Iceweasel : Installing Adobe Flash player plugin.

[Chandrayan]

Hello. I am a proud newbie user of Debian Linux . The desktop I use is XFCE.

However, I'm compelled to post a seemingly minor problem, but only after I've spent 1 whole day researching for it's solution (including this forum).

The problem :-

I have Iceweasel as the web browser. It cannot access flash content like YouTube videos and some others because the Adobe Flash plugin is not installed.

I've done the following without success :-

I downloaded flash_player_10_linux.tar from Adobe's site, unpacked it to get libflashplayer.so. But under /usr/lib/iceweasel, there is no plugins folder to put it in. There is, however, a broken link called plugins.

Then I created a plugins folder under home/myaccount/.mozilla and pasted the libflashplayer.so file over there. I restarted iceweasel, but it cannot still detect Flash content.

Then I ran apt-get install of JRE and downloaded all Java packages. However, while installation it gave an error saying, "Cannot overwrite iceweasel/plugins". This came most probably because as mentioned earlier there is no plugins folder under iceweasel to begin with.

On running the about : plugins command, I get "No plugins installed". I then deleted the plugins folder from .mozilla and directly pasted the libflashplayer.so file under usr/lib/iceweasel (since it contained many other .so files).

So, I would kindly like to know where I have gone wrong, and how to enable iceweasel to enable the Adobe Flashplayer plugin.

[reed9]

Then I created a plugins folder under home/myaccount/.mozilla and pasted the libflashplayer.so file over there. I restarted iceweasel, but it cannot still detect Flash content.

This should be in ~/.mozilla/plugins/, not just ~/.mozilla. Not positive where it goes for global access. I think /usr/lib/flashplayer-mozilla/.

Easiest way to install it is to enable the Debia Multimedia repositories and

sudo apt-get install flashplayer-mozilla

Also, make sure you do not have gnash or swfdec installed. They will conflict with the adobe flash plugin.

[Chandrayan]

This should be in ~/.mozilla/plugins/, not just ~/.mozilla. Not positive where it goes for global access. I think /usr/lib/flashplayer-mozilla/.

Hi reed9, thanks for replying. I had pasted libflashplayer.so in the plugins folder of /.mozilla. Or in your words, I pasted libflashplayer.so under /.mozilla/plugins.

Should this be under /home/myaccount or just home/ ?

Easiest way to install it is to enable the debian-multimedia.org/ Debia Multimedia repositories[/URL] and

sudo apt-get install flashplayer-mozilla

I got this error message :

E: Couldn't find package flashplayer-mozilla

Also, make sure you do not have gnash or swfdec installed. They will conflict with the adobe flash plugin.

gnash and swfdec are not installed. Actually the problem is only where should libflasplayer.so be copied.

One more issue is there, if it is relevant :

Each time that I start iceweasel, I'm asked to make it the default browser even though I click on "yes" every time. That besides, I don't have any browser other than iceweasel.

[reed9]

Should this be under /home/myaccount or just home/

/home/myaccount. The ~ is an abbreviation for the current user's home folder. So ~/.mozilla == /home/USER/.mozilla

I got this error message :

E: Couldn't find package flashplayer-mozilla

Your repositories are probably not set up correctly, then. Did you have any trouble setting up the Debian Multimedia repository? Errors?

I don't think the default browser ask has any bearing on it. There is an old bug where Iceweasel does this - you may be experiecing that, though I thought it had been fixed.

[Chandrayan]

/home/myaccount. The ~ is an abbreviation for the current user's home folder. So ~/.mozilla == /home/USER/.mozilla

Yes, I'm sure that's where I put libflashplayer.so. But about: plugins still shows "No plugins installed". If it's of any help, .mozilla also has a firefox folder inside it.

Your repositories are probably not set up correctly, then. Did you have any trouble setting up the Debian Multimedia repository? Errors?

Well, I didn't try that because I don't know about it (I'll search how to do that). But yesterday I ran apt-get updates with oregon state and norway universities included in my sources.list. I also installed j2re and as I said earlier, it threw an error while trying to access the nonexistent plugins folder under usr/lib/iceweasel.

[reed9]

Well, I didn't try that because I don't know about it (I'll search how to do that). But yesterday I ran apt-get updates with oregon state and norway universities included in my sources.list. I also installed j2re and as I said earlier, it threw an error while trying to access the nonexistent plugins folder under usr/lib/iceweasel.

I posted the link for Debian Multimedia above. The gist is, first download the debian-multimedia-keyring package. <--The link

Then install with (as root)

dpkg -i debian-multimedia-keyring_2008.10.16_all.deb

Make sure you're in the correct directory, or type the full path to the file, ie, if it's in your home directory, dpkg -i ~/debian-multimedia-keyring_2008.10.16_all.deb

Then add the repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list.

su -
nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Append the line

deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org lenny main

to the file.

If you aren't using lenny, replace with whatever version you're using. Nano can also be replaced with the text editor of your choice.

Then

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install flashplayer-mozilla

[Chandrayan]

The following is the output which I got when I tried to install from the Debian multimedia repository. I commented the "[u r l = http" string because on this forum I'm not allowed to post urls yet. :-

debian:/# apt-get update
Get:1 debian-multimedia.orgDebian Multimedia Packages::Home etch Release.gpg [197B]
Get:2 //debian-multimedia.org]Debian Multimedia Packages::Home etch Release [8347B]
Get:3 ://security.debian.org]Debian -- Security Information etch/updates Release.gpg [835B]
Get:4 ://debian.oregonstate.edu]ftp.osuosl.org :: Oregon State University Open Source Lab etch Release.gpg [1032B]
Get:5 ://ftp.no.debian.org]ftp.uninett.no etch Release.gpg [1032B]
Get:6 ://security.debian.org]Debian -- Security Information etch/updates Release [37.6kB]
Hit ://debian.oregonstate.edu]ftp.osuosl.org :: Oregon State University Open Source Lab etch Release
Get:7 ://debian-multimedia.org]Debian Multimedia Packages::Home etch/main Packages [55.3kB]
Hit [ ://ftp.no.debian.org]ftp.uninett.no etch Release
Ign [://debian.oregonstate.edu]ftp.osuosl.org :: Oregon State University Open Source Lab etch/main Packages/DiffIndex
Ign ://ftp.no.debian.org]ftp.uninett.no etch/main Packages/DiffIndex
Ign ://debian.oregonstate.edu]ftp.osuosl.org :: Oregon State University Open Source Lab etch/non-free Packages/DiffIndex
Ign [ ] ://debian.oregonstate.edu]ftp.osuosl.org :: Oregon State University Open Source Lab etch/contrib Packages/DiffIndex
Hit ] ://debian.oregonstate.edu]ftp.osuosl.org :: Oregon State University Open Source Lab etch/main Packages
Ign ://ftp.no.debian.org]ftp.uninett.no etch/contrib Packages/DiffIndex
Ign ://ftp.no.debian.org]ftp.uninett.no etch/non-free Packages/DiffIndex
Hit [ ] ://debian.oregonstate.edu]ftp.osuosl.org :: Oregon State University Open Source Lab etch/non-free Packages
Ign ://ftp.no.debian.org]ftp.uninett.no etch/main Sources/DiffIndex
Ign [ ] ://security.debian.org]Debian -- Security Information etch/updates/main Packages/DiffIndex
Ign ://ftp.no.debian.org]ftp.uninett.no etch/contrib Sources/DiffIndex
Ign ://ftp.no.debian.org]ftp.uninett.no etch/non-free Sources/DiffIndex
Hit ://ftp.no.debian.org]ftp.uninett.no etch/main Packages
Hit ://debian.oregonstate.edu]ftp.osuosl.org :: Oregon State University Open Source Lab etch/contrib Packages
Ign ://security.debian.org]Debian -- Security Information etch/updates/main Sources/DiffIndex
Hit .no.debian.org]ftp.uninett.no etch/contrib Packages
Hit //ftp.no.debian.org]ftp.uninett.no etch/non-free Packages
Get:8 [[ ] ://security.debian.org]Debian -- Security Information etch/updates/main Packages [444kB]
Hit //ftp.no.debian.org]ftp.uninett.no etch/main Sources
Hit ://ftp.no.debian.org]ftp.uninett.no etch/contrib Sources
Hit ://ftp.no.debian.org]ftp.uninett.no etch/non-free Sources
Get:9 ://security.debian.org]Debian -- Security Information etch/updates/main Sources [72.0kB]
Fetched 618kB in 18s (33.5kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
debian:/# apt-get install flashplayer-mozilla
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Recommended packages:
gsfonts-x11
The following NEW packages will be installed:
flashplayer-mozilla
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 30 not upgraded.
7 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 3030kB of archives.
After unpacking 8212kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 ://debian-multimedia.org]Debian Multimedia Packages::Home etch/main flashplayer-mozilla 1:9.0.152.0-0.0 [3030kB]
Fetched 3030kB in 18s (163kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package flashplayer-mozilla.
(Reading database ... 38524 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking flashplayer-mozilla (from .../flashplayer-mozilla_1%3a9.0.152.0-0.0_i386.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/flashplayer-mozilla_1%3a9.0.152.0-0.0_i386.deb (--unpack):
trying to overwrite `/usr/lib/iceweasel/plugins', which is also in package iceweasel
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/flashplayer-mozilla_1%3a9.0.152.0-0.0_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

It think I'll stop here. reed9, thanks for spending time on this. Your help is appreciated.

[reed9]

You should really upgrade from Debian Etch. It's quite old now. Honestly, you would probably be better off with Ubuntu as a new user.

If you're committed to etch, I would uninstall iceweasel, remove the /usr/lib/iceweasel/plugins directory, reinstall iceweasel and try again.

[Chandrayan]

You should really upgrade from Debian Etch. It's quite old now. Honestly, you would probably be better off with Ubuntu as a new user.

For that would I have to uninstall etch and install Debian, or is there a way to upgrade to Ubuntu directly ? I've run apt-get update many times.

If you're committed to etch, I would uninstall iceweasel, remove the /usr/lib/iceweasel/plugins directory, reinstall iceweasel and try again.

Actually as I said in my first post, the plugins link under usr/lib/iceweasel is "broken". There is no directory by that name.

Anyway, I'll try getting to Ubuntu or some other later version of Debian.

[reed9]

To upgrade Debian Etch to Lenny: HowTo upgrade from Debian Etch to Lenny | MDLog:/sysadmin

It's always better to do a clean install, though. Definitely backup anything important before upgrading.

I think it's technically possible to turn your Debian system into Ubuntu, but again a clean install would be safer and easier.