opera and flash, other issues

Links: Opera flash ::

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After a software update with Flash implications, pages were not displayed in the Opera browser. If I entered, say, the URL "www.google.com", normal loading statements flashed as the page loaded, but the webpage appeared as a blank white page once it completed loading. Internal to Opera, no error notices were displayed; the pages apparently loaded correctly as far as Opera's internal checks were concerned. However, to the user, nothing but white was displayed for the webpage. I found no information or similar complaints in Internet forums, etc. What was going on?

the cursor

On the blank page, all the pieces were apparently there, just not visible to me. So, I could move the cursor around the blank white page and I would see various link URL's appear at the bottom of the blank page, just as they do when one hovers over visible links on a normally displayed page. Nevertheless, the page would otherwise appear blank. I wanted to look at my Opera settings, but entering, say, opera://settings, loaded a blank page.

early progress - local html file

While this was going on, I happened to click on a local html file. For this local file, ie, loaded off the HDD, Opera opened and displayed html normally. Also, any links clicked from this local page loaded normally. Also, any bookmarks could then be used normally, from that page. But if I opened a new tab during that session, all would be blank again, and even back-buttoning to the locally stored file would turn it blank. Could the blank page problem be some sort of security setting?

progress - private mode

Thinking "security", I let a page load blank. I selected a bookmark in the bookmark bar and R clicked, then selected the option "Open in New Private Window". The page loaded and displayed normally. Perhaps the blank pages were part of a misconfigured security policy.

progress - flash

I continued to browse normally in "Private Window", looking for clues. Another abnormality: Adobe Flash seemed to need updating. Some YouTube videos would show, some would not. Could this also be affecting the regular appearance of pages?
The paths for libpepflashplayer.so should be available to Opera in its .json-coded resource file:

/usr/lib/opera/resources/pepper_flash_config.json

"Cat" the file to verify it's in there, eg, one of its lines should typically be:

"/usr/lib/PepperFlash/libpepflashplayer.so",

That's a very common place for it to have been installed, but you can verify with "find". Some others believe that the player should also be in the Mozilla plugins folder, /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins, whether or not Firefox is installed. Create another one for Opera.

# mkdir /usr/lib/opera/plugins

flash working, but still must be private

1. clear all cache and cookies
2. download latest libflashplayer.so
3. $ chmod 775 libflashplayer.so
4. # cp /home/foo/downloads/libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/opera/plugins/libflashplayer.so
5. # cp /home/foo/downloads/libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so

Hopefully, more will be revealed, but the problem has not been solved.

various chromium issues

You hate to have to use a browser as immense as Chromium. Installing a mainstream browser usually becomes inevitable however, and most of them are worse than Chromium.

What choice do we have but to use gigantic proprietary browsers when website designers are too lazy to create something that works well with lighter browsers? For example, light browsers like Dillo, NetSurf, and so on, have properly functioning cookie capacity, and NetSurf carries simple JavaScript and SSL, yet sites like Yahoo mail, or EBay will disallow access with mislabeled complaints that cookies are being "rejected", or even that correct passwords are "incorrect". These are the result of lazy website design. Anyway...

Here are some installation notes and the three main hassles I've experienced with Chromium (plus safety further down).

Three hassles

These are the big three:

1. AMD GL settings
2. Flash settings
3. Sound settings

Additionally, be sure "gnome-icon-theme is installed. Note that the file ~/.config/chromium/Default/Preferences allows some settings; I the pepper-flash path can go in there, other things that would have to be added to a start-up line instead. Anything in the file is overwritten if the user signs-in to Chromium (not to various Google accounts).

1. AMD/GL settings

After # pacman -S chromium, the initial startup from command line is bound to throw similar errors to these, if you're running an AMD processor:

$ chromium
[6391:6391:0621/175259:ERROR:url_pattern_set.cc(240)] Invalid url pattern: chrome://print/*
[6417:6417:0621/175259:ERROR:sandbox_linux.cc(340)] InitializeSandbox() called with multiple threads in process gpu-process
[6417:6417:0621/175300:ERROR:gles2_cmd_decoder.cc(11539)] [GroupMarkerNotSet(crbug.com/242999)!:D0CCF6C427020000]GL ERROR :GL_INVALID_OPERATION : glTexStorage2DEXT: <- error from previous GL command

The first fix is in Settings->Show Advanced Settings -> System. Deselect "Use hardware acceleration if available". I also deselect "Continue running background apps when Chromium is closed", but for other reasons). Now restart Chromium without the GPU:

$ chromium --disable-gpu [6391:6391:0621/175259:ERROR:url_pattern_set.cc(240)] Invalid url pattern: chrome://print/*

The print error is probably not worth the trouble, since it's a complex flag issue.

2. Flash settings

The place to turn off Adobe flash and turn on Pepper Flash is inside chrome://plugins. At this point, it should happen automagically, since Google has unwisely allowed Adobe to partner in some way. What is identified as the flash player is not the flash player but PepperFlash if you've installed it. Still, PepperFlash must be downloaded separately, it's not yet apparently bundled.

3. Sound settings

Assuming you want ALSA and not that PulseAudio crap, then be sure to #pacman -S alsa-tools alsa-utils

Safety

1. One site was suggesting removing the RLZ tag from omnibar/omnibox searches (omnibar/omnibox is the URL bar that has morphed into a search bar in Chromium). I don't consider it a threat, but it's good to understand it superficially. One explanation is here. If you don't want it, add another search engine option, calling it whatever you want, but a URL lacking "RLZ". For example:

   {google:baseURL}search?&safe=off&num=100&q=%s

   You can see this also provides 100 returns per page -- you may want less.

Browser - Adobe Flash

Links: Slackware Flash update :: Opera plug-in page

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Like most reasonable people, I dislike Adobe's proprietary obsfucation. It's most oppressive in the Linux environment, where its intrusive modules don't interact well with Linux's more transparent libraries.

A recent Adobe Flash update¹ screwed my Iceweasel installation and, in turn, destabilized a previously 3-years' stable Zenwalk install. That is, immediately following the update of (libflashplayer.so), including complete deletion of all prior versions, etc, the previously rock-solid Iceweasel intermittently crashed at Flash intensive sites. A new installation of FlashBlock did not stop the crashes. Reinstallation of all three applications did no better. I eventually had to move to ArchLinux from Zenwalk, due to these Adobe-related Flash crashes. In other words, I had to change my entire OS structure thanks to Adobe's closed-sourced, DRM intensive elements, which are so-far impossible for average users to ignore for a typical browsing environment.

¹Pop-up windows demanding Adobe Flash Player updates began to appear in sponsored YouTube videos December 2012. Prior to this update ads could be bypassed. Following the update, they could not.

Flash Player updates, fail

Links Flashplayer

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In Zenwalk (mini-Slack), I run Iceweasel for a browser. This is just a stripped Firefox that doesn't use copyrighted code, a nice touch. However, it means the User Agent string is typically unrecognized at mainstream sites like Hulu. When there is, for example, a periodic Flash update that sites like Hulu want us to install, Adobe provides a warning message that I have an unrecognized or unsupported system.

In spite of the ominous warning message, Adobe provides the latest libflashplayer.so module at their their site. Wipe out the old directory and the two softlinks. Put in the latest libflashplayer.so and create two softlinks to the new module. Right as rain.

download the module
Go to the Adobe Flashplayer page, which has a sniffer to determine the OS is Linux. I took the basic tar.gz version which is pre-compiled (can we say "proprietary"?). Unpack it. That's it. However, there are times when Flash updates have entirely broken my browser and this then requires an OS update. We never want to update an OS for any reason. We want a stable, 30 year installation.



remove the old stuff...
To be reasonably sure older versions didn't linger and cause conflicts:

# rm -rf /usr/lib/flashplugin*
# rm /home/foo/.mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so
# rm /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins/libflashplayer.so
# rm /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so

...and in with the new stuff
The softlink commands are wrapping here in the blog's narrow column; there are just two of them.

# mkdir /usr/lib/flashplugin
# cp /home/foo/downloads/libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/flashplugin/
# ln -s /usr/lib/flashplugin/libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so
# ln -s /usr/lib/flashplugin/libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins/libflashplayer.so