Workarounds for Unrecognized Clicks in Flash Player
So far the only issue I’ve had switching to 64-bit from 32-bit Ubuntu has been Flash. In some Flash content, mouse clicks are not recognized. Everything looks correct, but any left clicks are ignored. Most notably, the problem affects YouTube videos. Here’s the Ubuntu bug report.
A 64-bit browser can not load 32-bit plugins. On 64-bit systems, this is worked around using a plugin viewer called nspluginwrapper that can load 32-bit plugins. The bug seems to be caused by an interaction between some changes to GTK, nspluginwrapper, and Adobe’s Flash Player. Adobe needs to update their plugin to fix the problem.
I’m using Ubuntu 10.04 64-bit with Flash Player installed from the
flashplayer-installer package (via Ubuntu Restricted Extras). The following
workarounds worked for me:
Workaround 1: disable desktop effects. Open
System->Preferences->Appearance and select the Visual Effects tab. Select
None to turn off desktop effects. The issue should be immediately resolved.
Workaround 2: tell GTK to use its old behavior for the Flash Player. If you
don’t want to lose desktop effects, this is probably the solution you’re looking
for. Press Alt-F2 to open the Run Application dialog and paste the following
command:
gksu gedit /usr/lib/nspluginwrapper/i386/linux/npviewer
You will be prompted for your password so you can edit the configuration file. Add this line as the second to last line in the file:
export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1
The file should look like this when you are done:
#!/bin/sh
TARGET_OS=linux
TARGET_ARCH=i386
export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1
. /usr/lib/nspluginwrapper/noarch/npviewer
You will need to refresh the page with Flash content for this fix to take effect.
Both workarounds work on my system in Firefox and Chrome. As a last resort, you can also try installing Adobe’s pre-release (and possibly buggy) Flash Player for 64-bit, but I have not tried this myself.
Archived Comments
Severn
The Adobe 64-bit Flash is working great here - after long headaches with the Ubuntu native version, I uninstalled it and plugged in Adobe’s version. I can’t say its great (and I’m going to try the workarounds you suggest) but at least it doesn’t take out the browser when it crashes!
Cameron
I’ve been using the 64 bit plugin for as long as it’s been available. It drastically lowers cpu usage on my machine –t7500 core 2 duo– and has far fewer problems than the plugin wrapper in every regard. The only problem is it can’t do digital rights protected flash like hulu— however, the huludesktop seems to run just fine on 64 without having to use pluginwrapper.
I would highly recommend the 64 bit version. Much fewer headaches.
Kevin Guertin
Which is it?
‘GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1’
or
‘export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1’ ??
You mention both.
Tom
Thanks, fixed.
lionbeast
like everybody here suggested. the 64 bit version works great..and really easy to install via ubuntu-tweak.
Hugues
Works great. Many thanks for this tip!
Anonymous
You can also keep your right mouse button pressed as you left click.
Fish Kungfu
Holding down the right mouse button at the same time worked for me. You can also just press the “Tab” key, which will put a yellow selection box around clickable items, then just press the “Enter” key to “click” them.
Cheers….
Fish
Slackware_64 13.1, Fluxbox 1.1.1
Mel
I’ve never used the Ubuntu flash player, I always download the 64 bit version from Adobe and it still doesn’t recognize left clicks. I turn desktops effects off, but I will try the second workaround.
abdulrhman
Download this file ..
http://www.banitamim.org/dldEgn63632.zip.html
Flash 64
Make the file executable and click on it and enjoy the flash 64
Ivan Camilo Vásquez
My work around was to hold the right click and then left click. Works like a charm!
bear7
sudo apt-get remove flashplugin-installer
cd /tmp
wget http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/flashplayer10/libflashplayer-10.0.45.2.linux-x86_64.so.tar.gz
tar zxvf libflashplayer-10.0.45.2.linux-x86_64.so.tar.gz
sudo mv libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/
That’s all.
ragman563
Thanks Tom…
This worked great!
Paul
thank u! 2nd solution worked great for me :-)
jokerejoker
How about a PPA for the 64-bit flash player.
https://launchpad.net/~sevenmachines/+archive/flash
This way you will get the latest update for the 64-bit version.
Pawel
Thanks, this has worked for me. This method is especially useful now that Adobe
has killed the 64bit player for Linux.
My only remark is that it wasn’t not enough to refresh the page to make it work,
I had to restart Firefox.
Chris
you sir, are a genius. Been trying to find a fix for ages! Been using google chrome as a workaround.
Andreas
You should not use the native 64bit Flash Adobe Labs version anymore. Adobe discontinued the support for it after Version 10.0.45.2, a version which got many serious security vulnerabilities[1]. The current version is 10.1.82.76.
If you want to remove the unsupported 64bit “Labs” version and switch to the safe 32bit wrapper, have a look at [2].
[1] http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Zero-day-vulnerability-in-Adobe-Flash-Player-Reader-and-Acrobat-1016145.html
[2] http://readm3.org/app/adobe-flash/start#uninstall_the_unsupported_64bit_labs_version_ubuntu_linux
Jason
This worked great, I was using 64 bit flash, and now that isn’t safe. :( So I was back to the fix/32 bit on 64 and hating life clicking to no action.
Pete
Fabulous! Now if only you could tell me how to get flash to go fullscreen, I’d be much happier! Thanks!
Andreas
Good news: Adobe released a new 64bit Labs version yesterday. If you want to use it, you may be interested in some manual installation instructions[1] and/or a 64bit Flash installation/update script[2] for Ubuntu Linux.
[1] http://readm3.org/app/adobe-flash/start#install_experimental_64bit_adobe_labs_version
[2] http://readm3.org/app/adobe-flash/adobe-flash-install-64bit.sh
Hund
Why dont you use the native 64-bit flash player?