Google-Chrome "Couldn't load plugin" [Solved]

[wwwarrick]

Specs:
Debian release 6.0.6 (squeeze)
Kernel Linux 2.6.39-bpo.2-686-pae
Gnome 2.30.2
Google-Chrome Version 24.0.1312.57
Shockwave Flash 11.5 r31

Okay... So, for some reason whenever I try to load any flash-based content in Google-Chrome, I get the error "Chouldn't load plugin" in the area where the content should be. I am unable to right-click on the area to load any sort of settings. I have read a few forum posts for other users (mostly mac and windows people) who solved this problem by opening the google-chrome task manager and manually closing the flash player process and reloading the page. This did not work for me, however. I also tried re-installing google-chrome through synaptic, but still no good. I also tried simply shutting down the computer and restarting, but that also did not solve the problem. As far as Synaptic can tell, all related packages are up to date.

Here is the only possible action that may have started all this: I had a flash application running in the background in an open browser for a few days straight. I have done this before to no effect, but for some reason now something is different. Any idea on what I can do to fix this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

*Edit: 2/3/2013 solution found. Thank you to all who contributed!*

[craigevil]

disable flashplugin-nonfree or remove it all together.

The built in flash on Chrome works just fine here.

Adobe Flash Player (2 files) - Version: 11.5.31.137
Shockwave Flash 11.5 r31
Name: Shockwave Flash
Description: Shockwave Flash 11.5 r31
Version: 11.5.31.137
Location: /opt/google/chrome/PepperFlash/libpepflashplayer.so
Type: PPAPI (out-of-process)

Google Chrome 24.0.1312.56 (Official Build 177594)
OS Linux
WebKit 537.17 (@140072)
JavaScript V8 3.14.5.3
Flash 11.5.31.137

System: Host: debian Kernel: 3.7-trunk-486 i686 (32 bit) Desktop: KDE 4.8.4 Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 7.0

[stevepusser]

To elaborate a bit more, type

about:plugins

in GC's address bar, then disable the Adobe Flash Player plugin. I just had the
same problem.

[romikk]

Unfortunately this doesn't help.
After disabling plugin Chrome simply asks to install one:
"You need to upgrade your Adobe Flash Player to watch this video. Download it from Adobe."

Chrome Version 24.0.1312.57

[dalekos]

Dear romikk, i had exactly the same problem today. I disabled Adobe Flash Player plugin but just like you i got "You need to install Adobe Flash Player to play the game. Download the Flash Player now".

Then i re-enabled the Adobe Flash Player plugin and disabled the "libpepflashplayer" plugin in the "about:plugins" page and it worked just fine!!! So check if there is another flash plugin in the way, and disable it.

[wwwarrick]

So... I disabled these two under the chrome://plugins:
/usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so
/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so

And left this one running:
/home/a/.config/google-chrome/PepperFlash/11.5.31.138/libpepflashplayer.so

Still no good. So then I went ahead and disabled this one since it had .flv video in the codecs:
/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libtotem-cone-plugin.so

So now I will go with what craigevil suggested and actually remove the flashplugin-nonfree and see if that helps.

[wwwarrick]

alrighty... I completely removed flashplugin-nonfree and also removed libflashplayer.so from the usr/lib/mozilla/plugins directory. Still having the same problem. Any other suggestions you can think of?

[kmathern]

Your first post in this thread says you're using a 32bit kernel (2.6.39-bpo.2-686-pae), so are you using a 32bit or a 64bit processor?

Some 32bit processors lack sse2 support. Chrome started using PepperFlash with version 20.x and requires a sse2 capable cpu. The Adobe flashplugin also now uses sse2, I think they started that with the 11.2.202.xxx versions.

The command below will show if your cpu has sse2 support. The "sse2" flag will be included in the output if it does have sse2 support

Code: Select all

grep flags /proc/cpuinfo

If you're cpu is missing sse2 support this post (http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?p=464571#p464571) has some alternatives. I've been using the "Step 2" alternative, which involves extracting the libgcflashplayer.so file from the google-chrome19 .deb package (19 was the last version before Chrome started using PepperFlash).

[llivv]

kmathern - thanks again for another great post.

I know a lot of people here swear up and down about adobe is
the devils spawn. And all flash content sucks.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not invalidating that point of view, or the gnash maintainer or
Christians packaging at deb.multimedia.com.

I use flash mainly because it is so easy for me to add for mozilla.
~/.mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so
gets flash for only that user. - Thanks Dean.

sorry for being offtopic, as I haven't tried this with chromium, but I'm hoping some of this post might be relevant to the topic.
And perhaps I should see if I can get chromiums plugin for squeeze to work this way too.

And I keep track of the adobe cache, because flashplayer tracks everything
and more.

And it's just easier for me when it is all in my users directory where I can handle
it without root. iirc

Again, thanks for the alternative. I learned some more about the debian alternatives system while reading your post.

edit: Adobe has discontinued the linux port of flashplayer with version 11.2.202.261
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/?promoid=BUIGP

NOTE: Adobe Flash Player 11.2 will be the last version to target Linux as a supported platform. Adobe will continue to provide security backports to Flash Player 11.2 for Linux.

[wwwarrick]

Kmathern - yes, the output did include SSE2 suport. I would also like to note that flash had been working for me for the last few years, including the updated pepper flash included in chrome. It just suddenly started this error.

llivv - I switched to chrome due to adobe dropping support for general linux installations and the need to have an installation newer than the mentioned 11.2. Everything was smooth sailing since I installed it a few months back. Until now.

All I can think of now is possibly removing all chrome related content and reinstalling. I guess I will try that next.

[romikk]

Looks like SSE2 support is not relevant.
My laptop does have it, but I still have the issue.

romikk@nexus:~$ grep flags /proc/cpuinfo
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm dtherm tpr_shadow

Linux nexus 3.2.0-4-686-pae #1 SMP Debian 3.2.35-2 i686 GNU/Linux

[shancroach]

I had this issue come up just yesterday. It does seem OS related somehow. I have tried all the above processes as well. To sum up -

1. I have tried shutting down existing flash processes.
2. I have tried disabling both Adobe Flash and libpepflash, one at a time, and neither resolves the issue. In fact, if you read up on libpepflash, it rather explicitly states that it takes precedent over any other Flash you might have active.
3. I checked for sse2. My processor supports it.

I'll monitor this thread while I keep looking for a resolution. I fear it has to do with Adobe support at some level. I note I updated Chrome a few days back, but still, it worked until the middle of the day yesterday.

*Edited to add - Epiphany still plays YouTube videos. Apparently it is NOT entirely OS related. Sadly, I have no idea what is different between Epiphany and the other browsers that is causing this.

**Edited to add again - libpepflash ought to work for some years yet. This would seem to be a weird Chrome related bug, possibly Chrome in relation to Linux specifically, perhaps even specific distros.

[stevepusser]

Whoops, I spoke too soon.I was using a Youtube page to test if Flash would work, and it seems that Youtube fell back to HTML 5 video automatically when the plugin was disabled, even though I am not signed up for the HTML beta Youtube test program.

I think Chrome has the ability to blacklist some plugins over the Net when a critical vunerablity is discovered. Maybe this signal was sent out in error?

I did find out that XBMC has a killer Youtube addon now, though. I don't know if it works in 11.0, just found out about it after building and testing the new 12.0 release.

[smallchange]

I too had this problem today. I first removed google-chrome-beta and installed google-chrome-stable, which seemed to fix the problem but I did not like so I uninstalled flashplugin-nonfree, reinstalled google-chrome-beta, removed ~.config/google-chrome and have had no problem since.

[stevepusser]

OK, a little searching shows this problem is Linux-wide, and the solution seems to be to disable libpepflashplayer (built-in) 11.5 and use the system flashplayer plugin (11.2) Works for me. I'm sure we'll get a bugfix Chrome update that will clear up the issue soon.

Or removing the ~/.config/google-chrome/PepperFlash/ folder also is said to fix it.

[zarko]

I removed PepperFlash directory
libpepflashplayer disabled
Adobe Flash Player enable/disable

This worked for me, thanks for tips guys
Found this topic by searching google, I noticed flash doesn't work after I updated Debian today

[cra1g321]

All i had to do is diable libpegflashplayer in about:plugins, reloaded the youtube page and video played

[stevepusser]

The plugin library lives in the PepperFlash directory ( I guess Chrome installs it for each user), so removing it effectively disables it.

[craigevil]

Flash in Chrome works just fine using the builtin Pepperflash plugin.

$ inxi -f
CPU: Single core Intel Pentium M (-UP-) cache: 1024 KB clocked at 1000.00 MHz
CPU Flags: acpi bts clflush cmov cx8 de dts est fpu fxsr mca mce mmx msr mtrr pbe
pge pse sep sse sse2 tm tm2 tsc vme

Google Chrome 24.0.1312.57 (Official Build 178923)
OS Linux
WebKit 537.17 (@140072)
JavaScript V8 3.14.5.6
Flash 11.5.31.137
User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686) AppleWebKit/537.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/24.0.1312.57 Safari/537.17
Command Line /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome --flag-switches-begin --enable-autologin --enable-http-pipelining --enable-spdy3 --disable-force-compositing-mode --disable-threaded-compositing --flag-switches-end
Executable Path /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome
Profile Path /home/craig/.config/google-chrome/Default

Code: Select all

$ inxi -F
System:    Host: debian Kernel: 3.7-trunk-486 i686 (32 bit) Desktop: KDE 4.8.4 Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 7.0
Machine:   Mobo: IBM model: 27223YU Bios: IBM version: 1PET41WW (1.09 ) date: 03/03/2003
CPU:       Single core Intel Pentium M (-UP-) cache: 1024 KB flags: (sse sse2) clocked at 600.00 MHz 
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV200 [Mobility Radeon 7500] 
           X.Org: 1.12.4 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1024x768@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 0x209) GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 8.0.5
Audio:     Card: Intel 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller driver: snd_intel8x0 
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.7-trunk-486
Network:   Card-1: Intel 82801DB PRO/100 VE (MOB) Ethernet Controller driver: e100 
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: 00:06:1b:cd:f5:82
           Card-2: Intel PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter driver: ipw2100 
           IF: eth1 state: up mac: 00:04:23:5b:b5:88
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 17.2GB (63.2% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: IC25N020ATCS04 size: 17.2GB 
Partition: ID: / size: 16G used: 11G (71%) fs: ext3 ID: /boot size: 228M used: 38M (18%) fs: ext2 
           ID: swap-1 size: 0.51GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 44.0C mobo: 44.0C 
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 0 
Info:      Processes: 105 Uptime: 1 day Memory: 766.4/2025.5MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 1.8.32 

[wwwarrick]

Craigevil - it looks as though your pepper flash version is slightly different from mine:
Adobe Flash Player (2 files) - Version: 11.5.31.138
Shockwave Flash 11.5 r31
Name: Shockwave Flash
Description: Shockwave Flash 11.5 r31
Version: 11.5.31.138

Yours ends in .137, where I have .138. Do you think that may be the determining factor? Is there a way to revert to .137, which works fine for you?

I have been running iceweasel with the 11.2 version of flash supplied by flashplugin-nonfree, which I reinstalled yesterday upon not fixing this problem for chrome. This is all fine and well, until I run into items that require a version higher than 11.2.
*Edit: I would also like to add that I started experiencing this whole problem prior to any updates for that day. In fact, it had been about a week since I had applied any updates when flash broke, and I ended up running the updates to see if it would fix it, but of course, they did not.