flash in 64-bit

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gapan
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flash in 64-bit

Post by gapan »

Unfortunately the folks at Adobe have decided to not support flash in 64-bit linux anymore. The 10.0.45.2 version that we have in the 64-bit repository is now considered a security hole, with known exploits and vulnerabilities and there's not much we can do about it.

I have uploaded gnash and its dependency agg in the 64-bit repository for 13.1 (going to do the same for 13.0). I have also uploaded a dummy flash-plugin package that will replace the old flash-plugin package and will automatically install gnash as a dependency. So everyone with a 64-bit system should upgrade from flash-plugin to gnash.

Still, if someone wants to keep the old, unsupported flash-plugin package, they can do so by adding it in the EXCLUDE list in their slapt-getrc, but this is highly not recommended.

Gnash has some issues though, CPU usage is high, higher than flash's. And I think that if you leave a page that includes a youtube video open for some time, CPU will hit 100% until you close that page. But at least it plays all youtube videos I tried. There is one issue though: if you get a "An error occured, please try again later" error in youtube, you need to clear your browser of all youtube cookies and block youtube from setting any new cookies.

I think this is the best course of action we could take. Security should matter above anything else. If someone really needs the proprietary flash-plugin, then they should better stick with a 32-bit system, or add 32-bit libraries in their 64-bit system and run a 32-bit browser that will use the 32-bit plugin.
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thenktor
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Re: flash in 64-bit

Post by thenktor »

As alternative you can try HTML5 video with Youtube and get rid of all the flash §&%$$&: http://www.youtube.com/html5 ;)
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gapan
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Re: flash in 64-bit

Post by gapan »

thenktor wrote:As alternative you can try HTML5 video with Youtube and get rid of all the flash §&%$$&: http://www.youtube.com/html5 ;)
That's will be an option when the next firefox version comes out. Version 3.6.3 doesn't support webm in HTML5. Firefox nightly builds work great with youtube/webm though. Limited content is encoded with webm right now, but this will be fixed in the future too.
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thenktor
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Re: flash in 64-bit

Post by thenktor »

gapan wrote:
thenktor wrote:As alternative you can try HTML5 video with Youtube and get rid of all the flash §&%$$&: http://www.youtube.com/html5 ;)
Version 3.6.3 doesn't support webm in HTML5.
Therefore I've provided the youtube link. There you can find links to browsers (dev versions), that support webm (firefox, chromium, opera).
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caitlyn
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Re: flash in 64-bit

Post by caitlyn »

I think you've absolutely made the correct decision regarding the repository. gnash is an imperfect solution but a gaping security hole is far worse. The browsers currently available (excluding bleeding edge development code) don't support HTML5 yet. If I wanted a bleeding edge distro I wouldn't choose SalixOS or Slackware, would I?
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Re: flash in 64-bit

Post by damNageHack »

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You are free to keep them all errors for your own. Linux is the best game I ever played.
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thenktor
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Re: flash in 64-bit

Post by thenktor »

I think as soon as Youtube is available via HTML5 in browsers, the flash plugin is only seldom used and gnash can do this job just fine then.
I hope music sites like last.fm will switch to HTML5 audio soon, too.
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SoleSoul
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Re: flash in 64-bit

Post by SoleSoul »

The best idea I could find for the situation:
Leave the flashplugin installed but use the flashblock extension and your brain to allow only trusted sites to run flash.
This way you walk around the security hole while getting the same usability.

There is also NSpluginwrapper but I didn't try it.
http://www.linux.com/archive/feed/55380
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thenktor
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Re: flash in 64-bit

Post by thenktor »

Yep, I'm using flashblock, too :)
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pwatk
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Re: flash in 64-bit

Post by pwatk »

Just seen this [link] on Slashdot.

Could Lightspark be the answer to x86_64 flash?
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