How to get Flash to work

Are you using Firefox?

What do you see when you type "about:plugins" (without the quotes) in your location bar?

When you say you installed Flash, how did you do so?

The preferred method in Ubuntu is to use tha package management system. We frown on downloading the package from Adobe and installing manually.

The "Ubuntu way" is to enable the Restricted repositories, and run:

sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

from the terminal. Alternatively, you could look for this package name in Synaptic and install it from there.

If this is still a problem then try getting the latest Flash directly from Adobe! Halfway down their linux downloads page is a drop-down menu - Ubuntu is the last item on their list. Debs are allegedly easy to install. Just double-click i think

http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/?promoid=BUIGP

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

When I type in about plugins I get: Itunes detector, default, Demo print, totem webrowser, Helix, VLC, Windows, Media, DivX and Quick time. NO FLASH. Which I downloaded direct from Adobe. Being new to Linux, and an old DOS or XP techie (more an artist though) I can't get to the repositories and how to run sudo apt get and looking in Synaptic at this point is beyond me.

How ever here's where we stand, the person who's computer I'm fixin would prefer Windows, with the possibility of trying "Ubuntu". From what I know, she would need buy a dual boot program like bootstrap or something.

What I need do now is just find out how to UNINSTALL "Ubuntu" completely so I can install XP for her and let her try an "Ubuntu" CD.

As for me I hope you guys can follow my question, which I'll come back on because as an artist I've been using a lot of open source software to create my art like, Gimp, IrfanView, MW Snap, Paint.net Picassa and CoolIris (please tell me that works in Ubuntu). I'm about to redo my whole families computer system and I'm set to go Linux with your guys help. I need a fast dual core plain box to load Ubuntu and 2 laptops form my kids, one of who'll probably need a dual boot system for college that can do windows too. The way you guys work is where I'm at now with my art collaboration, so that's it! I'm impressed, I'm ready for linux on the desktop.

Setting up and installing is a completely different questions so i should ask you to post that as a separate question but here goes ....
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

I always prefer a dual-boot system because it's much more robust and flexible. Ubuntu only needs 8Gb and is happy with 10Gb - i usually try to give it about 20Gb to give it plenty of space and then i often use the Windows partition to store most of my data (movies, document etc) so that i can access all that stuff which one i happen to have logged into. If a machine is so old that it only has a 10Gb drive or less and has Win98 then i keep that and use a tiny distro such as Wolvix instead of Ubuntu as the Linux side of the dual-boot. Sadly quite a few games and a few other things will only work really well on Windows although many will work in Wine, which is great :) So far i find the best combination is Ubuntu and Xp. The system i'm on right now has a 10Gb drive with Xp and Ubuntu both quite spartan tho.

Ubuntu and most other Linux's have a great boot-loader called "grub" which expects to be used as a multi-boot boot-loader. It's installed as standard during a standard install and if it doesn't see any other OS's then it'll be disappointed - it's quite easy to change the menu list around. Grub and its predecessor Lilo both beat Windows boot-loaders hands down.

Even tho i have only booted into Windows once in the past few months i still want it there in case i need it. Yesterday i was trying to help someone fix something and needed to be in Xp to use the same program.

The final of the 3 questions there you'll really have to post as another question cos i haven't a clue. I'm not an artist. Gimp has been great for some very basic stuff.

Finally back to the original question. Synaptic Package Manager - go up to the top taskbar and click on

System - Administration - Synaptic is near the end

It asks for your user password, not your SuperUser/Root one. It has 2 search tools , the button certainly looks through descriptions as well as titles which is a relief. I think the Quick Search does too. I find the "Mark all Updates" sometimes finds more than the normal Update Manager (also was on the Administration sub-menu. To add more repositories click on Settings.

The "Add/Remove Applications" on the Applications menu on the top taskbar looks in the same repositories that you set in Synaptic as does "apt-get" from a command line. 3 different packages all do much the same but slight differences mean people can choose one they prefer. Both the gui's ultimately use the command line tool which is the most powerful.

blimey, sorry this is such a long posting to this thread.
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Avoid buying any software. There's usually a Free Software equivalent that's better, especially for a linux system. Note that's Free as in freedom of speech rather than free cost - although usually it'll be both.

I'm digesting all your material Tom, thanks for the time. I'm going to try the sudo approach and try to install the flash, then if you can give me another link to a "Launch Pad" questions for "Install XP after Ubuntu" I'll ask my question there as the "help.ubuntu" instructions are a little difficult for me.

My next systems I'll try making them dual boot and for my self I believe there's a software like Bootstrap that let's you run between both without a "reboot". Thanks

https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+addquestion

If you are still having trouble with this then please post it as a new question. Only the most recent questions tend to get looked at so posting/reposting a question just before america arrives online after work/school gives the best chance of getting a good few answers.
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+addquestion

If the problem has been resolved then please follow the link to the forum thread and mark it as Solved.

Good luck and many regards from
Tom :)