Getting flash to work with sound in 64 bit platform
From K12LTSP Wiki
This little how-to assumes you already have sound working on your terminals! The correct place to go for info on how to get sound working with LTSP is LTSP's sound page. Since you're here already I'll give you a hint: Pay special attention to the Troubleshooting section ESD:Can't Play Sound.
Other related wiki entries include WorkstationSound and Flash 9 Sound under K12LTSP 5
Note that there is no Flash written for the 64-bit architecture. This how-to gives workaround solutions.
Contents |
0. Update your system
Before doing anything, save yourself some headache and update your system:
yum update
1. Install Flash (32-bit)
The easy way, with K12LTSP 6.0/5.0EL
With K12LTSP 6.0 or 5.0EL all you need to do is log in as root from the server's GUI console and go into the "Install Additional Software" folder on the Desktop. Double click on the "Install Flash" icon.
If you are using an earlier version of K12LTSP this will not work and you'll have to come up with another plan. See the "history" of this article for some ideas or check elsewhere.
2. Get Firefox to take 32-bit Flash
There are a lot of ideas on how to get Flash 32-bit working with Firefox on a 64-bit machine. The most prevalent options seem to be A) using a wrapper so that 64-bit Firefox can use 32-bit Flash libraries, and B) using a 32-bit Firefox with the 32-bit Flash libraries directly. Since I wrote this how-to I've removed the instructions on using 32-bit Firefox as it seems unnecessary.
Option A) Using nspluginwrapper with 64-bit Flash - recommended
nspluginwrapper allows 64-bit Firefox to use 32-bit plugins.
This method makes most sense to me, since you're reducing your use of 32-bit to just when the wrapper implements a 32-bit plugin. It's also super easy.
1. You must first install Flash 32-bit (see step 1. above)
2. Install nspluginwrapper. You can use yum (or yumex) with the default repositories:
yum install nspluginwrapper
Flash should now work from within 64-bit firefox. Check to see it's installed by going to about:plugins from the Firefox address bar or visit my favourite test site http://avalanche.ca or to test for sound (see below) check out part two of a video of me skiing in Canada's coast range at Chilko Lake on Ice
See http://gwenole.beauchesne.info/projects/nspluginwrapper/#documentation for details
3. Getting sound to work once Flash is running
Install the esd/pulseaudio modification for flash using the RPM.
yum install libflashsupport
To make sure you have the socket for Flash, in a terminal do the following as root:
mkdir /tmp/.esd touch /tmp/.esd/socket
- IMPORTANT: This last step needs to be redone periodically because the tmp directory gets cleared now and then. If you don't know anything about cron, here's a quick how-to that will get you going for sound.
1. log in as root and make a cron config file as follows:
nano ~/.crontab
2. This opens up the nano editor. Paste the following and save it (CTRL-X):
#MINUTE(0-59) HOUR(0-23) DAYOFMONTH(1-31) MONTHOFYEAR(1-12) DAYOFWEEK(0-6) Note 0 = Sun #### keep that flash sound going!! * * * * * mkdir /tmp/.esd && touch /tmp/.esd/socket
3. Now enable this (as root) as follows:
crontab ~/.crontab
There, now you'll never go more than a minute without sound :)
Notes:
See http://wiki.ltsp.org/twiki/bin/view/Ltsp/Sound#Macromedia_Flash_7 for more details on how you can implement the flash-with-sound hack.
Flash doesn't use ESD for sound. One option is to try the esddsp wrapper (as suggested at the start of http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=30963589&forum_id=2544). This didn't work for me, so I don't recommend trying it.
I got turned on to the PulseAudio hack via the wiki page at http://www.k12ltsp.org/mediawiki/index.php/How_to_setup_Flash_Player_9_with_esd-pulse_audio_sound_support, but it was vague and needed tweaking.
Other related wiki entries include WorkstationSound and Flash 9 Sound under K12LTSP 5
