Update, 2012-04-24: This procedure updates the Flash player in use by Firefox. Chrome can also pick this up, so this solution appears to work for both browsers.
I recently re-installed Debian Squeeze on my main machine. I’m using the 64-bit version along with 64-bit Chrome.
However, the 64-bit Chrome does not come with a built-in Flash player. Instead, it seems to be finding the plugin by searching the Mozilla plugin folder (/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/), where it finds flash-mozilla.so, which is a symlink to /usr/lib/gnash/libgnashplugin.so, the Gnash flash plugin.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m happy to see how Gnash is looking, and I’m happy that a free software alternative exists. However, I’m not a FLOSS puritan; I’ll use the best tool for the job which, in my opinion, remains as the official Flash plugin.
So, how to install the Flash plugin?
Adobe says to refer to the browser documentation. Google’s docs mention Flash as being built-in for 32-bit, but I couldn’t find mention of how to install for 64-bit.
Here’s how I did it: since Chrome seems to be using the symlink in the mozilla folder, which is managed by Debian’s “alternatives” system, I installed the plugin and added it as an alternative.
Step 1: Download the plugin from http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/. (This procedure explains the .tar.gz installation method; Adobe now offers an Apt-oriented solution as well but I have not tested this.)
Step 2: Install the plugin as follows:
sudo mkdir -pv /opt/flashplugin cd /opt/flashplugin sudo tar -xf <path/to/flashplugin.tar.gz>
Step 3: Install the plugin as a flash-mozilla.so alternative:
sudo update-alternatives --install \ /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/flash-mozilla.so \ flash-mozilla.so \ /opt/flashplugin/libflashplayer.so \ 10
Step 4: Select the Adobe plugin for use as the active plugin:
sudo update-alternatives --set flash-mozilla.so /opt/flashplugin/libflashplayer.so
That’s it! Flash should now work in both Chrome and Firefox. If it does not work immediately, restart your browser.
Much appreciated, works great!
cheers ! works like a charm.
the weblink to adobe now leads onto flash #11, so I replaced the “10” at step 5 by a “11”.
so far so good.
I just place libflashplayer.so inside ~/.mozilla/plugins. Google chrome will list it in chrome://plugins/ .
Works great for chromium !!!
Thanks
Thank you. I can now watch Charlie Rose and video other than YouTube online.
Thanks buddy ! Works perfectly on Debian Squeeze 32 bits and Chromium, I had a problem with recent flash animations not working. Now, thanks to you, it’s solved.
It’s works on my Debian Squeez 64 bits !
Thanks for this tutorial 😉
Works awesome, thanks!!
on: squeeze 64
Thank you .
It turns out to be OK .
Works perfectly, thank you very much!
NOICE MATE!
Woked pefect….
Thanks! It seems the flashplugin-nonfree package in the wheezy non-free repository doesn’t really install anything…
“flashplugin-nonfree: package-contains-empty-directory usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/”
THANK YOU! Worked perfectly for me on debian wheezy.
Yep works perfect on 3 of the 4 browsers I use.
Debian AMD64 Squeeze
Chrome – worked
Iceweasel – worked
uzbl – worked
QtWeb – no
QtWeb being portable I didn’t expect it to work with this anyway. Never had any luck with flash and this browser in linux. If anyone out there has a fix for that pls post.
I’ve tried creating a ‘PlugIns’ (and also variant spellings, plugins, plugin, Plugin, etc) dir off where my exe file is located and putting symlink to libflashplayer.so in that dir and it didn’t work. That method came from QtWeb but they didn’t specify OS so I’m assuming it was for Windows. It might be that libflashplayer.so needed to be named something different.
thx,
j
What about flash 11?
I think I tested it with Flash 11; it’s the same basic thing. Last I checked, they bundle the library with some other stuff now, but all you need is the libflashplayer.so file. The procedure is otherwise identical to what I’ve already posted here.
You can install the extra helper binaries and stuff manually if you like, but it’s not necessary.
Bom trabalho, funcionou de primeira.
Didn’t work for me! I did all steps and firefox 16 still request the flash plugin … Squeeze 2.6.32-5-amd64! Help buddies …
ditto ^
still cant get flash going on ff16, 64bit squeeze.
I tried the above, but no luck .. any more ideas?
got it going .. Finally.
I had been trying all this with flash 11.2 – not working, so I went back and found a copy of flash 10.3 – now working fine.
Thanks so much for your help. I was about to pull my hair out until I found your post the only one out of several really bad ones that actually worked
Thanks again
Jason
Thanks. I had updated from Jessie to Stretch and lost use of update-flashplugin-nonfree –status. Now works to keep flash up to date.