Unable to view flash after most recent software repository u

user · February 12, 2009, 5:08am

I’m running OpenSUSE 10.3 (kernel version 2.6.22.19-0.2 64-bit) with KDE 3.5.7 release 72.11. The other day I let the system update itself, download the latest patches, etc after not having done so for about 4-5 months. Needless to say there were quite a few patches! Everything seemed to go fine except now I can no longer view flash content in my web browsers, either Firefox 2.0.0.19 or Konqueror. Initially I just had a white blank field where the video used to be, but after rebooting I just get the generic message “Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe’s Flash Player.” Needless to say JavaScript is turned on and I do have the latest version of Flash Player installed, at least according to YaST I do.

I tried reinstalling it both through the online software repository and by downloading an rpm for version 10.0.15.3-release-i386 directly from Adobe’s site. I even tried removing both Firefox and Flash, then reinstalling after restarting my system. Each time the installation seemed to go fine but websites with flash content keep insisting I do not have flash installed. Could someone help me with this please?

caf4926 · February 12, 2009, 6:37am

In a terminal

rpm -qi flash-player

user · February 12, 2009, 7:55am

Results of rpm -qi flash-player:

stardrive:~ # rpm -qi flash-player
Name : flash-player Relocations: (not relocatable)
Version : 9.0.152.0 Vendor: SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Nuernberg, Germany
Release : 0.1 Build Date: Thu Dec 18 11:01:21 2008
Install Date: Wed Feb 11 21:43:34 2009 Build Host: emerson.suse.de
Group : Productivity/Networking/Web/Browsers Source RPM: flash-player-9.0.152.0-0.1.src.rpm
Size : 16154624 License: Any commercial
Signature : DSA/SHA1, Thu Dec 18 11:57:46 2008, Key ID a84edae89c800aca
Packager : Submitting Bug Reports - openSUSE
Summary : Macromedia Flash Plug-In
Description :
This package contains Macromedia’s Flash plug-in for the supported Web
browsers. This includes Netscape6, Mozilla (all Gecko browsers), and
Konqueror.

Authors:

Adobe Systems Incorporated

Distribution: openSUSE 10.3 (i586)

Results of trying to view flash content:

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/3006/flashdesktopmc4.th.jpg](http://img443.imageshack.us/my.php?image=flashdesktopmc4.jpg)

:bad:

caf4926 · February 12, 2009, 9:39am

I suspect then that you will need to un-install that flash player via Yast software management

download the latest flash .rpm from adobe
Adobe - Adobe Flash Player

open a terminal in the dir you saved the file, then go su and do

rpm -ihv Packagename

*If you type the first letter of the Package name and hit tab it will auto complete

consused · February 12, 2009, 10:44am

Hi caf4926

I have exactly all the same releases mentioned by the OP but my fully updated 10.3 is 32bit and it works perfectly well. Could this just be a problem with flash on openSUSE 64bit?

Also, from the Adobe site would he get Flash 10? If so and it worked, that would be interesting to know and compare with the problems some are getting with Flash 10 and openSUSE 11.1.

user · February 12, 2009, 1:24pm

I havee uninstalled the flash player and flash-plugin via YaST and verified that they have been removed from the system:

stardrive:~ # rpm -qi flash-player
package flash-player is not installed

I then proceeded to download the latest available version of flash for Linux from Adobe’s website (which is the same website provided in the link you game me). File downloaded: flash-plugin-10.0.15.3-release.i386.rpm

I then proceeded to install it manually from a command line as recommended:

stardrive:~/Downloads # rpm -ihv flash-plugin-10.0.15.3-release.i386.rpm
Preparing… ########################################### [100%]
1:flash-plugin ########################################### [100%]

To me that means the installation was successful. Restarted the web browser, and once again get: “Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe’s Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player.” if I try to view anything with flash content.

Also, now the system claims:

stardrive:~/Downloads # rpm -qi flash-player
package flash-player is not installed

I thought I just installed it? Now I’m really confused.

I’ve had this system since December 2007. It’s always been 64-bit and with 1-2 little quirks it’s worked perfectly fine with Flash 32-bit (is there a 64-bit version?) up until that latest online patch update 2 days ago. argh!

caf4926 · February 12, 2009, 2:17pm

_64 needs nspluginwrapper

when you removed Flash earlier - you will not have removed this
so go check if it’s installed - if not - install it

If Flash still does not work
uninstall the .rpm (it may be possible from Yast)

but to delete from terminal

rpm -e *package name

Then install the repo flash and try again.

consused · February 12, 2009, 2:42pm

Also, now the system claims:

stardrive:~/Downloads # rpm -qi flash-player
package flash-player is not installed

I thought I just installed it? Now I’m really confused.

The rpm you downloaded was not called flash-player, according to your post it was called flash-plugin-10.0.15.3-release.i386.rpm.

consused · February 12, 2009, 3:23pm

Just came across this: Install the latest Adobe flash player, the rpm way in the unreviewed Howto forum. Haven’t used it myself yet, but after downloading and installing with Yast, it includes a final copy step not mentioned earlier.

user · February 13, 2009, 7:50am

OK this is starting to become complicated so please bear with me (and thanks for everyone’s help so far!!). I have nspluginwrapper installed. But just to be sure I tried updating it via YaST and then reinstalled it anyways.

Current status of nspluginwrapper:

**stardrive:/ # rpm -qi nspluginwrapper
Name : nspluginwrapper Relocations: (not relocatable)
Version : 0.9.91.4 Vendor: SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Nuernberg, Germany
Release : 58.1 Build Date: Mon Jun 23 16:25:14 2008
Install Date: Fri Feb 13 00:35:57 2009 Build Host: aguirre.suse.de
Group : Productivity/Networking/Web/Utilities Source RPM: nspluginwrapper-0.9.91.4-58.1.src.rpm
Size : 269956 License: GPL v2 or later
Signature : DSA/SHA1, Mon Jun 23 16:35:47 2008, Key ID a84edae89c800aca
Packager : Submitting Bug Reports - openSUSE
URL : nspluginwrapper [Web > Gwenole Beauchesne]
Summary : Compatibility Layer for Netscape 4 Plug-Ins
Description :
nspluginwrapper is an Open Source compatibility plugin for Netscape 4
(NPAPI) plugins. It enables you to use plugins on platforms they were
not built for. For example, you can use the plugins compiled for i386
in Mozilla on Linux/x86_64 or other architectures. This package
consists of:

npviewer: the plug-in viewer
npwrapper.so: the browser-side plug-in
nspluginwrapper: a tool to manage plug-ins installation and update

Authors:

Gwenole Beauchesne &lt;gb.public@free.fr&gt;

Distribution: openSUSE 10.3 (X86-64)**

So that must be my system’s fancy way of saying it’s installed.

Next I noticed under YaST that there are 2 entries that come up (well actually more than that) when doing a repository search for “flash”:

**flash-plugin - Adobe Flash Player 10.0

Adobe Flash Plugin 10.0.15.3 Fully Supported: Mozilla SeaMonkey 1.0+, Firefox 1.5+, Mozilla 1.7.13+
Adobe - Downloads

flash-player - Macromedia Flash Plug-In

This package contains Macromedia’s Flash plug-in for the supported Web browsers. This includes Netscape6, Mozilla (all Gecko browsers), and Konqueror. Version 9.0.152.0-0.1
**

This must be the confusion for flash-player vs flash-plugin. When I started trying to fix this problem I originally had them both installed. I’m assuming the one we want here is flash-plug because 1) that has the latest version, and 2) the website matches the one in one of your replies and threads above, and the file I end up downloading from Adobe’s website is called “flash-plugin-10.0.15.3-release.i386.rpm”.

So here’s what I did:

closed all browser windows
uninstalled both flash-player and flash-plugin
uninstalled and reinstalled nspluginwrapper
installed flash-plugin-10.0.15.3-release.i386.rpm by right-clicking and selecting “open with install software”
Went to command prompt, did the “sudo cp /usr/lib/flash-plugin/libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/browser-plugins/”
Checked both folders. Made sure that the files in both folders are there. Here they are:

**stardrive:/usr/lib/flash-plugin # ls -l
total 9852
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 34516 Nov 18 17:52 LICENSE
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 3180 Nov 18 17:52 README
-rwxr–r-- 1 root root 1367 Nov 18 17:52 homecleanup
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 10022452 Nov 18 17:53 libflashplayer.so
-rwxr–r-- 1 root root 3116 Nov 18 17:52 setup

stardrive:/usr/lib/browser-plugins # ls -l
total 9804
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 28 Nov 11 2007 javaplugin.so -> /etc/alternatives/javaplugin
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 10022452 Feb 13 00:37 libflashplayer.so
**
6. As one final sanity check did a:

**stardrive:/usr/lib/browser-plugins # rpm -qi flash-plugin
Name : flash-plugin Relocations: (not relocatable)
Version : 10.0.15.3 Vendor: Adobe Systems Inc.
Release : release Build Date: Tue Nov 18 17:54:02 2008
Install Date: Fri Feb 13 00:34:07 2009 Build Host: fplayerbuild4-lnx.labs.corp.adobe.com
Group : Applications/Internet Source RPM: flash-plugin-10.0.15.3-release.src.rpm
Size : 10067811 License: Commercial
Signature : (none)
Packager : Adobe Systems Inc.
URL : Adobe - Downloads
Summary : Adobe Flash Player 10.0
Description :
Adobe Flash Plugin 10.0.15.3
Fully Supported: Mozilla SeaMonkey 1.0+, Firefox 1.5+, Mozilla 1.7.13+
Distribution: (none)
**
Looks good?

Opened up a firefox window, went to youtube, made sure java and javascript are both turned on, and got a:

“Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe’s Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player.”

AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

fyi nspluginwrapper -l is supposed to list all the plugins currently installed. The command returns empty. Should there be anything?

caf4926 · February 13, 2009, 7:59am

Try deleting everything Flash

Then install it
Go back to the one from the repo/default
make sure nspluginwrapper is there too.

Flash has always worked from the default for me. So lets go from there.

In FF. In the addons section you can view configured plugins. If Flash is showing there you should be OK.

consused · February 13, 2009, 2:17pm

I agree with caf4926 in staying with the repo default (always worked for me too), and check after reinstall that you have the updated plugin i.e. flash-player 9.0.152.0, as before.

Can you also confirm that you are testing video streaming with more sites than just utube.com - referenced in your early post? From memory, i have seen problem posts elsewhere that claimed utube doesn’t work but other sites do, and vice versa.

RCCrouch · February 13, 2009, 3:57pm

Use the nspluginwrapper and the flash-plugin included with openSuSE (which is now flash version 10). I had the same problem. After ensuring that my “user-name” was also a member of group “audio” (which it wasn’t) all worked according to Hoyle (must also be a member of group “video”).

You may need to fiddle with all of the browser plugins. They are located in /usr/lib64/browser-plugins and /usr/lib/browser-plugins. You may need to temporarily move the files from these folders and then add them back in one at a time till you get the combination of browser plugins that works best (make sure you insert them back into the directory they came from, don’t put a 64 bit plugin in the 32 bit folder or vice versa). Some of the plugins conflict with each other or don’t fully support the protocols.

You should also add the Videolan and Packman repositories so you can get the latest audio and video codecs (things like FFmpeg etc) as well as updated audio and video apps for a fuller multi-media experience (apps like AmaroK and MPlayer).

By doing this I now have full multimedia support (Realplayer AmaroK Mplayer Flash) and have no problem with audio or video on any site. I have found that VLC and Xine plugins are useless for multi-media on the web (same goes for the open-source plugins for Flash).

RCCrouch · February 13, 2009, 4:14pm

I forgot to mention above that the Mplayer plugin does not work either. To get Mplayer to work as a browser plugin install “gecko-mediaplayer”. It does not behave properly all the time though. You may need to pause it until it fully caches the file you are trying to play. Should you have problems with Realplayer then ensure that the devices set in the preferences read “default”.