HOW-TO: Use the latest version of Flash with Firefox

[SteveRiley]

As we know, Adobe ceased development of the Linux version of the Flash player in 2012. We are stuck with version 11.2, which by now is very old. Adobe continues to provide periodic security updates, and will do so until 2017. After that point, the player will cease to receive maintenance, creating security risks for anyone using it.

Google, meanwhile, in seeking to exert greater control over the browser ecosystem, developed a new kind of plugin API called Pepper (PPAPI), to replace the aging Netscape plugin API (NPAPI). Adobe agreed to make the source code of Flash available to Google, and Google creates a PPAPI-based Flash plugin exclusively for Chrome on Linux. Mozilla manifestly refuses to support PPAPI, and for good reason: it isn't an open standard and is mostly undocumented.

If you use Chrome, you're lucky: you will always have the latest version of Flash. A while back, it was discovered that the PPAPI player would also work with Chromium, and an installer was made available that downloads Chrome, unpacks it, extracts the player, and configures it to work with Chromium.

Up until recently, this left Firefox users with an increasingly aging and eventually insecure plugin. But no more! A developer has created Fresh Player, a wrapper for the PPAPI plugin that allows NPAPI-based browsers like Firefox to use the latest plugin. Yay!

---

1. Remove the existing Flash player and its configuration files. Typically, you will have either flashplugin-installer from the Multiverse archive or adobe-flashplugin from the Partner repository, but not both.

sudo apt-get purge adobe-flash-properties-kde adobe-flashplugin flashplugin-installer

rm -rfv ~/.macromedia ~/.adobe

2. Add the Fresh Player PPA to your package management system and update your package index.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:thad-fisch/freshplayerplugin

sudo apt-get update

3. Install the Fresh Player plugin wrapper from the above PPA.

sudo apt-get install freshplayerplugin

4. Install the Pepper Flash downloader and plugin.

sudo apt-get install pepperflashplugin-nonfree

---

And that's it! As you can see, my PC now has version 15 of the Flash player running just fine with YouTube:

[MoonRise]

Didn't seem to work here. Followed as stated but still reports the old version.

[SteveRiley]

Ah, I probably should have included instructions for uninstalling the old one:

sudo apt-get purge adobe-flash-properties-kde adobe-flashplugin flashplugin-installer

rm -rfv ~/.macromedia ~/.adobe

Typically, you will have either flashplugin-installer from the Multiverse archive or adobe-flashplugin from the Partner repository, but not both.

I'd suggest purging the packages from post #1 first, then purging the old plugins. Now repeat the steps in post #1.

[MoonRise]

I also noted this after repeating the steps.

E: Unable to locate package freshplayerplugin

[SteveRiley]

That's weird... you didn't remove the PPA, did you? So long as the PPA is present, the package should be downloadable:

steve@t520:~$ [B]apt-cache policy freshplayerplugin[/B]
freshplayerplugin:
  Installed: 0.2.1+git201411092111~ubuntu14.10.1
  Candidate: 0.2.1+git201411092111~ubuntu14.10.1
  Version table:
 *** 0.2.1+git201411092111~ubuntu14.10.1 0
        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/thad-fisch/freshplayerplugin/ubuntu/ utopic/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Oh wait...you have to run sudo apt-get update after running add-apt-repository! I really should have proofread that post better, heh. I'll add these changes into the OP.

[MoonRise]

I should have known better anyway!!


EDIT: Yea!

[anika200]

One should be on the side of transparency, why would we want to prolong flash anyway or pepper flesh ...?

[SteveRiley]

While YouTube has transitioned to HTML5, there are several sites on the web that still use Flash only. Quite a number of games also require Flash. While its use is generally on the decline, it'll be a few more years before Flash disappears completely. So rather than pretend it doesn't exist, let's ensure that people can have a decent and safe experience until the day Flash actually does go away.

[geoaraujo]

While YouTube has transitioned to HTML5, there are several sites on the web that still use Flash only. Quite a number of games also require Flash. While its use is generally on the decline, it'll be a few more years before Flash disappears completely. So rather than pretend it doesn't exist, let's ensure that people can have a decent and safe experience until the day Flash actually does go away.

Thank you!

[Qqmike]

Nice job. Very nice, concise history-status-summary, too, for those of us who don't diligently follow every detail of these things. Thanks!

[mbohets]

Thx, install went smoothly

[marco07]

Thank you Steve!
Istallation was smooth in Kubuntu 14.10 plasma-5 on my test partition on a desktop. I am going to install it on my laptops with kubuntu 14.04 as well.

[Rod J]

Unfortunately, it looks like Kubuntu 12.04 isn't supported. I got up to the add repository step and I saw this:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:thad-fisch/freshplayerpluginYou are about to add the following PPA to your system:
 ppapi2npapi compatibility layer
===============================

Supported Ubuntu versions:
- 14.10 (utopic)
- 14.04 (trusty)

=== Information ==
Please visit the github project site to report and track bugs:
https://github.com/i-rinat/freshplayerplugin

=== Configuration ===
Example configuration file:
/usr/share/doc/freshplayerplugin/freshwrapper.conf.example

 More info: https://launchpad.net/~thad-fisch/+archive/ubuntu/freshplayerplugin
Press [ENTER] to continue or ctrl-c to cancel adding it
^CTraceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/add-apt-repository", line 182, in <module>
    sys.stdin.readline()
KeyboardInterrupt
rod@Pentium-DualCore:~$

I cancelled out of it.

[blackpaw]

Thanks, works great

[oldgeek]

Thanks, the installation went smoothly, and I checked the version using YouTube and got the same version you did. A question--when I go into Firefox plugins, it says I have Shockwave Flash version 13.1.2.3, as well as the old 11.2.etc Shockwave Flash. Wasn't the old Flash uninstalled? And why does Firefox report Flash 13 when YouTube reports Flash 15?