18 September 2010

Lets get Flash squared away

Hello after a long time. I have some free time again and my almost forgotten blog crept into my mind. Well the big news of the day, actually yesterday, is that a new version of the Flash player has been released, not only for the usual suspect like Windows and OS X but also for 64-bit Linux!

The big Flash 10.1 release a few months ago obviated users of 64-bit GNU/Linux distributions and their users have been left out in the cold regarding support for a native patched and secure Flash player. The last version was just suddenly made unavailable due to security holes and no update was released.

Fortunately a new version has been released, interestingly according to one not only due to outside pressure.

Here are a few tips regarding its installation on Ubuntu amd64:
  1. If you have any flash packages installed, it is prudent to remove them first:
    sudo apt-get remove -y --purge flashplugin-nonfree flashplugin-installer gnash

  2. If you had followed my previous guide, you need to clean up after it:
    sudo rm -f /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/*flash*
    sudo rm -f ~/.mozilla/plugins/*flash*
    sudo rm -f /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/*flash*
    sudo rm -f /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins/*flash*

  3. Ubuntu users are welcome to install the plugin from a Personal Project Archive (Wikipedia article). This is a volunteer-based solution which bridges the gap between upstream release and Ubuntu official packaging. It should be as easy as running:
    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:sevenmachines/flash
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install flashplugin64-nonfree

  4. If you wish to remove the PPA and the installed software it provides, you have two options. The manual way is to remove the PPA from the Software repositories list and reverting or uninstalling software packages the PPA provides or you could settle for an automatic process. You need to install another PPA first, though. Removal of the unwanted PPA is then as easy as this:
    sudo ppa-purge ppa:sevenmachines/flash

Users of other GNU/Linux distributions can use the procesure below (check the plugin paths, though!)
wget -qO- http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/flashplayer10/flashplayer_square_p1_64bit_linux_091510.tar.gz | tar xz > libflashplayer.so
sudo mv libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/


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