problems installing flash player

[fguy64]

OK, problems like this make me feel like a complete dolt. It must be easy, but I'm missing something I guess.

OK I have barebones Debian Lenny, with bare bones Gnome Desktop. I'm using IceWeasel for a browser. I have downloaded the file install_flash_player_10_linux.tar.gz. from the Adobe website. I have unpacked (I guess) the file using the command

tar -zxvpf install_flash_player_10_linux.tar.gz

now according to the instructions at Adobe - Flash Player 10: Installation instructions

it should be unpacked to a directory with an installer that can be run, but all I get is a single file called libflashplayer.so, and I haven't a clue what to do with it. .so is like a .dll file I guess.

IceWeasel has a built in service that installs plugins, but this failed with flash

[devils casper]

I would suggest you to install it using Package Manager instead of manual install. Check this tutorial.

[fguy64]

Thanks. I am familiar with apt and synaptic, but couldn't find flash player in either, so I just figured I had to do it manually/

anyways, according to the page you linked me to, I added the line deb Index of /debian lenny-backports main contrib non-free to my sources.list and tried again, but no go, just the following message...

Package flashplugin-nonfree is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package flashplugin-nonfree has no installation candidate

and here is my sources.list

deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main

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

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

[scathefire]

you should just be able to drop that .so file into wherever your browsers look for plugins. for me its /usr/lib/browser-plugins. that's how i got mine to work.

[fguy64]

you should just be able to drop that .so file into wherever your browsers look for plugins. for me its /usr/lib/browser-plugins. that's how i got mine to work.

Thanks, I eventually found /usr/lib/iceweasel/plugins, noticed linjavaplugin.so there, so I added the flash one, restarted iceweasel, but still no go

[fguy64]

just a little addendum. After dropping in that .so file. iceweasel just shuts down whenever I hit a page that has a flash video on it. Which is just about all of them, including linuxforums. LOL Luckily I still have a Windows XP box which I never ever have to dick with like this. I guess I'll try again later. Thanks forthe help. I'm still open to suggestions.

[scathefire]

i think its just finding a place that has the package, here is another page you can give it a go.

Installing Flash Plugin in Debian | Arky Playing With Sid

[fguy64]

ok my bad, I was able to install it using apt, without using the "playing with sid" site. Probably I forgot to run apt-get update after adding the backport site to my sources.list.

I did get some warnings about the backport download, that the package could not be authenticated. Also, I am surprised that something as ubiqitous as flash player would not be available on Debian's site.

[yancek]

Also, I am surprised that something as ubiqitous as flash player would not be available on Debian's site.

This might help explain it:

Flash Player cannot ship as part of a pure open source, or completely free operating system, as its distribution is bound to the Macromedia Licensing Program and subject to approval.

The above is at this site: Adobe Flash - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Adobe's Flash plugin cannot be included in Fedora because it is not free/libre and open source software. Adobe does release a version of the Flash plugin for Linux, and this can be used in Firefox, Konqueror and other popular Internet browsers. When Adobe releases a newer version of the Linux Flash plugin, it makes packages available for Fedora, but Fedora cannot include Adobe's plugin as long as it is unavailable as free and open source software.

The information above was from Fedora wiki site at this link and I expect this holds true for all open source distributions: Flash - FedoraProject

[fguy64]

Also, I am surprised that something as ubiqitous as flash player would not be available on Debian's site.

This might help explain it:




The above is at this site: Adobe Flash - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



The information above was from Fedora wiki site at this link and I expect this holds true for all open source distributions: Flash - FedoraProject

I see your point, but is there anything about flash player that doesn't just as equally apply to the Sun java plug in? I was able to find the Sun plug-in using Synaptic package manager, without any nonDebian entries anywhere. Correct me if I'm wrong, I thought the "official" Debian sites had a non-free section for issues like this.

regards.