How To Fix Full-Screen Flash Videos in Linux & Firefox (or Swiftfox)

From: webupd8.blogspot.com  read times: 121


Provided by yangyi at 2009-07-04 20:24:01


By default, Firefox (or Swiftfox) crashes when trying to view a full-screen video on say... YouTube. At least for me it used to crash until I found a fix. If that is the case for you also, you may want to read on.

To fix the full-screen flash videos bug, you need to preload a library called libGL.so.1 when you start Firefox or Swiftfox. Here is how to do it:

1. Create a new file in your home folder, let's call it fix_flash.sh and paste this:
#!/bin/sh
## replace firefox-3.6 with what you use, e.g. firefox, firefox-3.5, swiftfox
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libGL.so.1 firefox-3.5

Like the script says, replace "firefox-3.5" with the command used to launch your Firefox (depending on the version, etc). If you don't know the command, go to Applications > Internet and right click the version of Firefox you want to fix (Firefox, Minefield or whatever) and click "Add to panel". Then a new icon (launcher) will be displayed on your panel; right click that icon and select "Properties" -> you will then see the command used to launch your Firefox version in the "Command" field (never mind the %u):

ff

If you use Swiftfox, replace "firefox-3.5" in the file with "swiftfox" (without the quotes).

2. Make fix_flash.sh executable
Use your terminal to navigate to where fix_flash.sh is located and type this in the terminal:
chmod +x fix_flash.sh

3. Now either edit your panel Firefox/Swiftfox icon or add a new icon and in the command field, put this:
/path_to_file/fix_flash.sh %u

Obviously, replace "path_to_file" with the path to the fix_flash.sh file.

4. Close Firefox / Swiftfox and run it using the newly created launcher (icon), then go to YouTube or a similar website and click the full-screen button. Everything should be ok now, no more crashes!

Original link: http://webupd8.blogspot.com/2009...