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I know that there are extensive, "proper" methods for installing Firefox plugins. However, I would like to know where the folder is for linking shared-object (.so) files, such as libnpjp2.so and libflashplayer.so so that I can install plugins the "old-fashioned" way. In Firefox 21, I would have put it in ~/.mozilla/firefox/*[profile name].default/browser/plugins but that folder is no longer there. It keeps jumping around as Firefox changes. In about:plugins I still see all the plugins that I would have put there.

Can anyone tell me where the folder is? I already checked the folders in /usr/lib/firefox and /usr/lib/mozilla.

Richard
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6 Answers6

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Please read the update at the end of this answer regarding changes in Firefox 52.

Acording to the Firefox developer documentation plugins live here:

  • Directory pointed to by MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH environment variable
  • ~/.mozilla/plugins
  • /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins (on non-Ubuntu 64-bit systems, /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins might be used instead)
  • Plug-ins within toolkit bundles
  • [Profile directory]/plugins, where [Profile directory] is a user profile directory

Update for Firefox >=52

As of Firefox 52 support for NPAPI plugins has been dropped. All plugins living in one of the above directories are ignored, with the exception of Adobe Flash.

If you installed Flash with the flashplugin-installer package, it's loaded through a symlink in /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins that ultimately links to /usr/lib/flashplugin-installer/libflashplayer.so.

mniess
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    Mine is 64-bit system but i found out that it is at /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins. Also it is a good idea to have a look at about:plugins tab that may give a hint. – Fredrick Gauss Jun 10 '15 at 05:49
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    Fredrick Gauss's comment holds good for 14.04 too. – learner Aug 09 '15 at 03:38
  • @learner, thanks. The info is directly from the Firefox documentation. Ubuntu puts 64bit libs in /usr/lib and 32bit libs in /usr/lib32 instead of having a lib64 directory. So I changed the answer a little to reflect that. – mniess Aug 11 '15 at 13:31
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    @FredrickGauss Great suggestion about:plugins. This way I can instantly get exact plugin directory path and verify the update afterwards by just refreshing and seeing the 'state: UPDATE_AVAILABLE_ ' is gone. So Helpful. – Gautam Arya Jan 10 '17 at 05:42
  • As of Firefox 50 on Ubuntu 16.04.1, none of these directories is where the plugins are. about:plugins shows that Flash comes from /usr/lib/flashplugin-installer, but I couldn't find anything symlinking to that path. This answer suggests deleting pluginreg.dat. – Dan Dascalescu Jan 23 '17 at 04:57
  • @DanDascalescu actually nothing changed. I'm on Firefox 53 with Ubuntu 16.10 and Ubuntu 17.04. For me plugins live in /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins. There's a symlink to /etc/alternatives/mozilla-flashplugin which is itself a symlink to /usr/lib/flashplugin-installer/libflashplayer.so. I'll update my answer reflecting a few other changes, though. – mniess Apr 27 '17 at 11:12
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I am on KDE 32bit 14.04 version. Firefox is already installed.

user Richard got negative reputation by telling us the correct path:

/usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins

If you are proper linux user, it's no problem to move libflashplayer.so file to this directory as root user!

Youtube works after dat!

Erikas
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Users should place plugins in /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins as root.

Richard
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I found there is a directory /usr/lib/firefox/brower/plugins/.

My Ubuntu version is 16.04 LTS. How to enable flash player in Mozilla Firefox in Ubuntu is a helpful article. If there is not a directory named lib64, just copy the correct file to /usr/lib/firefox/browser/plugins/. Based on my experience, it also works well.

Zanna
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As a new Ubuntu user, I've been suggested to use the path mentioned by the about:plugins firefox command. In my case, it's pointing to /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/.

Just mentioning here as I haven't seen this being mentioned. In case the approach isn't valid / reliable, I'd like to know why.

Tiago Cardoso
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  • Umm.. The accepted answer mentions /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins, and the question itself mentions about:plugins. – muru Dec 26 '15 at 17:54
  • Yeah, my takeout is that, regardless of version, we should be using what's stated @ about:plugins (which was already known by OP, but - I believe - he wasn't sure if that path was the de facto path to be used or not). – Tiago Cardoso Dec 26 '15 at 18:05
  • OK.. You should cite the source where you got this suggestion. – muru Dec 26 '15 at 18:06
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For flash player, using Ubuntu 16.04 64bit, /usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin/ is sufficient.

After downloading flash_player_npapi_linux.x86_64.tar.gz from Adobe website, I unpacked the archive and : 

$ sudo cp libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin/
$ sudo cp -r usr/* /usr

Restarted Firefox and done!

I can even see that /etc/alternatives/mozilla-flashplugin is a link to /usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin/libflashplayer.so

anonymous2
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anteldan
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  • because the page about:plugins gave me the path /usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin for the shockwave flash plugin – anteldan Mar 21 '17 at 16:11