can't watch onion videos

[cowznofsky]

I'm not sure what format they use at The Onion, but the videos don't play. I just see a mostly blank panel with an embed block on it.

[Pconfig]

Are you sure you have flash installed? Seems to me those videos play with a flash movieplayer ;)

[Nxion]

You need the flash :)


sudo aptitude install flashplugin-nonfree

[cowznofsky]

but I can watch youtube. isn't that flash?

[Nxion]

Well then I guess you don't need flash :) Maybe Java; Can you give a screen shot of what you see if you try to watch the videos on the onion? Also, aside from Youtube, does other videos play on other sites? Try www.southparkstudios.com. (http://ubuntuforums.org/www.southparkstudios.com/)

What happens when you try to play them?

[kansasnoob]

Hmmmmmmmmm, oddly I couldn't either - and that was with the new Flash 10 Final Release! So after quite a bit of playing I found that the somewhat older Flash 10 RC does work.

Assuming this is Hardy (8.04) go to terminal:


sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-restricted-extras

NOTE: I'm assuming this is Ubuntu, if it's Kubuntu or Xubuntu add the k or x accordingly!

(Just doing that to be certain you have the neccessary java, etc)

Now to remove any and all other versions of flash:


sudo apt-get remove --purge flashplugin-nonfree


sudo apt-get remove --purge adobe-flashplugin


cd ~/.mozilla
rm flashplayer.xpt libflashplayer.so

(I would expect two of those commands to say something to the effect of "can't do - not found", that's OK. We just want to be sure that we removed all previous flash plugins)

Then install the Flash 10 RC from this .deb:

http://launchpadlibrarian.net/16766494/flashplugin-nonfree_10.0.1.218%2B10.0.0.569ubuntu1%7Eppa2_i386 .deb

Once you're all done you'll need to restart Firefox: File > Quit, pause a minute and start Firefox again. Click on Tools > Addons > Plugins. You should see only one Shockwave Flash - hopefully 10.0.0 d569 and you should also see Java listed. (Occasionally I've had to restart the desktop to get changes to take a hold)

Something I've also found beneficial to flash performance is flashblock which should replace the flash "screen" with a button, although in Hardy and Mint Elyssa I've recently seen just a blank screen where there should be a button, but it's purely cosmetic - clicking on the blank screen still produces the flash screen. Anyway flashblock is in the repos so you can install from synaptic if you desire.

As to what's going on I've read that it's growing pains as far as websites needing to upgrade to use the newest flash, I don't know, I just do what works at the time. It can be reversed or changed easily later on.