PepperFlash and Chrome 54...

Evening, all.

Just thought I'd inform everybody who uses Chrome in Linux about a change in Google's packaging policy. I discovered this when I was re-packaging the new release into the SFS format that Puppy uses.

As you all know, the easiest way to obtain PepperFlash, since it was first released nearly 8 yrs ago, has always been to install Chrome, as it comes with Pepper pre-installed. The new release marks a change of direction for the Linux version of Chrome, through reading ahead on the 'beta' and 'dev' channel blogs. From version 54 on, Chrome will no longer ship with Pepper pre-installed. Instead, you have to perform a download/update from within the browser itself.

If you go into 'chrome://components', you'll see a list as in the image below:-

If you look where my cursor is pointing, at first view this will read Version '0.0.0.0', and 'Status' will read 'New, as Pepper is not at this point installed. Click on 'Check for update', and Chrome will fetch, and install Pepper for you.

Instead of the PepperFlash module (libpepflashplayer.so) residing in its own sub-directory within the /opt/google/chrome directory, it appears that it now lives, and runs from, within the Chrome binary itself. This is a distinct advantage, actually, since Adobe often release new versions of Flash before the next release of Chrome-stable is due.....so now all you need to do is check the Adobe Flash version page:-

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

...and if the currently available version is newer than your installed version, simply go to the afore-mentioned page within Chrome itself, and update it from there.

I've always hated all the 'faffing about' that Flash entails; for me, the day when the web finally goes all-HTML5 can't come soon enough.....but unfortunately, it's a necessary evil to be endured for the foreseeable future, since too many websites still require it.

I'm posting with this information because there is absolutely no mention of the new change on the Chrome-stable release blog.....so I just wanted to let everybody know about it, so as to save lots of head-scratching!

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This shouldn't make any difference to those of you who prefer to run Chromium instead. In the past, the way to do this was to download Chrome, strip out PepperFlash, then discard the rest.....Ubuntu, especially, for long enough had an 'in-house' script that did just this via Synaptic.

These days, with the Linux version of Pepper now being freely available for download, it's an easy enough matter to manually swap the libpepflashplayer.so module yourself...the Linux download is not an installer, like the Windows version is.

Hope y'all find this information useful.

Mike. 

Edited by Mike_Walsh, 16 October 2016 - 06:19 PM.

Well there goes chrome, bet they wont do this to windows users.

Luckily vivaldi is here.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:skunk/pepper-flash
sudo apt-get install pepflashplugin-installer

Edited by Al1000, 17 October 2016 - 01:22 AM.

True but other distros?

Nowadays *buntu users can install flash in Chromium from a ppa:
 

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:skunk/pepper-flash
sudo apt-get install pepflashplugin-installer

Not updated... It gives you an older version from before Google repacked Chrome.
We had "pepperflashplugin-nonfree" as the ideal solution but this isn't working at all atm, it will actually remove pepperflash from Chromium if you try to update it!
 

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Well there goes chrome, bet they wont do this to windows users.
Luckily vivaldi is here.

This effects all Chromium/Chrome based browsers, so there's no pepperflash update for Vivaldi, Iron, Chromium, Yandex Browser...
Google Chrome is the only one that has an up-to-date pepperflash!
 
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The only way (for now) to update pepperflash in Chromium based browsers is manually! The best way is to remove the older (pepper)flash version (and installed package/PPA if you have them) and manually install pepperflash.
I'm not going to cross post so here you go: Install pepperflash in Chromium DIY 
 
Greets!

Glad to see someone believes me... 

I'm betting this is yet another of those 'PITA' interludes we're going to go through with the Chromium-based browsers, until they all decide what they're going to do, how they're going to do it, and eventually settle down again.

peebee, a fellow member on the Murga-Linux Puppy forums, who packages the Chromium SFS for the community, has always had to add the PepperFlash directory to his builds manually before packing them; Chromium never has, and never will, come with PepperFlash. That's the way it's always been.....and I don't see it changing any time soon.

Vivaldi is based on Chromium, just like SlimJet, Iron, Yandex, et al. SlimJet, although released with PepperFlash, always contains a version that's at least a couple behind; they reckon the brand new versions 'haven't had enough testing'.

The one big snag with the new Chrome method is that Pepper is now installed within the binary itself (so effectively 'hidden'). It's no longer in a user-accessible location, should you, for whatever reason, want to re-install, or even install an older version.

At least with the Chromium-based 'spins' it is still easy to get at, if you need to do anything with it manually. The manual method is a piece of cake; download from

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

...then unpack, and manually place the libpepflashplayer.so module inside the PepperFlash directory, along with the manifest.json file. That's the way I've always done it; it's a hell of a lot quicker than messing around with the terminal. Perhaps I'm not a 'serious' Linux user, but Puppy tends to encourage you to get your hands dirty.....and I know which method I find easier!

Time, as always, will tell.

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EDIT:- I believe, if you want to locate Pepper manually from now on, that you'll need to look in /.config/google-chrome in your home directory. /root/.config/google-chrome in Puppy, so obviously /home/.config/google-chrome in the 'buntu-based distros. You'll find the PepperFlash directory in there now.

Yep, this proves it:-

Disregard the /mnt/sda1/AMD64/root part ( I run a single instance of the browser within multiple Pups from a remote partition by the extensive use of sym-linking), and substitute that with /home.

That's where you'll actually find the PepperFlash directory.....and that's where the browser is pointing at now for Flash-based content.

Mike. 

Edited by Mike_Walsh, 17 October 2016 - 12:07 PM.

Glad to see someone believes me.

At least with the Chromium-based 'spins' it is still easy to get at, if you need to do anything with it manually. The manual method is a piece of cake; download from

http://www.adobe.com/uk/software/flash/about/
 
...then unpack, and manually place the libpepflashplayer.so module inside the PepperFlash directory, along with the manifest.json file. That's the way I've always done it; it's a hell of a lot quicker than messing around with the terminal. Perhaps I'm not a 'serious' Linux user, but Puppy tends to encourage you to get your hands dirty.....and I know which method I find easier!
 
Time, as always, will tell.

Your method will only work if you have pepperflash already installed (and configured by something you installed or was included in the browser), it will NOT work on a newly installed Chromium because there is no pepperflash to replace!
That's why you need the terminal... to configure it so Chromium picks up the pepperflash and the right version!
 
Greets! 

Not updated... It gives you an older version from before Google repacked Chrome.

@GNU/Linux, al1000:-

Your method will only work if you have pepperflash already installed (and configured by something you installed or was included in the browser), it will NOT work on a newly installed Chromium because there is no pepperflash to replace!
That's why you need the terminal... to configure it so Chromium picks up the pepperflash and the right version!

 

Admittedly, you would have to run Chrome once to create the /.config/google-chrome directory. That's the one part I can't see a way round. The obvious solution is to download the Adobe tar.gz PepperFlash file, as I suggested.

However, use the terminal to configure things? Nah.....where's the need?  That's doing things the hard way (to me.) What I do is to use a text editor (in my case Geany) and directly edit the exec line in the /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome 'wrapper script'.....including information for where to look for the 'user-data-directory' (and other stuff.....like where to find Pepper), and specific 'switches' to tell Chrome exactly how I want it to run.

Works for me.

I'm thinking it would be a hell of a lot simpler (for Chromium) to simply write a script to download the tar.gz, unpack it, create the PepperFlash directory, put libpepflashplayer.so inside it, and point Chromium at it, all in one go. Anybody fancy taking it on? My scripting skills are rubbish...!

(No, I'm definitely not a traditional Linux user. I absolutely loathe the terminal, and use it as little as I can  possibly get away with.. However, I feel very comfortable digging around in the guts of Puppy's file-system, and shunting stuff back & forth. Mine's more the 'factory-floor' approach, rather than the 'intellectual' approach...   

Horses for courses, of course. I still achieve the end result I'm after; I just take a different approach.....and anybody who tries to tell you ROX-filer ain't powerful has obviously never used it!)

I'm attaching two files to this post. One is the script for the FlashPlayer Updater that one of our forum members, Geoffrey, created.....and the other is the variation on it that another one of our members created for downloading and updating PepperFlash itself.

(This is Geoff's original GUI to the script, using yad. We haven't got around to a GUI for the Pepper variation yet, although it does work.)

Perhaps one of the BC 'script-jockeys' could perhaps do something with them? Might give somebody some ideas.....

Forget that; the forum won't allow me to upload shell-scripts, even de-activated ones. Could be because Puppy runs as 'root'..! (*Jeez*)

Of course.   Turn 'em into text files...

Mike. 

Edited by Mike_Walsh, 17 October 2016 - 02:34 PM.

I'm thinking it would be a hell of a lot simpler (for Chromium) to simply write a script to download the tar.gz, unpack it, create the PepperFlash directory, and point Chromium at it, all in one go.

Of course. Turn 'em into text files...

I think the reason they don't, relates to PepperFlash not being open-source. Although I don't see why it couldn't conceivably be made as easy as checking a box, like you do to install ubuntu-restricted-extras when installing *buntu.

 

I'd say you're probably right, Al. It all boils down to licensing restrictions in the end. The distro can't come to you with stuff pre-installed, but it's perfectly legal to give you, the user, the info.....and let you install 'em yourself. And anyway, Pepper is as freely available as Flash now; you no longer have to develop 'workarounds' to get hold of it. Of course, again, it's perfectly OK for a bunch of users to get together and develop something like Geoff's Auto-Updater.....but it would cause merry hell if the distro was to come with it pre-installed, no?

Legal guff is funny stuff; what you can do with something, versus what you can't..... Specially on t'other side of t'Pond; they'll sue you as soon as look at you, over there... The legal profession is the only one I know where you can make a fortune out of twisting words to make 'em mean what you want 'em to.

(*shakes head in amazement*)

(No offence intended to our American cousins; I'm just stating the way we Brits see it...!   )

Mike. 

Edited by Mike_Walsh, 17 October 2016 - 02:56 PM.

@ Mike_Walsh:
We are talking pepperflash on Chromium without any pepperflash on your system already...
 
Did you look @ Install pepperflash in Chromium DIY
 
So you think that:

sudo pluma /etc/chromium-browser/default

is more difficult than that wall of text you give?
 
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About the scrips:
Pepper-Update script by SFS:
"/usr/lib/" is owned by root, most (normal ) Linux systems have a problem with that...
"#change path 4 your libpepflashplayer.so in OS wget" say again...
Geoff's-Flash-Updater:
It's for updating "libflashplayer"...
 
Greets!

Yeah, well; Puppy's always been considered 'odd' by the majority of 'normal' Linux users, I'll own..! And it's always run as root; which many people look askance at. Ooh.....that's not safe!!

On top of that, Pup doesn't use the 'normal' Synaptic-based package manager type of set-up; it never has, and it never will. It is for people who just want to get any sort of OS running on (usually) pretty ancient hardware...

I'm certainly not knocking the traditional way of doing things in Linux via the terminal; I admit, it is very powerful.....once you understand what you're doing.  But I could never get my head round even the simplest Bash commands.....so I get things done, my way.

Did you look @ Install pepperflash in Chromium DIY

 

I certainly did; I've been doing just that in Puppy for years....but in my own way.

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

'Sudo' & the 'standard' commands just don't work the way you'd expect 'em to in Pup! It uses a highly-customised version of the Bash commands; we get a lot of Ubuntu, Debian and Mint users trying it out who come to grief almost immediately.....because they try to do things the way they're used to doing them.

And they soon find out it doesn't work. So I do things the truly DIY way.....simply because I'm used to it, and I'm faster at it. I still achieve the same end result..!

Yes, Geoff's Updater is for libflashplayer.....but the second example shows where SFS had a go at converting the important bit to obtaining Pepper instead. And it does work.....until Adobe play musical chairs with the URLs, yet again..! Obviously, you'd alter the paths (and permissions) to suit the individual distro.....but that's how it works in Pup. Most of that 'wall of text' is for the GUI, in fact; the essential part, that checks for the installed version, compares, and d/ls if necessary, is only about a dozen lines or so.

But that's why, I'm afraid, most Linux users will always look down their nose at me.....because I point-blank refuse to use the one thing that is supposed to make Linux so powerful, and 'easy' to use; the terminal. I simply cannot get the hang of it.....and I just don't have the time to spare to 'learn' it. So I do things in the way that works for me.

And 'Puppy' lets me do it that way..... 

Mike. 

Edited by Mike_Walsh, 17 October 2016 - 04:58 PM.

I'm certainly not knocking the traditional way of doing things in Linux via the terminal; I admit, it is very powerful. But I could never get my head round even the simplest Bash commands.....so I get things done, my way.

You could also see the terminal as a modern way of doing things!

...until Adobe play musical chairs with the URLs, yet again...

That's indeed the thing we are missing, Google Chrome gave us that until recently...
 

But that's why most Linux users will always look down their nose at me.....because I point-blank refuse to use the one thing that makes Linux so powerful, and 'easy' to use; the terminal.

Certainly not looking down at you... unless you say Windows 10 is the best OS ever made!
 
Greets! 

Mike_Walsh, on 17 Oct 2016 - 10:37 PM, said:

But that's why most Linux users will always look down their nose at me.....because I point-blank refuse to use the one thing that makes Linux so powerful, and 'easy' to use; the terminal.

Certainly not looking down at you... unless you say Windows 10 is the best OS ever made!

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Nah; even I'm not that far gone. I finally got totally shot of Windows around six months ago....and I have no intention of returning to the concentration camp...!    

 Mike. 

Edited by Mike_Walsh, 17 October 2016 - 06:26 PM.