My wife plays "luminosity" and it needs the latest flashplayer
so I downloaded it. "copy libflashplayer.so" to the browser
plugins directory (where?) I guesed /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
(using iceweasel on Debian 7.8.0). Doesn't work. Rebooted.
Still does not work. What am I doing wrong?

You have two choices:
1. system-wide: /usr/lib/flashplayer-mozilla/libflashplayer.so
2. Your home folder: ~/.mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so
have fun,
jdk

Well, putting libflashplayer.so into /usr/flashplayer-mozilla
has at leat changed things: now instead of just "hanging" we
get the message "download the latest" (which I've done).
This is iceweasel 31.4.0 on Debian 7.8.0
What next???

First make sure an old version isn't still on your system (and somehow favoured by your browser).
However the "latest" Flash for Linux is still old, if I remember correctly. Adobe has discontinued Flash, and now Google develops it. Google only ships it as built-in for Chrome. Last I checked they hadn't the latest Flash ready for Chrome in Linux, and consequently didn't ship any. (I'm not too sure, as I avoid Chrome and use Chromium instead. Anyway I couldn't get Flash on Chromium.)

Running the the latest Firefox (35.0.1) on my (what will be) Fedora 22 system with the latest Adobe flash plugin for Linux (11.2.202.440), Firefox pops up a warning when it encounters flash on a page and asks me if I should allow it. However, even if allowed, flash doesn't always work properly. My remedy, if you can call it that, is to keep a copy of Google Chrome (which includes an up-to-date flash plugin that is not compatible with Firefox).

On Debian the easiest way to install the latest Flash for Iceweasel is:
Then check whether it is up to date with:
Updating using:
If the Flash that is install using this method is not up to date enough then your only option is to use PepperFlash. For that you can either, like RockDoctor, install Google Chrome or you can install Chromium and the pepperflashplugin-nonfree package, updating in the same way as the flashplugin-nonfree package.

+1 @273 (flashplugin-nonfree)

may have to add contrib and non-free to your /etc/sources.list
i.e.
alternate solution that *may* (or may not) work: PepperFlash in Firefox: http://steronius.blogspot.com/2014/1...ox-debian.html

I changed /etc/apt/sources.list as suggested.
[quote]
root@palantir:/etc/apt# apt-get install flashplayer-nonfree
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package flashplayer-nonfree
[\quote]

It's not flashplayer-nonfree you want; it's flashplugin-nonfree
jdk

[QOUTE]
root@palantir:/home/beckwith# apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package flashplugin-nonfree is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
[\QOUTE]
So still a "no go" situation.

You seem to need to add other sources to sources.list. But also you have to consider using Chrome/Chromium.

Did you run apt-get update before tryong to install it? I would also suggest running apt-get upgrade before installing new software.

+1 @273: "sudo apt-get update" will update your system to know what is now available from the new repositories.

I don't think the original problem is not having Adobe's latest flash player for Linux. I theorize it's that Adobe's latest flash player for Linux, version 11.xxx, is not considered current; the latest Windows version of flash player is (or was, last time I checked), 14.xxx. Programs checking for a "current" version of the flash player are looking for version 14 (which Google includes with Chrome in a plugin incompatible with Firefox), not version 11.

Having just presented a theory, I propose a test: install Google Chrome and see if "luminosity" is playable.

It may well turn out that the version of Flash available in Firefox is not high enough to use the site. However, simply installing Google Chrome leaves Firefox with no Flash whatsoever. So, my proposal would be to ensure that the latest Flash for Firefox is installed in the most approriate manner then, once that is working, it will be apparent whether or not Chrome/Chromium must be used.
The OP states thet the Flash installation was attempted by dropping the .so file into a directory which, in my experience, can lead to Flash not functiononig at all.

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