Flash problem with Ubuntu 9.04

[Agustíne]

I recently upgraded to Ubuntu 9.04 from Ubuntu 8.10. I had done this after a lot of deliberation. Well my issue is that i keep getting messages from flash sites like youtube telling me to install Adobe flash or try turning on javascript. I went to Adobe's site to check my flash version. Well it doesn't even play the video on it which is supposed to tell me what version of flash i have. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling flash using synaptic manager. I have also experienced crashes sometime while trying to visit websites needing flash. Would appreciate it a lot if someone can come up with a good solution for solving the flash problem with Ubuntu 9.04.

[Humberto]

You have most probably installed swfdec or gnash. The problem is it doesn't have 100% compatibility with Adobe flash content. I suggest you to remove the old flash plugin using the following command first :
sudo apt-get remove flashplugin-* --purge
Then use the following command to install the flash plugin
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree
and then restart the browser which should solve the issue in my opinion. If this doesn't work then it should probably be a drivers issue in your case. Having more than one flash plugin installed causes a conflict amongst them causing these issues so uninstall those additional plugins if at all you have them. The open source flash implementations might work with a few sites but not all sites so you need to uninstall those first.

[Dr. V]

I agree with humberto, you probably have gnash or swfdec installed. These are open source flash implementations and will work for sites such as youtube but won't work for all. Having more than one flash plugin is not advised because this leads to conflict between them, so uninstall those first.Follow the steps given below to uninstall those and install the adobe flash plugin.

sudo apt-get remove --purge swfdec-mozilla mozilla-plugin-gnash flashplugin-nonfree adobe-flashplugin
sudo apt-get install adobe-flashplugin

By the way you will need Canonical partner repository if you want to download and install the adobe flash plugin. By the way it might seem weird but you can also try installing Noscript plugin on mozilla and see if flash starts working. This has worked for many people as bizarre as it may seem.

[Calvin K]

Well i was using firefox when i encountered this issue. The solution was pretty simple in my case. I had two versions of Shockwave flash installed on my system, so i disabled one and flash started working fine for me. The open source plugins don't work as well compared to the adobe plugin. This could also be an issue with compiz. If it is then you could solve the problem in the following way, by installing compizconfig-settings-manage with the below mentioned command:
sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager
After that go to System and then Preferences and then CompizConfig Settings Manager.Click on general options and uncheck undirect full screen windows. Hope these tips help you resolve the issue.

[MrChris-]

Well i was using a foxytunes add-on on my Firefox. But after uninstalling it, flash started working fine for me without any issues. I suggest you to try the Noscript plugin on your browser and see if it works for you and solves the problem. What you can do otherwise is download flash player. Extract using the following command :
tar -xzvf libflashplayer-10.0.22.87.linux-x86_64.so.tar.gz
Place what was extracted in the plugins folder of Mozilla, if there isn't one then create a folder names plugins. Hope this helps,good luck and revert back if you still have issues.

[Solomon]

Thanks a lot Dr V for your suggestion. I also had the same problem after i upgraded to Karmic from Jaunty. No such issues were faced by me when i was using Jaunty. But after doing according to your proposed solution, i could get flash working on my system again. What i also noticed while installing Jaunty on my laptop is that you install it right then using the following command :
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree
After doing that i didn't get any issue with flash on my laptop which means it could also be a possible solution for those facing it on Jaunty. Thanks to all the repliers here for their time in coming up with a proper solution.