How to install the Pepper Flash Plugin for the Chromium Browser in Linux

Discussion in 'all things UNIX' started by lotuseclat79, Feb 3, 2015.

  1. lotuseclat79

    lotuseclat79 Registered Member

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    Using Synaptic Package Manager from Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS and installing both the Chromium Browser and the Pepper Flash plugin developed by Google and Adobe as an alternative to the Adobe Flash Player in Linux there is a problem that occurs. The Synaptic Package Manager does install the pepflashplugin-installer, but that is insufficient to actually install the Pepper Flash Plugin.

    Requirements:
    1) download and deposit the latest version of Google Chrome stable .deb in /var/cache/apt/archives, e.g. download https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/chr.../google-chrome-stable_40.0.2214.94-1_i386.deb (Note: this is the latest stable version of Chrome for Linux as of this posting date and is used here to illustrate the idea)

    Note: make sure the version is a part of the name of the deb package and that the following pepflashplugin-installer has the same version number!

    2) download and deposit the corresponing latest version of the pepflashplugin-installer .deb in /var/cache/apt/archives, e.g. download pepflashplugin-installer_16.0.0.296~cr40.0.2214.94-1-0skunk0_i386.deb from https://launchpad.net/~skunk/ archive/ubuntu/pepper-flash/ files/pepflashplugin-installer_16.0.0.296~cr40.0.2214.94-1-0skunk0_i386.deb (Note: this is the latest stable version of pepflashplugin-installer for Linux as of this posting date and is used here to illustrate the idea)

    3) Install the following entries in /etc/apt/sources.list:
    deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/skunk/pepper-flash/ubuntu precise main
    deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/skunk/pepper-flash/ubuntu precise main

    Then, using Synaptic Package Manager, it is simple to Search for pepflashplugin-installer and install both it and its suggested packages, however, after the chromium-browser has been installed in addition to the pepflashplugin-installer and all the suggested packages, the Pepper Flash plugin is not yet actually installed for use in the Chromium Browser.

    When the Chromium browser is brought up and 'chrome\:\plugins' is typed into the address bar window, the following Details output appears (Note: the backslashes are used to avoid the substitution of the emoticon feature of this website and should not be typed)

    Adobe Flash Player - Version: 16.0.0.296
    Shockwave Flash 16.0 r0
    Name: Shockwave Flash
    Description: Shockwave Flash 16.0 r0
    Version: 16.0.0.296 <--- Note: this is equivalent to 11.2.202.440 for Adobe Flashplayer for Linux
    Location: /usr/lib/pepflashplugin-installer/libpepflashplayer.so
    Type: PPAPI (out-of-process)
    Disable
    MIME types:
    MIME type Description File extensions
    application/x-shockwave-flash Shockwave Flash .swf
    application/futuresplash FutureSplash Player .spl

    What is not apparent is that /usr/lib/pepflashplugin-installer/libpepflashplayer.so is not actually installed when you try to verify it exists. To verify this issue the following command:
    $ ls -lt /usr/lib/pepflashplugin-installer/libpepflashplayer.so

    Here is the command to run that actually creates and installs the Pepper Flash Plugin for use in the Chromium Browser in Linux:

    $ sudo /usr/lib/pepflashplugin-installer/install_plugin /var/cache/apt/archives/google-chrome-stable_40.0.2214.94-1_i386.deb
    Extracting plugin files from /var/cache/apt/archives/google-chrome-stable_40.0.2214.94-1_i386.deb ...
    Pepper Flash plugin installed.

    Then prior to launching Chromium Browser make sure that the following is added to the end of /etc/chromium-browser/default:
    . /usr/lib/pepflashplugin-installer/pepflashplayer.sh
    or you can just append the contents of the script file, /usr/lib/pepflashplugin-installer/pepflashplayer.sh, to the end of the /etc/chromium-browser/default file.

    -- Tom
     
    Last edited: Feb 3, 2015
  2. tlu

    tlu Guest

    Tom, I don't know if it's easier on newer Ubuntu versions since I haven't tried them for a while. However, my question is: Why don't you just use Google Chrome instead?

    I know that the debate Chromium vs. Chrome has been the discussed in various threads here on Wilders. Nevertheless, my 2 reasons why I prefer Chrome:

    1. I haven't found any convincing arguments that Chromium protects your privacy better than Chrome - provided that you chose the right settings. The often mentioned Client-ID in Chrome is no longer used, and the famous RLZ is not used if you download Chrome from the official download site. I compared the behind-the-scene-requests for both Chromium and Chrome in HTTP Switchboard and µMatrix and could not find any differences. And as a matter of fact, the differences in Chromium and Chrome have become even smaller as in mid 2014 the once proprietary PDF reader was replaced by the open-source PDFium.
    2. But the even more important reason to prefer Chrome is the fact that in several distros Chromium is not as well maintained as one should expect. Right now at the time of this writing, e.g., the Ubuntu Chromium package is at v. 39.0.2171.65, while Google Chrome is at v. 40.0.2214.95 ! Between those two versions nearly countless security fixes have been added to Chrome in several versions since then. That the Chromium package in Ubuntu/Debian and possibly other distros lags behind is not acceptable to me.

    Just my 2 cents ... ;)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 5, 2015
  3. lotuseclat79

    lotuseclat79 Registered Member

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    Hi tlu,

    In fact, the execution of $ sudo /usr/lib/pepflashplugin-installer/install_plugin /var/cache/apt/archives/google-chrome-stable_40.0.2214.94-1_i386.deb
    does extract the plugin files from Google Chrome to build the alternative Pepper Flash Player built by both Adobe and Google instead of using Adobe's Flashplayer. And even with this setup installing pepflashplugin-installer with Synaptic Package Manager, downloads and installs google-chrome-stable_40.0.2214.95-1 plugins as of earlier this morning when I ran my setup scripts.

    According to my writeup in post #1 of this thread, both Google Chrome stable at version 95 and its corresponding version 95 of Pepper Flash Plugin should be downloaded to get version 95 if one wants to be strictly updated in /var/cache/apt/archives as soon as it is available.

    I just checked pepflashplugin-installer with Synaptic Package Manager and it installed version google-chrome-stable_40.0.2214.95-1 plugins today.

    -- Tom
     
  4. tlu

    tlu Guest

    Hi Tom,

    That's good. However, I wasn't talking only about security fixes related to the Flashplayer. Numerous other security fixes have been applied since v. 39.x, see, e.g. here. And again, that the Chromium packages in Ubuntu lag behind Chrome (sometimes significantly) is nothing new. I've been observingg this for a long time.
     
  5. wat0114

    wat0114 Registered Member

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    Using Arch, I'm running Chromium Version 40.0.2214.94 from extra and pepper flash 1:16.0.0.291 from aur.

    Edit

    just updated pepper flash to Standalone Version:16.0.0.305
     
    Last edited: Feb 5, 2015
  6. deBoetie

    deBoetie Registered Member

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    Yep. And playing with the Firejail private sandbox should allow privacy sensitive stuff to get wiped on exit.
     
  7. tlu

    tlu Guest

    That was already included in Chrome 40.0.2214.95 - actually earlier than it was available from the Adobe download site. Since yesterday Chrome v. 40.0.2214.111 is available which fixes another 11 security bugs (not related to the Flashplayer). And the Ubuntu Chromium package? It's still at v. 39.0.2171.65. Meh!
     
  8. wat0114

    wat0114 Registered Member

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    This morning I updated via pacman -Syu and Chromium updated to Version 40.0.2214.111

    Code:
    [2015-02-05 11:28] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
    [2015-02-05 11:28] [ALPM] transaction completed
    [2015-02-06 06:37] [PACMAN] Running 'pacman -Syu'
    [2015-02-06 06:37] [PACMAN] synchronizing package lists
    [2015-02-06 06:37] [PACMAN] starting full system upgrade
    [2015-02-06 06:39] [ALPM] transaction started
    [2015-02-06 06:39] [ALPM] upgraded hwids (20141214-1 -> 20150129-1)
    [2015-02-06 06:39] [ALPM] upgraded libpciaccess (0.13.2-2 -> 0.13.3-1)
    [2015-02-06 06:39] [ALPM] upgraded chromium (40.0.2214.94-1 -> 40.0.2214.111-1)
    [2015-02-06 06:39] [ALPM] upgraded git (2.2.2-1 -> 2.3.0-1)
    [2015-02-06 06:39] [ALPM] warning: /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist installed as /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.old
     
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2015
  9. Daveski17

    Daveski17 Registered Member

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    I just got updated to version 40.0.2214.94 on Ubuntu 14.04 (64-bit).
     
  10. lotuseclat79

    lotuseclat79 Registered Member

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    I reinstall both chromium-browser and pepflashplugin-installer every morning after I prepare my system because I use Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS from a USB and run my own setup scripts to ready the system before I enable a network connection.

    This morning, I installed version 40.0.2214.111 from Ubuntu's Synaptic Package Manager (after a Reload, of course) of both. So, you should check your repository for the latest versions and don't forget to do the Reload. I usually check the latest version posted on the Wikipedia webpage and download the latest stable version of Google Chrome in the process.

    -- Tom
     
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2015
  11. AutoCascade

    AutoCascade Registered Member

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    I was wondering about this a week or two ago when Chrome had something like 60 security updates to the stable version. Is version X for Chromium updated the same way? It wouldn't appear so.
     
  12. Daveski17

    Daveski17 Registered Member

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    Chromium was updated to 40.0.2214.94 on Ubuntu 14.04 for me on Friday. I've noticed Ubuntu does update Chromium if you download it from the Ubuntu Software Centre.
     
  13. AutoCascade

    AutoCascade Registered Member

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    So Chromium is getting the same 60 security updates?
     
  14. Daveski17

    Daveski17 Registered Member

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    I'd presume so. I've just this minute been updated again to version 40.0.2214.111 Ubuntu 14.04 (64-bit) on my Lenovo laptop and similar on my x86 notebook.
     
  15. tlu

    tlu Guest

    That's good. As mentioned I don't run Ubuntu any more. But at the time of writing my post Chromium was still at v. 39.x according to this site. If that site is correct, the Chromium version for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS is still at v. 37.0.2062.120-0ubuntu0.12.04.1~pkg917 !!! Can someone confirm?
     
  16. Daveski17

    Daveski17 Registered Member

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    As Chromium for 14.04 was only very recently updated twice in quick succession updates for 12.04 will probably be soon.
     
  17. lotuseclat79

    lotuseclat79 Registered Member

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    That depends on how much work there is in upgrading the dependencies of the 3 packages (chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra, chromium-browser, and chromium-browser-l10n) that now comprise the chromium-browser installation between the precise and trusty releases. You can make the comparison between the dependencies from the following webpages for each of the 3 packages:

    Package: chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra (37.0.2062.120-0ubuntu0.12.04.1~pkg917) vs. Package: chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra (40.0.2214.111-0ubuntu0.14.04.1.1069).

    Package: chromium-browser (37.0.2062.120-0ubuntu0.12.04.1~pkg917) vs. Package: chromium-browser (40.0.2214.111-0ubuntu0.14.04.1.1069).

    Package: chromium-browser-l10n (37.0.2062.120-0ubuntu0.12.04.1~pkg917) vs. Package: chromium-browser-l10n (40.0.2214.111-0ubuntu0.14.04.1.1069).

    -- Tom
     
  18. Daveski17

    Daveski17 Registered Member

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    OK Tom, thanks for the info. :thumb:
     
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