Firefox and Adobe Flash Plugin

[Galraedia]

Firefox and Macromedia Flash Plugin

Macromedia Flash plugin is not available for PC-BSD/FreeBSD. However, a software layer (wrapper) for running the Linux version of the plugin exists. This wrapper also supports Adobe Acrobat plugin, RealPlayer plugin and more.

According to the version of PC-BSD/FreeBSD you run various steps are required:

Under PC-BSD/FreeBSD 7.X

Install the www/nspluginwrapper port. This port requires emulators/linux_base-fc4 which is a large port.

The next step is to install the www/linux-flashplugin9 port. This will install Flash 9.X, this version is known to run correctly under FreeBSD 7.X.

Note: On PC-BSD/FreeBSD versions older than 7.1-RELEASE you have to install www/linux-flashplugin7 and skip the linprocfs(5) part below.

Under PC-BSD/FreeBSD 8.X

Install the www/nspluginwrapper port. This port requires emulators/linux_base-f10 which is a large port.

The next step is to install the www/linux-f10-flashplugin10 port. This will install Flash 10.X, this version is known to run correctly under FreeBSD 8.X.

This version will require the following link to be created:
# ln -s /usr/local/lib/npapi/linux-f10-flashplugin/libflashplayer.so \
/usr/local/lib/browser_plugins/

Once the right Flash port, according to the Pc-BSD/FreeBSD version you run, is installed, the plugin must be installed by each user with nspluginwrapper:

% nspluginwrapper -v -a -i

The Linux process file system, [url=http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=linprocfs&sektion=5]linprocfs(5)[url] has to be mounted on /usr/compat/linux/proc, if one wants to play Flash animations. This can be done via the following command:

# mount -t linprocfs linproc /usr/compat/linux/proc

This point can be automated at boot time with the addition of the matching line in /etc/fstab:

linproc /usr/compat/linux/proc linprocfs rw 0 0

Then, start your browser, enter about: plugins in the location bar and press Enter. A list should appear with all the currently available plugins.