<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
      xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its"
      xmlns:ui="http://projectmallard.org/ui/1.0/"
      type="topic" style="task"
      id="net-install-flash">
  <info>
    <link type="guide" xref="net-browser"/>

    <revision pkgversion="3.4.0" date="2012-02-20" status="final"/>
    <revision version="18.04" date="2018-01-23" status="review"/>

    <credit type="author">
      <name>Phil Bull</name>
      <email>philbull@gmail.com</email>
    </credit>
    <credit type="editor">
      <name>Ubuntu Documentation Team</name>
    </credit>

    <desc>You may need to install Flash to be able to view some websites, which display videos and interactive web pages.</desc>
    <include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>
  </info>

<title>Install the Flash plug-in</title>

<p>Flash is a <em>plug-in</em> for your web browser that allows you to watch videos and use
interactive web pages on some websites. While HTML5, which is a more modern solution, is increasingly
offered, there are still some websites which won't work without Flash.</p>

<p>If you do not have Flash installed, you will probably see a message telling you so when you visit a website
that needs it. Flash is available as a free (but not open-source) download for most web browsers.</p>

<note style="warning">
 <p>Adobe has announced that they will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end
 of 2020. Consequently, for security reasons, the Flash plug-in should not be used after 2020.</p>
</note>

<p>There are two kinds of plug-ins available:</p>

<list>
 <item>
  <p><em>NPAPI</em> for <app>Firefox</app> and other Gecko-based web browsers</p>
 </item>
 <item>
  <p><em>PPAPI</em> for <app>Chromium</app> and other Blink-based web browsers including <app>Opera</app> and
  <app>Vivaldi</app></p>
 </item>
</list>

<note>
 <p>The <app>Google Chrome</app> browser is shipped with Flash bundled, and does not need a plug-in.</p>
</note>

<section id="flashplugin-installer">
 <title>flashplugin-installer</title>

 <p>The <app>flashplugin-installer</app> package provides the NPAPI plug-in for Firefox.
 <link href="apt:flashplugin-installer">Install the package</link> and restart your browser.</p>

</section>

<section id="adobe-flashplugin">
 <title>adobe-flashplugin</title>

 <p>The <app>adobe-flashplugin</app> package provides both the NPAPI and PPAPI plug-ins, i.e. it provides
 Flash for both Firefox and Chromium like web browsers.</p>

 <steps>
  <item>
   <p>Make sure that the <link xref="addremove-sources#canonical-partner">Canonical Partner repository is activated</link>.</p>
  </item>
  <item>
   <p>Install the <link href="apt:adobe-flashplugin">adobe-flashplugin</link> package.</p>
  </item>
  <item>
   <p>Restart your browser.</p>
  </item>
 </steps>

</section>

<section id="browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash">
 <title>browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash</title>

 <p>Some features of the PPAPI plug-in, such as 3D acceleration and premium video DRM, are not available
 in the NPAPI plugin. If you use Firefox or some other Gecko-based browser and need those features, you
 can install the <app>browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash</app> package. It's a wrapper which makes
 Firefox use the PPAPI plug-in.</p>

 <steps>
  <item>
   <p>Make sure that <app>adobe-flashplugin</app> is installed.</p>
  </item>
  <item>
   <p>Open a terminal window by pressing <keyseq><key>Ctrl</key><key>Alt</key><key>T</key></keyseq> and
   install the <app>browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash</app> package:</p>
   <p><cmd its:translate="no">sudo apt install browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash</cmd></p>
  </item>
  <item>
   <p>Restart your browser.</p>
  </item>
 </steps>

</section>

<section id="snap">
 <title>Web browser provided as a snap package</title>

 <p>If you use <app>Firefox</app> or <app>Chromium</app> as a snap, the packages described above do
 not help. Instead the steps below are suggested to make Flash available.</p>

 <p>Please note that you are supposed to always use the latest version of Flash. It means that you
 need to repeat step 2 - 7 once in a while to keep accessing web services which require Flash.</p>

 <steps ui:expanded="false">
 <title>Firefox as snap</title>
  <item>
   <p its:locNote="Translators: Don't translate 'plugins' - it's the name of a folder on the file
   system.">Create a <sys>plugins</sys> folder:</p>
   <p><cmd its:translate="no">mkdir ~/snap/firefox/common/.mozilla/plugins</cmd></p>
  </item>
  <item>
   <p>Go to <link href="https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/">https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/</link>.</p>
  </item>
  <item>
   <p>Download the <sys>.tar.gz</sys> file for Linux.</p>
  </item>
  <item>
   <p>Navigate to the folder for downloaded files.</p>
  </item>
  <item>
   <p>Extract the files from the downloaded archive file:</p>
   <p><cmd its:translate="no">tar xf flash_player*</cmd></p>
  </item>
  <item>
   <p>Copy <sys>libflashplayer.so</sys> to the <sys>plugins</sys> folder:</p>
   <p><cmd its:translate="no">cp libflashplayer.so ~/snap/firefox/common/.mozilla/plugins</cmd></p>
  </item>
  <item>
   <p>Restart your browser.</p>
  </item>
 </steps>

 <steps ui:expanded="false">
 <title>Chromium as snap</title>
  <item>
   <p its:locNote="Translators: Don't translate 'lib' - it's the name of a folder on the file
   system.">Create a <sys>lib</sys> folder:</p>
   <p><cmd its:translate="no">mkdir ~/snap/chromium/current/.local/lib</cmd></p>
  </item>
  <item>
   <p>Go to <link href="https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/">https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/</link>.</p>
  </item>
  <item>
   <p>Download the <sys>.tar.gz</sys> file for Linux.</p>
  </item>
  <item>
   <p>Navigate to the folder for downloaded files.</p>
  </item>
  <item>
   <p>Extract the files from the downloaded archive file:</p>
   <p><cmd its:translate="no">tar xf flash_player*</cmd></p>
  </item>
  <item>
   <p>Copy <sys>libpepflashplayer.so</sys> to the <sys>lib</sys> folder:</p>
   <p><cmd its:translate="no">cp libpepflashplayer.so ~/snap/chromium/current/.local/lib</cmd></p>
  </item>
  <item>
   <p>Restart your browser.</p>
  </item>
 </steps>

</section>

</page>