Sound and video freezing up Firefox

[Andrew Farris]

On Sat, 2009-08-01 at 09:55 -0700, Ray Parrish wrote:
> lenc5570 at sbcglobal.net wrote:
> > --- On Fri, 7/31/09, Ray Parrish <crp at cmc.net> wrote:
> >
> > From: Ray Parrish <crp at cmc.net>
> > Subject: Re: Sound and video freezing up Firefox
> > To: "Ubuntu user technical support, not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
> > Date: Friday, July 31, 2009, 8:51 PM
> >
> > Ray Parrish wrote:
> >   
> >> Hello,
> >>
> >> Since this morning anytime I attempt to load sound like Pandora Radio or 
> >> videos from hulu.com on Hardy Heron and the latest version of Firefox my 
> >> browser freezes up. Is anyone else having this problem, or can someone 
> >> suggest a fix for it?
> >>
> >> Later, Ray Parrish
> >>    
> >> Correction, Pandora and Hulu are freezing up Firefox, but archive.org 
> >>     
> > plays video just fine, so this seems to be a flash related problem, as 
> > flash is used on the other two sites. I have already tried the Hulu.com 
> > suggested method of releasing and reallocating storage area for flash by 
> >   
> >> using it's settings context menu entry.
> >>     
> >
> > Ray, I had no problem playing  hula videos but couldn't find Pandora.  I am running Jaunty Jack-64bit though but had problems running all embedded videos and audios with Hardy and Intrepid until I ran update-alternatives and changed flash from swf to flashplugin(player)-nonfree.  If your about:plugins shows only a Shockwave Flash 9.0 r999 and not a Shockwave Flash 10.0 r22 Then it might be worth a try with update-alternatives.  I always install flashplugin-nonfree on my versions of Ubuntu and it seems that Ubuntu insists you choose which plugin to use via update-alternatives.  May not be your problem but has always worked for me.
> > HTH,
> > Leonard Chatagnier
> > lenc5570 at sbcglobal.net
> >   
> Hi Leonard,
> 
> How do I change swf to flashplugin-nonfree? I have both of them 
> installed, and I just tried disabling swf in Firefox, however I was not 
> presented with flashplugin-nonfree in about:plugins.

The update-alternatives command is the method you want...see below :)

> 
> I'm trying to read the update-alternatives man page, but I'm confused. 
> Can you tell me the specific command to run with it to get the newer 
> version of plugin-nonfree working? Right now I have version 9.0.r999 
> instead of the ten version?

Personally, I find the command-line version of update-alternatives to be
a bit cumbersome to use, and a bit confusing as well sometimes. As such,
i found a neat program in the repos that eases the process though:
"Alternatives Configurator" or "galternatives". To install, you can
search for the former in Add/Remove, the latter in Synaptic, or "sudo
apt-get install galternatives" in the terminal.  It's then available
under "Applications > System Tools". Simply search for
'firefox-flashplugin' in the left-hand column, then choose the one you
want.

Hope that helps!




-- 
Andrew
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