Disney Plus is super popular, and it’s not wonder. The service is loaded with Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars streaming content, including original series. There’s one problem for Linux users, though. The operating system isn’t officially supported. That’s alright, though, it’s still popular to stream your favorite shows and movies.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to Enable DRM Playback on Firefox
- How to Spoof Google Chrome on Windows 10
- How to Watch Disney Plus on Firefox
Software Requirements and Conventions Used
| Category | Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used |
|---|---|
| System | Any modern Linux distribution |
| Software | Firefox |
| Other | Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command. |
| Conventions |
# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user |
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Enable DRM Playback on Firefox
It shouldn’t come as any surprise that Disney Plus, like most other streaming services, employs DRM to prevent unautorized use of their content. As a result, you’re going to enable DRM playback on Firefox, if you haven’t already.
Open up your Firefox menu by clicking the icon in the upper right if your window. It’s three stacked lines.
When the menu opens up, choose Preferences.
Firefox DRM Settings.On that first “General” tab you arrive on, scroll down until you see Digital Rights Management (DRM) Content. Check the box just below to enable Firefox to play DRM content.
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Spoof Google Chrome on Windows 10
Now that Firefox can play DRM content, you’re going to need to make it look like it’s actually Google Chrome on Windows 10. That’s because neither Firefox or Linux is officially supported by Disney Plus. It’s simple enough to spoof a user agent string on Firefox, and you don’t even need an extension to pull it off.
First, you’re going to need user agent strong from Google Chrome on Windows. If you have a Windows machine, this is easy enough. Open the Chrome developer tools, and run the following line of JavaScript to display your agent string.
navigator.userAgent;
If you don’t happen to have a Windows install handy, you can check out this browser string database to see what the latest Chrome agent string for Windows is.
If all else fails, you can give this string for Chrome 78 a try. At the time of this article, it’s current, and it’s also the one this procedure was tested with.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/78.0.3904.70 Safari/537.36
With your Chrome agent string in hand, you’re ready to create a custom setting in Firefox that will cause the Disney Plus website to see your Firefox browser as Chrome on Windows. This setting will be specific to Disney Plus, so other sites will keep functioning as usual.
Firefox Configuration Warning.
In your Firefox address bar, navigate to
about:config. Firefox will give you a warning message, letting you know that you can potentially break things. Accept, and move forward.
Firefox Configuration Table.Firefox will take you to a massive table of settings. At the top, you’ll see a search bar. Type the following into the search bar to narrow the table’s results.
general.useragent.override
Depending on any extensions or previous modifications you’ve done, you may or may not find something there. Either way is fine. Right click somewhere in the blank space of the window. When the menu opens, choose New followed by String.
A new dialog window will pop open for you to enter the name of your new setting. Enter the following.
general.useragent.override.disneyplus.com
Then, for the actual value of your setting, enter the Chrome agent string, and save it.
Firefox Configuration With Agent Override.When you’re done, you should now see your new setting listed in the table.
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Watch Disney Plus on Firefox
You’re officially ready to start watching Disney Plus on Linux. Head over to the Disney Plus website in Firefox. Sign in to your account, and you’ll arrive on the Disney Plus menu.
Disney Plus Menu on Linux.Choose something to stream. If this is your first time watching DRM content on Firefox, you’ll get a message on the top of your screen saying that Firefox is downloading required components. Just wait a few minutes, and Firefox will start playing your video.
Disney Plus Playing on Linux.Congratulations! You’re watching Disney Plus on Linux!
Conclusion
As of the time this guide was published, this method is working within the US. Because streaming services are always changing their configurations and policies, there’s always a chance that this could stop working at any time. If that does happen, we’ll try to update this guide to ensure that it remains functional.
