Installing Flash on Ubuntu

In Ubuntu 8.04, there was integration between Firefox and the system's software manager so that you'd get a nifty pop-up asking you to install the missing plugins when you visited a page requiring the Adobe Flash plugin.Here's a link to the guide for that way of installing Flash.

For some reason, this has been removed or isn't functioning properly in Ubuntu 8.10.

If you are using Ubuntu 9.04, this tutorial will be useless to you. I don't know what plugin Ubuntu tries to use by default (Gnash and Swfdec are not installed), but it tries to play YouTube instead of prompting you to display a plugin. So you can either install all the major proprietary codecs or just install flashplugin-nonfree. If you don't know how to install software in Ubuntu, read this.

If you visit YouTube or some other sites, you'll be directed to the Adobe Flash plugin website. If not, you may have to go there yourself.

Once you're at the Flash download page on the Adobe website, select .deb for Ubuntu 8.04+ from the drop-down menu.

I tried APT for Ubuntu 8.04+ on a fresh installation of Ubuntu 8.10, and it didn't work, so I'd recommend against using that option.

Then click on the Agree and install now button.

You'll be asked whether Firefox should open the Flash .deb file with GDebi Package Installer or not. You want to use GDebi, so click OK

Once GDebi appears, click Install Package

Enter your password when prompted.

Wait for the plugin to install and then click Close

Before you can use the plugin, you'll have to quit Firefox and then start it again.

Once you've started Firefox again, you should be able to view Flash-using websites.