flashpackage-management
I usually installed flashplugin-installer and by chance noticed that in the partner repository the Flash entry says it's not installed. It also says the package flashplugin-installer will be removed if I install the package from the partner repository named adobe-flashplugin. I've read this answer.
Does flashplugin-installer download Flash from Adobe as opposed to adobe-flashplugin available in the Partners repo? If not, how do they differ?
Credit to gunnar-hjalmarsson for this answer.
Adobe once began life making fonts for Microsoft Windows. Later it became the premiere program for playing videos over the internet and live TV broadcasts (which I use it for). However now HTML5 is commonly used for playing videos in Google's YouTube and FlashPlayer is becoming marginalized.
Within Google Chrome web browser PepperFlash support is built in so a separate flash plugin is no longer required for watching flash content. However on my system (perhaps because I deleted Google Chrome Beta) the error in the original question occurred.
The error message:
Err:1 http://archive.canonical.com/pool/partner/a/adobe-flashplugin/adobe-flashplugin_20160913.1.orig.tar.gz
showed up because Canonical partners was not enabled. I don't remember turning it off but the solution is to turn it on.
To enable partners in Canonical select System Settings then Software & Updates and then Other Partners. This screen appears:
Check the box to allow partners.
As Gunnar points out flashplugin-installer isn't needed for firefox so adobe-flashplugin is a better option to install. Google chrome has flash player support embedded through a process called Pepper Flash Player and doesn't need flashplugin-installer either.
The final solution is:
sudo apt-get remove flashplugin-installer
sudo apt-get purge flashplugin-installer
sudo apt-get install adobe-flashplugin
Thanks again to Gunnar for his comments to solve the pesky pop-up message.
Although flashplugin-installer is in the title and body, the partner errors could apply to many situations and I welcome recommendations to change the title, question or answer.
PS I realize remove and purge can be combined into a single line. I also realize apt-get is inferior to a solo apt in many respects.
PPS Adobe also gets credit for .PDF files although on Linux platform many free alternatives exist.
PPPS I notice there are other boxes not checked off on the screenshot above and if this answer can be improved by explaining them don't hesitate to comment. I am dpkg challenged as recent down votes have proved.
Best Answer
I've just downloaded both packages to inspect them, the process for comparing the packages can be found on the bottom.
adobe-flashplugin
It contains the Flash player library and configures itself as default for Internet browsers. It was only available for 32-bit systems, but since October 2011 a 64-bit version is available too for Ubuntu Lucid and later. This can be installed from the partner repository, see also How do I enable the "partner" repository?
flashplugin-installer
It extracts the 32-bit Flash player library from the
adobe-flashpluginpackage (which is retrieved from http://archive.canonical.com/) and configures itself as default for Internet browsers. Additionally, it installs a 32-bit compatibility layer for 64-bit systems.Conclusion
There is no change in the installed Flash player for 32-bit systems. For 64-bit systems,
flashplugin-installerinstalls the 32-bit version of Flash and a related compatibility library which may be slower and less stable. I would recommend using the native 64-bit library instead (adobe-flashplugin).Analysis
adobe-flashpluginwas found in http://archive.canonical.com/pool/partner/a/adobe-flashplugin/?C=M;O=D (I haven't enabled the partner repository):flashplugin-installercan be downloaded usingapt-get download flashplugin-installer. For comparison, I downloaded the 32-bit package from http://packages.ubuntu.com/natty/i386/flashplugin-installer/download.Programs used:
dpkg-deb --control package_version.deb target-dir- extracts the control files (e.g. post-installation scripts) to directorytarget-dirdpkg -x package_version.deb target-dir- extracts the contents of the package totarget-dirdpkg --contents package_version.deb- shows the contents of the packagediff -Nur one two- compare directoriesoneandtwoThepostinstscripts were the most interesting as it makes the only difference between the packages.