Comment 27 for bug 1632870

Gunnar:
>
> As regards dependencies in Ubuntu, I don't think it's
> possible to let a package in universe/multiverse
> recommend or depend on a package in Canonical Partner,
> since the latter is not enabled by default.

I thought so too, but now I'm not sure it's that much of a problem, as long as a fallback is in place. Take ubuntu-restricted-addons for instance, which is installed with a new copy of Ubuntu when the option about non-free software is selected: it recommends adobe-flashplugin | flashplugin-installer for i386 architectures (and, weirdly enough, only flashplugin-installer for amd64 architectures) (flashplugin-installer is the one that only installs the NPAPI plugin, adobe-flashplugin is the one in partner with NPAPI and PPAPI).

http://packages.ubuntu.com/xenial/ubuntu-restricted-addons

Stéphane:
>
> In the past I had a cron job reinstalling the package
> everyday to make sure that a secure version of Flash
> plugin was in use; this approach is does not work
> anymore since the installation fails.

This nice approach is also implemented in Jonathon Fernyhough's version of pepperflashplugin-nonfree. His version also downloads the plugin from Adobe instead of Chrome, so it should have survived Google's unbundling's decision. (I haven't tested it though, I use adobe-flashplugin.)

https://launchpad.net/~jonathonf/+archive/ubuntu/pepperflashplugin-nonfree

Gunnar:

I agree that the PPAPI/NPAPI wrapper shouldn't be retired given that a few features present in the existing PPAPI version won't be fully implemented in the future NPAPI version. Besides, Adobe could change their mind again regarding NPAPI support.

> Are those extra features preserved when connecting the PPAPI
> to e.g. Firefox via the "wrapper"? If they are, it will be
> in the interest of some users to keep maintaining
> browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash, after all.

Yes I'm pretty sure they are preserved by the PPAPI-to-NPAPI translation process: the wrapper's configuration file has a "enable_3d = 1" option that probably refers to the support of GPU 3D acceleration, and its Known Issues page mentions how DRM support is only provided by Chrome OS's PPAPI plugin, not by the desktop PPAPI plugins.

https://github.com/i-rinat/freshplayerplugin/blob/master/data/freshwrapper.conf.example
https://github.com/i-rinat/freshplayerplugin/blob/master/doc/known-issues.md#drm-doesnt-work