How to Install Adobe Flash in Debian Etch/Lenny/Sid
Posted by Admin on December 19th, 2008
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Method 1
If you run Etch you will want to use backport.org
First you need to edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file using the following command
#nano /etc/apt/sources.list
add the following line
deb http://www.backports.org/debian etch-backports main contrib non-free
save and exit the file.
Update the source list using the following command
#apt-get update
All backports are deactivated by default. If you want to install something from backports run:
#apt-get -t etch-backports install “packagename”
If you are using etch and you want apt to verify the downloaded backports you can import backports.org archive’s key into apt:
#apt-get install debian-backports-keyring
If you want to get your packages from backports upgraded automatically the following entry in /etc/apt/preferences should be sufficient:
Package: *
Pin: release a=etch-backports
Pin-Priority: 200
Once you have backports all set up do one of the following commands
#apt-get update
#apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree
Method 2
Using debian-multimedia.org repo
First you need to download the debian-multimedia-keyring package from here
Install using the following command
#dpkg -i debian-multimedia-keyring_2008.10.16_all.deb
you need to edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file using the following command
#nano /etc/apt/sources.list
add the following lines which is suitable for you
For etch (stable) alpha, amd64, hppa, i386, ia64, powerpc and sparc packages
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org etch main
or
deb ftp://ftp.debian-multimedia.org etch main
or
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org stable main or
deb ftp://ftp.debian-multimedia.org stable main
For lenny (testing) alpha, amd64, armel, hppa, i386, ia64, mipsel, powerpc and sparc packages
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org lenny main
or
deb ftp://ftp.debian-multimedia.org lenny main
or
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org testing main or
deb ftp://ftp.debian-multimedia.org testing main
For sid (unstable) alpha, amd64, armel, hppa, i386, ia64, mipsel, powerpc and sparc packages.
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org sid main or
deb ftp://ftp.debian-multimedia.org sid main
For experimental amd64, i386 and powerpc packages. transcode, k9copy and kplayer (Qt4 version) and mjpegtools packages.
The official Debian experimental repository isn’t needed.
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org experimental main or
deb ftp://ftp.debian-multimedia.org experimental main
For source
deb-src http://www.debian-multimedia.org sid main or
deb-src ftp://ftp.debian-multimedia.org sid main
Install flash player using the following command
#apt-get install flashplayer-mozilla
Once you have flash installed you can check in Iceweasel by entering about:plugins in the address bar. It should show something like:
Shockwave Flash
File name: /usr/lib/flashplayer-mozilla/libflashplayer.so
Shockwave Flash 10.0.12.36
The above works for Iceweasel, Opera, Epiphany, and Midori


December 19th, 2008 at 3:09 am
> Flash Player is a cross-platform browser plug-in that delivers breakthrough Web experiences to over 98% of Internet users.
It is since rrrrrrencently but it has been a Windows only platform for quite a long time.
Currently, I have only one official mirror in my sources.list file, using sid, and I have the package installed. It’s probably in the non-free section :
deb ftp://gulus.usherbrooke.ca/debian unstable main contrib non-free
December 19th, 2008 at 11:41 am
What, no mention of the free software alternatives and how Adobe Flash surrenders freedom?
December 22nd, 2008 at 6:41 pm
I last used http://www.gnash.org/ at version 0.8.3, it’s a free opensource SWF/FLV
. There’s a http://packages.debian.org/gnash
.
viewer and there’s a plugin for Firefox/Konq {mozilla|konqueror}-\
plugin-gnash]. The non-GL version with a standard video xserver
works fine for SWF-enabled websites, although youtube vids are quite
slow and the sound support is iffy. The GL version [of gnash] with a GLX
video driver works somewhat better but IMHO it still needs some
serious work, wish I was a better coder
of 0.8.2-2 for Etch available. BTW gnash is opensource
January 3rd, 2009 at 8:07 pm
thanks, the apt install with the backports keyring worked instantly, i cut and pasted ~6 of your command lines and closed and reopened iceweasel, and bam.
January 5th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
This is one of those things that bugs me- I’m using Kubuntu 8.04 64 bit on my main box (Lenny and Etch 32 bit on my others). There is a beta 64 bit flash plugin that adobe has released (the first 64 bit native plugin for *any* platform- yeah Adobe!).
The installations was- download, put it in the plugin directory. No need to add repositories, et. al.- just copy a single file to the right place.
Solaris and Linux 64 bit Flash plugin.
January 5th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
i have worked with lenny + multimedia for a while. I installed flash update when it was launched, but after the first run, iceweacel and minefield (firefox 3.1) stop showing flash contents and only show a gray area. I tryed a couple times, but it always happens the same thing, so i’m “stuck” in 9
January 6th, 2009 at 1:18 am
One could simply enable the contrib and nonfree sources in debian sid . Then simply run an apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree . Then simply comment out the sid repo when your done.
January 6th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
If all else fails, download install_flash_player_10_linux.tar.gz from Adobe, decompress, cd to resulting directory, then run as root:
./flashplayer-installer
Tell it to install in /usr/lib/iceweasel (and/or where ever else you want).
Works for me.
January 7th, 2009 at 11:42 am
It may be cross-platform, but from what I’ve seen in this article, only i386 and amd64 cpu architectures are currently supported by Adobe. (I’ve used some Adobe plug-ins for Solaris on sun4m SPAC CPUs in the past but doubt that new versions have been written in recent years).
January 30th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
As a note on lenny:
After adding the debian-multimedia repos, I had to
apt-get remove swfdec-mozillaand restart mozilla to see Flash player 10 in IceweaselFebruary 11th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
I had version 9 working and wanted to install version 10, but this results in:
.mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so: /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.4′ not found (required by .mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so)
So I followed method one described here in the hope the HOWTO works around the problem. It ends with a download of version 9. Its not even installed
So for Debian stable it looks like Flash 10 is neraly inpossible to use.
February 17th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
I’ve just installed flash 10 on Lenny AMD64 by getting the 64bit tar.gz from Adobe, uncompressing it and copying to /usr/lib/iceweasel/plugins (I had to create the plugins dir). Works like a champ so far…
April 9th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Thx, I was using nspluginwrapper but I had some issues, the flash animation overlap everything near to it. Monday I update my debian+kde4 and boom!!!, flash stop working, your solution is neat and works perfectly, Thx again
April 29th, 2009 at 7:03 am
I did the same as Jaime Andres, (http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10.html), and it works!
June 13th, 2009 at 7:05 am
I have this trouble now, I even rebooted the pc:
http://img140.imageshack.us/i/flashlenny.jpg/
with installing as :
Get:1 http://debian-multimedia.org lenny/main flashplayer-mozilla 1:10.0.22.87-0.1 [3963kB]
Fetched 3963kB in 11s (357kB/s)
(Reading database … 185383 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing flashplugin-nonfree …
Processing triggers for man-db …
Selecting previously deselected package flashplayer-mozilla.
(Reading database … 185373 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking flashplayer-mozilla (from …/flashplayer-mozilla_1%3a10.0.22.87-0.1_i386.deb) …
Setting up flashplayer-mozilla (1:10.0.22.87-0.1) …
any ideas?
September 7th, 2009 at 6:55 am
Frenchn00b:
You should double check what and where it was installed by using command :
dpkg -L flashplayer-mozilla
and copy over *so file you’ll see from previous output to :
~/.mozilla/plugins/
Somehow flashplayer-mozilla package is using wrong directory for *so file.
December 31st, 2009 at 11:44 am
I have been having a problem where sound with flash skips, or doesn’t play at all, or gets into some kind of loop.
This is on lenny, no gnome or kde (ion3 for wm), and it happens with both iceweasel and chrome. (haven’t tried epiphany or any other browser).
I had been using the nonfree plugin from the repos, then downloaded flash10 from adobe and copied it to
/opt/google/chrome/plugins/libflashplayer.so and /usr/lib/iceweasel/plugins/libflashplayer.so
and still see the issue. (I cp-ed b/c there was no installer in the tarball I dloaded, just the libflashplayer.so file).
Briefly, it seemed restarting the sound system (alsa) would temporarily resolve the issue, but it would come back.
Now, it comes back almost immediately.
As such, I am unable to view and hear flash videos from youtube, etc., etc.
I brought the matter up on the mail list, and the only suggestion I’ve received was to restart alsa, which, as mentioned,
only temporarily resolved the issue, and too temporarily to be useful.
It’s not an iceweasel problem, since it also occurs in chrome (which I am now using as default browser).
Restarting X my ion3 session also seems to temporarily resolve the issue (probably because alsa restarts, I imagine), but again, only temporarily.
Anyone?
Thanks in advance.
/tony
January 13th, 2010 at 8:52 am
it worked for me.Thanks
February 9th, 2010 at 6:28 am
for the 64 arch heres what I do, download http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/flashplayer10/libflashplayer-10.0.42.34.linux-x86_64.so.tar.gz
gunzip-untar in lets say your home (close iceweasel)
# mkdir /usr/lib/flash
# cp libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/flash
# cd /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
# ln -s /usr/lib/flash/libflashplayer.so
start iceweasel there flash working (i create the “flash” directory in case theres another release of flash i just copy the new one there)
I hope it works