[Dapper] Installation fails during automatic download - package apparently installs but does not work

[Torsten Schönfeld]

Installing the flash plugin via synaptic fails with the following in the console window:

Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 122534 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace flashplugin-nonfree 7.0.63.7ubuntu1 (using .../flashplugin-nonfree_7.0.63.7ubuntu1_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement flashplugin-nonfree ...
Setting up flashplugin-nonfree (7.0.63.7ubuntu1) ...
Downloading... done.
automatic installation failed due to network problems or upstream changes

[Torsten Schönfeld (kaffeetisch)]

The recent update to this package seems to have fixed the issue. If I knew how, I'd close this bug.

[peridot (peridot-faceted)]

It (now?) affects Dapper. Presumably upstream have changed something and the package needs to be updated to work.

[Luca Falavigna (dktrkranz)]

See also bug #60256. This should be already fixed in Edgy.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Fixed in Edgy.

[Graeme Hewson (ghewson)]

Installation doesn't work behind a firewall:

> apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree... Done
> Suggested packages:
> msttcorefonts ttf-xfree86-nonfree xfs
> Recommended packages:
> libesd0-alsa libstdc++2.10-glibc2.2
> The following NEW packages will be installed
> flashplugin-nonfree
> 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
> Need to get 15.8kB of archives.
> After unpacking 168kB of additional disk space will be used.
> WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!
> flashplugin-nonfree
> Install these packages without verification [y/N]? y
> Get: 1 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com dapper-backports/multiverse
> flashplugin-nonf ree
> 7.0.68~ubuntu2~dapper1 [15.8kB] Fetched 15.8kB in 0s (20.0kB/s)
> Preconfiguring packages ...
> Selecting previously deselected package flashplugin-nonfree.
> (Reading database ... 77075 files and directories currently installed.)
> Unpacking flashplugin-nonfree (from
> .../flashplugin-nonfree_7.0.68~ubuntu2~dappe
> r1_i386.deb) ... Setting up flashplugin-nonfree
> (7.0.68~ubuntu2~dapper1) ...
> Downloading... ++++ FAILED.
> automatic installation failed due to network problems or upstream changes

The problem is that /usr/sbin/update-flashplugin invokes wget to download the
real Flash player, but doesn't use the proxy setting in /etc/apt/apt.conf.
The workaround is obviously to set http_proxy.

[VOROSBARANYI Zoltan (4irmjh602)]

Fixed in edgy. Great. What about Dapper? Users are not able to install flash-plugin in Dapper any more...

[D. Hugh Redelmeier (hugh-mimosa)]

I'm experiencing this problem in Dapper.
The analysis presented above does not match what I observe.

Here's the problem that I'm experiencing, as far as I can make out:
It is in /usr/sbin/update-flashplugin .
The wget does manage to download the file (the log, just as listed above, includes the "done" message).
The script checks that the md5sum for the downloaded file matches one wired into the script itself. This fails. Why? Probably because Adobe has updated the file (duh).

Wired-in checksum: a18532c8457f1140964c4d896a928c96
Checksum on file I downloaded today: 3a72f45a173126181022cff9029a1bb3

There are other checksum tests too. Look at all the lines containing "md5sum" in the script.

Fix: update the wired-in checksums OR think of some more robust alternative authenticator. Get Adobe to sign the files?