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Ubuntu 10.10, 32 bit. Firefox 3.6.14

Why don't BBC videos play in Firefox if Youtube has no problem? Moreover videos play fine in Chrome. Another strange thing: there seem to be two flash plugins in about:plugins:

File: libflashplayer.so
Version: Shockwave Flash 10.1 r102

File: libflashplayer.so
Version: Shockwave Flash 10.2 r152

But there is only one flashplugin in the plugins directory: /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/flashplugin-alternative.so -> /etc/alternatives/firefox-flashplugin

$ update-alternatives --list firefox-flashplugin
/usr/lib/flashplugin-installer/libflashplayer.so

Any ideas?

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  • Did you install flash from the Ubuntu non-free repo? And did you install Chrome manually or from the repository? I would try removing flash if you installed it from the repository and download it directly from adobe.com since Ubuntu's repositories sometimes have issues with non-free software.
    – TuxRug
    Commented Mar 6, 2011 at 18:06
  • @TuxRug Yes, I had installed both from the repositories. But things were working fine until a few days ago, and broke after an update. Moreover, the behaviour is not consistent across browsers or even within the same browser (Youtube fine, BBC not).
    – Cocoro Cara
    Commented Mar 6, 2011 at 22:15

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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The problem seems now solved. No idea what the reason was. Just know the symptom -- the presence of two flash plugins. Reinstalled flashplugin from the Ubuntu repo and cleared the Firefox cache and cookies and restarted Firefox. And voilà! videos work. Now about:plugins shows only the 10.2 r152 plugin and BBC is happy

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Try setting up a new profile in Firefox. I've experienced this problem before (with videos on BNN.ca not playing after the advertisements played), and setting up a new profile resolved it, which leads me to think that something got corrupted in the web browser profile (it wasn't cookies).

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  • @RandolfRichardson Thanks. But the problem seems now solved. No idea what the reason was. Just know the symptom -- the presence of two flash plugins. Reinstalled flashplugin from the Ubuntu repo and cleared the Firefox cache and cookies and restarted Firefox. And voilà! videos work. Now about:plugins shows only the 10.2 r152 plugin and BBC is happy.
    – Cocoro Cara
    Commented Mar 6, 2011 at 22:17
  • That's excellent! Thanks for posting an update in the comments -- it's always nice to know that a problem did get solved (even if it's not clear how it was solved).
    – Randolf Richardson
    Commented Mar 8, 2011 at 17:03
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Open Flash Player settings manager;

In the playback tab, make sure the it is set to "ask me when a site wants to use peer-assisted networking".

I hadn't been able to play bbc.com videos for weeks and I just fixed it by changing this setting.

I hope it works for you also.

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