How to install Flash Player in Ubuntu

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Finally, you decided to take your first steps in the world of Linux. You have downloaded Ubuntu and slowly you are learning how to use it. I bet it was all much simpler than what you imagined: the PC hardware components were recognized at the first “hit”, without requiring external drivers, and many of the programs you were used to using on Windows found them “intact” and also working on the penguin operating system. What do you want more? Well, in reality there is only one small detail, Flash Player.

Taken from the enthusiasm of working in this new virtual environment, you forgot to download the famous Adobe home plugin, and so much of the videos and interactive content available online are not playing on your computer. Well, do not panic. Installing Flash Player Ubuntu is really a breeze – almost simpler than on Windows – and I’m going to prove it to you. Follow the instructions below and, in no time at all, you can play any Flash content directly from Mozilla Firefox (the default Ubuntu browser) or from Chromium/Chrome.

How do you say? Have you already tried to download Flash Player but you have received strange error messages? I’ll explain how to solve this kind of problem, but now let’s go one step at a time. For the tutorial I will use Ubuntu 16.04, but the procedure should also be valid for other versions of the Canonical operating system.

Preliminary operations

To install Ubuntu Flash Player you need to make sure that the Canonical partners’ repository is selected from the Ubuntu Software Center repositories.

Go to System Settings (the gear icon in the left sidebar) and click on the Software icon and updates. In the window that opens, then select the Other software tab and, if it is not yet present, put the check mark next to the Canonical Partner item.

Finally, type the password of your user account on Ubuntu (the one you use to access the system) and presses the Authenticate, Close and Reload buttons to save the changes.

Download Flash Player for Ubuntu

Now you are ready to take action! To install Flash Player on Ubuntu, connect to this web page using Firefox and click on the orange button available on the Software Center. So choose to open the link using AptURL and proceed to install the plugin by clicking on the Install button and typing the Ubuntu administration password.

The installation procedure should not last long. When finished, try opening Firefox or Chromium and linking to a Web page that contains elements in Flash (eg the Flash Player test page ). If all went well, you will be able to see all the content without problems.

Note: Flash Player versions installed in Firefox and Chromium may be different because the Extended Support Release of Flash for Firefox has not been updated with the one for Chromium (at the time of writing, the Firefox plugin is stopped at version 11.2.202.637 while the one for Chromium has reached version 23.0.0.185).

Flash Player for Ubuntu – what to do in case of problems

If an error message is displayed during the installation of Flash Player for Ubuntu, try to solve the problem by doing so.

  • Open the Ubuntu Terminal (you can easily find it by clicking on the button with the operating system logo and typing its name in the search field that appears at the top);
  • Give the command sudo apt-get purge adobe-flashplugin;
  • Type the password of your user account, press Enter and wait for the command to execute;
  • Give the command sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install adobe-flashplugin;
  • Wait for the Flash Player installation to complete;
  • Close the Terminal.

In the event that it is impossible to install Flash Player also from the Terminal, try to perform the manual installation of the plugin as explained below.

  • Connect to the official Flash Player site;
  • Select the .tar.gz entry for Linux environments from the drop-down menu located at the bottom left;
  • Click on the button Download;
  • Wait for the download to finish;
  • Start the Terminal and type the following commands
    • cd /home/user/Downloadswhere instead of useryou have to type in your username. To move to the folder where you have stored the Flash Player installation package.
    • tar zxfv install_flash_player_11_linux.x86_64.tar.gz libflashplayer.sowhere instead ofinstall_flash_player_11_linux.x86_64.tar.gz you have to type the exact name of the file downloaded a moment ago from the Flash Player site. To extract the plugin from its distribution package.
    • sudo cp libflashplayer.so/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins to copy Flash Player to the Firefox plugins folder.

If you’re using Chromium, Opera, or another Chromium-based browser and can not install the latest version of Flash Player, try uninstalling the old version of the plugin ( pepperflashplugin-nonfree, now no longer supported) and installing the new one. To do this, open the Ubuntu Terminal and use the following commands.

  • sudo apt remove pepperflashplugin-nonfree flashplugin-installer to remove old versions of Flash Player.
  • sudo apt update to update repository packages.
  • sudo apt install adobe-flashplugin to install the latest version of Flash Player.

After entering the commands, you will need to type in the Ubuntu administration password. Also to apply the changes you may need to restart the browser (in this case Chromium, Opera or another Chromium-based browser). Once you have completed the Flash Player update procedure, open your browser, connected to a Web page containing elements in Flash (eg the Flash Player test page ) and verify that everything went smoothly.

In the unfortunate event if the problems with Flash Player persist, try to find on Google specific instructions on installing the plugin on the version of Ubuntu and the browser in use (eg “how to install Flash Player Ubuntu 16.04 Chromium”). On forums or blogs dedicated to the Linux world you will surely find the answers to your doubts!

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