# Installed Flash 11 but Firefox can't play videos



## aurora (Jun 5, 2012)

Hello,

I've just installed Flash Player 11 using the instructions given at http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/desktop-browsers.html (i.e. emulators/linux_base-f10, www/linux-f10-flashplugin11 are installed) and followed all the instructions.

The FreeBSD version is 9 and Firefox 9.0.1 is running successfully. Only the Flash Player plugin is not working. Any help is appreciated, thanks.


----------



## wblock@ (Jun 5, 2012)

Does it show in about:plugins?


----------



## aurora (Jun 5, 2012)

No, it doesn't.


----------



## wblock@ (Jun 5, 2012)

Then probably a step was missed.  Go back to the Handbook and check the part where the link is created.  Also note that *nspluginwrapper* has to be run as the end user, not root.


----------



## SirDice (Jun 6, 2012)

aurora72 said:
			
		

> The FreeBSD version is 9 and Firefox 9.0.1 is running successfully.


Current version of Firefox is 13.0. Please update your ports.


----------



## aurora (Jun 6, 2012)

Hello wblock@

I also think that it must be a user issue because I was trying it with the root user.

But when I tried running nspluginwrapper with a normal user I've just created it still didn*'*t work. I also noted that GNOME2 doesn't work properly when invoked from the normal user, it works only when invoked by the root. 

Hello SirDice

I've tried 
`# portsnap fetch && update`
and 
`# cd /usr/ports/www/firefox`
returned the Firefox 13.x as you mentioned but I just can't *make* it because it takes extremely long to compile it from s*c*ra*tc*h. I should better use the pkg_add method but when I
`# pkg_add -r firefox`
it finds the same version of Firefox and says

```
pkg_add: package 'firefox-9.0.1,1' or its older version already installed
```

Is there a way to update Firefox to V13 using the pkg_add method?


----------



## SirDice (Jun 6, 2012)

Set PACKAGESITE to a -stable package tree. By default it will will fetch and install the exact same packages as on the CD/DVD.


----------



## aurora (Jun 6, 2012)

Hello

*H*ere's what I did:


```
fbsd# setenv PACKAGESITE ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-9-stable/Latest/
fbsd# pkg_add -r firefox                                                       
Fetching ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-9-stable/Lates/firefox.tbz... Done.
pkg_add: package 'firefox-12.0_1,1' or its older version already installed
```

I check the FF version on GNOME desktop, it's 9.0.1.

What could be wrong here?


----------



## SirDice (Jun 6, 2012)

The message is pretty clear? There's already a Firefox installed ("...or its older version already installed").

Uninstall the old one first.


----------



## aurora (Jun 6, 2012)

`# pkg_delete -r firefox-9.0.1,1`

did the work and I managed to install the latest version 13 by the pkg_add method.

Firefox v13 is working now but still the same problem.

I also do:

`# su fbsd`
`$ nspluginwrapper -v -a -i`

then restart Firefox still the same problem.


----------



## aurora (Jun 6, 2012)

As a further note: Upper task bar of GNOME2 >> System >> Preferences >> Adobe Flash Player windows really pops up, which might be an indication that Flash Player is installed but only Firefox might be unable to see it, perhaps.


----------



## SirDice (Jun 6, 2012)

If firefox is old it's likely the flash player is too.


----------



## aurora (Jun 6, 2012)

I have managed to go one step further by enabling the GNOME Display Manager 
	
	



```
gdm_enable="YES"
```
 in rc.conf and logging in as normal user from the GDM screen. 

Now, in Firefox about:plugins, I get this section:

```
Shockwave Flash

    File: npwrapper.libflashplayer.so
    Version: Shockwave Flash 11.2 r202

MIME Type 	Description 	Suffixes
application/x-shockwave-flash 	Shockwave Flash 	swf
application/futuresplash 	FutureSplash Player 	spl
```

But I still can't get Flash Videos play. What could be missing? Thanks.


----------



## wblock@ (Jun 6, 2012)

Let's back up a second.  What happens when a page has Flash, what does it do?  Do you have Adblock, Flashblock, or Noscript installed in Firefox?


----------



## aurora (Jun 6, 2012)

No, none of those scripts or ad blocking add-ons are installed.


----------



## wblock@ (Jun 6, 2012)

What about the first question?


----------



## fmw (Jun 6, 2012)

If you ran *nspluginwrapper* as root, you'll probably have to delete the plugin as root first (*nspluginwrapper -r*) before trying to install it as a user.


----------



## aurora (Jun 6, 2012)

wblock@ said:
			
		

> What about the first question?



I could not answer that, well it's because the GNOME on my desktop works like a hell, constantly reading / writing from HDD until forever! No exaggeration. When I returned to tty1, it was complaining about ~ PV limit or ~ kern.maxfiles limit is reached or similar things. 

When I leave the computer on with GNOME, it almost hangs up, freezes. That's why I could not write my answer to the question when I wanted to. Actually I wrote the answer but afterwards it hung up. I wrote "there's blank space in the place of Flash Player section, just blank space, i.e. no "missing plugin" message"

Now, I started to suspect from the FreeBSD V.*9* I don't think it's good for my old PentiumII computer. I do remember using FreeBSD 7.2 on the same machine with much less RAM. It used to work like a piece of cake. With this version *9* it's nowhere like it. 

I'm afraid I will have to downgrade the FreeBSD version to be able to use this old computer.


----------



## aurora (Jun 6, 2012)

Hello thanks for all the help. 

I think FreeBSD V9 is the problem and I've decided to remove it all over and install another version which I know works well with this computer (features at my signature)

Recently, I had to do the same for Ubuntu 12.04 running on my C2Duo Laptop. I had removed the 12.04 all over and installed 10.10. 

So that's how I solve the problem.


----------



## khentiamentiu (Jun 7, 2012)

*Wow! You had to drop back to 7.2?*

You're kidding, right? I've tried everything I can think of, went through the handbook instructions four times, de-installing everything I could between each attempt, and installing using pkg_add or portinstall or make, but nothing works. Flash shows up in the about:plugins page, but when I go to YouTube and click on a video, the video screen blanks, goes to black, and nothing else happens. Do I really have to drop back as far as 7.2? Is there an alternative browser in 9.0 that WILL play flash videos?


----------



## wblock@ (Jun 7, 2012)

What video card do you have?  Flash has worked for me today in Firefox 12, Chromium, and www/xxxterm.


----------



## SirDice (Jun 7, 2012)

Choosing a different FreeBSD version isn't going to help. All versions of FreeBSD use the same ports tree and as a result share the same ports.

All I can suggest is to update your ports. If the installed firefox was old it's likely the Flash player is just as old.

I have no problems with Firefox 12 (currently building 13) and previous versions. I do remember some issues with an older version of the flash player but the next update solved it for me.


----------



## aurora (Jun 7, 2012)

Hello SirDice,

I've actually already update*d* the ports tree to its latest and so it found FF 12 and installed it.

But all the while dealing with that issue, some more basic problem started to oocur, really. As I mentioned in my previous post: 

"When I leave the computer on with GNOME, it almost hangs up, freezes" 

The HDD is active until forever. When I do "ctrl+altF1" and see what's going on, I see hundreds of warning messages most of them related to kernel, maxlimits, max proc, max files, and so on. As a cure, I have set some of them in /boot/loader.conf but the problem still persisted.

In 2009-2010 I did use FreeBSD 7.2 wi*th* GNOME on the same computer, and none of such problems ever happened. The computer was just running fine and fast. I do remember that. That's why I installed FreeBSD 7.2 again. 

But, such things happen frequently on other OS'es, too. As I mentioned, I have removed the latest version of Linux/Ubuntu 12.04 from my laptop and installed 10.10. Why? Because I have noticed that 12.04 was sometimes crashing i.e. not stable. Their newly developed Desktop Environment called "Unity" was overly simplistic, I did not even have "Gpart" on the Administration menu, because there was no Administration menu, and so on.


----------



## SirDice (Jun 7, 2012)

aurora72 said:
			
		

> The HDD is active till forever. When I do "ctrl+altF1" and see what's going on, I see hundreds of warning messages most of them related to kernel, maxlimits, max proc , max files, and so on. As a cure, I have set some of them in /boot/loader.conf but the problem still persisted.


You shouldn't need to set any of these. The automatic defaults should simply work. 

Did you compile a custom kernel perhaps?


----------



## Deleted member 30996 (Jun 7, 2012)

aurora72 said:
			
		

> Now, I started to suspect from the FreeBSD V.*9* I don't think it's good for my old PentiumII computer. I do remember using FreeBSD 7.2 on the same machine with much less RAM. It used to work like a piece of cake. With this version *9* it's nowhere like it.
> 
> I'm afraid I will have to downgrade the FreeBSD version to be able to use this old computer.



My old GateWay Solo 1450 laptop had similar specs that what you're listing in your sig and FreeBSD 7.2 ran best on it. 

FreeBSD 9.0 seemed to make it run hot and it would continually shut down after reaching over 100F if I didn't keep a fan pointed on it under a heavy load.


----------



## aurora (Jun 7, 2012)

SirDice said:
			
		

> You shouldn't need to set any of these. The automatic defaults should simply work.
> 
> Did you compile a custom kernel perhaps?



No I haven't compiled any custom kernel. And, yeah maybe I shouldn't or needed to set such kernel parameters, but at the time I was desperate. Or, to put it more correctly, the computer was desperate. The harddisk was constantly and wildly reading/writing. Oh, btw the 80GB IDE HDD is relatively expensive so I 've done a hard shutdown to save HDD from further and never-ending read/write activity. 

Today I've installed v7.4 and it works like a piece of cake. Like the way I'm accustomed to the FreeBSD 7.2 in 2009-2010.


----------

