antiX Testing repo flashplayer-nonfree package

Silent Observer · posted: 2013-11-11 00:24

I'm trying to get a reasonably current (11.something) version of Flash Player on my antiX 13.2 Testing install. Problem is, I'm on an Athlon XP 2000+, which doesn't have SSE2 instruction support, so the last Linux version of non-Pepper Flash that it tries to install rejects; I get a message about"try adding option --no-sse2 to install an older version that doesn't need sse2" -- followed by the obligatory warning that said non-sse2 version may not have security support. Would that be an option for command line dpkg, or something else? If it's dpkg, I've never used that utility from the command line (I gather Synaptic invokes it to install downloaded packages); I presume I'd have to have root privilege and be working in the Synaptic cache folder (wherever that is). If something else, pretty much same questions apply -- how do I get it to download the correct older version of Flash?

Alternately, if it'd actually be easier to do manually, I do have both 11.2.202.235 in tarball form, downloaded directly from Adobe and extracted to that point from the big zip archive containing all flavors of that release, and I have an 11.1.something as well if I need to drop back that far.

Edit: Okay, found the cache at /var/cache/apt/archives/ but"dpkg --help" strongly suggests I shouldn't try to figure it out on my own...

anticapitalista · posted: 2013-11-11 08:48

Use the flashplayer-selector.sh script to set the old 10 series flash.
As root type

flashplayer-selector.sh

and follow the instructions.

Silent Observer · posted: 2013-11-11 11:47

anticapitalista wrote:Use the flashplayer-selector.sh script to set the old 10 series flash.
As root type

flashplayer-selector.sh

and follow the instructions.

Okay, that script acts as if it can install a manually downloaded version, but it crashes when I try. Let me log in here from that machine and I'll past in the output.

anticapitalista · posted: 2013-11-11 11:51

Lately, the site that it downloads form has been very unreliable so you may need to try several times.
You should have the 10 version tarball already in /var/cache/flashplugin-nonfree

SamK · posted: 2013-11-11 11:57

Silent Observer wrote:
anticapitalista wrote:Use the flashplayer-selector.sh script to set the old 10 series flash.
As root type

flashplayer-selector.sh

and follow the instructions.
Okay, that script acts as if it can install a manually downloaded version, but it crashes when I try. Let me log in here from that machine and I'll past in the output.

Try the Revert option to install v10 which ships within antiX.

Silent Observer · posted: 2013-11-11 11:59

The 10.3 tarball is present, and I've manually downloaded 11.2.something (I'm not certain that one is old enough. I had to manually create /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree, and now I'm getting this:

Code: Select all

1) Cancel
2) Download
3) Revert
Enter the number of your selection: 3
/usr/local/bin/flashplayer-selector.sh: line 97: update-flashplugin-nonfree: command not found
 is currently installed

Which of the previously installed versions do you want to re-install?
1) /var/cache/flashplugin-nonfree/flashplayer_10_3r183_61_linux.tar.gz
2) /var/cache/flashplugin-nonfree/get-upstream-version.pl
3) /var/cache/flashplugin-nonfree/install_flash_player_11_linux.i386.tar.gz
Enter the number of your selection: 3

/usr/local/bin/flashplayer-selector.sh: line 114: update-flashplugin-nonfree: command not found
 is installed

Starting iceweasel after this run still shows no Flash Player in about:plugins.

Edit: it looks as if I'm missing the update-flashplugin-nonfree command this script expects.

SamK · posted: 2013-11-11 12:05

Silent Observer wrote:
anticapitalista wrote:Use the flashplayer-selector.sh script to set the old 10 series flash.
As root type

flashplayer-selector.sh

and follow the instructions.

Did you run the command with root privileges?

Silent Observer · posted: 2013-11-11 12:14

SamK wrote:
Silent Observer wrote:
anticapitalista wrote:Use the flashplayer-selector.sh script to set the old 10 series flash.
As root type

flashplayer-selector.sh

and follow the instructions.

Did you run the command with root privileges?

Yes.

anticapitalista · posted: 2013-11-11 12:19

You will need to logout/login for the change to take place (or even reboot).

But before you do that, try installing flashplayer via synaptic or apt and see if does actually download the flash tarball and if it does, then try flashplayer-selector.sh again.

Silent Observer · posted: 2013-11-11 12:22

Update: the missing update-flashplugin-nonfree was part of the flashplugin-nonfree package that I had removed prior to attempting to use gdebi to install a downloaded .deb. Reinstalling that package (even though the actual player failed to install) allowed me to get this:

Code: Select all

root@Luddite:/home/user# flashplayer-selector.sh
Flash Player Selector
Options:
Cancel   - Exit without making any changes
Download - Obtain and install the latest version
Revert   - Re-install a previously installed version

What do you want to do?
1) Cancel
2) Download
3) Revert
Enter the number of your selection: 3
update-alternatives: error: no alternatives for flash-mozilla.so
Flash Player version installed on this system  : 11.1.102.63 is currently installed

Which of the previously installed versions do you want to re-install?
1) /var/cache/flashplugin-nonfree/flashplayer_10_3r183_61_linux.tar.gz
2) /var/cache/flashplugin-nonfree/flashplayer11_1r102_63_linux.i386.tar.gz
3) /var/cache/flashplugin-nonfree/get-upstream-version.pl
4) /var/cache/flashplugin-nonfree/install_flash_player_11_linux.i386.tar.gz
Enter the number of your selection: 4

update-alternatives: error: no alternatives for flash-mozilla.so
Flash Player version installed on this system  : 11.2.202.310 is installed
root@Luddite:/home/user#

I'm off to reboot and see if that's got it. If not, I'll try putting the 11.1 version back, now that the script appears to be working.

anticapitalista · posted: 2013-11-11 12:25

You will probably need to use the 10 version

Silent Observer · posted: 2013-11-12 01:41

Sigh. Looks like you're correct; I'll have time to switch that later this evening.

Silent Observer · posted: 2013-11-12 02:44

Okay, the 10.3 version isn't working either. I'm getting an error message before the script reports the installed version -- do I need to have flash-mozilla.so or create it as a symlink (and if the former, where do I get it, since Synaptic doesn't seem to know about it)?

Code: Select all

update-alternatives: error: no alternatives for flash-mozilla.so

anticapitalista · posted: 2013-11-12 10:56

flashplugin-nonfree may be conflicting with flashplayer-mozilla. You should only need one.

Silent Observer · posted: 2013-11-12 11:51

As far as I can tell by issuing ls -Rl / | grep"flash-mozilla" the only instances of flash-mozilla are symlinks I created in /usr/lib/firefox/plugins and /usr/lib/iceweasel/plugins, pointing to /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so

Edit: AHA!! There's something wrong with the flash-selector.sh script; it calls update-alternatives, which apparently expects to find flashplayer.so in /opt/flashplugin-nonfree/[version]/ instead of where flash-selector puts it or where it winds up when attempting to install the package. Copying libflashplayer.so to /opt/flashplugin-nonfree/v10.3.183.43/ and running update-alternatives got iceweasel to recognize the flash player. Now to try it with 11.2.something (I found a reference for the last version that works without SSE2) -- though I'll have to do that this evening, I don't have time before work.