How To: Install Adobe AIR in 64-bit Linux Mint

[karashata]

This is (hopefully) a fairly comprehensive list of instructions on how to install Adobe AIR relatively easily on 64-bit Linux Mint, both the main Ubuntu-based editions and the Debian-based editions.

First, download the Adobe AIR deb file from here.

Then follow the instructions here on how to turn it into a deb file that will install on 64-bit (and 32-bit) systems. (The instructions are for Ubuntu 10.10 but they work fine in 11.04 and its derivatives as well, so don't mind that.)

Before installing the application (the last step on the second page I linked to), install ia32-libs from Synaptic Package Manager (though you could install it however you prefer, I just happen to prefer the graphical tools whenever possible), since it's required in order to make 32-bit applications run on 64-bit systems.

After the 32-bit libraries are installed, you can install Adobe AIR using the deb you created.

Note that this only works this easily and nicely in Ubuntu and its derivatives. In LMDE (Debain-based) there are a few extra things you'd need to do to make Adobe AIR and its apps work as nicely as in the main, Ubuntu-based editions.

If you want to install AIR in 64-bit LMDE, you'll also need to:

Install ia32-libs-gtk (it's a separate package from ia32-libs in Debian, while it's included in ia32-libs in Ubuntu).

Download the 32-bit versions of libgnome-keyring0 (here) and libasound-plugins (here). (These files are required in order for certain AIR apps to securely save account passwords, and for AIR, and any 32-bit applications using ALSA for audio output, to properly use PulseAudio to play sound simultaneously with any other applications.)

Open those two deb files with a rooted Archive Manager (easiest way I find is to launch 'gksu nautilus' from the GNOME run dialog, then navigate to where you downloaded the files to, right-click them and select "Open with Archive Manager"),

Navigate to /usr/lib in each deb archive and extract the contents of that folder from the archive to /usr/lib32 on your system.

These extra steps will ensure that AIR applications perform (nearly) identically to how they perform in the Ubuntu-based Mint editions.

I hope this how-to can help a lot of people who might like to install Adobe AIR in 64-bit Linux Mint.

[BostonPeng]

Thank you for this! I had it working on my LMDE 64 laptop before I borked it (pls don't ask, it wasn't pretty) and I couldn't figure out why the hell Air wasn't working. Now it's working beautifully and now I just have to find a TweetDeck installer so I can run it without Chromium.

There is one thing to note: Your link to get the AIR .deb doesn't show any Linux packages. I had looked through there before and was glad I had a copy saved on another partition.

I'll post something to my blog to let folks know to look here for info on how to install Air. I definitely owe you a beverage.

[karashata]

Adobe discontinued support for AIR on Linux some time ago, unfortunately the only way to get it now is either to have a copy of the installer on hand or to find a copy hosted elsewhere on the web.

Also of note, TweetDeck also dropped Linux support after they were bought by Twitter and moved on to native Windows and Mac clients, I don't know how much longer their AIR client will still be useful but if you can find a copy somewhere, get it installed and running without a problem, all the better to ya.

For what it's worth, I switched to using Turpial for accessing my Twitter account since AIR and TweetDeck are no longer officially supported. It's not a bad client once you get used to it but it's not quite as friendly as I found TweetDeck to be.

[BostonPeng]

Thanks for the referral of Turpial. I'll have to check it out. I've still got TweetDeck in Chrome but I really prefer to have a standalone client since last time I checked I had to close Chromium and reopen it after a while so I could clear the cache. (I know I can do that in Chromium but I never remember to see if that helps as much.)

Actually I finally got the Turpial site to load, thanks to Starbucks' wifi signal, and it's a no-go for me. I need a client that lets me do both Twitter and Facebook and TweetDeck is the best thing I've seen so far. Oh well, as long as TD supports Chrome I guess I can be fairly happy with it. That is until Twitter chops too many things out of it of course.