Flash debug on Linux Mint 13

After a nasty struggle with configuration of Flash debugger on my 64-bit Linux dev machine, I finally found a solution. It’s a combination of few tips found on other blogs, so I decided to put it all together and publish here. Here’s a recipe that works for me, only on Chrome:

The problem

Adobe announced end of releases of Linux Flash player and browser plugin. The last official version is 11.2. Additionally, there is no 64-bit flashplayer debugger browser plugin. I have no idea why Adobe website states that there is, whilst clicking on link gives you the “i386” version.

Steps to take

Remove your current browser plugin

Depending on your Linux distribution, the flashplayer plugin can have different name or location on filesystem. First of all, uninstall your browser plugin with commands (some of them should work):

sudo apt-get purge flashplayer-mozilla
sudo apt-get purge flashplugin-installer
sudo apt-get purge flashplugin-nonfree
sudo apt-get purge mint-flashplugin-11
sudo apt-get purge mint-flashplugin

I have no idea why there is such a MESS with all these different packages, but who cares. Kill it with fire.

Download the debugger plugin

Go to Adobe website and pick the plugin named Linux Flash Player 11.2 Plugin content debugger. Notice that downloaded .zip file has “i386” in its name. This means it’s for 32-bit architecture and you are going to wrap it with ndiswrapper to make it work. Extract it and copy the libflashplayer.so file to your mozilla plugins directory. In my case it was /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/

Wrap the library

Note it’s time for the magic part. Use following ancient spell to make your library wrapped and ready for 64-bit:

nspluginwrapper -v -a -i

Check the output, you should find a line similar to following:

Install plugin /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so
into /home/kciesielski/.mozilla/plugins/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so

which gave me some hope that all went well.

Configure Chrome

Open Chrome and enter following address: about:plugins

You should now see a summary of your browser plugins. Your list should contain an entry for Flash player, visible as Flash (2 files). If there is only one file, then something went wrong. Click on “Details” on the right and your plugin description should expand. Disable all flash plugins except npwrapper.libflashplayer.so. Restart your browser.
Disclaimer: Why Chrome? This browser comes with a built-in Flash player and detects mozilla plugins, giving a possibility to easily switch between them. I could not manage to get the debugger plugin working on Firefox.

Verify

Open Chrome and run any flash video. Click on it with right mouse button and check the menu that appeared. If you can see an option called Debugger then it means that your browser is running the debug flash player.