Compability issue with adobe-flashplugin

Bug #1633678 reported by Niklas Holm
36
This bug affects 5 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
freshplayerplugin (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
High
Gunnar Hjalmarsson
Xenial
Fix Released
High
Gunnar Hjalmarsson
Yakkety
Fix Released
High
Gunnar Hjalmarsson

Bug Description

[Impact]

Since google no longer bundles its pepperflash plugin with chrome's debs (bug #1632870) the recommended way to get the plugin is by installing adobe-flashplugin from the partner repository. However, since it also includes the outdated NPAPI-plugin this will result in two flash-plugins being installed to Firefox' plugin directory, due to the fact that browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash and adobe-flashplugin doesn't use the same alternative link, which they should.

In /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins there's currently two links:
flash-mozilla.so -> /etc/alternatives/flash-mozilla.so (installed by browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash)
flashplugin-alternative.so -> /etc/alternatives/mozilla-flashplugin (installed by adobe-flashplugin)

browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash should use the same alternatives-link as the official package but with an higher priority, which would eliminate the compability issue.

Also the recommend of pepperflashplugin-nonfree should be removed and solely recommend adobe-flashplugin instead.

Proposed changes to achieve this are available in this PPA:

https://launchpad.net/~gunnarhj/+archive/ubuntu/freshplayerplugin

[Test Case]

1. Install adobe-flashplugin from Canonical Partner.
2. Install the current version of
   browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash.
3. Restart Firefox and find that two version of "Shockwave Flash" are
   shown under Tools -> Add-ons -> Plugins.
4. Install the proposed browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash.
5. Restart Firefox and find only adobe-flashplugin's PPAPI plugin under
   Plugins.

[Regression Potential]

Low. This proposal is a natural step for Ubuntu to deal with the pepperflashplugin-nonfree breakage caused by Google. As an extra bonus, since adobe-flashplugin actually installs the PPAPI plugin and not just downloads it from an external source at install, users will have the (almost) latest plugin version installed through the package updates.

description: updated
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in freshplayerplugin (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Naël (nathanael-naeri) wrote :

I agree with everything Niklas said. Two remarks:

1. I'm not sure it's a problem to have two versions of the Flash plugin, because one is the outdated NPAPI version:

> flashplugin-alternative.so -> /etc/alternatives/mozilla-flashplugin (installed by adobe-flashplugin)

and the other is the up-to-date PPAPI version wrapped by freshplayerplugin to look like a NPAPI plugin:

> flash-mozilla.so -> /etc/alternatives/flash-mozilla.so (installed by browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash)

and I'm pretty sure that the browser uses the version with the highest version number. Still, it's messy.

2. Andrei Alin's version 0.3.6-1 of browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash (ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8) fixes that issue:

> browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash should use the same
> alternatives-link as the official package but with an higher
> priority, which would eliminate the compability issue.

> Also the recommend of pepperflashplugin-nonfree should be
> removed and solely recommend adobe-flashplugin instead.

It does exactly that (thanks Andrei). However Ubuntu's version of browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash comes from Debian, and adobe-flashplugin isn't available in Debian, so I wouldn't hold my breath for any compatibility issue with adobe-flashplugin to be fixed in the original Debian package.

I recommend using Andrei Alin's version of browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash.

Changed in freshplayerplugin (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)
importance: Undecided → High
status: Confirmed → In Progress
Revision history for this message
Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj) wrote :

Proposed changes for Xenial, Yakkety and Zesty have been uploaded to this PPA:

https://launchpad.net/~gunnarhj/+archive/ubuntu/freshplayerplugin

There is one thing I'm not quite comfortable with: If I install browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash without adobe-flashplugin being present, some odd Flash version (13.1.2.3) is made available to Firefox. If I then install adobe-flashplugin, the 13.1.2.3 version is still what Firefox sees. The PPAPI plugin which adobe-flashplugin provides is recognized by Firefox only after I have removed browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash and then installed it again. (Reinstall is not sufficient.)

I would appreciate your comments before I ask for sponsorship to the Ubuntu archive.

Revision history for this message
Niklas Holm (niklas-holm) wrote :

@Gunnar: This is known issue upstream and is harmless. The version shown is only used for plugin listing in the browser, the actual version used is the one provided by adobe-flashplugin. You can verify this at https://www.adobe.com/se/software/flash/about/

See https://github.com/i-rinat/freshplayerplugin/blob/master/doc/known-issues.md#flash-version-is-incorrect

Revision history for this message
Niklas Holm (niklas-holm) wrote :

See also https://github.com/i-rinat/freshplayerplugin/issues/246

13.1.2.3 is a dummy version used when the wrapper can't find the plugin. Firefox caches plugin information in pluginreg.dat, and since the wrapper's doesn't change when adobe-flashplugin is installed, firefox doesn't notice anything has changed and as such doesn't update the cache.

If necessary one can trigger an update of the cache by updating the time stamp

sudo touch /usr/lib/browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash/libfreshwrapper-flashplayer.so

Revision history for this message
Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj) wrote :

Thanks for those clarifications, Niklas. Just confirmed that it actually uses adobe-flashplugin's PPAPI plugin, even if the Firefox GUI keeps showing the fake one.

Then it's a trivial issue, which doesn't jeopardize security, and nothing that needs to block the proposed fix.

This bug is now in the sponsorship 'queue':
http://reqorts.qa.ubuntu.com/reports/sponsoring/

description: updated
Mathew Hodson (mhodson)
tags: added: packaging
Revision history for this message
Naël (nathanael-naeri) wrote :

Thanks for taking care of this bug Gunnar.

Unfortunately I can't test your packages since I still use Trusty for the time being. I did at least compare the contents of your Xenial build against the one available in multiverse and the one in Andrei Alin's PPA. It looks good to me and should fix the two grievances reported here (the dependency and the alternative).

You should be the official maintainer for the Ubuntu version of that package, since there isn't any.

One point of detail: it looks like you made your Xenial package from the Debian or Alin one and your Yakkety/Zesty packages from the Ubuntu ones. This shows in the Maintainer and Original-Maintainer fields of d/control, but that's the only difference AFAICT.

Revision history for this message
Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj) wrote :

On 2016-10-28 22:07, Nathanaël Naeri wrote:
> One point of detail: it looks like you made your Xenial package from
> the Debian or Alin one and your Yakkety/Zesty packages from the
> Ubuntu ones.

For Xenial there is no Ubuntu/Debian delta, so I made all of them based on what's currently in the Ubuntu archive. That's how you normally do it to have an update of a stable release accepted: Settle for the changes needed to address the bug in question.

> This shows in the Maintainer and Original-Maintainer fields of
> d/control, but that's the only difference AFAICT.

Ouch.. You made me realize that I forgot to change the Maintainer field in the Xenial proposal. Fixed now.

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in freshplayerplugin (Ubuntu Xenial):
status: New → Confirmed
Changed in freshplayerplugin (Ubuntu Yakkety):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package freshplayerplugin - 0.3.5-1ubuntu4

---------------
freshplayerplugin (0.3.5-1ubuntu4) zesty; urgency=medium

  * d/*.postinst, d/*.preinst, d/*.prerm:
    - Use the same alternative as the adobe-flashplugin package to
      prevent confusion with the NPAPI plugin installed by
      adobe-flashplugin (LP: #1633678).
      Thanks to Alin Andrei for the solution!
  * d/control:
    - Drop the pepperflashplugin-nonfree recommend.
    - Recommend adobe-flashplugin.

 -- Gunnar Hjalmarsson <email address hidden> Fri, 28 Oct 2016 23:00:00 +0200

Changed in freshplayerplugin (Ubuntu):
status: In Progress → Fix Released
Changed in freshplayerplugin (Ubuntu Xenial):
assignee: nobody → Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)
importance: Undecided → High
status: Confirmed → In Progress
Changed in freshplayerplugin (Ubuntu Yakkety):
assignee: nobody → Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)
importance: Undecided → High
status: Confirmed → In Progress
Revision history for this message
Stéphane (stephane-treboux) wrote :

Hello Gunnar, thanks for your fix and sorry for my late answer. I tried your fix and it works as intended, the NPAPI plugin is hidden and Firefox uses the PPAPI plugin. https://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ show the correct version number (currently 23.x).

Revision history for this message
Brian Murray (brian-murray) wrote :

Gunnar - Do you have any plans to upload this to the -proposed queue for review by the SRU team?

Revision history for this message
Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj) wrote :

@Brian: I don't have the permissions to upload it which is why ubuntu-sponsors is subscribed...

Revision history for this message
Brian Murray (brian-murray) wrote :

I've uploaded this to the -proposed queues for review by the SRU team.

Revision history for this message
Łukasz Zemczak (sil2100) wrote : Please test proposed package

Hello Niklas, or anyone else affected,

Accepted freshplayerplugin into xenial-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/freshplayerplugin/0.3.4-3ubuntu0.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed.Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

Changed in freshplayerplugin (Ubuntu Xenial):
status: In Progress → Fix Committed
tags: added: verification-needed
Revision history for this message
Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj) wrote :

I installed browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash 0.3.4-3ubuntu0.1 from xenial-proposed and could verify the test case.

tags: added: verification-done-xenial
removed: verification-needed
Revision history for this message
Steve Langasek (vorlon) wrote : Update Released

The verification of the Stable Release Update for freshplayerplugin has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package freshplayerplugin - 0.3.4-3ubuntu0.1

---------------
freshplayerplugin (0.3.4-3ubuntu0.1) xenial; urgency=medium

  * d/*.postinst, d/*.preinst, d/*.prerm:
    - Use the same alternative as the adobe-flashplugin package to
      prevent confusion with the NPAPI plugin installed by
      adobe-flashplugin (LP: #1633678).
      Thanks to Alin Andrei for the solution!
  * d/control:
    - Drop the pepperflashplugin-nonfree recommend.
    - Recommend adobe-flashplugin.
    - Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers.
  * d/rules:
    - Run tests with LC_ALL=C to prevent the build failure reported in
      LP bug 1578252.

 -- Gunnar Hjalmarsson <email address hidden> Fri, 28 Oct 2016 23:00:00 +0200

Changed in freshplayerplugin (Ubuntu Xenial):
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Brian Murray (brian-murray) wrote : Please test proposed package

Hello Niklas, or anyone else affected,

Accepted freshplayerplugin into yakkety-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/freshplayerplugin/0.3.5-1ubuntu3.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed.Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

Changed in freshplayerplugin (Ubuntu Yakkety):
status: In Progress → Fix Committed
tags: added: verification-needed
Revision history for this message
Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj) wrote :

I installed browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash 0.3.5-1ubuntu3.1 from yakkety-proposed and could verify the test case.

tags: added: verification-done-yakkety
removed: verification-needed
Revision history for this message
Niklas Holm (niklas-holm) wrote :

Any chance of fixing this in Trusty? Should be equally trivial to fix.

Revision history for this message
Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj) wrote :

The package is not present in trusty.

A backport request would be possible, though:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBackports

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package freshplayerplugin - 0.3.5-1ubuntu3.1

---------------
freshplayerplugin (0.3.5-1ubuntu3.1) yakkety; urgency=medium

  * d/*.postinst, d/*.preinst, d/*.prerm:
    - Use the same alternative as the adobe-flashplugin package to
      prevent confusion with the NPAPI plugin installed by
      adobe-flashplugin (LP: #1633678).
      Thanks to Alin Andrei for the solution!
  * d/control:
    - Drop the pepperflashplugin-nonfree recommend.
    - Recommend adobe-flashplugin.

 -- Gunnar Hjalmarsson <email address hidden> Fri, 28 Oct 2016 23:00:00 +0200

Changed in freshplayerplugin (Ubuntu Yakkety):
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
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