Install flashplayer

Method 1 - Hardy Heron (Ubuntu 8.04)

Adobe now provides a deb file to install flash.

1. Browse to http://adobe.com
2. Click on "Get Adobe Flashplayer"
3. Click on "Select version to download"
4. Select ".deb for Ubuntu 8.04+"
5. Click "Agree and install now"
6. Make sure "Open with GDebi Package Installer" is selected and click "OK". The file will download and the Package Installer will open.
7. When the Package installer opens, Click "Install Package". It will automatically install Flash.
8. Completely close Firefox and the open it again before using Flash
9. Go to Youtube or another flash-heavy site to test it.

If Hulu Reports: "Express Install Not Supported"

To fix this you need to completely purge the old Flash 9 installation

1. At the command line, enter sudo apt-get remove --purge flashplugin-nonfree
   1. That will completely remove Flash 9 from the buffer.
2. Follow the instructions above to install Flash 10.
3. To make sure Flash 10 is installed, goto about:plugins in the Firefox address bar, and make sure "Shockwave Flash" is at version 10.0 r42

If the above doesn't fix it you may need to use the "update-alternatives" command to manually set the version of flash. A good install of flash 10 should give you this.

support@Bumblebee:~$ update-alternatives --display firefox-flashplugin
firefox-flashplugin - status is auto.
link currently points to /usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin/libflashplayer.so

If it is broken you may get something more like this.

support@Bumblebee:~$ update-alternatives --display firefox-flashplugin
firefox-flashplugin - status is manual.
link currently points to /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so

You should be able to change it using this commnad.

sudo update-alternatives --config firefox-flashplugin

Method 2 - download the tar.gz file

Browse to http://www.adobe.com

click on Get Adobe Flashplayer

click the Download .tar.gz file link (You have read the user agreement, right?)

save to disk. In Ubuntu, this will be /home/<your user name>/Desktop. Other systems may download to /home/<your user name> by default.

open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+t)

"cd Desktop" (on an Ubuntu box)

type tar -xvzf ins and then hit the tab key. The line then should look something like "tar -xvzf install_flash_player_10_linux.tar.gz".

Hit enter. This should result in a series of filenames being typed on the screen as the package is extracted.

enter cd install_flash_player_10_linux

enter sudo ./flashplayer-installer

follow the prompts. When it asks what browser to install it for, select m or a

for the root install, the path for firefox on Ubuntu Dapper is /usr/lib/firefox

the path on Ubuntu Hardy is /usr/lib/firefox-3.0

you should now have flash installed on your freekbox. Open a browser and go to http://youtube.com to test it.

A more inclusive approach

To enable flash, java, a few video formats, some special fonts, and MP3 playback all at once, use Synaptic to install ubuntu-restricted-extras. You'll need to agree to abide by any licenses attached to the software.

For more information on installing the software to enable and using non-free formats on your Ubuntu system, visit the Ubuntu page on Restricted Formats.