Ubuntu – Install debug flash player in Chrome

adobe-flashchromedebuggingUbuntu

I am trying to adapt the instructions from here, here, and here to install the debug version of the flash player on my Ubuntu 13.04 installation such that Chrome 30.0.1599.66 can use it.

Interestingly, it appears that I already have the official Adobe flash plugin installed and useable by Chrome, so the problem changes from "installing flash" to "replacing regular flash with the debugger version".

enter image description here

So I need to replace libflashplayer.so with the one downloaded from Adobe. Sounds simple.

I selected this file (Linux Flash Player 11.2 Plugin content debugger), decompressed it and installed the Flash Player Local Settings configurations files as directed.

I then replaced /usr/lib/flashplugin/installer/libflashplayer.so with the version included in the debugger install, and restarted Chrome. To my surprise, the second Adobe Flash Player listing in chrome://plugins just disappeared!

enter image description here

It's as if Chrome doesn't like the debugger plugin for some reason. I tried various things to get the debugger plugin to appear but to no avail:

  • chmod +rx libflashplayer.so
  • nspluginwrapper -i libflashplayer.so (Results in error no appropriate viewer found for libflashplayer.so)
  • mkdir /opt/google/chrome/plugins; mv libflashplayer.so /opt/google/chrome/plugins

How can I get Chrome to recognize the Flash debugger plugin?

Best Answer

I finally figured it out while trying to get it to work for Firefox! This is based from the direction I found here.

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs nspluginwrapper
sudo mkdir /usr/lib/flash-plugin/
wget http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/updaters/11/flashplayer_11_plugin_debug.i386.tar.gz
tar xzvf flashplayer_11_plugin_debug.i386.tar.gz
sudo cp libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/flash-plugin/
sudo chmod 775 /usr/lib/flash-plugin/libflashplayer.so
cd /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
rm -rf npwrapper.libflashplayer.so # Not sure if this part is necessary or not
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/flash-plugin/libflashplayer.so .
sudo chmod 777 libflashplayer.so
sudo nspluginwrapper -i /usr/lib/flash-plugin/libflashplayer.so
#                       ^ Use the full path here as a relative path won't work!

Now restart Chrome and Firefox. Both should be using the debug version of the flash plugin!

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