Having recently moved to Ubuntu, I noticed on my FaceBook account that I couldn't watch videos that people would post. Curiously,

the videos that were posted were often youtube videos, but then I noticed on my MySpace page that the player was having the same issue! It kept telling me that I needed to install the latest version of Adobe Flash.

So I would click on the link provided by FaceBook to upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Flash, and it would then tell me that I already have the latest version! What the heck? The curious thing was that when I went to YouTube, I could watch the same video on their site just fine! Even though YouTube also uses Adobe Flash too!

After researching this issue, I finally found out what the problem is. Apparently when Adobe flash is installed on your Ubuntu PC, where the present upgrade checks, seems to be in a different folder than where adobe is installed! So when FaceBook and MySpace check to see what version you are running on your Ubuntu PC, it is looking in the wrong folder, but your Firefox Browser is actually running an earlier version of Adobe Flash out of a DIFFERENT folder! Confused? Yeah, me too. So the real question is, how to fix this?

For the record, I am running Ubuntu 8.04, and Firefox 3.013, but this should work for newer versions as well. So in order to fix this, the first thing to do is to delete the hidden folder .mozilla located in your /home/your_user_name folder. Do this by opening up the Terminal window, and type the following: rmdir .mozilla --ignore-fail-on-non-empty. Make sure you put a period in front of the mozilla as it is a hidden folder.

Next uninstall all Flash and Firefox packages using Synaptic Package Manager. Just type in "flash" into the search text to find, then the packages installed will have a green box beside them. Just click it, then select Mark for Complete Removal for each one installed. After Flash in uninstalled, do the same thing for Firefox.

Next install Flash player using the Synaptic Package Manager. If it is available, don't forget the flashplugin-nonfree as well.

Then install Firefox again.

Now you will be able to enjoy the videos that your Facebook friends post on their page, as well as listen to the music your friends put up on MySpace.

-- Mike

This article was originally posted on www.mikestechblog.com Any reproduction on any other site is prohibited and a violation of copyright laws.