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The other day I applied updates and broke my ability to watch amazon videos on my computer. I am not alone. See the amazon forum post.

How can I rever to the previous version of Flash?

Here's what I've tried so far. Using

tail -10 /var/log/dpkg.log

I found this line that looks like the culprit on my system:

2013-04-10 16:31:56 status installed flashplugin-installer:amd64 11.2.202.280ubuntu0.12.10.1

At this point, I'm not sure what to do. And I think the issue is complicated by the fact that the package I'm referring to is an installer, not an actual plugin.

snowguy
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2 Answers2

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Here is the fix:

  1. Close running instances of your browser.

  2. If you don't already have synaptic package manager installed (it isn't by default) install it. From the terminal type:

    sudo apt-get install synaptic

  3. You will also need to install "hal" and "hal-info", unless already installed:

    sudo apt-get install hal hal-info
  4. Start Synaptic Package Manager
  5. In the top right of the application is a search box. Search for "flashplugin-installer"
  6. Highlight the package and press Ctrl + E
  7. The "Force version" window should open
  8. Pick version 11.2.202.243 instead of the currently installed 11.2.202.280
  9. Apply changes by clicking the button that says "Apply" with a check mark under it.
  10. With the package still highlighted, select from the top menu: Package->Lock Version
  11. Close Synaptic and open a terminal

  12. We need to remove old cached versions of the plugin. First type:

     cd ~/.adobe/Flash_Player

  13. Next type: 

     rm -rf NativeCache AssetCache APSPrivateData2
  14. You can now close the terminal and reopen your browser

Thanks to Rob S for the instructions on how to do this. The above instructions are his with only slight modifications. Additionally, the last few instructions are from the Arch Linux Wiki.

Seth
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snowguy
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  • When you quit synapic, it'll ask you quit and discard changes. I think that's because you've downgraded the package. – Dror Apr 13 '13 at 08:51
  • I have tested these instructions and they work for 12.10. I believe they should also work for 12.04. I haven't been able to get them to work for 13.04. For 13.04 they fail at step 6 where "force version" is disabled. Any suggestions on how to fix? – snowguy Apr 27 '13 at 06:38
  • 13.04 question here has the answer: http://askubuntu.com/a/289341/4462 – aap May 02 '13 at 03:56
0

I use the adobe-flashplugin package instead of the flashplugin-installer package, so I fixed it a different way; I downloaded the old .deb file for the adobe-flashplugin package and installed it with dpkg:

wget http://launchpadlibrarian.net/134077901/adobe-flashplugin_11.2.202.275-0precise1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i adobe-flashplugin_11.2.202.275-0precise1_amd64.deb

I'm using 12.04 (precise); you can find the appropriate download urls for other ubuntu releases by following the links here:

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/adobe-flashplugin

One big drawback to doing it like this is that apt-get will refuse to install or update any other packages until you upgrade your adobe-flashplugin package back to the latest version with this command:

sudo apt-get -f upgrade adobe-flashplugin

Hopefully amazon fixes their flash player soon.

Justin Ludwig
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