freshplayerplugin: use Pepperflash in other browsers

[stevepusser]

This is a PPAPI to NPAPI wrapper in rapid development, but it seems to be fairly stable now. I've only tested it in Firefox and Qupzilla. It's hardcoded to look for the /opt/google/chrome/PepperFlash/libpepflashplayer.so file installed by Chrome, but you can also use the pepperflashplugin-nonfree package in wheezy-backports to just install the file in /usr/lib/pepperflashplugin-nonfree/libpepflashplayer.so, then create a symlink to that in the Chrome location.

These are MEPIS 12 packages, but should work in Wheezy: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1UMhs ... sp=sharing

[hakerdefo]

A million thanks! This is great! I will test it and will bug you if something goes wrong
Cheers!!!

[mor]

This seems nice, but as a complete ignorant about this matter, is there any advantage in pepperflash over flashplugin-nonfree?

[dasein]

...is there any advantage in pepperflash over flashplugin-nonfree?

Well, pepperflash is still under active development, whereas Adobe stopped all Linux development for their plugin quite some time ago.

(In other news, the "repo" for pepperflash is currently down. )

[stevepusser]

Over on the MEPIS side, we've had some posts about online Flash game sites demanding a newer Flash than the standard 11.2 you can normally run in non-chrome browsers. The alternatives were Chrome, or running the Windows Flash in Windows Firefox via Wine.

(In other news, the "repo" for pepperflash is currently down. )

Yes, looks like you'll have to get it out of Chrome yourself...or... kmathern has a wget command (as root) that will do it, too:

Code: Select all

wget -qO- dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/dists/stable/main/binary-$(dpkg --print-architecture)/Packages | grep ^Filename.*google-chrome-stable.*deb | awk '{print "dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/"$2}' | xargs wget -qO- | dpkg-deb --fsys-tarfile /dev/stdin | tar -C / -xf- ./opt/google/chrome/PepperFlash/libpepflashplayer.so

It seems you can leave the standard 11.2 Flash installed. When I go to the Adobe Flash player test page, it says I'm using 13

[dasein]

Over on the MEPIS side, we've had some posts about online Flash game sites demanding a newer Flash than the standard 11.2 you can normally run in non-chrome browsers. The alternatives were Chrome, or running the Windows Flash in Windows Firefox via Wine.

I think this is awesome. I'm eagerly looking forward to trying it once the repo comes back online.

Thanks, stevepusser!!

[stevepusser]

Over on the MEPIS side, we've had some posts about online Flash game sites demanding a newer Flash than the standard 11.2 you can normally run in non-chrome browsers. The alternatives were Chrome, or running the Windows Flash in Windows Firefox via Wine.

I think this is awesome. I'm eagerly looking forward to trying it once the repo comes back online.

Thanks, stevepusser!!

Check out the wget command I added to my previous post. Credit for the packaging goes to the webupd8 PPA, I just rebuilt their package with a bit of grammar fixing in the description.

Edit: It also seem to not work on some streaming video sites, such as video.pbs.org or the live Yellowstone webcam at http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/webcam ... aming.html

Others have reported that it does seem to speed up video pausing and restarting on Youtube.

[dasein]

A follow-up...

The pepperflash widget seems not to be recognized by older versions of FF/IW. I installed the widget, rebooted, and although FF V24 "sees" it, FF V5 does not.

Still, it's amazingly handy, and seems to work as advertised.

[stevepusser]

Thanks for the feedback--I hope you meant "restarted" Firefox instead of rebooting the whole system, since that is almost never necessary in Linux.

The plugin has gone from tentative to usable in just a week, so hopefully will continue to improve.

[dasein]

I hope you meant "restarted" Firefox instead of rebooting the whole system

My first step was a Firefox restart; but when the plugin didn't appear, I went ahead and rebooted under the theory that it wouldn't hurt anything, and might just help. It didn't. The older version just doesn't see the plugin.

[mor]

Well, pepperflash is still under active development, whereas Adobe stopped all Linux development for their plugin quite some time ago.

Of course!

My mind was kinda going in the direction of differences in the license and so I didn't think of that.

Well, bad for bad I'll try it.

[dasein]

Well, bad for bad I'll try it.

I think you'll be pleased. I know I am (except for the whole "doesn't work with FF V5" part).

(And I can confirm that the new gizmo way outperforms the old adobe player when it comes to moving around in a YouTube video. Also confirming that it's the plugin that fails @ pbs.org and the OF webcam.)

[mor]

Just for the record, "bad" simply referred to them being both non-free software.

[dasein]

Just for the record, "bad" simply referred to them being both non-free software.

Not much we can do about that.

Update after several days of use...

This is an interesting gizmo, and I'll be really interested to see how it matures. That said, it's still a very young effort, and I've run across a lot of little problems, particularly as regards compatibility with certain Flash downloader extensions. (Merely stating a fact, not complaining. I'm sincerely impressed that it works as well as it does.)

The thing that I personally feel most frustrated by is the fact that the plugin doesn't work consistently in Pale Moon (a Firefox fork without Australis or DRM, which puts it light-years ahead of anything coming from the intrarectal-cranio-insertion folks at Mozilla, IMO). Sometimes the two seem to work well together; other times... um... not so much.

Again, I recognize that this is still a young effort. But it's a bit of crapshoot at this point. I'm fervently hoping that that will change.

[stevepusser]

But it's good to know somebody's working on a solution. The plugin went from very rough to partly usable in only about a week, and the status is still "early alpha". You can read more about the project on their github page: https://github.com/i-rinat/freshplayerplugin