Flash

The Adobe Flash player plugin can be emulated to run on native browsers. Alternatively, the browser can also be emulated, but this method seems to lack performance.

Linux plugin emulation

First, install nspluginwrapper by:

# pkg_add -r nspluginwrapper

Or:

# cd /usr/ports/*/nspluginwrapper; make install clean

Next, install flashplugin11

# cd /usr/ports/www/linux-c6-flashplugin11; make install clean

This should install other linux-c6 dependencies. Follow the directions at the end of installing the programs, most of which will be repeated below in the "Configuration" section. If it cannot fetch the file, download it from here: http://freshmeat.net/projects/flashplugin/

Run the following for a library plugin to be found by firefox:

nspluginwrapper -v -a -i

Or to upgrade from a previous installed Flash plugin:

nspluginwrapper -v -a -u

How to update to the latest version of Flash

The Linux library file from Adobe can be downloaded and emulated to update an outdated flash player. Download the Flash tar.gz file for Linux at https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/.

Unzip and untar the file:

# tar -xzf install_flash_player_*_linux-i386.tar.gz

Brand libflashplayer.so as a linux file, then move it under /usr/local/lib/browser_plugins/:

# brandelf -t Linux libflashplayer.so
# mv libflashplayer.so

To upgrade from a previous installed Flash plugin:

nspluginwrapper -v -a -u

This setup should work with non-emulated Firefox. This generally provides video playback on most websites requiring flash player. The instructions for updating KDE plugin is slightly different, look for the kde library file under the unzipped /usr directory. Please see FreeBSD handbook (Linux® Binary Compatibility) for more insight.

Configuration

/etc/

/etc/fstab

linproc         /compat/linux/proc    linprocfs  rw    0   0
#possibly the two below
fdesc           /dev/fd               fdescfs    rw    0   0
proc            /proc                 procfs     rw    0   0

/etc/rc.conf

linux_enable="YES"

/etc/devfs.conf

link /tmp shm

/etc/sysctl.conf

compat.linux.osrelease=2.6.18

/compat/linux/

/compat/linux/ should have at least the following sub-directories: etc/ lib/ proc/ usr/

% cd /compat/linux/
% mkdir etc/ lib/ proc/ usr/

/compat/linux/etc/yp.conf

domainname	mydomain.com  # this is your network's domain-name without localhost
ypserver	localhost  # my.yp.server

/compat/linux/etc/nsswitch.conf

passwd:     files nis
shadow:     files nis
group:      files nis
hosts:	    files nis dns

Konqueror

Go to Settings -> Configure Konqueror -> plugins

Create the directory and link files

# mkdir /usr/X11R6/lib/linux-flashplugin6
# cd /usr/X11R6/lib/linux-flashplugin6
# ln -s /usr/local/lib/npapi/linux-flashplugin/flashplayer.xpt
# ln -s /usr/local/lib/npapi/linux-flashplugin/libflashplayer.so

Now hit 'Scan for new plugins'

Now go and test it out.

Linux Opera

I've noticed that some things work better under linux-opera than any other browser on FreeBSD. For instance the Asterisk Flash Operator Panel will only work properly under this port and YouTube works with sound and video under opera!

All you should have to do is install it. Opera will automatically use the libmap.conf file to find the flash libraries and load them.

# cd /usr/ports/www/linux-opera && make install clean

Wine emulation

Full Adobe Flash 9 support can be present by using a Win32 browser and Adobe Flash 9 for Windows in WINE. This was tested with WINE 0.9.59, FreeBSD 7-Release and Firefox 2.0.0.13.

Alternatively look into installing the package emulators/pipelight, which is meant to use windows plugins, through wine emulation, in non-emulated FreeBSD browsers. (I haven't tested this set-up)

External Links

http://freebsd.kde.org/howtos/konqueror-flash.php

Some more extensive step-by-step instructions:

http://freebsd.langhans.com.pl

See also

The PC-BSD project have released version 1.4 of their FreeBSD based distribution which includes native Flash Player in Konqueror, Firefox and Opera.