flashplugin-nonfree on Gutsy: a working package in -proposed repositories

Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere, on other blogs or tutorial pages, I have not done my homework, and will not do it for now. Real life sometimes requires more attention than other things.

flashplugin-nonfree has not been working on Gutsy for a while. I noticed when I installed Gutsy on my eldest son’s Christmas computer on December 25. Quite a bummer for a teenager, but he accepted to wait for an official fix rather than using some workaround. He’s been patient, but yesterday, well, that was it, I had to do something.

I had been following the bug report now and then, and a UF thread. A working flashplugin-nonfree version has been uploaded to the -proposed repositories. Here is the procedure that worked on his 32-bits install:

• Completely purge the previously installed package. On my son’s computer, I used synaptic, as he does his updates/upgrades with update-manager and synaptic. Please use apt-get or aptitude if these are your favorite package managers
• Edit /etc/apt/sources.list file to add this line:

  # Proposed
  deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-proposed main restricted universe multiverse

• Reload the sources.list (with synaptic, or sudo apt-get update or sudo aptitude update) and install flashplugin-nonfree
• Restart your browser (tested with firefox and epiphany on YouTube)

aptitude show flashplugin-nonfree
Paquet : flashplugin-nonfree
État: installé
Automatiquement installé: oui
Version : 9.0.48.0.2+really0ubuntu12.1
Priorité : optionnel
Section : contrib/web
Responsable : Ubuntu MOTU Developers
Taille décompressée : 160k
Dépend: debconf | debconf-2.0, wget, libgtk2.0-0, fontconfig, libxt6, libxext6,
libatk1.0-0, libc6, libcairo2, libexpat1, libfontconfig1, libfreetype6,
libglib2.0-0, libice6, libpango1.0-0, libpng12-0, libsm6, libx11-6,
libxau6, libxcursor1, libxdmcp6, libxfixes3, libxi6, libxinerama1,
libxrandr2, libxrender1, zlib1g
Suggère: firefox, konqueror-nsplugins, x-ttcidfont-conf, msttcorefonts,
ttf-bitstream-vera | ttf-dejavu, ttf-xfree86-nonfree, xfs (>=
1:1.0.1-5)
Est en conflit: flashplugin (< 6), xfs (< 1:1.0.1-5), flashplayer-mozilla Remplace: flashplugin (< 6) Description : Adobe Flash Player plugin installer This package will download the Flash Player from Adobe. It is a Netscape/Mozilla type plugin. Any browser based on Netscape or Mozilla can use the Flash plugin. This package currently supports the following browsers: Mozilla, Mozilla-Firefox, Firefox, Iceweasel, and Iceape. Also Galeon and Epiphany can use the Flash plugin. Konqueror can also use the Flash plugin if konqueror-nsplugins is installed. WARNING: Installing this Ubuntu package causes the Adobe flash plugin to be downloaded from http://www.adobe.com. The distribution license of the Adobe flash plugin is available at http://www.adobe.com. Installing this Ubuntu package implies that you have accepted the terms of that license. Homepage: http://wiki.ubuntu.com/FlashPlayer9%5B/sourcecode%5D

Warning

The -proposed repositories are for TESTS, so please comment them after you are done installing flash.

From the bug report, looks like the package has been built for Feisty, but not for earlier Ubuntu releases (due to issues with flash 7).

Hope this helps :)