Google Play Movies and HAL Workaround

[RedWar]

Hello all,

Recently I ran into an issue trying to play Google Play movies within my Sabayon distribution. When I tried to play it, an error message would come up. After scouring my system and the internet, I found out that there was a requirement for the installation of the Hardware Abstraction Layer from Google Play Support: http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1266319 . Google requires HAL due to DRM to confirm that the hardware being used is a laptop and that you are not trying to rip into a hard drive or dvd (this is an assumption on my part, all I know is that they want you to have it or you cannot watch your purchased movies.). When I checked my installation it did not have HAL installed and checking within Gentoo's forums, HAL was removed due to it being depracated in favor of UDEV. I did not want to install a depracated module, but seeing that support was ubuntu centric, I followed this solution:
1. Install or use a virtual machine manager: I used Virtual Box, runs like a dream in Sabayon 10.
2. Install Xubuntu: It has less bloat than the other buntu installs.
3. Create your virtual machine in your repsective virtualizer.
4. HAL is also not included in Xubuntu, so you may need to add it. [sudo apt-get install HAL].
Run it in Chrome or Firefox, and you should have the video run fine without any issues.

Good luck and enjoy watching your Google movies!