One of the first things you may notice, the first time you use Linux and start up Firefox to get on the Web, is that you aren’t seeing Flash animations. Flash is a technology by Macromedia that’s used to distribute many different types of multimedia. Usually they are cartoons such as Homestar Runner or Invasion of the Gabber Robots, though Flash is used to distribute other kinds of multimedia presentations, as well. For instance, CBS News uses Macromedia Flash to show video news clips on its own and its affiliate stations’ Web sites. If you’re new to Linux and you’re missing those nice Flash movies, this is what you do.
How you install Macromedia Flash Player depends on which distribution of Linux you’re using, though in all cases it will be similar to installing any other software for that same platform. Just find your distribution and follow the simple instructions.
- Debian
- Install the
flashplugin-nonfreefrom the contrib unstable repository. - Fedora/Red Hat Enterprise/CentOS
- The Mid-Pacific Linux User’s Group distributes RPMs for Flash Player 7 which you can download and install.
- Gentoo
- Run this command as root:
emerge netscape-flash - Ubuntu
- Install the
flashplayer-mozillapackage. Run the following command:sudo apt-get install flashplayer-mozilla
Did I forget your Linux distribution? Still can’t install it? Drop a note below.
I like flash — it’s fun!
Hi
I tried
sudo apt-get install flashplayer-mozilla
but nothing happened. I think I shoul add a site in my /etc/apt/sources.list
Could you give me a proper mirror site?
Thanks
Ariane
You can get Flash Player 9 for Linux now from Adobe Labs:
http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer9.html
Easy manual installation.
Enjoy.