Can't get flash working Topic is solved

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pubpub
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Can't get flash working

Unread post by pubpub » 2022-03-21, 04:02

Operating system: Gentoo GNU/Linux
Browser version: 29.4.4
32-bit or 64-bit browser?: 64bit
Problem URL: Not applicable
Browser theme (if not default): Dark Moon
Installed add-ons: Ublock origin, Ematrix, Greasemonkey, Pureurl, Add as search engine, Github/Gitlab Polyfill, I don't care about cookies, Decentraleyes
Installed plugins: (about:plugins): None (this is the issue)
help -> troubleshooting omitted since it mostly says what I've already detailed above

I've browsed the forum looking for how to get flash to work and have managed to
  • find the correct flash version to use and where to download it (https://archive.org/download/flashplaye ... _64.tar.gz)
  • the folder where the .so should be located at (/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so)
  • I've also done as the readme in the .tar.gz archive asks and copied the contents of it's usr folder onto my system's
After doing what seems to have worked for others, I have come to a roadblock, the plugin is not there on about:plugins and when I drag&drop a .swf on the browser it doesn't open it
I have come to ask for help and guidance, my problem is probably very easy to address

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pubpub
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Re: Can't get flash working

Unread post by pubpub » 2022-03-22, 20:44

I have found the solution, I was missing a step in the process, I'll just rewrite it again correctly for anyone who needs it so they can find it easily when searching how to install flash player on 64bit GNU/Linux
Image
  1. Download https://archive.org/download/flashplaye ... _64.tar.gz
  2. (taken from the readme.txt in the archive) Unpack the .tar.gz with

    Code: Select all

    tar -xvf flashplayer32_0r0_371_linux.x86_64.tar.gz
  3. Move the contents of usr/ to your /usr folder with

    Code: Select all

    sudo cp -r usr/* /usr/
  4. Move libflashplayer.so to /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins, if that folder doesn't exist, create it with

    Code: Select all

    sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
  5. Link libflashplayer.so from ~/.mozilla/plugins with

    Code: Select all

    ln -s /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so ~/.mozilla/libflashplayer.so
    once again, if this folder doesn't exist, create it with

    Code: Select all

    mkdir -p ~/.mozilla/plugins
It was that last and crucial step that was missing from the readme.txt in the archive file and which I finally found mentioned briefly on a post in this forum, which was very easy to miss, hopefully this post wont
I'm marking this as solved

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andyprough
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Re: Can't get flash working

Unread post by andyprough » 2022-03-22, 22:22

pubpub wrote:
2022-03-22, 20:44

Code: Select all

sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
All those poor windows users are going to try this and will say, "what's sudo? and why are your slashes backwards?" :lol:

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Re: Can't get flash working

Unread post by moonbat » 2022-03-23, 00:08

Step 5 is redundant for me on Mint 20.3. Flash has been working fine without creating that symbolic link.
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Mike_Walsh
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Re: Can't get flash working

Unread post by Mike_Walsh » 2022-03-26, 13:14

Um.....I take it you guys ARE aware that Flash went EOL at midnight on the 31st December 2020, yes? :shock: :lol:

Adobe haven't supported it since then, and any version you may be using will be more full of holes than a Swiss cheese. Personally, after struggling with the damn thing for decades, I was very glad when it finally retired & the web became HTML5-only. :thumbup:

Of course, there ARE still sites around where the webmasters "dragged their heels" & couldn't be bothered to update things, despite having at least 5 years warning that deprecation was looming.....


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Re: Can't get flash working

Unread post by Moonchild » 2022-03-26, 13:24

Mike_Walsh wrote:
2022-03-26, 13:14
I take it you guys ARE aware that Flash went EOL
I'm pretty sure anyone running the flash plugin is aware of that, if for nothing else but the nagging popup by adobe with uninstall as default choice :P Or the time bomb they put in.
Mike_Walsh wrote:
2022-03-26, 13:14
there ARE still sites around where the webmasters "dragged their heels" & couldn't be bothered to update things
Y'know, there are many things that were made with Flash that can't be made with the html5 attempts at providing something similar (at great cost to resources and cpu and browser compatibility). So that's not necessarily anyone 'dragging their heels" or "not bothering", but rather continuing to provide something natively that often can't or won't be able to have an alternative.
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Re: Can't get flash working

Unread post by Moonraker » 2022-03-26, 13:39

I still use flash for certain online game sites which i cannot find a suitable HTML5 alternative..I am well aware it went EOL but i takes my chances and enjoy the content. ;)

Never had an issue in all the years i have used flash.I have several thousand swf files downloaded and stored and use the adobe standalone player where possible but a small minority still need the browser plugin.
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Re: Can't get flash working

Unread post by Moonchild » 2022-03-26, 14:16

Moonraker wrote:
2022-03-26, 13:39
i takes my chances and enjoy the content. ;)
There's actually not much risk at all if you use Pale Moon's ability to ask (or use the permissions manager), and only enable Flash on sites you explicitly want it for.
Plugins aren't even loaded into the browser unless you actually use them, so in most cases the .dll will just sit on your drive and do nothing (and not expose any maybe-vulnerable code to anyone)... unlike the always-on html5 things which are "always on" and in fact are less secure as a result; and lead to things like fingerprinting, etc. -- after all, WebGL and canvas were created specifically to replace plugin technologies.
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Re: Can't get flash working

Unread post by moonbat » 2022-05-26, 04:37

Back in the day every other month there would be security vulnerabilities and fixes announced for Flash and Java plugins. Is there anything inherently insecure about the NPAPI architecture, even after the introduction of a separate plugin-container process in Firefox 3.x?
Mozilla cited security as a big reason (as they did for XUL :roll: ) for wanting to retire the technology itself.
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Re: Can't get flash working

Unread post by vannilla » 2022-05-26, 07:41

moonbat wrote:
2022-05-26, 04:37
Is there anything inherently insecure about the NPAPI architecture, even after the introduction of a separate plugin-container process in Firefox 3.x?
I had briefly experimented with NPAPI some time ago and it's really hard to make an exploit using NPAPI itself.
The whole thing is just a collection of pointers to functions you assign to variables inside your shared library (DLL or SO or whatever format) and then call them like normal to let the browser do the requested action.
It's basically a collection of wrappers around things like memory management.
Of course those wrappers can have holes, but compared to the actual plugin code it's very unlikely that NPAPI itself is the problem, so any exploit is completely the responsibility of the plugin itself.

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Re: Can't get flash working

Unread post by Moonchild » 2022-05-26, 23:15

The API itself has no vulnerabilities that I am aware of.
Using out-of-process plugin execution even further reduces the risk because the plugin code will be separated from the browser code and can therefore not directly address anything in the browser.
Of course the security of plugging in 3rd party binary code is always dependent on the security of that code, too.
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Re: Can't get flash working

Unread post by moonbat » 2022-05-27, 03:48

So it's down to Adobe and Sun/Oracle's crappy code only, as I had guessed.
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Re: Can't get flash working

Unread post by Moonchild » 2022-05-27, 07:50

moonbat wrote:
2022-05-27, 03:48
So it's down to Adobe and Sun/Oracle's crappy code only, as I had guessed.
If you're talking about Java and Flash, it is also down to the people writing the java and flash content. Since both deal with foreign code/content, they are in the same (difficult) situation to deal with people trying to find ways to break their code all the time with malicious intent. So the "vulnerabilities" are often from trying to remain bulletproof against crafted malicious content.
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Re: Can't get flash working

Unread post by Daikun » 2022-05-27, 09:22

Two problems:
1) You're using PM 29.4.4. Please upgrade to PM 31 already. All the baggage from PM 30 is removed here.
2) Using Flash in 2022? :lol:

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Re: Can't get flash working

Unread post by Moonraker » 2022-05-27, 15:00

Daikun wrote:
2022-05-27, 09:22
Two problems:
1) You're using PM 29.4.4. Please upgrade to PM 31 already. All the baggage from PM 30 is removed here.
2) Using Flash in 2022? :lol:
yes i'm still using flash and shall continue to do so fro many years hopefully..A lot of flash game sites are still up and running and a hell of a lot of stuff has been archived too.
Flash is still very much relevant and provides in some cases far better content than contemporary methods.
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Re: Can't get flash working

Unread post by moonbat » 2022-05-29, 06:05

Daikun wrote:
2022-05-27, 09:22
Using Flash in 2022? :lol:
One uses Flash obviously to access still existing content made for it :roll:
There are still tons of Flash games out there. HTML5 was supposed to replace it but nothing of the sort happened. Simply adding support for video codecs and DRM isn't enough - Flash was used for a million things other than playing video on Youtube. You won't ever see shit like this again. Or beautiful animated games with music like this, that don't take up much in terms of space or system resources.
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Re: Can't get flash working

Unread post by WiseWolf » 2022-05-29, 06:29

There is one way to still use flash content that is still online, however:

It involves reverse engineering the flash standard or something similar.

In a hugely specific way...

Also, if you are using a linux distro, they cannot kill your flash plugin offline. Which is hardly ideal, but it is sure as hell is better than completely giving in.

I wonder if flash still would have been a huge security vector problem, if it was open sourced from the beginning till now...

Would it be as secure as, html5 without DRM, or with DRM?

I am curious to this and many things...

;)

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Re: Can't get flash working

Unread post by Moonraker » 2022-05-29, 08:47

I have downloaded and stored approximately 100,000 swf flash files to be played either in the standalone player i have or within pale moon via the flash plugin.

yea open sourcing flash would certainly have been a good idea because there is a heck of a lot of good flash content out there.
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Re: Can't get flash working

Unread post by moonbat » 2022-05-29, 08:48

WiseWolf wrote:
2022-05-29, 06:29
There is one way to still use flash content that is still online
Just download the archived last but one version and use that with Pale Moon, there is zero need to jump through elaborate hoops. Reminds me of my own recent post here about people unnecessarily overcomplicating their workflow.

And when replying please don't quote my entire post as I've often seen you do :roll:
Moonraker wrote:
2022-05-29, 08:47
open sourcing flash
Not possible, there's too many legal hurdles and patents to navigate for it to be worthwhile, for a product that itself was acquired (originally Macromedia and now Adobe).
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WiseWolf

Re: Can't get flash working

Unread post by WiseWolf » 2022-05-30, 05:34

moonbat wrote:
2022-05-29, 08:48
WiseWolf wrote:
2022-05-29, 06:29
There is one way to still use flash content that is still online
[/quote
open sourcing flash
Not possible, there's too many legal hurdles and patents to navigate for it to be worthwhile, for a product that itself was acquired (originally Macromedia and now Adobe).
Hmm, are you saying, that even ADOBE cannot open source the whole thing, even if they wanted to? I know they don't, but just for the sake of curiosity, do they even have the power to do so?

It would be interesting to have an answer to this, don't ask me why, but this kind of situation for some reason can fascinate me from time to time due to them supposedly owning the product.

Btw, I don't really use flash at all. The reason I mentioned this, is because, I don't trust it in its current form.

Also, I thought adobe started making changes to shut down flash online regardless of the OS for the most part...

I am going to assume though, I am missing something important?

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