[Solved] SWF files cannot be opened

[fargred]

Also, the flash player you are trying to use, instead of starting, shows you the settings instead -- so it looks like you have a wrong association there to the SWF file type.

I actually started the topic mentioning that the association IS PRESENT and SWF files are set to be opened with Adobe flash plugin in Pale moon. If you have certain reasons to not believe me, here’s screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/BfkMNJt.png I see it like Pale moon doesn’t provide the flash plugin for standalone SWF files.

[squarefractal]

It seems like you have set Pale Moon to open Flash files with the flash-player-properties executable. Please try opening the SWF file in a clean profile.

[Moonchild]

the association IS PRESENT and SWF files are set to be opened with Adobe flash plugin in Pale moon. If you have certain reasons to not believe me,

It's not that I don't believe you, just saying it's linked to the wrong thing...

[martywd]

It seems like you have set Pale Moon to open Flash files with the flash-player-properties executable. Please try opening the SWF file in a clean profile.

Not sure that Pale Moon was 'set' that way by default, but yes, the 'properies/settings' fuctionality definitely complicating this issue.

I would suggest un-installing either 'adobe-flash-properties-gtk' or adobe-flash-properties-kde package or whatever the flash 'properties/settings' package is called in the *nix version that the OP is running. In Linux Mint/Ubuntu, the 'properties/settings' package _is_not_ necessary for the flash browser plugin to function. I would suspect that in other *nix's that also the case?

OP: What flavor of Linux are you running?
.

[fargred]

It seems like you have set Pale Moon to open Flash files with the flash-player-properties executable. Please try opening the SWF file in a clean profile.

And how could I even do that? There is only one option related to flash that Pale moon suggests.

[fargred]

I would suggest un-installing either 'adobe-flash-properties-gtk' or adobe-flash-properties-kde package or whatever the flash 'properties/settings' package is called in the *nix version that the OP is running… I would suspect that in other *nix's that also the case?

OP can’t because the flash-player-properties binary and the plugin itself are coming with the same adobe-flash package.

OP: What flavor of Linux are you running?

Gentoo ~amd64.

[kmikazuki]

Not sure if this is how to fix it on Gentoo, but with Arch Linux it is a mime type issue from the freedesktop.org.xml.

So try this:
sudo vim /usr/share/mime/packages/freedesktop.org.xml
Search for: <mime-type type="application/vnd.adobe.flash.movie">
Change it to: <mime-type type="application/x-shockwave-flash">
Then exit vim or your prefered text editor.
Then run: update-mime-database /usr/share/mime

There is a more insane version of doing this that does not require a mime type patch. You use a hex editor and search for "application/futuresplash" in libflashplayer.so, once finding the instance of it that is followed by the string "FutureSplash Player". You overwrite "application/futuresplash" with "application/vnd.adobe.flash.movie", then add enough zeros at the end to cut off "FutureSplash Player" to "ash Player".

[fargred]

Change it to: <mime-type type="application/x-shockwave-flash">

I’m not sure whether I should do that, because in my current freedesktop.xml there is already an alias for that.

Code: Select all

  <mime-type type="application/vnd.adobe.flash.movie">
	<comment>Shockwave Flash file</comment>
	<alias type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/>
	<alias type="application/futuresplash"/>
	<generic-icon name="video-x-generic"/>
	<magic priority="50">
	  <match value="FWS" type="string" offset="0"/>
	  <match value="CWS" type="string" offset="0"/>
	</magic>
	<glob pattern="*.swf"/>
	<glob pattern="*.spl"/>
  </mime-type>

[kmikazuki]

Change it to: <mime-type type="application/x-shockwave-flash">

I’m not sure whether I should do that, because in my current freedesktop.xml there is already an alias for that.

Code: Select all

  <mime-type type="application/vnd.adobe.flash.movie">
	<comment>Shockwave Flash file</comment>
	<alias type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/>
	<alias type="application/futuresplash"/>
	<generic-icon name="video-x-generic"/>
	<magic priority="50">
	  <match value="FWS" type="string" offset="0"/>
	  <match value="CWS" type="string" offset="0"/>
	</magic>
	<glob pattern="*.swf"/>
	<glob pattern="*.spl"/>
  </mime-type>

Mine looks similar, changing it to <mime-type type="application/x-shockwave-flash"> for the first line (<mime-type type="application/vnd.adobe.flash.movie">) is the one that should fix your problem

Code: Select all

 <mime-type type="application/x-shockwave-flash">
   <comment>Shockwave Flash file</comment>
   <alias type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/>
   <alias type="application/futuresplash"/>

On another note, I should add, when you run the command: update-mime-database /usr/share/mime you will need to sudo it too. (Sorry forgot to add that note.)

Here is my exact section if you are interested:

Code: Select all

  <mime-type type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><!-- This used to be: <mime-type type="application/vnd.adobe.flash.movie"> -->
    <comment>Shockwave Flash file</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="ar">ملف Shockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="be@latin">Fajł Shockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="bg">Файл — Shockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="ca">fitxer Shockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="cs">Soubor Shockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="da">Shockwave Flash-fil</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="de">Shockwave-Flash-Datei</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="el">αρχείο Shockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="en_GB">Shockwave Flash file</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="eo">dosiero de Shockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="es">archivo Shockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="eu">Shockwave Flash fitxategia</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="fi">Shockwave Flash -tiedosto</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="fo">Shockwave Flash fíla</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="fr">fichier Shockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="ga">comhad Shockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="gl">ficheiro sockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="he">קובץ של Shockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="hr">Shockwave Flash datoteka</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="hu">Shockwave Flash-fájl</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="id">Berkas Shockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="it">File Shockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="ja">Shockwave Flash ファイル</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="kk">Shockwave Flash файлы</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="ko">Shockwave 플래시 파일</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="lt">Shockwave Flash failas</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="lv">Shockwave Flash datne</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="ms">Fail Shockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="nb">Shockwave Flash-fil</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="nl">Shockwave Flash-bestand</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="nn">Shockwave Flash-fil</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="pl">Plik Shockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="pt">ficheiro Shockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="pt_BR">Arquivo Shockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="ro">Fișier Shockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="ru">файл Shockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="sk">Súbor Shockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="sl">Datoteka Shockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="sq">File Flash Shockwave</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="sr">Шоквејв Флеш датотека</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="sv">Shockwave Flash-fil</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="uk">файл Shockwave Flash</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="vi">Tập tin Flash Shockwave</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="zh_CN">Shockwave Flash 文件</comment>
    <comment xml:lang="zh_TW">Shockwave Flash 檔</comment>
    <alias type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/>
    <alias type="application/futuresplash"/>
    <generic-icon name="video-x-generic"/>
    <magic priority="50">
      <match value="FWS" type="string" offset="0"/>
      <match value="CWS" type="string" offset="0"/>
    </magic>
    <glob pattern="*.swf"/>
    <glob pattern="*.spl"/>
  </mime-type>

And everything still works, if you still feel odd since there is an alias for that, just swap them? I tested trying that and everything is fully functional.

[fargred]

And everything still works, if you still feel odd since there is an alias for that, just swap them? I tested trying that and everything is fully functional.

I’ve just replaced

Code: Select all

application/vnd.adobe.flash.movie

with

Code: Select all

application/x-shockwave-flash

in /usr/share/mime/packages/freedesktop.org.xml, saved the file, restarted the browser and nothing has changed. Pale moon still suggests to open with plugin Adobe flash or save the file, and when OK button is pressed, it opens flash plugin preferences window.

[kmikazuki]

in /usr/share/mime/packages/freedesktop.org.xml, saved the file, restarted the browser and nothing has changed. Pale moon still suggests to open with plugin Adobe flash or save the file, and when OK button is pressed, it opens flash plugin preferences window.

Sorry for the late reply, you need to use the command:
sudo update-mime-database /usr/share/mime

After you modify the file, otherwise the changes will not recognized.

[Giorgos67]

Sorry for jumping so late at this thread, but I'm not really sure, that I understood the problem.

If the problem is opening local SWF (older) games (not videos), I have a suggestion, because I faced this problem earlier:

1) Most of these games, comes with an EXE, which is just an SWF loader (nothing complicated) and runs very well at Wine.

2) The best native (not emulated) solution at my opinion, is creating a hidden config file, at your home directory, named

Code: Select all

.mime.types

.
Open it with your favorite editor (eg. Kate for KDE) and add this line:

Code: Select all

application/x-shockwave-flash       swf swfl

.
This is supposed to work with all Mozilla based browsers, without restart.
It has the downside, that is user-level based. In case of multiple users, you have to create one config file, for each one.

[fargred]

2) The best native (not emulated) solution at my opinion, is creating a hidden config file, at your home directory, named

Code: Select all

.mime.types

.

Yep, that actually worked
I’ve just searched google again and found that suggestion here http://askubuntu.com/questions/478169/w ... -swf-files so I’ve returned here to mark this as solved.

[Giorgos67]

Nice!!!