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By SYANiDE at 2011-08-17 12:53
This is a "no more pain and suffering" way to get Firefox, google-talkplugin, and Adobe Flash plugin to work on x64 bit Debian type distros. Any one or all of the mentioned. THIS WORKS. Nevermind whether this makes sense or not, because at times it doesn't. JUST DO IT and it works.

Everything done in these tutorials in terminal should be done as root! Adjust your commands accordingly.


TUTORIAL 1: Firefox


A little background:

to get Firefox to work, you will need ia32-libs and ia32-libs-gtk. you may want to install those now in terminal like so:

*
Code:
apt-get update
apt-get install ia32-libs ia32-libs-gtk
*you may have other unmet dependencies. If it mentions any, install those too.

Now that you have that out of the way, here is some explanation as to what is going on. Firefox does not make a purely 64-bit Firefox. You need the x86_64 Firefox. This is as close as it gets; the 32-bit Firefox for 64-bit OS. In a browser, Grab it from:

*
Code:
ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/
*You will have to select the version you want. Avoid the betas, which are anything other than the point 0's. Select your language. Download the .bz2 shown.

now that you have that, in terminal, navigate to wherever this was downloaded. You need to move this to /usr/lib/ in terminal like so:

Code:
mv (the name of the firefox***.bz2) /usr/lib/
Now, untar and unpack this, in terminal like so:

Code:
tar -xvjf (the name of the firefox***.bz2)
(If you receive an error while trying to unpack, this is because whatever browsers you already have installed have created a /usr/lib/firefox directory already, and the tar command will not overwrite! To solve this, in terminal: rm -rf /usr/lib/firefox and then re-run the tar command above.)

It is important to note there will be no plugins directory. As Firefox will be updated often, it would make more sense to symlink to the /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins directory, which shouldn't ever change. In terminal Do this:

(If you don't have a /usr/lib/mozilla or the accompanied plugins directory, create them first by: )

Code:
mkdir /usr/lib/mozilla
mkdir /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
(You are doing this because all other browsers will also look here for plugins!)


Then create a symlink to the /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins directory inside your /usr/lib/firefox directory linking to those plugins:

*
Code:
ln -s /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins /usr/lib/firefox/plugins
*Now that you have done this, any plugins you put in your mozilla/plugins directory will automatically be accessible to firefox!


Here are two other links you should make, for ease of acess:

Code:
ln -s /usr/lib/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox
ln -s /usr/lib/firefox/firefox /home/(yourusername)/Desktop/firefox
This concludes installing Firefox.



TUTORIAL 2: google-talkplugin


Google Talk Plugin is notorious for giving problems while trying to install, ranging from not installing at all to unexplainable problems such as being problematically installed, showing up in about:plugins but still not working, etc. I could go on and on. Here is what I have found to work! Let's cut the BS and get to it!

To cut straight to the version that will actually work, do this:

Add the google Repository (so that your apt-get update keeps you current flawlessly) by running these two separate commands in terminal IN THEIR ENTIRETY like so:

Code:
wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -
(yes there is a dash on the end)

Code:
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://dl.google.com/linux/talkplugin/deb/ stable main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google.list'

NOW, the confusing part. YOU HAVE TO update your package lists so this repo's packages can be known about by your OS. In terminal, do this:

Code:
apt-get update
(if you get errors, run it a second time)


NOW, before you get arrogant and try to install google-talkplugin, know this: No matter how you try to install it; whether by .deb or by apt-get, you will get an error saying that the directory or file could not be found. Here is how to get around this. TRUST ME.

First, you have to move your firefox directory out of the way. Why? because google-talkplugin creates a /usr/lib/firefox/plugins directory with the plugins in it! If the directory firefox or plugins or both exist already, you will get an error when the .deb or apt-get go to install it!

So in terminal first do this:

Code:
mv /usr/lib/firefox /usr/lib/firefox.tmp
Now do this:

Code:
apt-get install google-talkplugin
(If you receive any dependency problems, apt-get install whatever it mentions. You may need to re-run apt-get install google-talkplugin again)

You may still have trouble installing google-talkplugin. To solve this at this point, given you tried everything else mentioned, then do this:

Code:
apt-get -f install
OK, now let's clean this up a bit. navigate to your google-talkplugin created /usr/lib/firefox/plugins directory, and move the .so files placed there by google-talkplugin to your /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins directory, in terminal like so:

(If you don't have a /usr/lib/mozilla or the accompanied plugins directory, create them first by: )

Code:
mkdir /usr/lib/mozilla
mkdir /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
(You are doing this because all other browsers will also look here for plugins!)


Code:
cd /usr/lib/firefox/plugins
mv *.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
Now, move your original firefox directory back in place, by deleting the google-talkplugin created firefox and plugins directories first and moving firefox.tmp back to firefox in terminal like so:

Code:
cd /usr/lib/
rm -rf firefox
mv firefox.tmp firefox
This concludes installing google-talkplugin.




TUTORIAL 3: Adobe Flash Plugin


We are going to need to grab the 64-bit Adobe Flash for Linux from here in your browser:

Code:
http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer11.html
Navigate to wherever you downloaded this file, and move it to your root directory, in terminal like so:

Code:
cd (wherever you downloaded the file)
mv flashplayer(whatever).tar.gz /
Now you need to unpack it, in terminal like so:

Code:
cd /
tar -xvf flashplayer(whatever).tar.gz
Now you need to create a directory for the flashplayer.so file, move the flashplayer.so file into it, and create a link to it in your /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins directory, in terminal like so:

(If you don't have a /usr/lib/mozilla or the accompanied plugins directory, create them first by: )

Code:
mkdir /usr/lib/mozilla
mkdir /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
(You are doing this because all other browsers will also look here for plugins!)


Code:
mkdir /opt/flash-plugin
mv libflashplayer.so /opt/flash-plugin
ln -s /opt/flash-plugin/libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
This concludes installing Adobe Flash plugin.


  



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