hardy heron 8.04 alpha 5 - flash not installed correctly

[Savvas Radevic]

Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 alpha 5 x86_64

The amd64 flash plugin and nspluginwrapper didn't bind to firefox 3 properly upon installation. I can't see any flash content:
http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/welcome/

Maybe it's the use of /usr/lib/ directory instead of /var/lib/ ?
I know how to do it manually:
sudo cp /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/
nspluginwrapper -i /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/libflashplayer.so
..but this wasn't necessary for Gutsy 7.10.

nspluginwrapper:
  Installed: 0.9.91.5-1ubuntu1
  Candidate: 0.9.91.5-1ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 0.9.91.5-1ubuntu1 0
        500 http://uk.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/multiverse Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
flashplugin-nonfree:
  Installed: 9.0.115.0ubuntu4
  Candidate: 9.0.115.0ubuntu4
  Version table:
 *** 9.0.115.0ubuntu4 0
        500 http://uk.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/multiverse Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

$ dir -l /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 37 2008-02-25 13:23 flashplugin-alternative.so -> /etc/alternatives/firefox-flashplugin

$ dir -l /etc/alternatives/firefox-flashplugin
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 56 2008-02-25 13:23 /etc/alternatives/firefox-flashplugin -> /var/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so

$ sudo apt-get install --reinstall flashplugin-nonfree
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
  firefox konqueror-nsplugins ttf-xfree86-nonfree xfs
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  flashplugin-nonfree
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/18.4kB of archives.
After this operation, 168kB of additional disk space will be used.
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously deselected package flashplugin-nonfree.
(Reading database ... 105146 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking flashplugin-nonfree (from .../flashplugin-nonfree_9.0.115.0ubuntu4_amd64.deb) ...
Setting up flashplugin-nonfree (9.0.115.0ubuntu4) ...
Downloading...
--13:22:24-- http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player_9_linux.tar.gz
           => `./install_flash_player_9_linux.tar.gz'
Resolving fpdownload.macromedia.com... 88.221.178.70
Connecting to fpdownload.macromedia.com|88.221.178.70|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 3,036,127 (2.9M) [application/x-gzip]

    0K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 1% 52.42 KB/s
   50K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 3% 52.41 KB/s
  100K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 5% 50.95 KB/s
[...]
 2900K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 99% 49.49 KB/s
 2950K .......... .... 100% 54.28 KB/s

13:23:24 (50.03 KB/s) - `./install_flash_player_9_linux.tar.gz' saved [3036127/3036127]

Download done.
Flash Plugin installed.

P.S. It's not an md5sum mismatch.

[Dara Adib (daradib)]

Reverting back to new status. For confirmed bug status, the bug must be reproduced by at least two people. Please add a comment if a person can, in addition to Savvas Radević, reproduce this bug (and change the status to confirmed). Thank you.

See http://news.launchpad.net/general/of-bugs-and-statuses for more information on bug statuses.

[Savvas Radevic (medigeek)]

How about when I did it 5 times consecutively? I'll remove the plugin and try again

[Savvas Radevic (medigeek)]

OK, I found the problem, there were some leftovers in my /home/ directory from the old gutsy install.
(I formatted and the root / partition and kept /home intact when I installed hardy)

I simply removed these:
/home/user/.macromedia
/home/user/.mozilla/plugins/flashplayer.xpt
/home/user/.mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so
/home/user/.mozilla/plugins/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so

Now I have this:
$ ls /home/user/.macromedia
ls: cannot access /home/user/.macromedia: No such file or directory
$ ls /home/user/.mozilla/plugins/
nphelix.so nphelix.xpt

[Jonathan Ernst (jonathan.ernst)]

I have the same problem on a fresh hardy 64 bits. The installation says it works fine, but nothing appear in about:plugins in firefox 3

[Savvas Radevic (medigeek)]

Jonathan, try remove the files/folders I mention, see if that helps

[Jonathan Ernst (jonathan.ernst)]

No it doesn't help unfortunately.

[Morten Siebuhr (msiebuhr)]

It seems I've hit the same bug, though I've hit it on a freshly installed machine (total reformat).

See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/flashplugin-nonfree/+bug/201209 for another possible solution to the problem (that respects dpkg-alternatives).

[Savvas Radevic (medigeek)]

OK this is really a mystery, let's see what the devs/bug triagers have to say :) It might be two totally different bugs

[Brandon Kruger (bmk789)]

I fixed this problem with Firefox 3 Beta 4 by running this command with flashplugin-nonfree installed:
sudo ln -s /etc/alternatives/firefox-flashplugin /usr/lib/firefox-3.0b4/plugins/flashplugin.so

Restarted firefox and works great!

[Savvas Radevic (medigeek)]

Found another person with the same problem, 64-bit architecture but he upgraded instead of clean install, the fix was this:
sudo ln -s /etc/alternatives/firefox-flashplugin /usr/lib/firefox-3.0b4/plugins/flashplugin.so

mind you, this bug existed since firefox 3 beta 3

[Savvas Radevic (medigeek)]

(the other person is Brandon Kruger)

[Bram Stolk (b-stolk)]

I had the same problem.
After I ran the ln command listed above, I got the flash entry in about:plugins

[Adam Caldwell (adam-caldwell-deactivatedaccount)]

This is actually a problem with nspluginwrapper as far as I can tell (at least for those of us on 64bit). The flash plugin postinstall script correctly installs to the xulrunner-plugins directory, unless it detects you are using nspluginwrapper. Unfortunatly, nspluginwrapper only seems to install to /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins and /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/ and not /usr/lib/xulrunner-addons/plugins/ which is where plugins need to be for firefox 3.

I'm trying to wrap my head around how to get it to do the right thing, but I'm not a developer, so its a little over my head.

[Adam Caldwell (adam-caldwell-deactivatedaccount)]

Eh, scratch my last comment, its update-alternatives that should be installing the plugin but doesnt seem to want to install to xulrunner-addons, for some reason.

Here's a workaround that should work for all firefox 3 versions:
sudo ln -s /var/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/xulrunner-addons/plugins/

[Pratik (pkpatel88)]

I have same problem, after install adobe flash it won't show up in about:plugins. I tried the remedies down bellow and had no success (I can't see the content at http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/welcome/ .

[msegal (mark-markanddonna-deactivatedaccount)]

i have the same issue about in 32bit. hardy beta.. firefox 3.. installs correctly not in about:plugins

[msegal (mark-markanddonna-deactivatedaccount)]

seems like its an issue with where the plugin is copied.. the third comment here fixed it..

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox-3.0/+bug/200235

basically need to copy the flashplugin-alternative.so to the /usr/lib/firefox-3.0b4/plugins directory...

[datakid (datakid)]

+1 to msegal - 32 bit same problem, same solution.

[Dave Gilbert (ubuntu-treblig)]

64 bit; I can confirm Adam's fix:

sudo ln -s /var/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/xulrunner-addons/plugins/

fixed it for me - thanks Adam!

Dave

[Drascus (enchantedvisionsband)]

Thanks: Savvas Radević
Confirm that using the command : sudo ln -s /etc/alternatives/firefox-flashplugin /usr/lib/firefox-3.0b4/plugins/flashplugin.so
Works for Firefox 3 beta4 running on i386 Hardy as well.

[Dara Adib (daradib)]

Savvas Radević, your problem is bug 150250.

[Dara Adib (daradib)]

Okay, my mistake, the comment confused me. If the problem is the leftover plugins in the home directory (see third comment), the issue is bug 150250. But this issue, with Firefox looking in the wrong spot, is a different issue.

[Savvas Radevic (medigeek)]

Well mine problem was the leftovers, I guess the other persons should redirect their interest to the other bug mentioned you mentioned

[Savvas Radevic (medigeek)]

Oops, sorry, I mean *I* should redirect my bug there, since that was my issue. But I guess two problems got mixed up in my bug report, I don't know how to solve that :(

[Nobre (nobre-it)]

Its works for me... Firefox 3 beta 5
I had a .deb that I made for flash plugin, without md5sum check...

http://guigouz.googlepages.com/flashplugin-nonfree_9.0.666_i386.deb

Its install without problems... nice...
After this... link the /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so to /usr/lib/xulrunner-addons/plugins
Done! Its working for me on Hardy Heron 32bit version!

[Dave Gilbert (ubuntu-treblig)]

I'm seeing something that may or may not be related.

I'm now on ff3b5 and I'm finding that flash is very rarely working; it sometimes does, but most of the time I'm left with a grey
rectangle; however it *is* working on Konqueror fairly reliably (OK, nspluginwrapper still segs occasionally in Konq, but it's good
enough to watch youtube most of the time).

The fact it works sometimes suggests it's not as simple as a missing symlink; flashplugin-nonfree is 9.0.115.0ubuntu5;
nspluginwrapper is 0.9.91.5-2ubuntu1; I'm running 64 bit.

Dave

[Erik Andrén (erik-andren)]

Dave, I'm also seeing this issue. It's kind of hard to reproduce reliably and a restarting firefox temporarily resolves the issue for me.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

If you are seeing a problem where flashplugin-nonfree is installed, but about:plugins doesn't show flash, please send the output of the following commands:

$ update-alternatives --list xulrunner-addons-flashplugin
$ update-alternatives --display xulrunner-addons-flashplugin

[James Michael Page (studiozepp)]

Above commands return:

--list command returns nothing

--display command returns:

"xulrunner-addons-flashplugin - status is auto.
 link currently points to /var/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so
No versions available."

I've done all the command recommended in this thread.

nspluginwrapper seems to be functional...but I've got no flash in my about:plugins page

I'm running Hardy Heron 8.04 LTS w/Firefox 3.0b5 on AMD64

[Stéphane Charette (stephanecharette)]

Same problem. Upgrade from 7.10-64bit to 8.04. Here is the output of the commands from 2 comments above:

stephane@renard:/$ sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree
[...cut...]
 2900K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 99% 154.35 KB/s
 2950K .......... .......... ... 100% 164.72 KB/s

20:41:17 (152.02 KB/s) - `./install_flash_player_9_linux.tar.gz' saved [3044538/3044538]

Download done.
Flash Plugin installed.

stephane@renard:/$ uname -a
Linux renard 2.6.24-16-generic #1 SMP Thu Apr 10 12:47:45 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux
stephane@renard:/$ update-alternatives --list xulrunner-addons-flashplugin
stephane@renard:/$ update-alternatives --display xulrunner-addons-flashplugin
xulrunner-addons-flashplugin - status is auto.
 link currently points to /var/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so
No versions available.

Note that this symbolic link:
stephane@renard:/usr/lib/xulrunner-addons/plugins$ dir flash*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 46 2008-04-28 20:41 flashplugin-alternative.so -> /etc/alternatives/xulrunner-addons-flashplugin

Points to this:
$ dir /etc/alternatives/xulrunner-addons-flashplugin
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 56 2008-04-28 20:41 /etc/alternatives/xulrunner-addons-flashplugin -> /var/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so

Which points to a non-existing file:
$ dir /var/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/
total 0

[David Edelsohn (edelsohn)]

Similar problem. Upgrade from 7.10-64bit to 8.04. Flash controls displayed as gray with triangle or plugin missing.

sudo ln -s /var/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/xulrunner-addons/plugins/

fixed it for me.

[Nicholas (drkoljan)]

I would like to confirm this for Ubuntu 8.04 LTS 64-bit.

The "sudo ln -s /var/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/xulrunner-addons/plugins/" command worked for me. This is a serious issue yet fairly easy to fix.

[Porcelain Mouse (pmouse)]

I'm not sure if this "bug" is still affecting Hardy Heron 8.04 with Firefox 3.0. I just wanted to mention that Steve Langasek's post led me to a solution to my problem. My symptoms were similar, but I didn't think creating a link was a good idea. I had a "conflict" with Gnash, which was the preferred SFW player. The Adobe player was correctly installed.

$ update-alternatives --display xulrunner-addons-flashplugin
xulrunner-addons-flashplugin - status is auto.
 link currently points to /usr/lib/gnash/libgnashplugin.so
/usr/lib/gnash/libgnashplugin.so - priority 50
/var/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so - priority 50
Current `best' version is /usr/lib/gnash/libgnashplugin.so.

As soon as I removed Gnash, the non-free player was selected as the 'best'.

$ update-alternatives --display xulrunner-addons-flashplugin
xulrunner-addons-flashplugin - status is auto.
 link currently points to /var/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so
/var/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so - priority 50
Current `best' version is /var/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so.

Thanks Steve.

[Stéphane Charette (stephanecharette)]

Tonight to try and get flash working again I uninstalled firefox, firefox-3.0-gnome-support, firefox-gnome-support, ubufox, flashplugin-nonfree, totem-mozilla, xulrunner-1.9, gnome-user-guide, ubuntu-desktop, ubuntu-docs, xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support, and yelp. (Basically as soon as you remove the first few, the rest have to be removed due to dependencies.) Then I deleted my ~/.mozilla directory before I re-installed all these packages.

Not certain what part of that solved the problem, but flash is now working for me on my copy of Firefox 3.0 in Ubuntu 8.04-64bit.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Stéphane Charette wrote:
> Tonight to try and get flash working again I uninstalled firefox,
> firefox-3.0-gnome-support, firefox-gnome-support, ubufox, flashplugin-
> nonfree, totem-mozilla, xulrunner-1.9, gnome-user-guide, ubuntu-desktop,
> ubuntu-docs, xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support, and yelp. (Basically as soon
> as you remove the first few, the rest have to be removed due to
> dependencies.) Then I deleted my ~/.mozilla directory before I re-
> installed all these packages.
>
> Not certain what part of that solved the problem, but flash is now
> working for me on my copy of Firefox 3.0 in Ubuntu 8.04-64bit.
>
>
this issue was most likely caused by a corrupt profile. It's hard to
tell since you wiped everything out.
For other users that is not the recommended way to remove profiles nor
fix a bug. Removing firefox will remove a lot of other packages this has
been known and someday we hope to have xulrunner fix that. this way
firefox goes it wont bring half of gnome with it. but this is a work in
progress at this time. IS anyone else having this issue anymore and if
so can you please give me info as to your version of flash, firefox,
ubuntu that you are using.

--
Sincerely Yours,
    John Vivirito

https://launchpad.net/~gnomefreak
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnVivirito
Linux User# 414246

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Stéphane Charette wrote:
> Tonight to try and get flash working again I uninstalled firefox,
> firefox-3.0-gnome-support, firefox-gnome-support, ubufox, flashplugin-
> nonfree, totem-mozilla, xulrunner-1.9, gnome-user-guide, ubuntu-desktop,
> ubuntu-docs, xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support, and yelp. (Basically as soon
> as you remove the first few, the rest have to be removed due to
> dependencies.) Then I deleted my ~/.mozilla directory before I re-
> installed all these packages.
>
> Not certain what part of that solved the problem, but flash is now
> working for me on my copy of Firefox 3.0 in Ubuntu 8.04-64bit.
>
>
We dont recommend removing profiles that way nor removing Firefox.
Removing profile that way will remove all bookmarks and saved stuff in
other Mozilla apps except Thunderbird as that makes its own profile
either ~/.thunderbird or ~/.mozilla-thunderbird depending on version.
this issue was most likely caused by a corrupt profile another way to
test this would have been to rename the firefox profile and starting
with a clean one by starting firefox after renaming profile the correct
way to do this is listed at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Bugs

--
Sincerely Yours,
    John Vivirito

https://launchpad.net/~gnomefreak
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnVivirito
Linux User# 414246

[aaronwinborn (winborn)]

After updating from Gutsy Gibbon, Flash does not display for me. Kubuntu 8.04-32bit, Firefox 3.0.1. On about:plugins, I see flash listed twice:

    File name: libflashplayer.so
    Shockwave Flash 9.0 r124

and

    File name: libflashplayer.so
    Shockwave Flash 9.0 d78

I have flashplugin-nonfree installed, and I also tried installing libflash-mozplugin to no avail. I had already seen these two players in about:plugin before doing so, and have also tried uninstalling both of them and installing one or the other separately in turn. No change in behavior.

[aaronwinborn (winborn)]

$ update-alternatives --list xulrunner-addons-flashplugin
/usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so

$ update-alternatives --display xulrunner-addons-flashplugin
xulrunner-addons-flashplugin - status is auto.
 link currently points to /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so
/usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so - priority 50
Current `best' version is /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so.

[aaronwinborn (winborn)]

i take that back. after uninstalling flashplugin-nonfree and libflash-mozplugin, i have one listed still in about:plugins:

    File name: libflashplayer.so
    Shockwave Flash 9.0 d78

[aaronwinborn (winborn)]

and also the following:

$ update-alternatives --list xulrunner-addons-flashplugin
No alternatives for xulrunner-addons-flashplugin.

$ update-alternatives --display xulrunner-addons-flashplugin
No alternatives for xulrunner-addons-flashplugin.

[aaronwinborn (winborn)]

i deleted /home/user/.mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so and /home/user/temp/.mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so, and now only have the first

File name: libflashplayer.so
    Shockwave Flash 9.0 r124

listed (after reinstalling flashplugin-nonfree), but still no flash.

[Savvas Radevic (medigeek)]

I'll unsubscribe from this, since I don't have this issue anymore.
However, if anyone else wishes to provide any more info, please do! :)

See you at intrepid!

[Dave Gilbert (ubuntu-treblig)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu. Hardy (desktop) reached EOL on May 2011
See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

64bit flash is a completely different story on current Ubuntu's so marking invalid; if this still needs
fixing on a supported Ubuntu then please reopen a task for it under this bug.

[Dave Gilbert (ubuntu-treblig)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu. Hardy (desktop) reached EOL in May 2011
See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

64bit flash is a completely different story on current Ubuntu's so marking invalid; if this still needs
fixing on a supported Ubuntu then please reopen a task for it under this bug.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

Hardy has seen the end of its life and is no longer receiving any updates. Marking the Hardy task for this ticket as "Won't Fix".