Is there a problem with flashplugin-installer?

[bra|10n]

Take a look at the image and imagine my surprise given the problems I've had here with Rekonq.



The video above is actually playing. A test on YouTube also had videos playing without a hitch.

What did I do?
I went nowhere near flashplugin-installer!
I followed S.R's advice and installed adobe-flashplugin and adobe-flash-properties-kde ONLY this time on a clean install.

[dbc254]

I get this too on YouTube's opening page. Everything works fine, but I do get this annoying message. This and the message that there are system updates. I goto download them and get a message that another process is already using the updater and I can't receive the updates until I figure out which one!?!?!?!

[claydoh]

the kubuntu tool here used to suggest installing flash is probably looking for the presence of the flashplugin-installer, which is the official way to get the plugin, installing the adobe version from the Partners repo is ok, but not everyone enables that repo.

I might suggest filing a bug report so that maybe they can look at modifying how the tool is detecting flash. It's presence in the Partner repo is a new occurrence (actually since October and Oneieric) so maybe not many have had this issue.

[claydoh]

As an aside Flash is so frustrating for me, in terms of what works. I have 2 64 bit systems, and on one the only way things work correctly is to install it via the flashplugin-installer (which downloads and installs the 32bit version and needed support packages) while on another the once-beta native 64 bit package is the only one to work correctly. And then add Rekonq into the mix........

[bra|10n]

This and the message that there are system updates. I goto download them and get a message that another process is already using the updater and I can't receive the updates until I figure out which one!?!?!?!

One way around this 'update loop' is to logout and back in and update from a Konsole;

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

On occassion I find I also have to give update notifications a 'shove' to work correctly by running;

sudo /usr/lib/update-notifier/update-motd-updates-available --force

@claydoh

In the past I have always used Firefox and can't remember a time when flashplugin-installer has let me down, on 32 and 64bit systems. Strangely enough, prior to installing flash from the Partner repository and installing flash in the usual way, Firefox would work just fine. Same with Chromium. Qupzilla and Rekonq however have always had problems for me which led me to assume the issue was with these browsers. So I am wondering now with this latest method of flash installed whether Firefox now may have problems. I haven't checked and only assume here because of this post, that now if I install kubuntu-restricted-extras I may have issues because of dependecies on flashplugin-installer?

[SteveRiley]

With a bit of creative work, one can solve this problem. Take a look at the graph:

kubuntu-restricted-extras
---depends
------kubuntu-restricted-addons
---------recommends
------------flashplugin-installer
------------multimedia stuff
---recommends
------multimedia stuff
------Microsoft fonts
------unRAR

To obtain everything these packages provide, remove the included Flash, and make the lightbulb go away:

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-restricted-extras
sudo apt-mark manual gstreamer* libavcodec-extra-53 libmp3lame0 unrar ttf-mscorefonts-installer lame libk3b6-extracodecs libdvdread4
sudo apt-get purge flashplugin-installer kubuntu-restricted-addons kubuntu-restricted-extras

The first command installs the metapackages, which in turn install the recommendations. The second command marks the recommendations as manually-installed. The third command removes the metapackages. Removing a reverse dependent of a recommend doesn't remove the recommend, but it does place the recommend at danger of being removed with an errant apt-get autoremove. By marking the recommends as manual (second command), we avoid that potential future risk.

Of course, you can avoid this work by simply manually installing the recommends and never installing the restricted metapackages at all:

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-* gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3 libavcodec-extra-53 libmp3lame0 unrar ttf-mscorefonts-installer lame libk3b6-extracodecs libdvdread4

Then, enable the Partner repository and get Flash from there:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install adobe-flashplugin adobe-flash-properties-kde

I know that Aptitude isn't very popular around here. But for the task I've described here -- picking and choosing recommends and removing metapackages -- Aptitude beats everything else. Just thought I'd toss that one out there

[bra|10n]

Makes me wonder why you were ever at Microsoft!

But, a couple of things...

Quite a few of the multimedia packages came back with "* cannot be marked as it is not installed." Does this indicate you have the Medibuntu repo enabled by chance?

I had adobe-flash from the Partners repo already installed, so my question is why did flashplugin-installer NOT install using the commands you posted?
I can't see where you might have isolated it, only where you intended to purge it. Or was it not installed because it detected flash already present?

Oh, and thank you.

[SteveRiley]

Makes me wonder why you were ever at Microsoft!

So that I could come here to KFN and shake all you guys up

Quite a few of the multimedia packages came back with "* cannot be marked as it is not installed." Does this indicate you have the Medibuntu repo enabled by chance?

apt-mark isn't smart enough to operate only on installed packages. It will attempt to mark everything in the package database that matches the pattern. Since the database includes more gstreamer* packages than are installed, the errors are expected. I was just short-handing the command.

I had adobe-flash from the Partners repo already installed, so my question is why did flashplugin-installer NOT install using the commands you posted?
I can't see where you might have isolated it, only where you intended to purge it. Or was it not installed because it detected flash already present?

Some script-fu inside the package checks to see if the current binary version is already installed; if so, it exits without doing anything.

Oh, and thank you.

You're welcome.