Macromedia Flash Player 5 Netscape Plug-in for Linux 15 February 2001 Macromedia is proud to release the Macromedia Flash Player 5 Netscape plug-in for the Linux operating system. Supported Distributions ----------------------- The Macromedia Flash Player plug-in requires an Intel x86-based Linux distribution with ELF binary support. The distribution must support the GNU C library (glibc 2.0 or greater). Distributions that meet these requirements include: - RedHat 5.x, 6.x, 7.0 The plugin should work for more recent distributions as well. MkLinux for Power Macintosh is not currently supported. Supported Browsers ------------------ Netscape Navigator 4.0 or greater is required. The glibc version of Netscape Navigator must be used. Installation ------------ The following section assumes that you have unpacked the archive flash_linux.tar.gz into the top level of your user directory. Your user directory is referred to as $HOME. The Macromedia Flash Player can be installed in two ways: - Install the Flash Player system-wide, making it available to all users of the computer. or - Install the Macromedia Flash Player in a user account, making it available only to that user. Installing the Macromedia Flash Player System-Wide: You will need root access to the computer to install the Macromedia Flash Player system-wide. 1. Copy the Macromedia Flash Player (libflashplayer.so) into the Netscape plug-in directory. cp $HOME/flash_linux/libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/netscape/plugins 2. Copy the Macromedia Flash Player Java class file (ShockwaveFlash.class) into the Netscape plug-in directory. cp $HOME/flash_linux/ShockwaveFlash.class /usr/lib/netscape/plugins 3. Start Netscape. netscape & 4. Verify the installation by typing about:plugins in the location bar. You should see the Flash Player listed as "Shockwave Flash 5.0r48" 5. To test the Macromedia Flash Player go to: http://www.flash.com/ (NOTE: If the Web site www.flash.com does not automatically detect that you have the Flash Player installed, click on the link "If you know you have Flash, click here") Installing the Macromedia Flash Player in a User Account: 1. If you have not already used Netscape from the user account, launch Netscape and close it. This will create a Netscape preferences directory (.netscape) in your home directory. The preferences directory will be named: $HOME/.netscape 2. Create a plugins directory in the Netscape preferences directory. mkdir $HOME/.netscape/plugins If the mkdir command reports the error "cannot make directory: File exists", do not be alarmed. This means only that the directory was already present and did not need to be created. 3. Copy the Macromedia Flash Player (libflashplayer.so) into the Netscape plug-in directory. cp $HOME/flash_linux/libflashplayer.so $HOME/.netscape/plugins 4. Copy the Macromedia Flash Player Java class file (ShockwaveFlash.class) into the Netscape plug-in directory. cp $HOME/flash_linux/ShockwaveFlash.class $HOME/.netscape/plugins 5. Start Netscape. netscape & 6. Verify the installation by typing about:plugins in the location bar. You should see the Macromedia Flash Player listed as "Shockwave Flash 5.0r48" 7. To test the Macromedia Flash Player go to: http://www.flash.com/ (NOTE: If the Web site www.flash.com does not automatically detect that you have the Flash Player installed, click on the link "If you know you have Flash, click here") Troubleshooting --------------- Q: When I try to visit a Web site that contains Flash content, I get the error message "Unknown type application/octet-stream". A: The Web site you are attempting to view needs to properly configure their Web server with the MIME types for Flash content. Specifically, they must add the MIME types: .spl application/futuresplash .swf application/x-shockwave-flash You might want to let the Webmaster of the site know of the problem. Q: My Linux system is RedHat 6.0. When I browse to a Web page containing Flash content, the browser reports "Starting Java" and then crashes. A: This is a Java-related bug in the RedHat 6.0 distribution. Red Hat has documented the problem and provides a fix on their Product Support FAQ Web page: http://www.redhat.com/support?faq Optimal X Server Configuration ------------------------------ Flash Player should work with any X server configuration. However, optimal performance is achieved at the following color depths and color mask settings: Depth: 8 Visual: PseudoColor Depth: 15 Bits Per Pixel: 16 Visual: TrueColor Red Mask: 0x00007C00 Green Mask: 0x000003E0 Blue Mask: 0x0000001F Depth: 16 Bits Per Pixel: 16 Visual: TrueColor Red Mask: 0x0000F800 Green Mask: 0x000007E0 Blue Mask: 0x0000001F Depth: 24 Bits Per Pixel: 24 Visual: TrueColor Red Mask: 0x00FF0000 Green Mask: 0x0000FF00 Blue Mask: 0x000000FF Depth: 32 Bits Per Pixel: 32 Visual: TrueColor Red Mask: 0x00FF0000 Green Mask: 0x0000FF00 Blue Mask: 0x000000FF Depth: 32 Bits Per Pixel: 32 Visual: TrueColor Red Mask: 0x000000FF Green Mask: 0x0000FF00 Blue Mask: 0x00FF0000 In addition, the X server's image byte order must match the host byte order in order to achieve optimal performance using one of the above configurations. Macromedia Flash Player takes advantage of the the MIT-SHM Shared Memory Extension. This will boost performance on supported systems. Known Bugs ---------- Some web sites use JavaScript detection and may default to a non-Flash page for users who are not on Macintosh or Windows platforms. Some web sites may have a link you can click to get to the Flash content. RealFlash is not supported by RealAudio on the UNIX platform. Technical Issues and Reporting Bugs ----------------------------------- The Webplayers Discussion Group provides an open forum to discuss technical issues regarding Macromedia Players. Also of interest are the Flash, Flash Site Design, and Generator DiscussionGroups. Macromedia Technical Support actively monitors these groups, as well as hosting a community of users there. Descriptions and links to these discussion groups can be found at: http://www.macromedia.com/support/forums/ Bug reports may be sent to flashplayerunix@macromedia.com To allow us to investigate reported bugs, please include the following information: 1) Platform and version 2) Netscape version 3) Reproducible steps including a URL to the web site where the problem was encountered. If we need further information about a bug, you will be contacted. An automated reply will be sent to assure you that we have received your bug report. Due to the volume of mail received we are not able to individually respond to each report.