firefox 11.0 in Ubuntu 11.10 lost capability to display flash videos during update manager

Rather prefer not to run firefox during update process, in particular when it also includes updates for firefox or flash.
Login to guest-account or create a test-user account and test if the behaviour is the same there.
If test user is ok then it's likely a misconfiguration on user account.

Removing firefox doesn't help as long as there is a broken profile in /home/<user>/.mozilla.
Rename the ~/.mozilla directory and start with a fresh firefox profile.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Managing-profiles

10.10 is EOL and no longer supported.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

I wasn't running firefox during the update, I am describing the behavior of firefox after the update manager completed.
Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with a test-user account or how to create one.
The home/<user>/mozilla comment probably explains my results with uninstalling and reinstalling firefox so I will try a repeat after I rename the ~/.mozilla directory as you stated.

I renamed /.mozilla to /.zomilla and uninstalled adobe flashplugin, firefox, and thunderbird.
I rebooted.
I reinstalled firefox and flashplugin.
I rebooted.
I checked for /home/bill/.mozilla and it's back again.
I ran firefox and got no change in my previous results.

I finally came to and realized what a test-user account is.
I logged out and logged back in as "Guest".
I got the same result with firefox videos.
But then, of course I would, given that I did things in reverse order from what you intended.

Sam_I_am, please reply... I need some more help here.
    mxylpltz

Can you give the output of:

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

Thanks

bill@happy1:~$ sudo lsb_release -a; uname -a; dpkg -l | egrep 'flash|gnash|swf|spark'
[sudo] password for bill:
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:cxx-3.0-ia32:cxx-3.0-noarch:cxx-3.1-ia32:cxx-3.1-noarch:cxx-3.2-ia32:cxx-3.2-noarch:cxx-4.0-ia32:cxx-4.0-noarch:desktop-3.1-ia32:desktop-3.1-noarch:desktop-3.2-ia32:desktop-3.2-noarch:desktop-4.0-ia32:desktop-4.0-noarch:graphics-2.0-ia32:graphics-2.0-noarch:graphics-3.0-ia32:graphics-3.0-noarch:graphics-3.1-ia32:graphics-3.1-noarch:graphics-3.2-ia32:graphics-3.2-noarch:graphics-4.0-ia32:graphics-4.0-noarch:printing-3.2-ia32:printing-3.2-noarch:printing-4.0-ia32:printing-4.0-noarch:qt4-3.1-ia32:qt4-3.1-noarch
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 10.10
Release: 10.10
Codename: maverick
Linux happy1 2.6.35-32-generic #67-Ubuntu SMP Mon Mar 5 19:35:26 UTC 2012 i686 GNU/Linux
bill@happy1:~$

OOPS ! my bad...wrong operating system...here's the correct one...the one that was working properly and then went bad after an update manager update.

bill@bill-KM400-8235:~$ sudo lsb_release -a; uname -a; dpkg -l | egrep 'flash|gnash|swf|spark'
[sudo] password for bill:
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 11.10
Release: 11.10
Codename: oneiric
Linux bill-KM400-8235 3.0.0-17-generic #30-Ubuntu SMP Thu Mar 8 17:34:21 UTC 2012 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux
ii adobe-flash-properties-gtk 11.2.202.233-0oneiric1 GTK+ control panel for Adobe Flash Player plugin version 11
ii adobe-flashplugin 11.2.202.233-0oneiric1 Adobe Flash Player plugin version 11
rc flashplugin-installer 11.2.202.233ubuntu0.11.10.3 Adobe Flash Player plugin installer
bill@bill-KM400-8235:~$

Maverick is EOL. It is no longer supported

And another partial oops on my part.
You need to know that I gave up last night on ever getting actionable help that I could carry out to fix what I had...so I reinstalled Ubuntu 11.10 from scratch without letting it apply updates.
That didn't work.
I then installed the updates...all 400+ of them.
That didn't work.
The output you see above came from this new installation that claims to be up-to-date.
I have done no more messing around so it should be pristine info.

I would appreciate your comment on my last 2 messages.

#9 already mentioned in #1.

Bill, please consider we may live in different time zones, please be patient and wait until someone else offers help like Andrew did, thank you.

> I wasn't running firefox during the update

The title doesn't reflect that.
> 11.10 lost capability to display flash videos *during* update manager

Please try this. (Firefox remains closed)
sudo apt-get purge adobe-flash-properties-gtk
sudo apt-get purge adobe-flashplugin
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get -f install
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer

Sam, you must be a mathematician or a lexicographer, or both. You want descriptions with exact terminology.
Well, I'm going to win this one. The truth is, the problem occurred sometime "during" the actions of update manager,
not "before" it started, and not "after" it finished. Obviously, I didn't detect the problem until "after" it finished because it won't let you interrupt it. :>)
I performed all the steps you listed in #12. They all completed with no error messages. My probem remains.
I am beginning to think that maybe this is a hardware problem that can't be fixed except by a new computer.
Anyway, I am indeed thankful for your help.
Bill Burkett

Please post outputs of:
lspci -nnk | grep -i VGA -A2

glxinfo | grep OpenGL

In the entry you wrote,
> saved all the *.log files that modified on that day

do you have /var/log/apt/history.log or term.log from that day?
If yes, could you please paste it there.
http://paste.ubuntu.com/

Please verify firefox - tools - addons that flashplugin is correctly detected by firefox.
Or try the test page, recent version should be 11.2.202.233.
https://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/

There is no extension (addon) like flashblock or similar installed?

When those two are correct,
- the problem is reproducable on guest account
- the problem occurs after a specific update

I'd say it's time to report a bug, it only needs a bit more detailed info on how to reproduce the issue.
Could you describe what actually happens when opening a web site with flash, maybe with an example url.

bill@bill-KM400-8235:/var/lib$ sudo lspci -nnk | grep -i VGA -A2
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: VIA Technologies, Inc. KM400/KN400/P4M800 [S3 UniChrome] [1106:7205] (rev 01)
 Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device [1462:7348]
 Kernel modules: viafb
bill@bill-KM400-8235:/var/lib$

I could not get "glxinfo | grep OpenGL" to do anything, probably because of my ignorance.
There is no extension like flashblock installed.
I went to the test page and did not get a flash message window.
It told me to check if my system meets the requirements for flashplugin 11,
I looked at the requirements and don't think I meet their graphics memory size requirement.
I will check that as soon as I can locate my documentation...then I will post and let you know.
Thanks for the guidance.

When there is no output from OpenGL there is no hardware acceleration.
Seems the support doesn't improve much with 12.04 - bug 962773

Maybe install 12.04 to test the behaviour there.

Anyway, with 11.10 perhaps the issue was introduced by an update of libgl1-mesa-dri, xorg or xserver-xorg-video-openchrome, maybe query those in Xorg.0.log and term.log on the day when problem occured.

I got the command to work...I had to install a new library using Synaptic.
bill@bill-KM400-8235:~$ sudo glxinfo | grep OpenGL
[sudo] password for bill:
OpenGL vendor string: VIA Technology
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI UniChrome (KM400) x86/MMX+/3DNow!+/SSE
OpenGL version string: 1.2 Mesa 7.11
OpenGL extensions:
X Error of failed request: BadDrawable (invalid Pixmap or Window parameter)
  Major opcode of failed request: 136 (XFree86-DRI)
  Minor opcode of failed request: 9 ()
  Resource id in failed request: 0x3c00004
  Serial number of failed request: 44
  Current serial number in output stream: 44
bill@bill-KM400-8235:~$

My available documentation that came with the computer does not state the size of the graphics memory, probably because it is written to cover a collection of computer desktops of varying cost and capability.
I do not have the Linux smarts to find how much the OS is using. But based on the fact that I have an older computer (all right, from modern viewpoints, 2004 would be described as ancient), I conjectured that I am having a problem with my graphics card not having the capability to handle firefox flashplugin 11. So at site "https://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/" I located their archived versions of flashplugin, downloaded "/flashplayer_10_2r159_1_linux.tar.gz".
Then I went Ubuntu Software Center and uninstalled the firefox flashplugin currently in firefox, and I installed a program known as "Flash-Aid".
Then I rebooted my computer and reopened firefox.
I used Flash-Aid wizard to install the older archived version of flashplugin, then restarted firefox and verified that the older flashplugin was indeed installed by opening Tools > Add-ons.
Now every news web-site video plays (not particularly smoothly, but it does play) except those on CNN news, and even there the video window appears and firefox behaves as tho the video was actually playing.
The videos on "YouTube" all play as well.
So I am in much better shape (as far as viewing videos) than I was when we started.
Any further comments from you on what should/could be done will be read voraciously and receive my everlasting gratitude. (a little humor there, Sam).

Well the result counts, although I'd refrain from recommending third party apps to install another (outdated) third party app hoping at least integrity was verified.
That said I've got nothing to add other than to recall consider a bug report.