OK, found it! I forgot to do "slackpkg install-new" after the updates!

I'm not sure which package it was that fixed it, but I installed:

ConsoleKit2, dconf-editor, and libssh2

and its all working again now! On one machine, I also added all the gstreamer stuff - the other had it already, so I suspect that wasn't needed!

Perhaps someone with more knowledge than me can work out which was the critical package?

Cheers,

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Pete

pcristy, thanks! it was libssh2

1 members found this post helpful.

Excellent!

What a useful resource this site is.....!



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Pete

1. Youtube-dl and front ends such as mpv. support bbc and should be able to download and/or play any bbc links, see this here for all of youtube-dl's supported sites.

2. Use speedtest-cli instead of speedtest.net.

5 members found this post helpful.

I use freshplayer with pepperflash for Flash support any more.

1 members found this post helpful.

Yep. Pepperflash on Chrome and Chromium meets my needs.

Bluntly, that is akin to jumping into a discussion about slackware with something like "I just use windows/osx".

How do you figure? Official flash for Linux is basically dead. Pepperflash is the best (only) option we have to use the latest flash version. What's the alternative? Use commandline tools to completely bypass flash and create additional work for the user? Some people just want to click a link in a browser and play a video. You are more than welcome to try and copy the link to that video and past it into another player or downloader, but that's not a welcome option for everyone.

I'm glad you provided your suggestions, because I didn't realize youtube-dl handled other sites (I guess it isn't surprising, but I never looked into it), and it's good to know that there's a CLI version of speedtest, but telling others that their suggestions are essentially pointless negates the benefit of having a forum where multiple people can provide suggestions. Pete can decide for himself what option best suits his needs and disregard the suggestions.

2 members found this post helpful.

VLC is another good option for watching video content. I've used the CLI tools for watching videos especially in OpenBSD, but, thankfully Youtube now supports HTML5 and I can watch Youtube videos without Flash on BSD and Slackware. For the sites that stick to using Flash Pepperflash is a good alternative for people who want to click on a video to watch it.

I've had a mixed bag with VLC. It works, but I still prefer mplayer mainly due to how much less you need to configure or worry about.

I also do use Windows as well as iOS, FreeBSD, and even some virtualized FreeDOS for my needs. ;-)

Whoa, folks! I had no intention of starting a flame war here! I just wanted to get my system back up and running as quickly as possible!

Yes, I know flash is a pain, and I should have probably looked at alternatives ages ago, but it was working fine, and as a retired engineer, I firmly believe that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"!

For the record, I too have reservations about VLC, having had mixed results with it. It is certainly much more resource hungry than my preferred "mpv", which is now my default media player. I don't need mencoder anymore - ffmpeg does nicely, thank you - and mpv is much more friendly towards AMD and Intel graphics than MPlayer (libva). It can handle full HD video on my seriously under-powered laptop, using well under 20 per cent of the cpu.

Thanks to those who have recommended Pepperflash. I will have a look at it in due course. And also the hints about youtube-dl, which I will also investigate. In the meantime, everything here is running smoothly again, so thanks to all who have contributed.

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Pete

2 members found this post helpful.

Try installing a Firefox extension that lets you change you user agent, then browsing those sites with an iPhone user agent. A lot of sites that otherwise serve up Flash video will serve up HTML5 video if you do that.

1 members found this post helpful.

dugan: I did try something similar, but told it it was an Android rather than iPhone. Many of the videos came up as "unavailable at this time". I decided on trying to fix the problem rather than work around it in the end, as it had been working before the update. It was just a question of figuring out what had got broken on my systems during the update.

Cheers for the suggestion, though!

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Pete