Flash player hangs in Iceweasel

Admetus · 08-17-2011, 07:39 AM

I'm finding a great deal of trouble dealing with flash on Iceweasel - it hangs for a good minute or so, or simply doesn't work at all. I'll mention first that I'm a novice and am hoping to use debian as a stable system to learn and play around with, but also as a system where I can browse the web just as effectively as one may do on firefox.
The flash problem may be a gnash issue, so I expect I'll install adobe 32bit flash player. I will also go along with Sun Java which is the only java used by minecraft it seems

If you can suggest a good solution or alternative to the flash problem then I will attempt it before resorting to the propriety Flash software.

What I want to know which generally applies to the whole debian distro is this: whether ensuring outside software is up to date is essential or not. If I were to install firefox, would I imagine that there may be security elements that will need to be updated manually? Did the iceweasel/firefox fork result due to the lack of guarantee that newer versions of firefox would not be completely safe?

jdkaye · 08-17-2011, 07:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Admetus

I'm finding a great deal of trouble dealing with flash on Iceweasel - it hangs for a good minute or so, or simply doesn't work at all. I'll mention first that I'm a novice and am hoping to use debian as a stable system to learn and play around with, but also as a system where I can browse the web just as effectively as one may do on firefox.
The flash problem may be a gnash issue, so I expect I'll install adobe 32bit flash player. I will also go along with Sun Java which is the only java used by minecraft it seems

If you can suggest a good solution or alternative to the flash problem then I will attempt it before resorting to the propriety Flash software.

What I want to know which generally applies to the whole debian distro is this: whether ensuring outside software is up to date is essential or not. If I were to install firefox, would I imagine that there may be security elements that will need to be updated manually? Did the iceweasel/firefox fork result due to the lack of guarantee that newer versions of firefox would not be completely safe?

I can answer the last question easily: No, nothing to do with safety. It was/is a branding issue. It's not really a fork just a different name although Iceweasel was available in 64bit version long before FFx made it.

Quote:

In 2006, a branding issue developed when Mike Connor, representing the Mozilla Corporation, requested that the Debian Project comply with Mozilla standards for use of the Thunderbird trademark when redistributing the Thunderbird software.[1][2] At issue were modifications not approved by the Mozilla Foundation, when the name for the software remained the same.

As for the other issues. Google gnash problems and you'll find out the state of the situation. I know gnash has had its share of problems.

What Debian release are you using and what architecture? There is a 64bit version of the Flashplugin if you have amd64 architecture.

Finally, Debian's policy about adopting versions in clearly stated in the documentation about the difference between the stable, testing and unstable releases. There's also experimental and some other varieties.
ciao,
jdk

cynwulf · 08-17-2011, 09:41 AM

gnash is fine for basic flash, but not for anything more demanding like flash video, youtube google street view etc, etc. If you want that kind of stuff you're looking at the proprietary flash plugin.

http://wiki.debian.org/FlashPlayer