Firefox vs. Flash 9 Progress

[lvds]

Hi,

I have tested a lot and my system can reproduce always the same behavior.
I setup the links like you told in the first post. As long as i browse flash site i have no browser crash and everything runs fine. But if i click right mouse button to access properties or configure the flash settings, the browser crash when i choose properties. Running firefox 2.0.0.2 with flash9. I can't see which release is in use as i have not access to "about..."

by the way, the /usr/local/Flash9 seems a little bit empty to me, not containing as much files as i expected it would (bad windows habit), is it missing something in here ?

Best regards,
Laurent.

[lvds]

Hi,

I finally found the way to solve my crash problems i have since a long time. Here is the solution i found just after having posted here I have tested all this morning and the bug have disappeared.

1. install linux firefox-2.0.0.2 from http://www.getfirefox.com
2. install the flash9.pup package
3. download the linux flash player from here:

FRENCH version:
http://www.adobe.com/fr/shockwave/download/alternates/

ENGLISH version (but i have not tested download from this one)
http://www.adobe.com/downloads/

and extract to a directory (by default it is install-flash-player9 or something alike...)
4. use these files from install-flash-player9 directory to overwrite the previous ones at /usr/local/Flash9
5. you can remove install-flash-player9 directory, not needed anymore.

You can check installed version number of your flash by going here:
http://www.adobe.com/fr/products/flash/about/

Also be SURE to have correctly downloaded files as i experienced aborted downloads, giving incomplete .tar.gz files

...now when i click right mouse button i can access the settings and the player does not crash anymore


Best regards,
Laurent.

[EdFromHouston]

That's interesting. It's possible the flash9.pup didn't download right for you and that is why it crashed. Also I see you downloaded the French version. Could your problem have to do with your Character Encoding? I try to keep mine set to UTF8.

By you saying you don't have access to 'about' I take it to mean you are talking about 'about:config'. Just type it in the location bar as you would any site you go to and press enter.

BTW, I'm no programmer so take anything I say with a grain of salt.

[mlamelas]

I just want to pass on some additional info on how I finally got Flash 9 to work. This thread was very useful, but when I installed Firefox 2 and the Flash 9 pup Firefox would still crash when I went to a page with Flash. What I discovered is that the firefox installation creates a firefox folder in /usr/local, and that folder has its own plugins folder. The Flash 9 pup creates links in the mozilla plugins folder and in the seamonkey plugins folder, but not this folder. When I created a link to the plugin in the Flash9 folder in /usr/loca/, it then worked.

Thanks again to all of the posters for all the info in the thread.

[EdFromHouston]

That's what I said in the first post. I'm glad you got it working.

[mlamelas]

Thanks Ed, it really was great work on this thread. I also get the message about the encoding not being UTF, but it doesn't seem to affect the functionality of firefox and flash. I tested it on the Disney website, which is Flash 9 intensive, and it works just fine.

Best regards,

Mel

[EdFromHouston]

It's all a team thing I just hope one day Linux will beat the pants off Microsoft in every way. That will be sooner than later if Puppy keeps going the way it has been..

[mlamelas]

Hi Ed,

I could not agree with you more about Linux beating Windows. Microsoft will do a lot of the work itself by making Windows more unfriendly as time goes by. I finally got sick of Microsoft and switched to Linux about 7 months ago. I don't miss Windows at all. I can say I am Microsoft free. I run Kubuntu on my work pc and carry puppy in my usb pen drive.

I discovered Puppy Linux researching to develop a proposal to be presented to a non-profit to take computers that are obsolete by Windows standard (and therefore people are giving away to Goodwill), and make them useful again by installing Puppy. As proof of concept, I did just that with one computer that did not even have a hard drive and on an old Fujitsu Tablet PC with only 192mb of memory and a 4 gig drive. Even had the input pen working so it could be used without a physical keyboard.

I will keep recommending Puppy. The forum support is great. Questions get answered quickly. And the enhancements with each version are fantastic. The improvements to the wireless configuration since version 2.10 are exponential. Also, puppy was able to install on a Fujitsu notebook where Kubuntu and Linspire both froze and would not run. I am a great fan.

My current project is to create a self contained environment where Puppy runs under Windows with Qemu, with davfs access to an offsite server for unlimited real time storage, with vpn enabled so that the local system only sees encrypted traffic to a vpn server which channels the traffic, and with password protection so that no one else can run Puppy if the usbdrive is lost or stolen.

It's for my personal use. I travel a lot in Europe and use internet cafes, so I am concerned about someone monitoring the pc I am using and keylogging or packet inspecting to capture passwords. I want to be able to plug a keydrive in, run qemu to launch puppy, enter key data using the virtual keyboard so that it's only mouse clicks that can be captured by a keylogger, and access files via an encrypted connection.

I am not there yet, but pretty close. Just need to devote some concentrated time to it.

Best regards,

Mel

[headfound]

Wow, just updated flash with the .pup, and firefox crashed right after when I closed the tab on the Disney site. Came back, followed your instructions and its working fine!
Thanks, its a great fix

[Bill_Gates]

Dude! I love the Puppy Song!

[puppyfan12]

"Do not use both FlashBlock and NoScript together (NoScript includes Flash-blocking functionality) NoScript blocks JavaScript which is required by FlashBlock."

That's more of a preference than a requirement for it to be stable. I run both together as a preference. I was confused a year or so ago though when noscript added the flash blocking feature and it caused flash not to work at all.

In my NoScript 1.1.4.6.070302 advanced options:

Additional restrictions for untrusted sites:
Forbid Macromedia Flash Option > I leave this unchecked
I have many urls added to the white list in noscript for sites that I visit frequently where I trust the java scripts aren't malicious but I don't want flash components to run automatically.

in my Flashblock 1.5.2 options (where javascript must be enabled for flashblock to work) I don't have any sites on my whitelist.

This configuration allows me more control over both flash & javascript components separately. If a site is on my white list for javascript components to be allowed to run - I still have to click the 'play button' for the flash animation/videos to run. This is by preference because when I have 25+ tabs open I don't want the flash components to download and run until I am ready to view that specific tab. It saves a lot of memory this way and video/sound is guaranteed to not stream until I want it to.

[EdFromHouston]

I like that idea.

I took that from the Firefox extension site. I don't have that extension but I might try it the way you say.

This just keeps getting better and better.

BTW, My flash 9 is still working great. Not a single crash.

Thanks for the heads up.

[puppyfan12]

No problem Ed, and same here...I haven't had any problems with flash in firefox on linux, windows or os x.

I have a customer that appears to have a problem with flash9 on windows though and it affects both IE and Firefox which makes me wonder if adobe made some changes to flash since the adobe/macromedia merger though an autoupdate. But that's another issue altogether.

[lvds]

Hi

I also discovered by reading the sh scripts that firefox wants to be in /usr/local/lib/firefox-2.0.0.2 when it usually goes to /usr/local/lib/firefox ...
and a lot of programs searchs for mozilla... so i have made a few symlinks (absolute) to whatever i could think to.

My firefox resides in /usr/local/lib/firefox and i have created the following symlinks:
/usr/local/lib/firefox-2.0.0.2
/usr/lib/firefox-2.0.0.2
/usr/lib/firefox
/usr/local/lib/mozilla
/usr/lib/mozilla

I also discovered some programmers wants plugins in the plugins directory when others wants the .xpt in the components directory and the .so in the plugins directory (like VLC for example) so... i did symlinks (absolute).

I also have created links in /usr/local/bin for firefox and mozilla. It seems it is always the firefox script calling for other scripts (like run-mozilla.sh etc.) so i always link to firefox.

i have seen references to a mre-2.0.0.2 but i don't know what it means so i haven't touched anything, does someone knows what is this ?

Best regards,
Laurent.

[lvds]

Hi,

I forgot to tell a solution have also been posted here
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 543#103543

and when you add all that have been said here it works fine and never crashes again !

Thank you very much to all of you, it's a great job !

Best regards,
Laurent.

[john biles]

Hello EdFromHouston,
Thank you for this fix.

To make it easier to understand what to do can I please add this.

Click on Home (rox file manager in the menu) and unhide the hidden folders. Open the folder .mozilla and create a folder called plugins if it is not there already.
Now click on Home again and navigate to usr/local and open the folder called flash9. (so both folders .mozilla and flash9 are open on the desktop)
Now while holding the left mouse button down, drag flashplayer.xpt to the plugins folder you created in .mozilla and unclick the mouse button, now click on "Link relative" Now do the same for Libflashplayer.so and your finished. hopefully your browser won't crash anymore.

[lvds]

Hi,

...hum shouldn't it be "link absolute" instead ?
absolute links always works because they are not context dependant, or did i misunderstood something ?

Best regards,
Laurent.

[john biles]

Hello lvds,
I only used what EdFromHouston recommended.
If you say it better to do it your way then I do it that way.

If anyone knows this way will cause problems, please let us know.
Thanks
lvds

[setecio]

Hello EdFromHouston,
Thank you for this fix.

To make it easier to understand what to do can I please add this.

Click on Home (rox file manager in the menu) and unhide the hidden folders. Open the folder .mozilla and create a folder called plugins if it is not there already.
Now click on Home again and navigate to usr/local and open the folder called flash9. (so both folders .mozilla and flash9 are open on the desktop)
Now while holding the left mouse button down, drag flashplayer.xpt to the plugins folder you created in .mozilla and unclick the mouse button, now click on "Link relative" Now do the same for Libflashplayer.so and your finished. hopefully your browser won't crash anymore.

Thanks for those easy instructions - i needed them.

But when I do this it says ERROR : File exists
Has something changed. I'm using Puppy 2.14 and seamonkey 1.0.6

[wdef]

I installed:

SP214.pup
Firefox-2.0.0.3.pup
java-1.5.0.11_firefox.pup
Flash9.pup

on Puppy-2.14.

Initially the fix worked - no crashes. But after a few days, crashes returned (as some have reported).

Crashes with the above were almost always associated with hitting the back button o the browser when there was no page in history to go to, also certain links, also closing a tab.

This suggests it's to do with an accumulation of something in the pup_save file as firefox? racks up more hours. History files? Cache?

Wild guess: may point to character encoding issues again or possibly gtk issues?

I'm off to try 215CE now.

EDIT: Mmm. I just did this hack in Firefox:

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 543#103543

And all FF crashes with the above configuration on 2.14 seem to have stopped like magic.