Trying to install Flash in Lenny. SUCCESS

[gerry]

EDIT: I finally blundered my way to success.

Before I forget- it's a minimal install of Lenny, with no desktop environment, no display manager, trying to get Lenny to go at an acceptable speed on an old machine- 600MHz, 256MB ram.

Now I want to add Flash to IceWeasel. Following advice, I added

deb http://backports.org/debian lenny-backports main contrib non-free

to apt sources. Apt-get update produced a message about missing public key. More advice, installed debian-backports-keyring.

Then I installed:

apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

All seemed to be going well, but Flash is not installed: what I have is "install_flash_player_10_linux.tar.gz" safely stowed in /var/cache/

Now what? I understand that Debian is reputed to be for experts only, but this is taking things too far!

Don't tell me I need Gnome- the computer crashes if I try to install the full Lenny-Gnome system.

Gerry

[craigevil]

apt-get -t install lenny-backports flashplugin-nonfree

You have to specifically tell apt-get/aptitude to install things from backports.

1. Add this line

deb http://www.backports.org/debian lenny-backports main contrib non-free

to your /etc/apt/sources.list.

2. Run apt-get update

3. All backports are deactivated by default (i.e. the packages are pinned to 1 by using NotAutomatic: yes in the Release files, just as in experimental). If you want to install something from backports run:

apt-get -t lenny-backports install “package”

Of course, you can use aptitude as well:

aptitude -t lenny-backports install “package”

[gerry]

@Craigevil: That didn't work. First, apt-get told me that flashplugin-nonfree was already installed, so I purged it, and tried again using your suggestion. But exactly the same happened- I have the package stored as a tar.gz file, not installed.

I feel I'm breaking new ground here.....

Thanks anyway,

EDIT: I wonder if I have an unzip function in the system- I'll check.

Gerry

[advocatux]

Hi, you can install Flash Player from backports or debian-multimedia repositories but the easiest way is to download the official Adobe package, in deb format, and install it as root.

V.G. Download with wget and install the package:

Code: Select all

$ wget http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player_10_linux.deb
# dpkg -l install_flash_player_10_linux.deb

Of course you have to select a download directory in your HD and then go to that place (or put down the path) to do the installation.

If the install program makes a complaint about some needed lib, install that lib and then run the installation again.

I understand that Debian is reputed to be for experts only, but this is taking things too far!

Yep, you need a lot of expertise to install a deb package

[Raffles10]

Yet another method:

Go here: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ & select '.tar.gz for linux'

Download and extract to ~/.mozilla/plugins, if 'plugins' doesn't exist create it. I always find this works more consistently than installing from repo's, for all distro's.

[bugsbunny]

@Craigevil: That didn't work. First, apt-get told me that flashplugin-nonfree was already installed, so I purged it, and tried again using your suggestion. But exactly the same happened- I have the package stored as a tar.gz file, not installed.

I feel I'm breaking new ground here.....

Thanks anyway,

EDIT: I wonder if I have an unzip function in the system- I'll check.

Gerry

Are you sure it's not installed? What does it say when you enter about:plugins into iceweasel?
What's the output of

Code: Select all

# update-alternatives --display flash-mozilla.so

The tar.gz package is kept as part of the install process.

[craigevil]

Hi, you can install Flash Player from backports or debian-multimedia repositories but the easiest way is to download the official Adobe package, in deb format, and install it as root.

V.G. Download with wget and install the package:

Code: Select all

$ wget http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player_10_linux.deb
# dpkg -l install_flash_player_10_linux.deb

Of course you have to select a download directory in your HD and then go to that place (or put down the path) to do the installation.

If the install program makes a complaint about some needed lib, install that lib and then run the installation again.

I understand that Debian is reputed to be for experts only, but this is taking things too far!

Yep, you need a lot of expertise to install a deb package

NO NO NO NO. Dammit I really wish people would stop telling others to do this. The .deb package from Adobe is a Ubuntu package NOT a debian package.

For the OP please paste your sources.list.

[advocatux]

Hi, you can install Flash Player from backports or debian-multimedia repositories but the easiest way is to download the official Adobe package

NO NO NO NO. Dammit I really wish people would stop telling others to do this. The .deb package from Adobe is a Ubuntu package NOT a debian package.

For the OP please paste your sources.list.

Hi, I'd understand the advice about "don't install flashplayer at all, install gnash instead" but can you explain me why people can't install that deb package from Adobe?

Can you elaborate the answer more than "is a Ubuntu package not a Debian one"? I only see PROs (mostly for beginners) but maybe you can explain us the CONs.

Thanks in advance.

[bugsbunny]

For starters downloading and installing is never better than installing from an official repository - especially when it's the same package in terms of version and functionality - and especially when you're a newbie still trying to wrap your mind around how the system works. And an experienced user would never go and download a package instead of installing from a repo when there's no advantage to doing so in terms of the actual code.

Next - if you're running a 64 bit system then the deb from adobe won't help you in any way. It's 32 bit only.

Next - It doesn't correctly update the alternatives system for Debian. Instead of updating the alternative for flash-mozilla.so it creates a bunch of new alternatives of the form {iceape,iceweasel,mozilla,firefox,xulrunner,midbrowser,xulrunner-addons}-flashplugin.

If it wanted to create entries for each of those possible variants that could be ok - but they should all point to the same alternative link, which in the case of Debian is flash-mozilla.so And since that alternative is left in place that means you can have 2 different programs trying to handle flash at the same time (eg adobe flash and sfwec as one possibility), which then leads to corruption during playback and browser crashes.

Dependency list should be fine though. Bottom line though is there are NO "pros" and it's a very bad habit to get into - especially when you:
a) Can't analyze what the package is actually installing where.
b) Don't understand what the package should be installing where in the first place.

The adobe deb may work, in some cases. It may also break a correctly installed system in others (break at least in terms of flash). The Debian deb will always work - as long as you haven't messed up the system by trying to install flash yourself via other methods. If you have you need to undo everything you've done and then install it correctly.

For the record the Debian package will:
1) Download the latest version from adobe's site and store the tar.gz file so if you reinstall it doesn't have to re-download (after a version check)
2) Extract the actual plugin to /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so
3) Make sure that /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/flash-mozilla.so exists as a symnlink pointing to /etc/alternatives/flash-mozilla.so
4) update the alternatives entry for /etc/alternatives/flash-mozilla.so so that it both knows about /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so and defaults to that as the automatic choice, unless the user has set some specific higher priorities (manually).

If the system has other entries (which aren't needed) such as flash-mozilla.so symlinks in other directories (usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins, /usr/lib/firefox/plugins, /usr/lib/iceape/plugins, /usr/lib/iceweasel/plugins, /usr/lib/xulrunner/plugins, /usr/lib/xulrunner-1.9/plugins, /usr/lib/xulrunner-1.9.1/plugins, /usr/lib/xulrunner-addons/plugins) then all those links should also be pointing to /etc/alternatives/flash-mozilla.so (For the record all those directories exist on my system. The only ones with flash symlinks are the mozilla and firefox directories)

[gerry]

/usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so is present. Entering "about:plugins" into Iceweasel gets "No plugins are installed".

In an earlier post I said that I would check whether I have any unzip facility on my minimal install. Yes, I have bzip2.

gerry

[bugsbunny]

What's the output of

Code: Select all

# update-alternatives --display flash-mozilla.so

The tar.gz package is kept as part of the install process.

Also what's the output of:

Code: Select all

ls -l /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/ /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/

[craigevil]

Simple the .deb package is for UBUNTU and NOT Debian. The package from http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ says clearly .deb for Ubuntu 8.04+, it does not say for Debian.

The easiest way to totally snafu a working Debian install is to install Ubuntu packages, the libs can be different, the depends different, and they do not always do the same thing a package made for Debian would do.

Flash, java and all the other multimedia apps/codecs/plugins are in Debian repos.

[gerry]

Output of "Update alternatives......." is:

flash-mozilla.so status is auto.
link currently points to /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so - priority 50
Current 'best' version is /usr/lib/flashplayer-nonfree/libflashplayer.so

Output of ls -l /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/ /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/ is:

ls: cannot access /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/: no such file or directory
/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/: total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 34 2009-11-20 07.45 flash-mozilla.so -> /etc/alternatives/flash-mozilla.so

gerry

[gerry]

I did: # find / .........*flash* ............

and found /var/cache/apt/archives/flashplugin-nonfree_1%3a2.5~bpo50+1_i386.deb

Any idea what this is? It's about 17KB. Maybe it's what unpacks the tar file??

gerry

[Telemachus]

I did: # find / .........*flash* ............

and found /var/cache/apt/archives/flashplugin-nonfree_1%3a2.5~bpo50+1_i386.deb

Any idea what this is? It's about 17KB. Maybe it's what unpacks the tar file??

gerry

That's the actual deb that you got from Backports.org. Debian packages have a .deb suffix (as OS X ones have .pkg or Windows have .exe). After you install a deb with apt-get (and other APT tools), the deb gets stuffed away into /var/cache/apt. You can clean out these debs, but it's not a bad idea to keep them around temporarily. In any case, you almost certainly don't want and shouldn't need to tamper with that directly.

[bugsbunny]

There's something else going on here. The plugin is ubstalled, correctly. Try creating a new profile and see what happens. Either delete or move ~/.mozilla/firefox/* (that's the profiles.ini file and the <random string>.default directory), restart iceweasel, and then see what you have in about:plugins

[advocatux]

Simple the .deb package is for UBUNTU and NOT Debian. The package from http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ says clearly .deb for Ubuntu 8.04+, it does not say for Debian.

I would never recommend to install Ubuntu packages on a Debian system in general, but I do in this particular case because it works without any trouble.

That's so for Lenny because in any case, for Squeeze, Flash Player is in the official repository (http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/flashplugin-nonfree) and the controversy will be over

[craigevil]

Simple the .deb package is for UBUNTU and NOT Debian. The package from http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ says clearly .deb for Ubuntu 8.04+, it does not say for Debian.

I would never recommend to install Ubuntu packages on a Debian system in general, but I do in this particular case because it works without any trouble.

That's so for Lenny because in any case, for Squeeze, Flash Player is in the official repository (http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/flashplugin-nonfree) and the controversy will be over

Once squeeze is released as stable flashplugin-nonfree will most likely be removed just as it was for lenny, its fine in testing/sid. If you search linuxquestions.org you will see many posts where installing that Ubuntu package has caused many many issues.

Adobe Flash Player is <non-free> and cannot be in a stable Debian release, as Adobe doesn't provide security support for older versions (see
http://bugs.debian.org/457291). The easiest way to install flash is with the flashplayer-mozilla package from <debian-multimedia.org>; there
is also a flashplugin-nonfree <contrib> package for sid and backports.org users. http://wiki.debian.org/FlashPlayer

[emariz]

I would never recommend to install Ubuntu packages on a Debian system in general, but I do in this particular case because it works without any trouble.

Good luck updating it! Great advice for a new user.

[advocatux]

I would never recommend to install Ubuntu packages on a Debian system in general, but I do in this particular case because it works without any trouble.

Good luck updating it! Great advice for a new user.

You can update it like any other package manually installed by yourself, be it a deb, a tar.gz or whatever.

P.S. Debian is about Freedom, isn't?