Scheduled Maintenance: We are aware of an issue with Google, AOL, and Yahoo services as email providers which are blocking new registrations. We are trying to fix the issue and we have several internal and external support tickets in process to resolve the issue. Please see: viewtopic.php?t=158230

 

 

 

Flash not working in Firefox on Stretch

If none of the specific sub-forums seem right for your thread, ask here.
Post Reply
Message
Author
caulfield
Posts: 122
Joined: 2012-01-08 19:35
Location: Joy

Flash not working in Firefox on Stretch

#1 Post by caulfield »

Hi,

I run Stretch 64bit GNOME, installed flashplugin-nonfree and later even pepperflashplugin-nonfree. None of those two want to run flash content (I only need for the streaming service I'm subscribed to) in Firefox ESR. Any ideas what I could do next?

Thanks.
"Smokey, this is not 'nam, this is bowling. There are rules!"

User avatar
stevepusser
Posts: 12930
Joined: 2009-10-06 05:53
Has thanked: 41 times
Been thanked: 71 times

Re: Flash not working in Firefox on Stretch

#2 Post by stevepusser »

Both of those are currently broken in Debian and did not install a plugin. The command line installation of these would have shown errors that a GUI hides. Certain Debian derivatives have fixed versions or their own downloaders.

Another issue is that the current Linux plugins (25.X series) do not support any copy-protection (DRM), so if your stream requires it, you will be up the creek. An example is mlb.com's live baseball streams, which worked with the 11.2 NPAPI plugin and libhal1-flash, but that's now unmaintained. Someone has written an mlb-viewer python program that works on the command line with Mplayer to get and play mlb streams and content, though.
MX Linux packager and developer

caulfield
Posts: 122
Joined: 2012-01-08 19:35
Location: Joy

Re: Flash not working in Firefox on Stretch

#3 Post by caulfield »

Ah, so. No wonder I didn't find a useful solution then. Ususally a solution is in one of the top search results.
Uninstalling the plugins then until it gets fixed.

Thanks
"Smokey, this is not 'nam, this is bowling. There are rules!"

User avatar
stevepusser
Posts: 12930
Joined: 2009-10-06 05:53
Has thanked: 41 times
Been thanked: 71 times

Re: Flash not working in Firefox on Stretch

#4 Post by stevepusser »

I don't know if they care about fixing them at all, there have been bug reports for many months and no action. I can point you to packages that will install the plugins, though. What browser are you using? And have you researched to see if your stream will even work with the new plugins, which would make installing them futile?
MX Linux packager and developer

Bulkley
Posts: 6383
Joined: 2006-02-11 18:35
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 39 times

Re: Flash not working in Firefox on Stretch

#5 Post by Bulkley »

caulfield wrote:I only need for the streaming service I'm subscribed to
Yeah, I know what that's about.

Firefox only needs
libflashplayer.so in ~/.mozilla/plugins/ . Go to the Adobe site and download the tarball; open it and move libflashplayer.so to where it will do some good. The rest is garbage and can be dumped.

caulfield
Posts: 122
Joined: 2012-01-08 19:35
Location: Joy

Re: Flash not working in Firefox on Stretch

#6 Post by caulfield »

Hi!

Thanks to both! I'll try with the tarball unpacking.

Didn't want to promote any streaming service, but the only one I'm using is a music one (Tidal) and it won't play without flash. I stopped using the video streaming services a couple of months ago.

Will report & thanks again.

edit: using Firefox 45.8.0 ESR (the default in Stretch, haven't added any update repos, I do that usually after a release goes stable).

edit2: Bulkley thanks, it works! Now, only two quick questions:
will I have to do this step all over again when Firefox updates?
Should I uninstall the aforementioned plugins i installed, and leave only the untarred plugin?

Thanks!
"Smokey, this is not 'nam, this is bowling. There are rules!"

User avatar
debiman
Posts: 3063
Joined: 2013-03-12 07:18

Re: Flash not working in Firefox on Stretch

#7 Post by debiman »

caulfield wrote:the only one I'm using is a music one (Tidal) and it won't play without flash.
are you sure about this?
i'm listening to it right now on palemoon (old firefox), and i don't even have the flashplugin installed.
i did have to allow all sorts of scripts and cross-site requests that my addons would block otherwise.
so which feature do you actually need flash for? i haven't logged in obviously.

sometimes a website refuses to work when it finds a non-working flashplugin, but then works again when there's no flashplugin at all.

caulfield
Posts: 122
Joined: 2012-01-08 19:35
Location: Joy

Re: Flash not working in Firefox on Stretch

#8 Post by caulfield »

Everything is OK when i log in, but when I click the play button, a square appears saying I need flash to run it.
"Smokey, this is not 'nam, this is bowling. There are rules!"

Bulkley
Posts: 6383
Joined: 2006-02-11 18:35
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 39 times

Re: Flash not working in Firefox on Stretch

#9 Post by Bulkley »

caulfield wrote:Everything is OK when i log in, but when I click the play button, a square appears saying I need flash to run it.
Frequently those warnings are false. A click or two and it goes away and everything continues normally.

As to updates the only ones to be concerned with come from Adobe and most of them can be ignored. I don't use Flash much anymore; most sites use html5. I also use the prefbar add-on which enables me to turn on Flash if necessary which is not very often.

User avatar
debiman
Posts: 3063
Joined: 2013-03-12 07:18

Re: Flash not working in Firefox on Stretch

#10 Post by debiman »

debiman wrote:sometimes a website refuses to work when it finds a non-working flashplugin, but then works again when there's no flashplugin at all.
just try this.
uninstall ALL flashplugins, restart your browser - maybe it works then?
it's a fairly simple thing to test.

User avatar
stevepusser
Posts: 12930
Joined: 2009-10-06 05:53
Has thanked: 41 times
Been thanked: 71 times

Re: Flash not working in Firefox on Stretch

#11 Post by stevepusser »

Can't you just start the browser in safe mode to test that, rather than going to all the trouble of uninstalling?

I think Slimjet is that last browser standing that ships with a Flash plugin, Pepper Flash in its case.
MX Linux packager and developer

Post Reply