Adobe Flash (adobe-flashplugin) update installs incorrectly

[Thomas Sisson]

Every time I get a notification of a new update and I run Muon Updater, there is an error in installing the Adobe Flash Player update. I receive a light bulb icon in my notification panel. I click it and it says there was an error in install a package, click here to fix it. It opens up a terminal window and downloads some long file name including flashplayer. It downloads, then the window stays open. There is never any indication that anything is done after downloading, but I eventually close the terminal window and the dialog that opens it.

This part is annoying in and of itself and could be done much more smoothly. There should be some output in the window that says "package installed, you may now close this window." However, the last update left me with no flash plug-in.

I tried to do "sudo apt-get install adobe-flashplugin" it tries to install /var/cache/apt/archives/adobe-flashplugin_11.2.202.285-0precise1_amd64.deb and /var/cache/apt/archives/adobe-flash-properties-gtk_11.2.202.285-0precise1_amd64.deb. I then get the following error.

dpkg-deb: error: subprocess paste was killed by signal (Broken pipe)
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

If I try to remove the offending packages with "sudo dpkg -r adobe-flashplugin adobe-flash-player-properties-gtk" I get the following errors.

dpkg: warning: there's no installed package matching adobe-flashplugin
dpkg: warning: there's no installed package matching adobe-flash-player-properties-gtk

If I try to remove with "sudo apt-get remove adobe-flashplugin adobe-flash-properties-gtk" I get the following errors.

Package adobe-flashplugin is not installed, so not removed
Package adobe-flash-player-properties-gtk is not installed, so not removed

I really don't like mucking around in my dpkg cache because deleting those files just creates even more of a mess. This is new and not the same as the flashplugin-nonfree, so searching for ways to fix the problem has been fruitless.

lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS
Release: 12.04

I'm giving apt-cache policy of all flash plug-in packages even though I was not trying to install flashplugin-nonfree.

apt-cache policy adobe-flashplugin
adobe-flashplugin:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 11.2.202.285-0precise1
  Version table:
     11.2.202.285-0precise1 0
        500 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ precise/partner amd64 Packages

apt-cache policy flashplugin-nonfree
flashplugin-nonfree:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: (none)
  Version table:

apt-cache policy adobe-flash-properties-gtk
adobe-flash-properties-gtk:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 11.2.202.285-0precise1
  Version table:
     11.2.202.285-0precise1 0
        500 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ precise/partner amd64 Packages

[Alan Pater (alan-pater)]

Perhaps a purge and update might help?

sudo apt-get purge flash-plugin flashplugin-installer adobe-flashplugin
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install adobe-flashplugin

[Thomas Sisson (thomas-sisson-1)]

That is what I eventually did. However, I felt the need to report the
issue since it was a bug.

Tom

On 06/17/2013 10:05 PM, Alan Pater wrote:
> Perhaps a purge and update might help?
>
> sudo apt-get purge flash-plugin flashplugin-installer adobe-flashplugin
> sudo apt-get update
> sudo apt-get install adobe-flashplugin
>