Online Video Buffering Issues

[Deleted member 111282]

I've noticed recently that whenever I watch a video on YouTube, HookTube, or Invidious, it buffers rather slow, which causes it to stop and have to buffer again (and can be quite annoying at times). I've cleared the cache in LibreWolf, hoping it will make the webpage move faster, but it doesn't help. Granted, I'm aware when there's too many people accessing a webpage at once, the webpage will inevitably slow down (which can also be quite annoying at times, but there's nothing I can do about that). I'm wondering if I can at least improve the speed of LW? I'd get faster internet, but I'm still unfortunately living with my parents.

 

[wizardfromoz]

Bob, I know little about such issues, but can make 2 suggestions that may help you to help others to help you.

1. I always have 2 to 4 Browsers on each of my installs, although Waterfox and Firefox are my most frequently used. I usually also have Chromium, Brave, and an occasional Vivaldi or other. Then if I am having a viewing issue on one, I can compare on one or more of the others to see if the problem is shared or discrete to that Browser. Also, if one falls over, I have another in reserve to maintain my internet activities.

2. Have you performed any Google searches under eg

librewolf buffering issues?

and what do they show, if anything?

I'm moving this Thread to Audio/Video, where browser issues are also addressed, and then it will not disappear so quickly. Give me a minute.

HTH

Wizard

 

[wizardfromoz]

Done

 

[Deleted member 111282]

@wizardfromoz

Its been a while since I've used multiple browsers at once, so I'll look into that soon. I found this article a few minutes ago https://recoverit.wondershare.com/video-repair/fix-video-buffering-problem.html, and one of the things it recommended was completing an internet speed test. After completing 3 separate ones, I discovered my internet is running on at a very slow speed (first it was 2.7 mbps, now it's 1.3). I'll have to show these to my dad and see what he says. Then again, getting At&t to give us faster internet isn't the end-all solution (especially since it's expensive and my parents are retired and living on a fixed income). It could also be I'm running old hardware. While I haven't personally encountered any viruses on any version of Mint I've used, I could try running a scan and see what that reveals.

 

[Deleted member 101831]

Check with AT&T and see if fiber internet is available in your area.

I upgraded from copper wire telephone and DSL twisted pair internet to fiber internet and VOIP telephone and have better service for less money.

100 Mbps up.
100 Mbps down.

If you're using a wireless wifi adapter that can cause buffering problems also.

 

[Tolkem]

@SpongebobFan1994 Run LW from the terminal, and look for any errors, hopefully you might find some clues as to what's happening, not entirely a "solution", but something you can try nonetheless.

 

[Deleted member 111282]

@Nelson Muntz I can see what my dad says. I won't be surprised it will be difficult convincing him to do that because he's often stubborn as a mule and a control freak (which are two reasons why I have a difficult relationship with my parents).

@Tolkem When right-clicking on the appimage, there's no option to open it with the terminal. I couldn't even find the terminal when clicking on "open with another application".

 

[Tolkem]

@SpongebobFan1994 To launch LW from the terminal, do as follows:
1. Open the terminal and change to the directory where LW is

cd /path/to/LibreWolf-*.x86_64.AppImage #change /path/to with actual path, i.e. Downloads.

2. Launch the app

./LibreWolf-*.x86_64.AppImage

Go to some website, i.e. YouTube, play some video and check for messages in the terminal. You can then copy/paste those here.

 

[Deleted member 111282]

@Tolkem Once again, I get an error message in terminal that says

bash: cd: /path/to/LibreWolf-*.x86_64.AppImage: No such file or directory

 

[wizardfromoz]

Did you follow my friend the Green Hornet's explanatory comment?

#change /path/to with actual path, i.e. Downloads.

Wiz

 

[wizardfromoz]

BTW that "i.e" is better as an "eg" (although it may well be in Downloads)

 

[Tolkem]

@SpongebobFan1994 Open the terminal and cd to the directory where LW is in, i.e. Downloads

cd Downloads

Change downloads for the actual directory where LW is in. For example, I have all the appimages I use in an "Appimages" folder in $HOME, so if I want to run some command from the terminal in that dir I do

cd Appimages

Once you're in LW's directory/location, launch it from terminal

./LibreWolf-*.x86_64.AppImage

Go to some video streaming site, play something, and keep an eye on the messages being displayed. Copy/paste any messages you think can be related to your issue and paste them in your reply. That's it, easy-peasy, isn't it?

 

[Deleted member 111282]

@Tolkem I did try changing the directory just now, but I'm still getting that same error message. I think what may be causing the problem is I somehow ended up in a situation a while back where I no longer have the proper permissions when accessing my downloads folder. I was trying to troubleshoot an issue involving that, but I must've not known what I was doing at the time.

 

[Tolkem]

I did try changing the directory just now, but I'm still getting that same error message.

Can you explain the process? You launch a terminal and ... ?

I no longer have the proper permissions when accessing my downloads folder.

That'd be crazy. Open a terminal and type

ls -la

And copy/paste the output here please, this is to verify the permissions in your $HOME.

EDIT: Sometimes I forget that a GUI approach is also possible:
1. Open the file manager.
2. Navigate to LW's appimage file location, i.e. Downloads.
3. Right-click on a blank space within that folder, and from the context menu select open terminal here or some similar wording.
4. In the terminal, type

./LibreWolf-*.x86_64.AppImage

If you get any errors regarding the name of the file, replace the " * " for the current version, for example:

./LibreWolf-87.0-1.x86_64.AppImage

This is the version I have here, yours could be different. I don't really use it so I don't know about newer versions, this isn't that old though, and yours might be the same one.

 

[Deleted member 111282]

@Tolkem I launch the terminal program, copy and paste the commands you give me, hit enter, and get told

bash: cd: Appimages: No such file or directory

Here's the output you wanted

david@david-OptiPlex-990:~/Downloads$ ls -la
total 12
dr-xr-xr-x  3 david david 4096 Jan 20 13:21 .
drwxr-xr-x 32 david david 4096 Apr 27 23:40 ..
drwxrwxrwx  2 david david 4096 Dec  5 05:19 .disk

Even when I follow those steps you gave me, and did remove the asterisk, I still get

bash: cd: Appimages: No such file or directory

Because I didn't have this many issues with the terminal in 19.3, I'm thinking of downgrading back to that.

 

[Tolkem]

@Tolkem I launch the terminal program, copy and paste the commands you give me, hit enter, and get told

bash: cd: Appimages: No such file or directory

You're supposed to run that command pointing to the directory your LibreWolf.AppImage file is located in, i.e. your downloads' folder, that was just an example, and you get that error because I take it you don't have in your system any folder named "Appimages" like I do, do you?

Here's the output you wanted

david@david-OptiPlex-990:~/Downloads$ ls -la
total 12
dr-xr-xr-x  3 david david 4096 Jan 20 13:21 .
drwxr-xr-x 32 david david 4096 Apr 27 23:40 ..
drwxrwxrwx  2 david david 4096 Dec  5 05:19 .disk

According to that output, everything is fine within your Downloads folder and you should be able to run apps from there, you're probably doing something wrong.

Even when I follow those steps you gave me, and did remove the asterisk, I still get

bash: cd: Appimages: No such file or directory

Because I didn't have this many issues with the terminal in 19.3, I'm thinking of downgrading back to that.

Again, you didn't have to follow by heart those examples, you have to replace it with what's currently in your system. I just launched LibreWolf from the terminal, and this how I did it:

1. In my home folder, I(long ago) created a dir named Appimages, this is where I keep all the appimages I use.

2. In konsole terminal, I typed

cd Appimages

to access that folder from konsole, so I can manipulate whatever appimage I want to; launch, extract, rename, move, copy ...

3. I locate the appimage I want to work with

ls *.?pp?mage

I use that since the extension can contain uppercase letters or lowercase ones and this just lists all of them regardless of that. Once I've located it, using the mouse cursor, I select it, right-click on it and from the context menu choose copy, so I can easily paste its name in konsole without errors/typos.

4. In this case, I selected and copied/pasted LibreWolf-87.0-1.x86_64.AppImage in konsole preceded by ./ and hit Enter to start it

As you can see, I just launched LibreWolf and didn't have the issue you mentioned by the way; the video played just fine; no buffering, though I only tried with YouTube and not with the other sites you're having issues with too. The errors you see appeared while taking the screenshot and are not related to the video playback. I hope the pictures may illustrate in a much clearer way the procedure I've been trying to explain this far, and you can finally proceed and succeed at it