Ubuntu
firefox package

How do I install plugins?

Asked by Martin Thomas

How do I install Macromedia Flash Player as a plugin to Firefox? Presumably, if I can work out how to do that, I'll also know how to install other plugins. Sorry, this is probably all very obvious if you've used Ubuntu a bit, and are not just starting on it as I am now.

If I type about:plugins into the URL bar of Firefox, I get:

Installed plug-ins
Find more information about browser plug-ins at mozilla.org.
Help for installing plug-ins is available from plugindoc.mozdev.org.
Shockwave Flash

    File name: libflashplayer.so
    Shockwave Flash 7.0 r68

MIME Type Description Suffixes Enabled
application/x-shockwave-flash Shockwave Flash swf Yes
application/futuresplash FutureSplash Player spl Yes

Does this mean I have Flash installed? Doesn't seem to be. Does this have anything to do with:

https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+ticket/1804?

http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&P2_Platform=Linux&P3_Browser_Version=Netscape4&P5_Language=English] gives the following instructions:

1. Click the "Download Now" button. A dialog box will appear asking you where to save the Installer.

2. Save the Installer to your desktop and wait for the file to download completely.

3. Unpackage the file. A directory called install_flash_player_7_linux will be created.

4. Navigate to this directory and from the command line type ./flashplayer-installer to run the installer (Note: this can only be run from the command line). The installer will instruct you to shut down your browser(s).

5. Once the installation is complete, the plug-in will be installed in your Mozilla browser. To verify, launch Mozilla and choose Help > About Plug-ins from the browser menu.

The first three stages work ok, but then I get the following responses:

martin@Ava:~$ ./flashplayer-installer
bash: ./flashplayer-installer: No such file or directory
martin@Ava:~$ /install_flash_player_7_linux/flashplayer-installer
bash: /install_flash_player_7_linux/flashplayer-installer: No such file or directory
martin@Ava:~$ /home/martin/Desktop/install_flash_player_7_linux/flashplayer-installer
bash: /home/martin/Desktop/install_flash_player_7_linux/flashplayer-installer: No such file or directory

There is no Help>About Plugins in Firefox.

http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/faqs/firefox-linux.html says something different again:

Download Macromedia Flash Player 7. Packages are available for many distributions. Once downloaded, copy libflashplayer.so and flashplayer.xpt to your browser's plugins directory.

I have those two files in the install_flash_player_7_linux directory, and I'd try just copy them to Firefox's plugins directory, if I could find that directory. How do I find it?

http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/faq#q2.1 gives yet another story:

How do I install Flash?... For Linux users, this plugin [link to http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&P2_Platform=Linux&P3_Browser_Version=Netscape4&P5_Language=Englishshould work. Download the file, close Firefox completely (File > Exit) and run the installation. In the dialog that appears, click on the Other browser... button. There you must specify the path to the plugin folder for Firefox. You should know in what folder you installed Firefox. In that folder, there's a sub-folder called "plugins". Select that folder and click Select, then click Install.

The question then is, how to "run the installation" and how to find "the plugin folder for Firefox".

Question information

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Ubuntu firefox Edit question
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Solved by:
Luca Falavigna
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Revision history for this message
Luca Falavigna (dktrkranz) said : 		#1

The easiest way is to use Adobe installer. Assuming you are in your home when opening a terminal, you should run
sudo install_flash_player_7_linux/flashplayer-installer
and provide the information needed: browser directory is at /usr/lib/firefox.

Revision history for this message
Alan Pope 🍺🐧🐱 🦄 (popey) said : 		#2

I thought flash player was in the repositories now?

alan@mother:~$ apt-cache search flashplugin
flashplugin-nonfree - Macromedia Flash Player plugin installer

So if you have the multiverse repository enabled then I'd say that the best way to install the player is using synaptic or by doing

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

Revision history for this message
Martin Thomas (martin-workersliberty) said : 		#3

If I run

sudo install_flash_player_7_linux/flashplayer-installer

I get:

martin@Ava:~$ sudo install_flash_player_7_linux/flashplayer-installer
Password:
sudo: install_flash_player_7_linux/flashplayer-installer: command not found

Maybe it's that I haven't got the multiverse repository enabled. I'll see if I can work out how to do that.
- though the file plainly is there in that directory.

When I run sudo apt-get update, then sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree, I get:

martin@Ava:~$ sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
E: Couldn't find package flashplugin-nonfree

Revision history for this message
Martin Thomas (martin-workersliberty) said : 		#4

I enabled the multiverse repository, then ran
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree
- and it worked.
Thanks.

Revision history for this message
Alan Pope 🍺🐧🐱 🦄 (popey) said : 		#5

> Maybe it's that I haven't got the multiverse repository enabled.

No. The multiverse repository is *required* for the other way to do it which
you have tried and failed - because you don't have the multiverse repository
in which the flash plugin resides.

> I'll see if I can work out how to do that.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu#what tells you how to
enable the multiverse and universe repository. Once you do that you will be
able to install flashplugin-nonfree via synaptic or apt-get as previously
detailed.

Revision history for this message
Alan Pope 🍺🐧🐱 🦄 (popey) said : 		#6

> I enabled the multiverse repository, then ran
> sudo apt-get update
> sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

yay!

Revision history for this message
Ishmael (bonifidecristian) said : 		#7

where do u find the said repository and enable it?