Flash/Video support

[dwerner]

On Ubuntu 12.10, x86_64 (not sure if it's working for i386) I haven't been able to view videos.

I'm certain this is already on someone's todo list.

• Automatic apt repo dependency resolution
• recommended steps/packages to install

[lahtis]

Flash videos not working in shop and workshop pages but foorum videos pages flash working.

using Ubuntu 12.04.1 64bit.

[vasi]

This works fine on 32-bit systems. To manually fix it on a 64-bit system:

• Create the directory ~/Steam/ubuntu12_32/plugins/
• Download 32-bit Flash for Linux from Adobe: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/completion/?installer=Flash_Player_11.2_for_other_Linux_(.tar.gz)_32-bit
• Extract the 32-bit libflashplayer.so, and place it inside the plugins folder you created
• Restart Steam

[bmarwell]

There should be a download option for the flash player.

Or even better: Switch to mkv. Will also make Windows/Mac users happy.

[Salamek]

Maybe use HTML5 video in Steam ? That would solve lot of problems with playing videos (Performance/Flash crashes/Flash on x64)

[pablomme]

The correct path to put the 32-bit libflashplayer.so seems to be ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/plugins (also accessible as ~/.steam/bin32/plugins) in my case.

[jrha]

pablomme's solution worked for me, would be nice to switch to HTML5 though...

[guelfey]

@pablomme: ~/.steam/bin32 is a symlink to ~/Steam/ubuntu12_32 (at least on my system), so vasi's solution works as well.

[pablomme]

In my case ~/.steam/bin32 is a symlink to ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32. It would look like the best thing to do is use ~/.steam/bin32 instead of its target which seems to vary.

So basically the fix is to:

• Donwload http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/completion/?installer=Flash_Player_11.2_for_other_Linux_(.tar.gz)_32-bit
• Open it
• In a terminal, paste:

mkdir -p ~/.steam/bin32/plugins xdg-open ~/.steam/bin32/plugins

• Drag libflashplayer.so from Archive Manager to the nautilus window that just opened.

As for a short-term fix for this feature within the client, as far as I can tell the 32-bit flash plugin is not co-installable with the 64-bit version in Ubuntu, so adding that as a dependency of the .deb is currently not feasible. Perhaps bundling the flashplugin library with the client or automatically downloading and placing it in the right place would be enough.

[guelfey]

Well, installing the 32-bit flash plugin via the package manager apparently wouldn't fix it anyway because Steam searches for it in the location you mentioned.

[pablomme]

Yes, what I mean is that if it was co-installable the Steam client could be fixed by Valve by depending on flashplugin-installer:i386 and adding the location of the system 32-bit flash library to their plugin search path. But for that to happen, flashplugin-installer should be multi-arch co-installable (which it might be, but its dependency update-notifier-common is not), and that needs to be fixed in Ubuntu first.

Alternatively, making the Steam client use the 64-bit flash plugin on 64-bit platforms would be an even better solution.

[bmarwell]

Alternatively, making the Steam client use the 64-bit flash plugin on 64-bit platforms would be an even better solution.

Better than now for sure. But not best when it comes down to the video container. Why not just use HTML5-

[pablomme]

Absolutely. I'm thinking of a short-term solution that will help the Steam client get out of beta quickly, which I assume is the aim at the moment.

I've submitted a bug on Launchpad about the co-installability of flashplugin-installer: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/flashplugin-nonfree/+bug/1092899

Given the reports that flash plays OK in i386 machines, I think the Steam client does use the system path to the i386 flash plugin, so the co-installability is the only problem.

[guelfey]

Alternatively, making the Steam client use the 64-bit flash plugin on 64-bit platforms would be an even better solution.

Well, that's the real problem here: Steam is still just a 32-bit binary, so it needs the 32-bit flash player even on 64-bit systems. If Steam had a real binary for amd64, this problem probably would be fixed.

[ghost]

Same problem for Linux Mint 14, x86_64. The Flash plugin is working fine in Chrome.

[TechnoTod]

Same problem for Fedora 17, x86_64. Flash working fine in Firefox.

On Fri, Dec 21, 2012 at 11:08 PM, Jesse Danielson notifications@github.comwrote:

Same problem for Linux Mint 14, x86_64. The Flash plugin is working fine in Chrome.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/36#issuecomment-11633547.

Sincerely Marcus William Botticello

[dwerner]

I wanted to mention that video previews do work great in BigPicture mode, which I can only get running when using another window manager that doesn't do compositing.

[GarlandKey]

Dump Flash and use HTML5 please. As far as I can tell, this would be the easiest solution. A little PHP here, a little HTML there... done. Only other solution would be to write a 64 bit Steam client...

I wonder how video is implemented in Big Picture mode. Anyone?

[Mailaender]

I have this problem on Windows and it advises me to downgrade Adobe Flash... yeah right. Better use HTML 5 by default and fall back to Flash for legacy browsers.

[dwerner]

This is a 64bit linux specific bug for the steam linux client. I understand the desire for HTML 5 video etc, but this bug is not a feature request for that. It seems all well and good to hijack the bug for "semi-political/open standards" means, but I really just want the Steam client to install it's dependencies correctly. Two completely different issues.

[Ruthubuntu]

Flash is dead on Linux: only for 4 years with Firefox on Linux platform: https://blogs.adobe.com/flashplayer/2012/02/adobe-and-google-partnering-for-flash-player-on-linux.html

If we stand back: Flash is dead on iphone, dead on Android (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2012/jun/29/flash-android-dies-adobe), dead on Windows RT (Ok, Steam don't like Windows RT, it's happy for Linux). It should be a great idea to use HTML5

The best is to use WebM ( a mkv container with VP8 video codec and Vorbis audio codec) native on all recent GNU/Linux system. A lot of video in Flash use mp4 container (H264/AAC), it need gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad in multiverse and it could be read natively in Vista, Seven, 8 and Mac OS.

[Mailaender]

@dwerner Then choose a more descriptive title next time you file a bug report.

[MaxPayneFH]

vasi's fix worked fine for the videos but I still can't see the hardware survey page, it shows up blank. Although the install flash to view this page message doesn't pop up anymore.

Ubunto 12.04.1 x64

[eskimonerve]

extracting the 32bit libflashplayer.so to ~/.steam/bin32/plugins worked for me too

just ask the user about the licence terms and integrate the download/extract/copy process into the installer. This is way more userfriendly.

[MrSchism]

Going with the Mkv files would be good, but they'd have to convert a TON of flash videos to .mkv's. That'd take a while, especially if they go by their usual system and have the separate developers supply the video. As for using HTML5: the Steam client on Linux uses Chromium as a base, so there wouldn't be any issue with legacy systems.

[Vortex-TH]

Since it seems that Webm is already in use for videos in BigPicture mode, it should'nt really be a problem...

[Gps2010]

For those who downloaded the so and copied it into place.

Check if the file can be executed. chmod ( or through your desktop )

[GarlandKey]

@Gps2010

Placing the file in the directory wasn't a fix for me. So, I tried what you posted and I got the following error: Segmentation fault (core dumped)

cd ~/.steam/bin32/plugins

chmod +x libflashplayer.so

/.libflashplayer.so

Segmentation fault (core dumped)

What do?

[MrSchism]

The only webm I've seen played by BigPicture play is its intro.

[johndrinkwater]

@MrSchism trailers are encoded that way, for the videos I have chosen at least.

[Gps2010]

@y9yjRQcg7F, sorry no idea what to do next, I never had that error.

[frankc-valve]

I am writing up a Support article for this but I found out that there is a "hidden" dependency (for 64-bit distros) on the libxt6:i386 package. If this isn't installed, Flash fails silently within the Steam client. Something else to try for those who still can't see trailers in the client.

[frankc-valve]

This issue has been documented here. We will also be adding in additional support before the final release.

[Salamek]

@frankc-valve Uh, i dont like this solution, Flash is DEAD on 64bit machines and soon it will be same on 32bit. HTML 5 video is only acceptable solution for future, and i think is not problem for you to implement this (you have your own "Browser" with forced updates) and for web version of steam you can use flash fallback for users unable to play HTML5 video. Go check http://www.longtailvideo.com/jw-player/ it plays videos in HTML 5 for users able to play it, and it fallback to flash when user is unable to use HTML5 video

PS:Give me sources of pages containing video, and i will implement it for you for free (I rly hate flash) :smile:

[mewt666]

+1 for this given that adobe have decided to abandon native flash releases for linux (except for pepper in chrome, but that's another story) (http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/02/adobe-adandons-flash-on-linux) (http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/adobe-abandons-linux/10418)

HTML5 support would solve the above problems and allow for support across all systems without the need to install third party plugins.

[Ruthubuntu]

If Valve choose HTML5, Steam should suggest during installation gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly because mp4 are not a native's linux format. Or better choose WebM, vorbis and Opus.

[MrSchism]

WebM is suggested to be VP8+Vorbis or perhaps Theora + Vorbis.

Google (who owns the VP standards now) rolled VP9 into Chrome/chromium back in December. It's a good video standard.

EDIT: I meant "HTML5" not WebM. This edit is for posterity and future reference.

[Ruthubuntu]

@MrSchism : WebM is only VP8/Vorbis and VP9 are very early (it was the first time, i read it). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebM In Firefox since Mars 2011 (Firefox 4), in Chrome since September 2010 (Chrome 6.0), Opera since July 2010 (Opera 10.60) or in Android ( 2.3 december 2010). See http://www.youtube.com/html5 All Linux distributions could read WebM.

[oden63]

+1 for replacing flash with HTML5.

The workaround pointed to by frankc-valve didn't work for me on Fedora17 64-bit. It works on Fedora18 64-bit, but the video is slow and choppy.

[NotoriousPyro]

Workaround script: http://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions/0/864958451629025044/

[klanestro]

I hate this "Flash" it say's it works on linux but this patch is duckd taped together. Steam please use html5

[NotoriousPyro]

Duct taped together? Not really, it works perfectly for me. If you could explain what is wrong with the patch then I'd be able to help.

[Salamek]

@NotoriousPyro its not clear solution, html5 is.

[NotoriousPyro]

I agree, but for now getting more games on Steam and improving Steam is a better plan. HTML5 will come, I believe.

[Niwakaame]

I installed Steam on Ubuntu 10.04. 64 bit and Flash was not working. I had to google, and then (like described here) download the 32 bit package from adobe.com, extract it, locate the Steam folder, create a plugin folder, and paste the .so file. I really think there should be an easier way to get Flash working on 64 bit instead of having to perform these steps manually.

[GarlandKey]

@Niwakaame I think they fixed it in the latest update. Now it installs automatically. Either that, or it suddenly started working for me for no reason whatsoever.

[Niwakaame]

I pulled the latest deb from steampowered.com a couple of minutes ago. Is this the latest update? It didn't work with this one.

[GarlandKey]

Hmm... I guess it is. Well there are two possibilities. I am wrong and they didn't fix it, or you have to let the software check for updates and then restart. Anyone else got any definitive information on this?

On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 7:17 PM, Niwakaame notifications@github.com wrote:

I pulled the latest deb from steampowered.com a couple of minutes ago. Is this the latest update? It didn't work with this one.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/36#issuecomment-13528314.

[brodock]

+1 to HTML5 and WebM

[Ruthubuntu]

I test to see a video on a fresh install with no Flash installed or H264 and mp3 codec and we can see the video.

If you go to the web version (ex: http://store.steampowered.com/app/440/) you can see in the source code:

 id="movie_81943" 
 class="highlight_player_item highlight_movie" 
 poster="http://cdn2.steampowered.com/v/gfx/apps/81943/movie.293x165.jpg?t=1345487901" src="http://media2.steampowered.com/steam/apps/81943/movie480.webm?t=1345487901" tabindex="0">

So Steam move to HTML5, great \o/

[AmmarkoV]

vasi's solution works! Lubuntu 12.10 x64