCs. Signing in also helps improve your Google Now suggestions, and automatically signs you in to Google services like Gmail, Drive, and Google+.
The downside: If you share a PC at home, other family members can start searching the web as you by simply opening Chrome. Ruh-roh!
Luckily, Chrome’s multiple profile support can help, providing an easy-peasy way for multiple people to use the same browser without worrying about imposters or having to constantly sign in and out of Google profiles.
Getting started
First, open Chrome’s menu—the icon with three horizontal lines in the upper right-hand corner—and open the Settings option. Towards the bottom you’ll see a “Users” section.
The add new user window in Chrome on Windows 8.1.
Click the Add new user… button in that section and a pop-up window will appear with a bunch of user icons. Pick an icon and name for your profile, decide whether you want to create a desktop shortcut icon for the profile, and then tap the “Create” button. Boom! In a few seconds, a new window will open with the new user profile.
Notice that the first time you create a new user profile, Chrome will actually create two profiles: One called “Default Profile” for the person who is currently signed in to Chrome, and one for the new profile that you just created.
You actually create two user profiles the first you add a new user.
So the first time you add a new user, you are actually creating two profiles. To change the name of the default profile to something more user friendly, go back to the Chrome settings tab. Highlight the default profile in the “Users” section and the click the “Edit…” button to change the name.
That’s pretty much it. Just follow the same process as many times as you need to create a user profile for each member of your household.
User profiles for children
For your kids, you can create a special kind of profile called a supervised user, a beta-grade profile type Google added to Chrome earlier in January.
To make a supervised user, simply click the checkbox next to “This is a supervised user managed by [email address].” Parents of supervised users can block specific websites, check out the websites they’ve visited, and lock kids into Google’s “Safe search.” If you block a website that your child thinks they should be allowed to view, they can even send you a request to unblock it, and you can manage settings for your supervised users via the dashboard at
Supervised Chrome profiles can request that sites be unblocked.
Keep in mind that user profiles are not password protected, however, so Chrome’s supervised users feature is far from fool proof. You will still have to keep an eye on your child’s surfing habits to make sure they are using their profile and not switching over to yours, or—if you’re really worried—create separate user accounts as the operating system level .
Switching between users
To switch between users, just click the user icon that appears in the upper left corner of the browser window. The other created users will appear in a drop down menu. Select the one you want to switch to and a new window will open for that user profile. If that’s too much trouble, you can also use the customized desktop shortcuts Chrome offers to make when creating a profile to open the browser as a particular user. Enjoy!
