[Bug 1911463] Re: Can no longer successfully download Flash during postinst

[Thomas Ward]

Łukasz:

Up until the EOL date, Flash provided copies of the PPAPI and NPAPI
plugins on their Flash Debug Downloads page.  Since that date, all
versions of the plugins have been yanked (even in the archived
versions!) and only the standalone executables exist for the running of
Flash files.  Attempting to get the older versions gives you a page
stating "The Flash Player archive page has been decommissioned.
Customers requiring Flash Player can visit our download page for the
latest available version" - which in turn points to the EOL page

While *technically* I have a copy from the last full site snag I did of
the debug binaries on the 28th of December, since Adobe and everyone
yanked support the only way to **get** those binaries to install the
NPAPI or PPAPI plugins is to have an older copy already downloaded and
available.

With the major players of the browser market (Edge, Firefox, Chrome,
Chromium, etc.) all yanking the plugin and forcing it to be permanently
disabled or removed in a default environment anyways, and the only
solution to bypass that is to disable EOL removal and plugin disabling
flags in Chrome/Firefox, and then install a variant from the Partner
repository from August, or if you're me manually install the PPAPI or
NPAPI plugins where they have to go.  However, since 100% of the
universe does NOT have access to my last-version-of-flash-plugin
downloads, that invalidates the ability for MOST users to get the
plugin.

In either case, replacing this with a dummy package should be done -
with the OEM request and the effective killing of the Partner repository
flash version, older versions would have the same problem as any other,
and only a manual installation of the NPAPI or PPAPI plugins **if you
happened to have them prior to the yank of them by Adobe** is the only
way to still 'get' Flash support it seems.

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Title:
  Can no longer successfully download Flash during postinst

Status in pepperflashplugin-nonfree package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in pepperflashplugin-nonfree source package in Xenial:
  In Progress
Status in pepperflashplugin-nonfree source package in Bionic:
  In Progress
Status in pepperflashplugin-nonfree source package in Focal:
  In Progress
Status in pepperflashplugin-nonfree source package in Groovy:
  In Progress
Status in pepperflashplugin-nonfree package in Debian:
  Unknown

Bug description:
  [Impact]

  Since Adobe Flash Player is officially no longer available or end of
  life, they seem to have made a redirect to a link, that
  pepperflashplugin-nonfree likely uses for obtaining Flash, to the 'End
  of Life' page of the Flash website. This means that when installing
  pepperflashplugin-nonfree from now on it'll keep trying to download
  the HTML file for the end-of-life page.

  The proposed uploads are plain no-change SRU backports of the dummy
  package in hirsute sync'ed from Debian. With that we prevent more
  users from stalling their package system by trying to install or
  update pepperflash.

  [Test Case]

  * Install pepperflashplugin-nonfree from
    {groovy,focal,bionic,xenial}-proposed

  * Confirm that it installs successfully without causing any issues
    with the package system.

  * Run the "update-pepperflashplugin-nonfree --install" command and
    see the EOL notice.

  [Where problems could occur]

  We replace an obsolete package which creates issues with a dummy. The
  upgrade removes a config file in /etc, and the download and install
  functionality is not present in the new version. TBH I can't think of
  anything special.

  [Other Info]

  Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS
  Newly installed pepperflashplugin-nonfree - 1.8.6ubuntu1

  Someone should probably update this package to, instead of trying in
  vain to download Flash, show a notice saying Flash has reached end-of-
  life and so this package is no longer available. Packages like Opera
  from the official Opera repository still depend on this package,
  currently.

  Output:
  Unpacking pepperflashplugin-nonfree (1.8.6ubuntu1) ...
  Setting up pepperflashplugin-nonfree (1.8.6ubuntu1) ...
  --2021-01-13 18:18:25--  https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/webservices/json/?platform_type=Linux&platform_arch=x86_64&browser_dist=Chrome
  Resolving get.adobe.com (get.adobe.com)... 193.104.215.66
  Connecting to get.adobe.com (get.adobe.com)|193.104.215.66|:443... connected.
  HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found
  Location: https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/end-of-life.html?platform_type=Linux&platform_arch=x86_64&browser_dist=Chrome [following]
  --2021-01-13 18:18:25--  https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/end-of-life.html?platform_type=Linux&platform_arch=x86_64&browser_dist=Chrome
  Resolving www.adobe.com (www.adobe.com)... 2a02:26f0:104::1701:f2c0, 2a02:26f0:104::1701:f2cb, 176.255.202.96, ...
  Connecting to www.adobe.com (www.adobe.com)|2a02:26f0:104::1701:f2c0|:443... connected.

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