youtube does not work

Please open a Terminal window (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run this command by copying it from here and pasting it into the Terminal, then pressing enter:

lsb_release -a; dpkg -l | egrep 'flash|gnash|swf|lightspark'

Then please select all the text in the Terminal (Edit > Select All), copy it to the clipboard (Edit > Copy), and paste it here (into your post).

LSB Version: core-2.0-ia32:core-2.0-noarch:core-3.0-ia32:core-3.0-noarch:core-3.1-ia32:core-3.1-noarch:core-3.2-ia32:core-3.2-noarch:core-4.0-ia32:core-4.0-noarch
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 11.04
Release: 11.04
Codename: natty
ii flashplugin-installer 10.3.183.4ubuntu0.11.04.1 Adobe Flash Player plugin installer

OK, that looks okay (the Flash plugin, which is used among other things to play YouTube! videos, seems properly installed). So:

(1) Please open /var/log/dpkg.log, select its entire contents, copy it to the clipboard, paste it at http://paste.ubuntu.com, click Paste!, and post the URL here that you get (copy it from the address bar and paste it here).

(2) As closely as you remember, what date and (if you know) time did the updates occur, which appear to have triggered this problem?

(3) What web browser are you using?

(4) Does this problem occur in another web browser? For example, if you are using Firefox, you could try Chromium. (To install the Chromium browser, install the package chromium-browser in the Software Center.) I don't actually want you to have to switch to a different browser; rather, this information will help narrow down where the problem is.

(5) Does this problem occur when you log in to your Ubuntu system as another user? If you only have one user account, you can create a second one to test this. (Again, you shouldn't actually have to use a separate user account for YouTube! -- this is for diagnostic purposes.)

1/ I could not open
it said roy@roy-MM061:~$ /var/log/dpkg.log
bash: /var/log/dpkg.log: Permission denied

2/ I really cant remeber when I happened, about a week ago !?

3/ firefox

4/ youtube works using chromium

5/ I have not set up another user, I will post this first before I try to do that

thanks

Running the command "/var/log/dpkg.log" attempts to run that file as a program, which fails because it is not a program, it is a log file. You cannot generally open files for reading/editing just by running their names as commands. You could just navigate to the file in Nautilus (the file browser) and double-click on it. Or you could run "gedit /var/log/dpkg.log".

Please provide that file and also let me know if the problem happens in Firefox for another user. The problem is, in some way, Firefox-specific (it did not occur in Chromium), but it is is unclear at this point whether the problem is in your user-specific Firefox profile/configuration, or if it is affecting the Firefox installation on your machine as a whole.

1/ http://paste.ubuntu.com/669962/

5/ I am still trying to create another user....

thanks

roy

"I am still trying to create another user...."

Please let us know if you need help with that. Otherwise I'll wait until you've let us know whether or not the problem occurs in the new user account.

hi
I have finally created another account and it has no problems with youtube videos

now I get youtube website to come up very briefly then dissappear and a white screen appear with 3 blue phrases on the right:

Direct download
Download from keepvid
Download from clipnabber

nothing else, what has ubuntu got against youtube?

any ideas appreciated

thanks

Roy

I apologize for my delay getting back to you about this.

YouTube! works in both user accounts with Chromium and in the other user account with both Chromium and Firefox, so the problem is probably in your user-specific Firefox profile. If you don't use other Mozilla suite applications like Thunderbird, then you can correct this problem by deleting your Firefox profile and allowing Firefox to recreate a fresh one. Rather than actually erasing it, you can rename it, so that it is possible to restore it (or things from it) later. To do that, run this command in the Terminal, while logged into the user account that is affected by this problem:

mv ~/.mozilla ~/.mozilla.old

You should run that command while Firefox is *not* running. You should back up your bookmarks first, if you want to have them. (While that command, run correctly, does not actually delete anything, it is somewhat inconvenient to access the data in your profile without restoring the whole thing.) You may want to copy that command to the clipboard and paste it into the Terminal, rather than manually typing it in, in order to minimize the risk of typographic errors.

After that, re-open Firefox and see if the problem is solved. If it is not, or if you did not perform the above instructions because you use other Mozilla suite applications or for any other reason, then please post another reply here and we'll keep working on the problem. (If you use other Mozilla suite applications, such as Thunderbird, then there is an alternative technique that only removes the Firefox profile and not the profiles for all Mozilla apps.)