32-bit PepperFlash is BACK...

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Mike Walsh
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Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
Location: King's Lynn, UK.

32-bit PepperFlash is BACK...

#1 Post by Mike Walsh »

***32-bit Pepperflash makes a 'comeback'! ***


Morning, kiddiwinks!

I have a treat for those of you running Chrome/Chromium/SlimJet on 32-bit Pups. Whether by accident or design (not sure which yet), Adobe have apparently re-commenced development of 32-bit Linux Pepper, and are, for the first time, making it publicly available for download.

This means you have a chance to at least update this trouble-prone item in your browser. There's two ways you can do this:-

1) For the more experienced among you, download 32-bit Pepper as a tar.gz file from the Adobe 'Player Download Center'.

https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

If you visit the page in your Chrome/Chromium-based browser, the site will auto-detect the type of download you need, based on your browser's user-agent string. Extract the 'libpepflashplayer.so' and 'manifest.json' files from the package, and manually move them into your PepperFlash folder (or relevant location, depending on the browser), following my instructions from here:-

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=101275

2) Or, for the less technically competent among you, I've produced a new series of PepperFlash .pets, to be found at the usual location:-

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=106409

Since none of us know how long this happy state of affairs might last for, "grab 'em while you can..!"

BTW:- It's come to my notice that these .pets may not work for the final three versions of 32-bit Chrome (46, 47, and 48 ). Google had begun to introduce a semi-working updater mechanism to the Linux version of Chrome, and, rather than the browser looking in /opt/google/chrome/PepperFlash for the player module, it was now looking in /root/.config/google-chrome/PepperFlash/[Pepper-version]. It would be a bit daft to make yet another series of .pets just for 3 browsers, so the above location is where you would need to manually move the relevant files to. Even then I'm not convinced it will work, since the definition of this location appears to be hard-coded into the 'manifest.fingerprint' file found at the stated location.....and the file is not to amenable to editing, since it isn't a text file.

All you can do is try. It doesn't appear to have worked for me; although 'chrome://flags' shows the path as being correct, apparently the browser is not seeing it. 'Couldn't load plug-in'. I haven't yet figured out a solution to this one.....but I'm working on it!

For most of you, though, these pets should just 'work' as usual.

Enjoy.


Mike. :wink:
Last edited by Mike Walsh on Sat 16 Jul 2016, 17:43, edited 3 times in total.

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Mike Walsh
Posts: 6351
Joined: Sat 28 Jun 2014, 12:42
Location: King's Lynn, UK.

#2 Post by Mike Walsh »

Morning, everyone.

I've figured out the 'fix' for the last 3 versions of Chrome; 46,47, & 48.

It involves a bit of resetting, but you'll only need to do this once. The steps are as follows:-

1) With Chrome closed, install the appropriate .pet.
2) Open ROX ('Files' on desktop).
3) Click on the 'eye' icon (in navigation bar) to show the 'hidden' files (these start with a '.').
4) Go into /.cache; delete any folder called 'chrome' or 'google-chrome'.
5) Then go into /.config. Repeat the above process.
6) Close ROX.

Now, re-open Chrome. This will be like a fresh install; you'll need to reset your extensions just once (the extensions, bookmarks, etc., will be reloaded from your Google account, as /.cache and /.config are re-created).

The troublesome directory at /root/.config/google-chrome/PepperFlash/[Pepper version] will be re-created.....but not the contents. The contents seem to have been generated on a 'first time ever' install basis, connected to the Google Chrome 'token' process (which gets sent to Google the very first time the browser is used; subsequent re-installs and 'first runs' don't appear to generate this data any more).

Visit Adobe's 'version check' page @

http://www.adobe.com/uk/software/flash/about/

...to confirm the version you have; or,

https://www.adobe.com/swf/software/flas ... _small.swf

...the 'short' version simply checks the 'local' version (in nice BIG letters, so you can't miss it!)

You should now find you're running the new version of Pepper. If Adobe keep releasing new 32-bit versions, subsequent PepperFlash .pets ought to install, and work, straight away.....without needing the above 'workaround' to be repeated.

You will also find, by going into 'chrome://plugins, and checking the path for PepperFlash, that it's now reading from the 'usual' location, i.e., /opt/google/chrome/PepperFlash/libpepflashplayer.so.

Versions of Chrome up to and including 45 are not affected by this; just install the .pet as usual.


Mike. :wink:
Last edited by Mike Walsh on Tue 09 Aug 2016, 00:28, edited 2 times in total.

Sailor Enceladus
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Joined: Mon 22 Feb 2016, 19:43

#3 Post by Sailor Enceladus »

Hey Mike, if Chrome has stopped 32-bit, what does that mean for SlimJet? I think it uses Pepperflash too. SlimJet is best! :lol:

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OscarTalks
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Location: London, England

#4 Post by OscarTalks »

Yes, Slimjet is one of the Chromium derivative alternatives to Chrome and development of the 32bit Slimjet continues with the latest being 11.0.1.0 which is based on Chromium 51. Slimjet does use PepperFlash. It ships with an earlier version of PepperFlash but you can upgrade to the latest by downloading the tarball and installing (substituting) the 2 files as described by Mike Walsh. I would note that these files when extracted are not owned by root. They will probably still work but I would recommend that you "chown root:root" both of them. If doing this you might also want to delete any previous earlier PepperFlash upgrades from the profile. My experimental Slimjet 32bit packages have the PepperFlash upgrade included.

Other 32bit Linux Chrome alternatives (Chromium derivatives) that are still developed and use PepperFlash include Vivaldi, Iron, Opera, Maxthon and of course builds of pure Chromium itself.
Oscar in England
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Sailor Enceladus
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Joined: Mon 22 Feb 2016, 19:43

#5 Post by Sailor Enceladus »

Thanks Oscar. I have your SlimJet pet! :) I was under the impression Chromium didn't have Flash and you had to use the NPAPI plugin but I haven't used Chromium for so long so maybe it changed or I'm misremembering things; lol. Now it all makes sense.

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Mike Walsh
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Location: King's Lynn, UK.

#6 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hi, Sailor.

Now then; to recap...

Chrome will continue as pure 64-bit.

The Chromium Project (where Chromium, the open-source browser, is developed, and from where Google draw the source code for Chrome), is continuing 32-bit development.

Google no longer have a use for 32-bit Pepper. I believe their contract with Adobe for 32-bit Pepper has ended, so Adobe are finally free to offer it as a publicly available download, in the same way as the standard Linux Flashplayer. Which makes sense, since there are lots of variants based on Chromium, which is still being developed for 32-bit. This appears to apply across all platforms; I visited the Download page earlier today in Win XP, and it offered me the Windows version of the current 32-bit Pepper.

Chromium does not ship with Pepper installed; you have to obtain it from 'other sources' (usually, stripping it out from Chrome), although this would appear to no longer be necessary. However, some others, such as Iron and SlimJet, do come with it pre-installed. In much the same vein, peebee supplies his Chromium SFS packages with Pepper already built-in.

All of the current, Chromium-based browsers will happily work with PepperFlash; either 32-, or 64-bit. The same goes for SlimJet, Iron, Vivaldi, Maxthon, et al.

I hope that clarifies the current situation a little bit..!


Mike. :wink:
Last edited by Mike Walsh on Tue 09 Aug 2016, 00:37, edited 3 times in total.

Pelo

Pepperflash downloaded in my tool case

#7 Post by Pelo »

Pepperflash downloaded in my tool case, Mike

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