SOLVED: Flash not working after installing updates

[hester3073]

Hey everybody, this is my first post on here. I apologize if this has been asked before but I tried searching first and couldn't find anything quite like my problem.
I have Linux Mint 13 LTS XFCE 32 bit running on a Compaq desktop with a 80GB HDD and 1GB RAM. I've played around with Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Bodhi Linux and some others before but I'm new to Mint.

To begin with I was having problems with youtube videos freezing after a few seconds of playback. I thought the problem might be that I was running an older version of flash or firefox, so I installed all my updates and now youtube videos wont play at all... I get either a blank gray or black rectangle where the video should be.

Please help! I'm on youtube all the time so being able to watch videos is very important. I had been playing around with Xubuntu 12.04 and couldn't get videos to play either, but on my other computer which is running Ubuntu 12.04 youtube videos have always played with no problem even after updates

[gold_finger]

See if this tutorial applies to your computer: How to Fix Flash Video Problems on Older Computers

[hester3073]

See if this tutorial applies to your computer: How to Fix Flash Video Problems on Older Computers

Ok I did everything that tutorial said and that didn't change a thing... still not working

[gold_finger]

Ok I did everything that tutorial said and that didn't change a thing... still not working

Beginning of tutorial asks you to confirm whether tutorial will apply to your computer. Since you say you "did everything" from the tutorial, I'm assuming it DID apply to your computer. If so, it should have worked.

Open terminal and post back with output of:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

And

Code: Select all

dpkg -l | grep flash

[hester3073]

Yes it did apply to my computer, it is an older machine that was originally running Windows XP. So I take it this is a problem with my hardware being old and not a problem with the OS?

System: Host: presario-PP153AA-ABA-SR1311NX-NA510 Kernel: 3.2.0-23-generic i686 (32 bit, gcc: 4.6.3)
Desktop: Xfce 4.10.0 (Gtk 2.24.10) Distro: Linux Mint 13 Maya
Machine: System: Compaq Presario 061 product: PP153AA-ABA SR1311NX NA510 version: 0n41411RE101KELUT00
Mobo: ASUSTek model: Kelut version: 2.02 Bios: Phoenix version: 3.11 date: 09/02/2004
CPU: Single core AMD Sempron 3000+ (-UP-) cache: 512 KB flags: (sse) bmips: 3999.28 clocked at 1999.643 MHz
Graphics: Card: VIA KM400/KN400/P4M800 [S3 UniChrome] bus-ID: 01:00.0
X.Org: 1.11.3 drivers: openchrome (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1024x768@85.0hz
GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on softpipe GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 8.0.4 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card: VIA VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller driver: snd_via82xx port: d800 bus-ID: 00:11.5
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: 1.0.24
Network: Card: VIA VT6102 [Rhine-II] driver: via-rhine port: e000 bus-ID: 00:12.0
IF: eth0 state: unknown speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 82.3GB (7.3% used) 1: /dev/sda HDS728080PLAT20 82.3GB
Partition: ID: / size: 76G used: 5.6G (8%) fs: ext4 ID: swap-1 size: 1.00GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 43.5C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 141 Uptime: 3 min Memory: 313.4/938.3MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.6.3 Client: Shell inxi: 1.7.33


presario@presario-PP153AA-ABA-SR1311NX-NA510 ~ $ dpkg -l | grep flash
presario@presario-PP153AA-ABA-SR1311NX-NA510 ~ $

[hester3073]

Update: I got it working finally! I must have done something wrong the first time. It keeps telling me the plugin is vulnerable and needs to be upgraded... I should just ignore that, right?

[gold_finger]

Yes it did apply to my computer, it is an older machine that was originally running Windows XP. So I take it this is a problem with my hardware being old and not a problem with the OS?

Adobe stopped providing Linux support for older hardware on their newer flashplugins. (Newer ones may still work on XP, I don't know, but for how long -- who knows?)

Update: I got it working finally! I must have done something wrong the first time. It keeps telling me the plugin is vulnerable and needs to be upgraded... I should just ignore that, right?

Well, it is an older plugin, so it has vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, that's the only option for using a flashplugin on your machine. You can leave the plugin disabled until you actually need to use it if you'd like. I don't have any idea how often those "vulnerabilities" are exploited and whether it's a serious issue on major websites or not; so can't offer much advice on that.

Another option for youtube in particular is to bypass the need for Adobe flashplugin altogether by using this Firefox plugin: YouTube ALL HTML5. I don't think it applies to other sites, just for use on youtube.

One more option is to use a stand-alone youtube player. One is Minitube (available in the software repository; but I've not used it); another is SMTube, which I have used on older computers and it works well. Follow instructions here for installing SMTube: http://smplayer.sourceforge.net/en/smtube. It will stream the videos through one of your video players. I think it is set by default to use MPlayer. I changed the settings (through one of the icons along bottom of the interface) to use VLC instead because I like it better and didn't have MPlayer installed. If MPlayer is not installed, then the player will appear to not work when trying to use it. Change the settings to use a player you do have installed. First video will take 5-10 seconds to begin because it is starting the video player first. After first video, rest should start very quickly.

P.s. All credit goes to hoppimike for introducing me to SMTube: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 20#p794080

[hester3073]

Thank you very much!