How to install adobe flash tar?

Question

I have a problem getting Flash working in Mint13 XFCE.

Now I have downloaded the tar file, but I don't understand what I have to do to get this installed.

I have this file:

install_flash_player_11_linux.i386.tar

downloaded from here: http://get.adobe.com/nl/flashplayer/?no_redirect

How do I install this?

Solution

Extract the readme.txt from the tar file you downloaded and read the instructions in there:

Installing using the plugin tar.gz:
  o Unpack the plugin tar.gz and copy the files to the appropriate location.  
  o Save the plugin tar.gz locally and note the location the file was saved to.
  o Launch terminal and change directories to the location the file was saved to.
  o Unpack the tar.gz file.  Once unpacked you will see the following:
        + libflashplayer.so
        + /usr
  o Identify the location of the browser plugins directory, based on your Linux 
    distribution and Firefox version
  o Copy libflashplayer.so to the appropriate browser plugins directory.
    At the prompt type:
        + cp libflashlayer.so <BrowserPluginsLocation>
  o Copy the Flash Player Local Settings configurations files to the /usr 
    directory.  At the prompt type:
        + sudo cp -r usr/* /usr

Comments

[Anthon]

Where things go depend on your Linux distribution and version of Firefox. Mine (Ubuntu 12.04) is in /usr/lib/flashplugin-installer/ The directory is copied recursively, as indicated in the readme.txt over /usr which puts the files underneath usr in their respective subdirs there. You do not put the directory usr itself somewhere as /usr already exists.

[DutchArjo]

I found the libflashplayer.so directory. I pasted the new file there using cp -r command. i used this command sudo cp -r usr/* /usr where I changed usr/* into /home/<username>/Downloads/usr Is this wrong? I copied the files in the wrong directory now? How can I find the directory I should paste the files is? using find / -name libflashplayer.so -print I found the location of this file is /usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin/libflashplayer.so Should the directories under /usr be pasted in this location?

[Anthon]

@DutchArjo Why are you not following the exact instructions? You should definitely not paste (or copy or move) anything from /usr to anywhere. You have to unpack/extract (with tar xf <filename>) the tar archive. I would always, without exception do so, in an empty directory and in that directory do cp -r usr/* /usr.

[terdon]

@DutchArjo no, the libflashlayer.so should be copied to /usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin/ but it looks like it's already there(?). Then, the files in the subdirectory usr/ if wherever you extracted the tar file to should be copied to /usr. You should run the exact command provided by the readme: sudo cp -r usr/* /usr.

[DutchArjo]

maybe my comment was not very clear. I did unpack the archive and followed the exact instructions in the readme file. I extracted the tar file to /home/<username>/Downloads/ then I had to found the default plugin directory and I found a site which helped me to do so. I used the command in the readme file to put the .so file in the right directory: At the prompt type: + cp libflashlayer.so <BrowserPluginsLocation> and after that I used sudo cp -r usr/* /usr to copy the file to the right location (I only changed the first location as the path is different as I explained)