Fantastic set of step by step instructions Mark, and I was able to run through them all without a hitch.
BUT
a) The Adobe link didn’t give me my flash player version number
b) BBC iplayer still says ‘You need to upgrade Flash to version 10.1.0 or higher …’
I am an old grey beard programmer (programming since the dawn of time), but never got to grips with Linux.
Had my AcerAspire One about 2.5 years and it has been great, but now I’m really stuck
My Firefox version is 2.0.0.14 and I can’t find out how to upgrade without following pages and pages of detailed instructions.
This is where Linux falls down - for all its shortcomings Windows (sorry if I swore!) does make upgrading easy
Oddly enough … you’re totally wrong … you "should* have said “this is where Linpus Lite as installed on the Aspire One falls down”
Upgrading software on Linux as a whole is much easier than Windows and is an automatic process … no hunting on the internet for an installer, software that you have installed gets automatically updated as soon as the newest version gets added to the software repositories.
The Linux software installation and upgrade model is the envy of the other OS manufacturers … Apple have moved to a central software repository with iTunes, though they’ve implemented it badly … and attempts have been made to set up something similar in the Windows world, but the software giants didn’t like loosing control of their own distribution channels.
The Linux model also helps ensure that software is malicious code free.
Your problem is that Linpus Lite is no longer receiving software updates … I’ts a bit like if you were running Windows 95, you wouldn’t be able to install the latest software in that either
If you were running an up to date Linux distribution such as Ubuntu … all your software updates would happen with a single mouse click
Thanks for that Mark - I will check them out
Will the other distros overcome the keyboard problems that these lite Linuxes have - jumping the cursor around all over the place when you type fast?
my Aspire ans CnM have identical and well documented problems in that area
But can you just clarify why this Linpus Lite thread won.t work for me?
I thought I had Linpus Lite, and your instructions ran through without a hitch, but didn’t get me Flash 10+
I can’t say for sure about the keyboard issue … as I don’t own an AA1, but I haven’t heard anyone complain about Ubuntu and the keyboard on an AA1, though there’s a chance that’s because they’ve grown used to the issue … Ubuntu comes with a lot of different keyboard layout options, and drivers for different keyboards, which I doubt if Linpus Lite does as it was developed specifically for the AA1… read into that what you will …
It’s possible that it’s a hardware issue that no drivers in the world can overcome … but I doubt that … all I can say for sure is I’ve NEVER seen the keyboard affect the curser placement on the screen in Ubuntu on any PC I’ve ever put it on, but I’ve never personally put it on an AA1 … maybe someone else can jump in and answer this ?
I’m going to guess that the newest versions of the adobe flashplayer either aren’t compatible with Firefox 2, or that Firefox 2 doesn’t look in the same place for the plugins … but again that’s a guess … the tutorial was really intended for people that have followed the instructions for upgrading Firefox to version 4, 5, or 6.
If you upgrade Firefox to version 6 following the instructions at the link I provided … this flashplayer update tutorial WILL work with it.
[EDIT]
I am a little surprised by the flash plugin not working … even with Firefox 2 … as I thought ALL versions of Firefox looked for the plugins in ~/.mozilla/plugins first.
Can you open a terminal, and enter:
ls -al ~/.mozilla/plugins
hit enter, then post the output from that command back here.
Although your Flash instructions were nice and clear, (only 5 steps), your Firefox 6 set scared the pants off me (remember I am a Linux virgin)
Here is what you asked for…
total 12280
drwxrwxr-x 2 user user 4096 2011-10-23 19:32 .
drwx------ 4 user user 4096 2011-10-23 19:29 …
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 12550084 2011-08-23 02:06 libflashplayer.so
The keyboard problem is like an 'early days of programming thing, where someone forgot to save a vital register on an interrupt routine. It always jumps back to an earlier place.
Well documented on my diddy CnM too, which I use on the move because the Aspire wont work with my Vodafone dongle, but that is a whole new issue!
Yup, the flashplayer is in the right place so as I said I can only assume that it won’t work with Firefox 2, or that Firefox 2 doesn’t look there for its plugins.
you could run:
sudo find / -name libflahsplayer.so
which will search your system for libflashplayer.so files and tell us where the current one is … then we could back that one up and try replacing it with the newer one.
But I still think it best for you to upgrade to Firefox 6 … there are a lot of webpages that won’t display properly (if at all) in Firefox2, and that is only going to get worse, FF2 doesn’t support HTML5 which is where the interweb is going.
the instructions for FF6 may seem a little daunting, but they have been designed so that they are FULLY reversible … and I realise the red warning messages may scare the living hell out of some people, they were designed to … as long as you follow the instruction without removing FF2, they will work, but as I said if you keep an eye out for me in chat I’ll walk you through them.
BTW, your Vodafone Dongle would be highly likely to “just work” with Ubuntu
Back again…
Thanks for all that info Mark. Will check out later.
I took the opportunity of installing Ubuntu 11.10 as you suggested. Very impressive installation process - looks really professional. And YES! it cures that damned keyboard problem Trouble is my poor little old A101 isn’t really up to it. My much loved 15 sec start time extended to over a minute, and starting up the word processor took an age. Also it wouldn’t accept my email settings, and I didn’t manage to get on line. But certainly something to think about for my main machine.
I wonder if there is a sawn off Linux other than Linpus which might be worth trying on the A101?
Meanwhile it looks like I will reload Linpus and start making the changes you suggest. Thanks for all your help though. An interesting exercise
I’ve just been donated an AA1 (thanks Kath ), just awaiting delivery of a replacement SSD … when it arrives, I’ll try out a few Linux distributions and let you know which seems the best fit in it’s limited amount of RAM … CPU should be plenty fast enough it seems like RAM is the limiting factor.
So if you can wait a few days, I should be in a better position to advise
Meanwhile, as you say … try installing Firefox 6 under Linpus … any problems, let me know and I’ll be happy to help.
Next steps planned for the AA1 (as long as it works with the replacement SSD) is to add more RAM, from what I gather 1.5gb is possible (which will make it capable of running Ubuntu properly) … then a 32gb 1.8" PATA ZIF SSD which will allow me plenty of room to dual boot Linpus Lite and Ubuntu
updating the flashplayer resolved the issue of pages basically not loading or taking about 5 minutes to load after I changed from lite to ff7. THANK YOU!!! Was on the verge of trashing the poor acer.
I tried to update it in mine, but something went wrong … when I go to the adobe page it says my version is 9…!??
Could you say something? Help me? Thanks!
Hi, Im running Firefox 7, and it shows only the flashplayer 9 on the add ons. I supose something happened when I tried to install it, there was a window, after the second or third command which didnt close, then I thought I should paste the next command in that window, but I couldnt paste there, as it wouldnt appear the cursor blinking… so I closed the window and opened another terminal to paste it, but it apears it didnt work… I might have done a very silly mistake as Im not experienced on linux…
