FlashPlayerStandalone
For the regular Flash browser plugin, please see RestrictedFormats
This is designed to be a cookbook entry. Just something fun to do, and you might learn something from it too. Since Macromedia doesn't release a standalone flash player for Linux, and their plugin has some serious flaws in its audio syncing and a few other features, in my opinion it's better to just use a windows version. So I did, and it works great. I'll tell you what I did.
Note: I'm assuming some familiarity with the terminal: Applications -> System Tools -> Terminal. This is where you will enter these commands.
All of the commands on this page require super-user privileges. To become the super-user, either open a root terminal (Applications -> System Tools -> Root Terminal) or become the super-user from a regular terminal with this command:
sudo -s
It will ask you to type your password, and then change your prompt so there is a # instead of a $. This is the mode you must use to make administrative changes to your system, such as the ones we will be making in this section. Alternatively, you can precede each command with "sudo".
Installing Wine
To see how to install and configure Wine, see Wine.
Setting Up Flashplayer
First, download a Stand-alone Flash Player .exe. I used this Flash Player 6 because it was the best thing I could find.
wget http://www.ahlrates.com/players/SAFlashPlayer.exe
Put it somewhere central on the computer. I decided to put it in /usr/win. You can substitute this directory with wherever, or leave it where it is.
sudo mkdir /usr/win sudo mv SAFlashPlayer.exe /usr/win/
Now lets make a desktop icon. Right-click on your desktop and select "Create Launcher". Name it Flash Player, and in the "Command" field type
wine /usr/win/SAFlashPlayer.exe
You can even give it an icon. I used this one:
wget http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/images/flash_rune.gif
Tuck this away somewhere like /usr/share/icons
sudo mv flash_rune.gif /usr/share/icons/
Then click on the big icon that says "No Icon" in your Create Launcher window, type in the proper directory (/usr/share/icons/) and select the icon for it. Viola, a beautifully installed Flash Player that wont lose audio sync. Double-click it and test it out. You can type any URL into the File->Open dialog, and it will load and play it for you. Enjoy!
Written by NicholasRetallack.