Flash not working on 11.4 x86-64 system

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#1

I just upgraded my 11.3 box to 11.4 and flash simply refuses to work.

After reading a bunch of posts on the problem I’ve used yast to remove flash, downgraded it to earlier versions and even dumped the 32 bit version of the latest and greatest flash library file - libflashplayer.so - in /usr/lib64/browser-plugins and nothing works (I have of course restarted Firefox after each change). When I go to YouTube all the 64 bit flash stuff fails and with the latest 32 bit version it complains that I need to upgrade to flash 10 when I actually have 11 installed.

My system is totally up to date and is running Firefox 8.0.

Anything else to try?

I’ve never had this much trouble with flash before!

#2

even dumped the 32 bit version of the latest and greatest flash library file - libflashplayer.so - in /usr/lib64/browser-plugins
32 bit??

Post the result of

rpm -qa flash-player

ls /usr/lib64/browser-plugins
#3

Currently no flash-player is installed. Just to put the system back to a known state after I downloaded the latest/greatest 32 bit version of libflashplayer.so from Adobe, copied it /usr/lib64/browser-plugins and did testing I deleted it from the system so -

rpm -qa | grep flash
returns nothing

ls /usr/lib64/browser-plugins
javaplugin.so libtotem-mully-plugin.so packagekit-plugin.so
libnptcl3.1.so libtotem-narrowspace-plugin.so skypebuttons.so
libtotem-cone-plugin.so npwrapper.libnptcl3.1.so
libtotem-gmp-plugin.so npwrapper.so

After using Yast to reinstall flash I have this:

rpm -qa | grep flash
flash-player-11.1.102.55-0.6.1.x86_64

ls /usr/lib64/browser-plugins
javaplugin.so libtotem-gmp-plugin.so npwrapper.so
libflashplayer.so libtotem-mully-plugin.so packagekit-plugin.so
libnptcl3.1.so libtotem-narrowspace-plugin.so skypebuttons.so
libtotem-cone-plugin.so npwrapper.libnptcl3.1.so

Now we are back to the situation I had after the upgrade from 11.3 and all patches were applied - fFash is installed and I’m running Firefox 8 and Flash does not work. As I said above I removed Flash and downgraded to a previous version and that failed. Then I removed flash again via Yast and downloaded latest/greatest 32 bit version of the install_flash_player_11_linux.i386.tar.gz file from Adobe, un gz’ed it, untared it and copied libflashplayer.so found in the base directory of the tar into /usr/lib64/browser-plugins per someone’s suggestion in this forum. Again I launched Firefox and Flash still does not work. Please note I’m not prompted to install Flash when I go to YouTube - Flash simply does not work there or at any other Flash site.

One other point - the system was upgraded from 11.2 to 11.3 and now to 11.4 so just to check and see if there isn’t some library stangeness I did the following:

chico:/usr/lib64/browser-plugins # ldd libflashplayer.so
linux-vdso.so.1 => (0x00007fffa5bff000)
libX11.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libX11.so.6 (0x00007f6ea1692000)
libXext.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libXext.so.6 (0x00007f6ea147f000)
libXt.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libXt.so.6 (0x00007f6ea1217000)
libfreetype.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libfreetype.so.6 (0x00007f6ea0f8d000)
libfontconfig.so.1 => /usr/lib64/libfontconfig.so.1 (0x00007f6ea0d56000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib64/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007f6ea0b38000)
librt.so.1 => /lib64/librt.so.1 (0x00007f6ea092f000)
libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0 => /usr/lib64/libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f6ea02f1000)
libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0 => /usr/lib64/libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f6ea003b000)
libatk-1.0.so.0 => /usr/lib64/libatk-1.0.so.0 (0x00007f6e9fe19000)
libpangoft2-1.0.so.0 => /usr/lib64/libpangoft2-1.0.so.0 (0x00007f6e9fbec000)
libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.0 => /usr/lib64/libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f6e9f9cc000)
libpangocairo-1.0.so.0 => /usr/lib64/libpangocairo-1.0.so.0 (0x00007f6e9f7bf000)
libcairo.so.2 => /usr/lib64/libcairo.so.2 (0x00007f6e9f507000)
libpango-1.0.so.0 => /usr/lib64/libpango-1.0.so.0 (0x00007f6e9f2ba000)
libgobject-2.0.so.0 => /lib64/libgobject-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f6e9f069000)
libgmodule-2.0.so.0 => /lib64/libgmodule-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f6e9ee65000)
libglib-2.0.so.0 => /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f6e9eb72000)
libssl3.so => /usr/lib64/libssl3.so (0x00007f6e9e938000)
libsmime3.so => /usr/lib64/libsmime3.so (0x00007f6e9e70a000)
libnss3.so => /usr/lib64/libnss3.so (0x00007f6e9e3cc000)
libnssutil3.so => /usr/lib64/libnssutil3.so (0x00007f6e9e1ac000)
libplds4.so => /usr/lib64/libplds4.so (0x00007f6e9dfa8000)
libplc4.so => /usr/lib64/libplc4.so (0x00007f6e9dda2000)
libnspr4.so => /usr/lib64/libnspr4.so (0x00007f6e9db64000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib64/libdl.so.2 (0x00007f6e9d960000)
libm.so.6 => /lib64/libm.so.6 (0x00007f6e9d708000)
libc.so.6 => /lib64/libc.so.6 (0x00007f6e9d39b000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f6ea2efe000)
libxcb.so.1 => /usr/lib64/libxcb.so.1 (0x00007f6e9d17e000)
libSM.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libSM.so.6 (0x00007f6e9cf74000)
libICE.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libICE.so.6 (0x00007f6e9cd57000)
libz.so.1 => /lib64/libz.so.1 (0x00007f6e9cb3f000)
libexpat.so.1 => /lib64/libexpat.so.1 (0x00007f6e9c914000)
libXfixes.so.3 => /usr/lib64/libXfixes.so.3 (0x00007f6e9c70e000)
libgio-2.0.so.0 => /lib64/libgio-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f6e9c3e0000)
libXrender.so.1 => /usr/lib64/libXrender.so.1 (0x00007f6e9c1d4000)
libXinerama.so.1 => /usr/lib64/libXinerama.so.1 (0x00007f6e9bfd1000)
libXi.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libXi.so.6 (0x00007f6e9bdc1000)
libXrandr.so.2 => /usr/lib64/libXrandr.so.2 (0x00007f6e9bbb7000)
libXcursor.so.1 => /usr/lib64/libXcursor.so.1 (0x00007f6e9b9ac000)
libXcomposite.so.1 => /usr/lib64/libXcomposite.so.1 (0x00007f6e9b7a9000)
libXdamage.so.1 => /usr/lib64/libXdamage.so.1 (0x00007f6e9b5a5000)
libpixman-1.so.0 => /usr/lib64/libpixman-1.so.0 (0x00007f6e9b336000)
libpng14.so.14 => /usr/lib64/libpng14.so.14 (0x00007f6e9b10b000)
libgthread-2.0.so.0 => /lib64/libgthread-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f6e9af06000)
libpcre.so.0 => /lib64/libpcre.so.0 (0x00007f6e9accf000)
libXau.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libXau.so.6 (0x00007f6e9aacb000)
libuuid.so.1 => /lib64/libuuid.so.1 (0x00007f6e9a8c5000)
libresolv.so.2 => /lib64/libresolv.so.2 (0x00007f6e9a6ae000)
libselinux.so.1 => /lib64/libselinux.so.1 (0x00007f6e9a48f000)

So, all the dependencies are there - if the Flash plugin is being correctly called by Firefox it should work.

Thanks for the help -

#4

Try a different browser like opera or seamonkey

#5

Thanks for the reply -

I have Opera 11.5 on the system and it fails too -

All else is the same as above, the rpm flash-player-11.1.102.55-0.6.1.x86_64 is still installed.

#6

Sorry - I forgot to restart Opera - now Flash works on Opera - it still fails on Firefox.

Here I also need to note that now I’m having problems logging into this site from both Opera and Firefox on that system. I had to crank up another box to get in. The problems with Opera started after I went to a Flash site. The same could be said about Firefox but the time line on that is harder to nail down. On both browsers I can login to other sites.

All very strange.

Thanks for the help -

#7

Have you verified that you are using 64 bit Firefox? I ask because during an upgrade, the system seems to prefer to install the same version that you already have, unless it produces a conflict. Is it possible that your old Firefox was 32 bit?

#8

Thanks for the reply -

Just checked and I am running the 64 bit version of the program - here’s what is installed:

rpm -qa | grep Firefox

MozillaFirefox-8.0-0.2.2.x86_64
MozillaFirefox-branding-openSUSE-5.0-2.5.1.x86_64

One question - in Firefox Preferences what Action should the Application “Flash video” be set to?

Thanks!

#9

Rename .mozilla to .mozilla-backup
Start firefox. Use as is. Report back how it is.

#10

Well, that did it - so looks like some cruft was left in .mozilla that cause issues. I can even log into forums.opensuse.org again -

Thanks!

Michael

#11

That’s good. So here is a little tip for you and any others.
If like me you have a very heavily configured firefox profile, with a complex bookmarking setup. You can usually import it back safely without the crud that is damaging your current profile.
In the case where you have followed advice to rename .mozilla to something like .mozilla-backup or .mozilla-old, the info we need is in there.

So viewing hidden files go in to the .mozilla-backup, it might look something like this:
.mozilla-backup/firefox/3vbwf2j7.default/bookmarkbackups/
(the crazy profile folder here ‘3vbwf2j7.default’ will be different for you but equally bizarre)
In bookmarkbackups you will see a series of files that are date stamped like this (bookmarks-2011-11-30.json)
We need the very latest one. Copy it and place somewhere handy.

Now. In your new working firefox, go to > bookmarks > show all bookmarks > Import and Backup > Restore > Choose file > (point to the .json file we just saved in a handy place) > Accept the import

That’s it.

If it brings the trouble you had with it (Unlikely), you’ll have to get a HTML bookmarks backup. If you can’t do that (ie; because firefox is that unstable) then you will have to ask for help, as there are other possible routes we could look at.

Enough said for now.