[SOLVED] How to update Flash and LibreOffice

[ifnotforyou]

Hi,

I have installed LMDE2 Mate and have so far only updated (via Update Manager):
|1| mintupdate 5.00;
|2| firefox 49.0.2, libreoffice 1:4.3.3.-2 and mintflashplugin-11 11.2.202.637

1. I need to update Flash to a more recent version.
What is the best and most simple way to do this?

2. And I would also like to update LibreOffice.
Again, is there a simple way for non-specialist to do that?

Many thanks!

[deepakdeshp]

If you are updating software regularly through update mabager , you will have the latest software available in the repository, installed.But this will not be the latest software.

Other option is to get the latest software is to ininstall software by donloading the bundle.
Uninstall old software version.
Go to the site and download latest version.
Untar and unzip it.
Read the README file which will give you instructions on instslling the software. You have to follow them.
You can try this approach and ask for help if you run into difficulties. Never to forget google for solutions too.

[ifnotforyou]

Thanks, I did google before posting, but I trust people here more than google
Also the answers on the internet are rather old and perhaps not fit for purpose any more.
(And I also did search for "flash" on LMDE section of this very forum.)

So, for Flash (let's not concentrate on LO for now) you recommend removing mintflashplugin and installing
FP 23.0 for other Linux 64-bit (.tar.gz)-PPAPI from https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions ?

OK, I've done that, now I have flash_player_ppapi_linux.x86_64.tar.gz, no instructions included, there are two files libpepflashplayer.so and manifest.json - and I don't know what to do with them.
And most of the answers on internet are about Ubuntu, sorry.

I really wouldn't like to break anything.
So if someone is willing to give me the actual instructions instead of lessons on forum behavior, I really would appreciate that very much.

[ifnotforyou]

If I look on the Firefox about:addons tab: plugins, and try to update Flash, I'm than taken to Adobe site, where I have to select version: YUM, .tar.gz, .rpm or APT, again, I have no idea, which one to download (for LMDE 2) or what to do with it next.

I'm quite a long time Linux and Mint user - but that's it, just a user.

[grizzler]

The PPAPI plugin (23 series) won't work with Firefox. You need the 11 series (currently 11.2.202.643). I would expect Mint to update the mintflashplugin-11 package to that version shortly (they certainly should, because this is not something you can just leave hanging at an older version...).

You could use the other plugin with Firefox if you added Rinat Ibragimov's freshplayerplugin, but as far as I'm aware that's only available in the backports repository for Jessie (LMDE2's Debian base), so getting that is more involved.

[ifnotforyou]

So, regarding Flash, the best course of action for someone like me would be to wait until Mint updates mintflashplugin? At that time the update will show up in my Update Manager?

And until then I just patiently keep clicking "OK" on the line in Firefox saying something like: The plugin is outdated... do you want to run it anyway...?

[grizzler]

Either that or you download the tar.gz file containing the plugin from Adobe's site and drop the plugin in /opt/mintflashplugin-11 yourself.

[grizzler]

To be honest, I'm surprised the update hasn't appeared already. The tarball from Adobe indicates the new version was produced October 24th. Building a new package like this should be scripted/automated, so it should have been available days ago. I would pick up the tarball and extract the libflashplayer.so file myself (if my system hadn't done something like that already last Wednesday...).

[kevinthefixer]

There is a Firefox update waiting in que for me right now. Perhaps that will include the latest Flash plugin. This may be the last update to Flash, as it's being phased out in favor of HTML5, and even Adobe is dropping support for it. Linux support has been spotty at best for years now anyway.

[Kilwillie]

Adobe has resumed support for Flash in Linux:

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/09/adob ... lash-linux

For LibreOffice, jessie-backports has 5.2.3:

https://wiki.debian.org/Backports

[daspicer]

I'll second jessie-backports. I've updated a lot of LMDE 2, including the kernel and headers.

[trytip]

uninstall the mint flash player you currently have then your new libflashplayer.so goes into usr/lib/mozilla/plugins all you do is copy it there and restart your firefox and check to see if installed is here http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/

ps: i didn't like the version 23 it was using more cpu so if you need to go back you can just delete the libpepflashplayer.so personally i like updating manually by downloading the version 11 from adobe

[daspicer]

The Devs are obviously reading this because there's now a new mintflashplugin

[ifnotforyou]

As mentioned above - the flash update showed up in Update Manager so this part is now solved.

If required, I'll bother you about LibreOffice update in separate thread. I've tried to use Debian Edition in the past and I always ruined it by changing repositories etc.

[kevinthefixer]

Adobe has resumed support for Flash in Linux:

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/09/adob ... lash-linux

Interesting, thanks for the info.

[brancalessio]

Hi!

I'm using Linux Mint 17.3 Rafaela 64-bit.

I would like to uses the PPAPI version of Adobe Flash Player in Firefox. Is that possible?

I copied the file libpepflashplayer.so together with manifest.json in /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins. I did not uninstall the package adobe-flashplugin. Firefox still sees only the NPAPI version. It doesn't work also if I copy it in $HOME./mozilla/plugins

To be honest I see a file named libpepflashplayer.so is already present in /usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin/ where there is also libflashplayer.so is present. It seems they are installed with the package adobe-flashplugin.

Chromium seems instead to use the PPAPI version already.

Could you give me a hint? Thanks!

uninstall the mint flash player you currently have then your new libflashplayer.so goes into usr/lib/mozilla/plugins all you do is copy it there and restart your firefox and check to see if installed is here http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/

ps: i didn't like the version 23 it was using more cpu so if you need to go back you can just delete the libpepflashplayer.so personally i like updating manually by downloading the version 11 from adobe

[grizzler]

Firefox can't use a PPAPI plugin directly, so that won't work. You could install the package browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash (it's in Debian Jessie's backports repository). This will provide Rinat Ibragimov's freshplayerplugin which translates the PPAPI to Firefox's NPAPI.

Edit
I just noticed you're in the wrong forum section as you're using Mint 17 rather than LMDE. I'm not sure the browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash package is available in that release's repo...

[brancalessio]

Firefox can't use a PPAPI plugin directly, so that won't work. You could install the package browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash (it's in Debian Jessie's backports repository). This will provide Rinat Ibragimov's freshplayerplugin which translates the PPAPI to Firefox's NPAPI.

Thank you for the answer, now I understand why it doesn't work. I did not install the fresh player plugin.

Edit
I just noticed you're in the wrong forum section as you're using Mint 17 rather than LMDE. I'm not sure the browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash package is available in that release's repo...

I actually made a search in the forum "topic driven". I did not realize that this was the LMDE forum.

Thanks again!