Using flash plugin when running DSL in RAM

Forum: Multimedia
Topic: Using flash plugin when running DSL in RAM
started by: lesliek

Posted by lesliek on Oct. 25 2007,05:52

I'm using DSL 4.0 with the toram boot option.

I mounted the sole non-swap partition on my hard disk and downloaded to it the flashplayer plugin that was said to work in DSL (v 7).

I found that the plugin directory for the version of Firefox that came with DSL was /KNOPPIX/usr/local/firefox/plugins. I therefore copied the flashplayer plugin to that directory and, when I started Firefox, the flashplayer plugin was available for me to use.

So far so good.

Next, I downloaded to the hard disk firefox-2.0-gtk1.uci and loaded it. I found that its plugin directory was /ramdisk/opt/firefox-2.0-gtk1/plugins.
I tried to copy the flashplayer plugin to that directory, but I was told I couldn't, because it was read-only.

Is there some way that I can overcome my inability to take that step, so that, while running DSL in RAM, I can also use the newer version of Firefox together with the flashplayer plugin?

Thanks for reading this,

Leslie

Posted by stupid_idiot on Oct. 25 2007,06:58

The alternative is to copy the files to '/home/dsl/.mozilla/firefox/[random-string]/plugins'.

Posted by lesliek on Oct. 26 2007,02:40

Thank you very much for taking the trouble to reply.

I may be misunderstanding you, but I'm taking it that you were referring to a directory that I should already have on my system. However, even after loading firefox-2.0-gtk1.uci following boot-up, I don't have any directory like that.

However, after posting my query, I hunted around to find out a bit more about Opera, for which, like Firefox, there's a special DSL version.

I found that, for Opera, you can easily nominate multiple paths to plugins. I downloaded Opera to /mnt/hda1 and was able to load it. I was then able to nominate, as an additional plugin path for it, /mnt/hda1 (where the flashplayer plugin is). Immediately, the flashplayer plugin worked in Opera.

All other things being equal, I'd prefer to use the latest DSL version of Firefox (since I use Firefox on my regular computer), but if that can't be done with the flashplayer plugin when I'm running DSL in RAM, then I'll use Opera instead.

Thanks again for replying,

Leslie

Posted by stupid_idiot on Oct. 26 2007,06:26

Quote (lesliek @ Oct. 26 2007,06:40)

However, even after loading firefox-2.0-gtk1.uci following boot-up, I don't have any directory like that.

Yes, that is normal. '.mozilla/' is created only when Firefox is started. So:

Code Sample

1. Load firefox-2.0-gtk1.uci
2. Run it, then exit
3. Copy the flashplayer 7 files to "/home/dsl/.mozilla/firefox/[random-string-of-characters]/plugins/"
4. Start FF; go to a site with Flash, and see if it works

Posted by lesliek on Oct. 27 2007,04:44

Thanks for your further reply.

I followed the 1st 2 steps.

At the 3rd step, I didn't have the directory you mentioned, but I did have: /home/dsl/.mozilla/firefox/[random-string-of-characters]/

I therefore created the plugins directory at the end of the path and copied libflashplayer.so to it.

However, when I tried step 4, it didn't work. Nor did the flashplayer plugin show up when I typed "about:plugins" in the FF address bar, though the 2 default plugins did show up.

My untutored guess is that FF looks for its plugins in particular spots. If it finds 1 or more plugins in the 1st spot it checks, then it doesn't go on to look for them anywhere else. In that respect, it's unlike Opera, which seems to allow you to nominate a whole bunch of separate plugin paths, all of which it checks.

Thanks again for taking the trouble to reply,

Leslie