APT way to get Adobe Flash Player latest version for Linux not working

Question

I am running Ubuntu 14.10 and I am trying to get the latest version of Adobe Flash Player for Linux (which apparently is 11.2), I am selecting the option for APT for Ubuntu 10.04+ here:

But when I click the Launch Application button after hitting the Download button:

I just get this in the Ubuntu Software Center:

So my main questions are, why is this happening? Can I fix this? And how can I get the latest version of Adobe Flash Player if I can't fix this?

Solution 1

First

1. Make sure you have the Universe repository enabled (in Software Sources, accessible from Software Center -> Edit -> Software Sources, or sudo add-apt-repository universe or see How do I enable the "Universe" repository? ).

   1a. And just in case the adobe-flashplugin package is missing, you may not have the "Canonical Parter" repo activated in Software & Updates / Software Sources, see Ubuntu's help page for 14.04 trusty or 16.04 xenial.

2. Update package index files (run sudo apt-get update ).

Mozilla, Firefox - NPAPI (Extended Support Release)

• Note that the about Adobe Flash Player page says the "Linux - Mozilla, Firefox - NPAPI (Extended Support Release)" version is apparently not being updated past 11.2.x for Linux (& Solaris).

In this case, it looks like yours only launching the Software Center, and maybe doing a strange search that doesn't get any results.

I'd run apt-cache in a terminal, and search for adobe-flashplugin or flashplugin-installer (or just flashplugin).

I've got adobe-flashplugin installed, but there's several "adobe flashplugin" packages available, trying to install a different one wants to remove this one first. I think adobe-flashplugin is the version you'd want, apparently from these Q's What's the difference between flashplugin-installer and adobe-flashplugin? and flashplugin-installer vs. flashplugin-nonfree vs. adobe-flashplugin the difference is:

• flashplugin-installer - extracts the 32-bit Flash player, and installs a 32-bit compatibility layer for 64-bit systems.
• adobe-flashplugin 32-bit or 64-bit version, depending on your system

This search should find all that're available (and also the pepperflash plugin mentined below):

apt-cache search flashplugin

Then you should be able to install with this:

sudo apt-get install adobe-flashplugin

(Or if you wanted the other one, sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer)

Chrome (embedded), Chromium-based browsers - PPAPI

If you're using the Chrome/Chromium browser, it uses it's own Pepper flash player that is currently the same version for Windows & Mac & Linux. Chrome has it already embedded, while Chromium requires a package install.
_{(FYI, The Difference between Google Chrome and Chromium on Linux)}

The Chromium packages are in the Ubuntu universe repo as chromium-browser and pepperflashplugin-nonfree so can be installed with these commands:

• sudo apt-get install chromium-browser
• sudo apt-get install pepperflashplugin-nonfree

or both at once:

• sudo apt-get install chromium-browser pepperflashplugin-nonfree

And after they're installed the pepperflashplayer has it's own update script:

• Check the versions installed and available "upstream":

  sudo update-pepperflashplugin-nonfree --status
  

• Install the lastest version available:

  `sudo update-pepperflashplugin-nonfree --install
  

---

Use the Pepper Flash plugin with Mozilla/Firefox

FYI: I just saw an article on WebUpd8.org about a Firefox plugin available on the WebUpd8 PPA that should let you use the newer Pepper flash player. Here's a link & clip:

Fresh Player Plugin Sees New Release (Pepper Flash Wrapper For Firefox)

Date: Wednesday, January 14, 2015
As you probably know, the latest Adobe Flash Player is available on Linux only via Google Chrome (it's bundled with it) while other browsers such as Firefox are stuck with an old 11.2 version.

The Adobe Flash Player plugin that's bundled with Google Chrome is in the form of a PPAPI (or Pepper Plugin API) plugin and Mozilla isn't interested in adding support for it. Because of this, Rinat Ibragimov has developed Fresh Player Plugin, a wrapper that allows Linux users to use Pepper Flash from Google Chrome in Firefox and other NPAPI-compatible browsers.

Note that according to its GitHub page, Fresh Player Plugin "mostly works, but some essential APIs are still to be implemented", so it may not work with some websites.

Here are the pasted instructions for adding the WebUpd8 PPA & the Fresh Player Plugin:

1. Install Fresh Player Plugin in Ubuntu (via PPA), by using the following commands:

   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install freshplayerplugin
   

   You can also download the deb from HERE but installing it without adding the PPA means you won't get updates!

2. Fresh Player Plugin is just a wrapper for libpepflashplayer.so so it needs this file which is bundled with Google Chrome. The easiest way to get this file is to simply install Google Chrome Stable - download it from here, then install it. That's it!

   There are other ways of getting libpepflashplayer.so but I won't post installation instructions for all of them here. Instead, I'll just list them below:

   • if you're using Google Chrome Unstable, create a symbolic link from /opt/google/chrome-unstable/PepperFlash to /opt/google/chrome/ or add a freshwrapper.conf file and add the /opt/google/chrome-unstable/PepperFlash/libpepflashplayer.so path there - see step 3;
   • you can install Pepper Flash using 2 other ways: via the installer available in the official Ubuntu 14.04 repositories and via the Pepper Flash PPA which is also available for older Ubuntu versions - once installed, then you'll need to create a symbolic link for Pepper Flash to /opt/google/chrome/PepperFlash/libpepflashplayer.so or see step 3 for how to change the path to it.

Solution 2

Try this for Firefox/Iceweasel:

1: Get the Adobe Flash Player .tar.gz from https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

2: Extract it

3: Open a terminal

4: 'cd' to the extracted folder

5: run 'sudo cp libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/'

It works for me :-)

Thanks to https://forums.kali.org/showthread.php?977-Install-Flash-Player-for-Iceweasel-Firefox-in-3-Simple-Steps

Solution 3

I found installing via the Ubuntu Software Centre most painless and reliable.

At some time or other there had been a problem that had me cursing Adobe. Apt had at least two versions of an adobe flash installer and downloader. There seemed to be no documentation... And some window kept popping up.. etc. But really, just uninstall from the Software Centre and then reinstall, and all the spanners that seem inherent in Adobe's awkward-squad install just disappear.

Comments

[Thomas Ward]

Keep in mind the 'latest version of flash' for non-Chrome browsers on Linux was 11.x. There is no new support for Linux Flash Player except via Pepper Flash on Chrome.

[Admin]

Well I am still unable to load it, and that is what I want to do. But they do say that they will keep keep providing security backports for this version which is the latest for Linux.

[karel]

I'm using Pepper Flash Player 15.0.0.189 in Chromium web browser, both from the Ubuntu repos, although I had to update Pepper Flash Player from the terminal after I installed it to get it to the latest version.

[Thomas Ward]

@Toroidal not forever though - only for 5 years from when they discontinued Linux support. And that's coming up sooner than you think. (Details in the Adobe Roadmap page for Flash)

[Xen2050]

That page downloads the 11.2.202.548 Version (today), apparently the older NPAPI player, and at least should be equivalent to the one in the Ubuntu repos. But it does work, I used to do the same thing for a while, but the repo version was easier to keep up to date.

[hochl]

worked for me on debian testing while the flashplugin-nonfree package did not work.

[DJCrashdummy]

here are the differences between adobe-flashplugin and flashplugin-installer explained: askubuntu.com/a/49312/354350

[Xen2050]

@DJCrashdummy Thanks, been wondering about those for a long time. The package descriptions really should be updated, adobe-flashplugin's only says "Adobe Flash Player plugin", while flashplugin-installer says it will download from Adobe, though actually downloads from canonical (they must have downloaded directly from Adobe). I'll edit a bit of info & link into my answer

[DJCrashdummy]

yes, i was also wondering for a long time... ;-) but more than a year ago i had done some research and found the posted answer; so when i came across your post, i thought it could be useful. -- anyway... you are right, a better package description would be useful, but i'm not a developer and have no clue how to change/update!?

[Xen2050]

@DJCrashdummy I'll bet there's a bug reporting system somewhere (found it) (called flashplugin-nonfree apparently) but searching packages.ubuntu.com 16.04 for flashplugin only found flashplugin-downloader (which depends on:) & flashplugin-installer - it doesn't even list adobe-flashplugin... somethin's wrong here

[DJCrashdummy]

first i have to say although i use a ubuntu-based distribution i try to push things to debian thereby a bigger userbase benefit from it! -- so i can tell the flashplugin-nonfree comes from debian (and there it is the only flash-package and works like "downloader/installer")... why ubuntu is reinventing the wheel is beyond me.

[DJCrashdummy]

well... the more i think about it, i guess i read somewhere some time ago that the "native" adobe-flashplugin will be dropped... -- but what's really strange (although that's nothing new when it comes to adobe flash :-p) is that the adobe-flashplugin can't be found for any release but it is in my repositories (yes, they are the ubuntu-original and not distribution-specific) and the last update was a month ago...! -- with my very humble knowledge i agree somthing strange is going on...

[Xen2050]

Found the adobe-flashplugin, I guess it's not listed in packages.ubuntu.com since it comes from the "Canonical Partners" repo at canonical.com (Ubuntu help here for 16.04). Seen the giant "linux family tree" map on wikipedia? Debian has a lot of branches (I use Mint, shhh ;-)

[DJCrashdummy]

ok... yes that's it!!! - i haven't thought about this because my everyday PCs are also "minty fresh" for round about 8 years now! ;-) -- for sure i've seen the family tree (it's every time impressive again), and that's why i try to contribute to "the roots"!