This is my very 1st day at using Linux.

And all I want to do is install flash player. But I just cant understand the lingo. Can anyone help me.... pls

Lis )

I have these instructions...

Open Konqueror/Nautilus/whatever, right click the file, select "extract here". Open a console, cd to the new directory, ie: cd flashplayer-installer

type ./install-flashplayer (I think) and then follow the instructions.

BUT.....I dont know how to do any of it......
1. Where to extract the file to, it is currently on the desktop.
2. Dont know what is or how to open a console

Any ideas....

First, welcome to the other side! =) If you came from Windows, you're probably going to need to take some time to get used to the linux way. It's not necessarily harder, just different.

Anyway, for your problem, I would recommend reading http://ubuntuguide.org/. This will tell you step by step how to install flash player (but you might have to read more than just the few lines it tells you to type because it assumes you've done some of the other things in the guide like set up your repositories).

Good luck and if you still have problems, feel free to post back here. Everyone has been very helpful to me. Don't be discouraged if people direct you to a document to peruse because part of the "linux way" is actually learning how to do it yourself (it's much more rewarding that way).

http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/...ShockwaveFlash

Also, If you try to go to a site that needs flash, Firefox will automatically prompt you to install the player. I have no info on other browsers--note that the instructions above are for "Mozilla and compatible" this includes Firefox.

That is heaps of help.... thanks.
But one last problem.


When i try and access the Terminal
(Applications -> System Tools -> Terminal) i get this error msg:

Cannot launch entry

Details: Failed to execute child process "Terminal" (No such file or directory)

What is that all about??

Go to main menu --> desktop --> preferences --> preferred application --> terminal
Select the type of terminal that you want to use. I am using gnome terminal.

so, i have terminal up and running - and type in the line:
sudo apt-get install flashplayer-mozilla

but it say this:

guest@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install flashplayer-mozilla
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
E: Couldn't find package flashplayer-mozilla

I think my problem is that...
A) I have no idea what im doing and
b) I dont know where to save the downloaded extracted file (at present it is one my desktop).

Maybe you need to set up your repositories. That is where you download the software from. No need to install things manually. Put the following lines into the file /etc/apt/sources.list
Then do apt-get update. Then try to apt-get install flashplayer-mozilla again. If it still can't find it you can try swf-player, it is also a flash player. Not sure what the difference is.

http://ubuntuguide.org/#repositories is the section of the web page that tells you how to add repositories.

After adding the repositories, be sure to type sudo apt-get update and then sudo apt-get install flashplayer-mozilla.

One of the advantages of apt-get is that it downloads AND installs the software for you. In windows you download and then you have to find the installation program. Ubuntu is only that way if you install something that is not in the repositories.

ok, i get an error when i add repositories?

I did what it says as above but get this error:
Failed to fetch
ubuntu-backports.mirrormax net dists hoary-backports main binary-powerpc Packages.gz 404 Not Found
(times about another 20 lines of the same text)
E: Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

then i try to install flash just to see what wooould happen... and...

guest@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install flashplayer-mozilla
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
W: Couldn't stat source package list ubuntu-backports mirrormax net hoary -backports main Packages - stat (2 No such file or direct ory)

any ideas?? (Remember I am a very very beginner at Linux)
**NB: I can't copy the exact error msg - cause i haven't made enough posts to post an URL**

It sounds like the repositories are either down or you don't have them set up quite right (or you're not online). Which version of Ubuntu are you using?

Ubuntu 4.10 (The Warty Warthog): October 2004

Ubuntu 5.04 (The Hoary Hedgehog): April 2005

Ubuntu 5.10 (The Breezy Badger): October 2005

If you're using Hoary, you need to change the sources.list in post #8 to "hoary" instead of "breezy".

Looks like you got your 5th post out of the way, you should be able to post URL's now.

You should only need the repositories listed above (you can change breezy to hoary or whatever depending on which version you are using). It sounds like there may be some other things in your sources.list that are not working. Try commenting out (put a # at the beginning of the line) everything except for the lines listed above. You could just delete everything else, but if you just comment it out it will be ignored and you can easily get it back if you want to.

Try to post a copy of your /etc/sources.list so we can see what is in it...

Guys, did anyone notice that the repo error listed above:

Isn't that supposed to be i386 on most systems? I can't see any mention of her being on PPC.

Duh... Brilliant! Maybe we should be asking what type of machine she is using besides just which version of Ubuntu...