Flash, Shockwave, 3dVia plugins

TiberiusT · Post by **TiberiusT** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 3:08 am

Firstly, I apologise for the blatant help me nature of this question but time is really against me and I wondered if any experienced Linux/Wine users would be able to give me some basic pointers from their own experiences.

I have built 2 very budget PCs for my kids (8+5) running Ubuntu 10.04 x32. Both have good Nvidia graphics and can play HD video. In fact everything is tip top apart from Web browsing - which is a very important requirement considering the wealth of educational stuff on the net nowadays. Problem is that most of these edu sites use:

- Flash (works on Linux) or...
- Shockwave (doesn’t work on Linux) or
- 3dVia (doesn’t work on Linux)

So I tried Wine 1.3.21. Firefox for Windows (both 3.6.17 and 4) run fine (I installed with and without Winetricks) and so does installing shockwave flash (10.3.181.26), but then as soon as a shockwave site is loaded...bang! The Firefox screen turns monochrome and it crashes.

Investigations (google...google...google...) have led me to I assume that I cannot have my kids using Linux (or Wine), and give them the full modern web experience? Is my assumption correct? Maybe there’s another browser that integrates the plugins better? There’s no way I’m using Windows...

Tks in advance anyone, even if the answer is ‘you’re right m8...give up’.

T

tparker · Post by **tparker** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 8:03 am

On 06/21/2011 04:08 AM, TiberiusT wrote:

- Shockwave (doesn’t work on Linux) or
- 3dVia (doesn’t work on Linux)

Could you please send a link to a site that uses each of these as a
reference point for testing?

TiberiusT · Post by **TiberiusT** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 8:43 am

@tparker

Here's a 3dvia required page:
http://www.nickjr.com/kids-games/backya ... nture.html

...don't get addicted

and the shockwave one is a BBC spelling game, but I can't recall the exact page, I'll forward it when I get home later (abt 5 hours)

NB I haven't tried 3dvia (mostly games) yet on Wine since no shockwave (proper edu) is a dealbreaker on its own.

Tks
T

TiberiusT · Post by **TiberiusT** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:16 pm

Here's the other one:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpi ... game.shtml

It asks for an additional plugin but then tells me there's none found. Flash is installed and working on this system (Core2, 10.04, Firefox under Linux) I didn't actually see it this time, but I am sure that this site, (excellent free one for kids) is the one that has asked for 'shockwave' several times...

Tks
T

Post by **dimesio** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:02 pm

TiberiusT wrote:Here's the other one:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpi ... game.shtml

That site works for me with Firefox 3.5 and Shockwave 11.6 in Wine.

Install Shockwave with winetricks, then go to the Shockwave test page at http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/welcome/, right-click on the test image, select Properties, and uncheck "Allow backward compatibility."

TiberiusT · Post by **TiberiusT** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 4:31 am

@dimesio

Thanks very much. At least I know it can work then which is indeed comforting (put a hell of a lot of time into my Linux home setup!).

So I tried again this morning. I reinstalled Wine 1.3.21 from from PPA, downloaded latest Winetricks and reinstalled Friefox 3.6 from the winetricks menu. All OK at that point. However, the command $sh winetricks flash did not work (tried several times , deleting the .cache files as it suggested). I also got the same result with $sh winetricks shockwave. Here's the output from the flash attempt. Any ideas anyone? The .cache dir is full accessible by the user and there's no problem with the network, the downloads seemed to proceed fine:

Code: Select all

melanie@Mel-P4:~/Downloads$ sh winetricks flash Executing w_do_call flash Executing load_flash Executing mkdir -p /home/melanie/.cache/winetricks/flash
Downloading
http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player_ax.exe to /home/melanie/.cache/winetricks/flash
--2011-06-23 10:20:43--
http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player_ax.exe
Resolving fpdownload.macromedia.com... 95.100.178.70 Connecting to fpdownload.macromedia.com|95.100.178.70|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 3120288 (3.0M) [application/octet-stream] Saving to: `install_flash_player_ax.exe'

100%[======================================>] 3,120,288   1.61M/s   in
1.9s    

2011-06-23 10:20:45 (1.61 MB/s) - `install_flash_player_ax.exe' saved [3120288/3120288]

------------------------------------------------------
Checksum
for /home/melanie/.cache/winetricks/flash/install_flash_player_ax.exe
did not match, retrying download
------------------------------------------------------
Downloading
http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player_ax.exe to /home/melanie/.cache/winetricks/flash
--2011-06-23 10:20:45--
http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player_ax.exe
Resolving fpdownload.macromedia.com... 95.100.178.70 Connecting to fpdownload.macromedia.com|95.100.178.70|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 3120288 (3.0M) [application/octet-stream] Saving to: `install_flash_player_ax.exe'

100%[======================================>] 3,120,288   1.60M/s   in
1.9s    

2011-06-23 10:20:47 (1.60 MB/s) - `install_flash_player_ax.exe' saved [3120288/3120288]

------------------------------------------------------
sha1sum mismatch!
Rename /home/melanie/.cache/winetricks/flash/install_flash_player_ax.exe
and try again.
------------------------------------------------------
melanie@Mel-P4:~/Downloads$

Post by **dimesio** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 7:40 am

TiberiusT wrote: reinstalled Firefox 3.6 from the winetricks menu.

Flash and Shockwave won't work with any version of Firefox after 3.6.3; you'll run into bug 17273. That's why I used Firefox 3.5. You can get old versions of Firefox from http://www.oldapps.com/firefox.php. If you really want to use a later version, you could try the workaround mentioned in the bug report (I haven't tried it, so I don't know how well it works).

Code: Select all

------------------------------------------------------
sha1sum mismatch!
Rename /home/melanie/.cache/winetricks/flash/install_flash_player_ax.exe
and try again.
------------------------------------------------------

I'm getting that too from winetricks. Both downloaded files are fine; it's a bug in winetricks.

For Flash, just run the exe winetricks downloaded (that's all winetricks does). For Shockwave, the downloaded file is a .msi file, so you will have to install it with this command:

Code: Select all

msiexec /i $HOME/.cache/winetricks/shockwave/sw_lic_full_installer.msi

TiberiusT · Post by **TiberiusT** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 2:56 pm

I hate it when this happens....but neither worked. msiexec -i on the downloaded shockwave file does this:

Code: Select all

melanie@Mel-P4:~$ msiexec -i /.cache/winetricks/shockwave/sw_lic_full_installer.msi
err:msi:copy_package_to_temp failed to copy package L"/.cache/winetricks/shockwave/sw_lic_full_installer.msi" to L"C:\\users\\melanie\\Temp\\msi269.tmp" (3)
melanie@Mel-P4:~$

So I copied across manually to that destination, and ran it manually (renamed to save typing)

Code: Select all

melanie@Mel-P4://home/melanie/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/melanie/Temp$ msiexec -i sw.msi

and it seems to install properly, but on opening Firefox (using 3.6.17 as incl prompted in Winetricks menu) it wasn't installed at all.

Similarly, running install_flash_player_ax.exe seems OK. It runs, the red Adobe box comes up and installation appears to complete. But on loading Firefox it just isn't there either...so no Flash or shockwave. Neither program appears in the Wine menu's Add/Remove Program box either, but then again neither does Firefox. Only program there is Wine Gecko 1.2.0.
Similarly, in the Winetricks/Firefox 3 Prefix/Install a WIndows DLL or other component section, both shockwave and flash are unchecked, indicating they are not installed. Checking either box takes me back to the original sh1sum bug...

There's nothing unusual about the installation of anything on the PC. Any further ideas?

I guess these are Winetricks bugs - should I be addressing these issues there instead? Or, since the plugins did install somewhere - is there a manual way to get Winetricks' Firefox to load them - there's nothing obvious in the cfg file

tks...again
T

Post by **dimesio** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 3:22 pm

TiberiusT wrote: I hate it when this happens....but neither worked. msiexec -i on the downloaded shockwave file does this:
Code: Select all
melanie@Mel-P4:~$ msiexec -i /.cache/winetricks/shockwave/sw_lic_full_installer.msi
err:msi:copy_package_to_temp failed to copy package L"/.cache/winetricks/shockwave/sw_lic_full_installer.msi" to L"C:\\users\\melanie\\Temp\\msi269.tmp" (3)
melanie@Mel-P4:~$ 

You forgot the $HOME at the beginning of the path.

I guess these are Winetricks bugs -

Or a feature. Winetricks by default installs Firefox to a separate wineprefix buried deep within ~/.local/share/wineprefixes, without telling the user that it's doing that or asking if that's where they want it. OTOH, it doesn't do that with either Shockwave or Flash; those are installed to the default wineprefix, ~/.wine, unless you specify otherwise. That's like installing them on separate computers, so it's useless for your purposes.

So, what you need to do is either manually install Firefox to ~/.wine, or Shockwave and Flash to ~/.local/share/wineprefixes/firefox3. If you do the latter, you will need to apply the workaround mentioned in bug 17273, since the Firefox version installed by winetricks is affected by that bug.

tparker · Post by **tparker** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 3:43 pm

On 06/23/2011 03:56 PM, TiberiusT wrote:

and it seems to install properly, but on opening Firefox (using 3.6.17 as incl prompted in Winetricks menu

I was able to get the shockwave site to work, but as with the previous
poster it had to be Firefox 3.5, the 3.6 version you used would not work
for me either.

TiberiusT · Post by **TiberiusT** » Wed Jun 29, 2011 3:05 pm

dimesio, tparker, tks very much indeed. I got it working by running the downloaded Firefox 3.5.exe from the oldapps link. I then downloaded Shockwave and Flash thru Winetricks and ran them manually.

I have two PCs I'm doing this on. On the Core2Duo 2.00Ghz with an 8500GT it works fine...I say fine bcos Firefox does crash occassionally (only while running flash). It seems random so far. There's also the occassional blank space on the screen, but it is definitely very useable.

However the other PC is a venerable P4 at 3.2Ghz, 1MB mem, with an 8400GS and Flash barely runs. CPU gets hammered at a continuous 80pct ish and there's large black gaps in the rendering and chunks missing out of the screen. It's not really useable. I've tried other Firefox versions and older Flash versions but the problem is identical...

Both PCs use Nvidia's official drivers and both play H264 1080p level 4x at a stroll using VDPAU.

Should I be messing around with videocard settings to try and sort the Flash problem? Or is it just Wine/FFox/Flash doing something mighty intensive on the CPU?

Tks
T

Post by **DanKegel** » Thu Jun 30, 2011 12:21 am

dimesio wrote: Or a feature. Winetricks by default installs Firefox to a separate wineprefix buried deep within ~/.local/share/wineprefixes, without telling the user that it's doing that or asking if that's where they want it. OTOH, it doesn't do that with either Shockwave or Flash; those are installed to the default wineprefix, ~/.wine, unless you specify otherwise. That's like installing them on separate computers, so it's useless for your purposes.

So, what you need to do is either manually install Firefox to ~/.wine, or Shockwave and Flash to ~/.local/share/wineprefixes/firefox3. If you do the latter, you will need to apply the workaround mentioned in bug 17273, since the Firefox version installed by winetricks is affected by that bug.

I know the winetricks interface is a bit daunting, but it really
does let you do what you want.

Here's a single command to install firefox3.5 with flash and shockwave
(better get a fresh winetricks first, I just added the firefox35 verb):
sh winetricks firefox35 prefix=firefox35 flash shockwave

Think people would rather that winetricks default to installing
flash and shockwave with firefox? That'd sure make it easier.

Post by **dimesio** » Thu Jun 30, 2011 8:08 am

DanKegel wrote: Think people would rather that winetricks default to installing
flash and shockwave with firefox? That'd sure make it easier.

I think that would cause problems for people who want flash and shockwave installed elsewhere.

Personally, I would prefer winetricks just respect the good old-fashioned WINEPREFIX variable whenever it's specified on the command line, like it used to.

Post by **DanKegel** » Thu Jun 30, 2011 11:02 am

dimesio wrote:
DanKegel wrote: Think people would rather that winetricks default to installing
flash and shockwave with firefox? That'd sure make it easier.
I think that would cause problems for people who want flash and shockwave installed elsewhere.

Why? They can still do 'winetricks flash' just like before to install it anywhere they want.

dimesio wrote: Personally, I would prefer winetricks just respect the good old-fashioned WINEPREFIX variable whenever it's specified on the command line, like it used to.

That's a separate question. It still does obey WINEPREFIX for libraries.
If you want it to obey WINEPREFIX for applications, use --no-isolate.

Winetricks defaults to putting apps in their own wineprefixes so one app's workarounds
don't break other apps. It solves the dll hell problem. Maybe in the future it won't
be needed, and winetricks can flip the default back to installing apps in ~/.wine.

Post by **dimesio** » Thu Jun 30, 2011 11:50 am

DanKegel wrote:
dimesio wrote:
DanKegel wrote: Think people would rather that winetricks default to installing
flash and shockwave with firefox? That'd sure make it easier.
I think that would cause problems for people who want flash and shockwave installed elsewhere.
Why? They can still do 'winetricks flash' just like before to install it anywhere they want.

Sorry, I read what you said as meaning the shockwave and flash verbs would default to the firefox wineprefix. If you mean the firefox verb would just install shockwave and flash whether the user wants them or not, then I think the problem would be for people who don't want them installed.

If you want it to obey WINEPREFIX for applications, use --no-isolate.

I know that. It means the command to install firefox with winetricks is longer than just running the installer directly. For me, that makes it more trouble than it's worth. But I'm not your target audience, so it doesn't really matter.