139315 - (PluginDocLinux) Plugin documentation for Linux

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Documentation Graveyard :: Help Viewer, defect)

Description

[Michael Hendy (Hendikins)]

This bug is for Linux Plugin documentation only, bug 104506 is the general bug

Adding dep. to Bug 104506 (Working plug-ins status and files needed for Mozilla)

Comment 1

[Michael Hendy (Hendikins)]

Feel free to add Linux-specific plugin information to this bug, including
crossover related stuff :)

I'll get around to this when I get back from Melbourne on the 29th

Comment 2

[cartman]

Flash Plugin for Mozilla :

Just go to www.macromedia.com get flash_linux.tar.gz untar it and put
libflashplayer.so & ShockwaveFlash.class files into /path/to/mozilla/plugins for
a general install or to ~/.mozilla/plugins for a local install

Real Player 8 Plugin Mozilla:

Go to you realplayer installation directory and find raclass.zip & rpnp.so to
the same one of the directories above

Quicktime & Windows Media Player

These plugings are not natively supported on linux but you can download
CrossOver plugin from www.codeweavers.com and install that plugins too .
Installation is fairly easy.

Comment 3

[Dennis Haney]

Almost no plugins work when using a gcc 3 build... They fail like the Java
plugin: LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library
/y/mozilla/dist/bin/plugins/java2/plugin/i386/ns600/libjavaplugin_oji.so
[/y/mozilla/dist/bin/plugins/java2/plugin/i386/ns600/libjavaplugin_oji.so:
undefined symbol: __vt_17nsGetServiceByCID]

Comment 4

[Marc Bevand]

This text is my theory about why "most plugins fail when using a gcc 3
build"...

I recently installed the macromedia flash plugin 5.0.50 for mozilla 1.0
(compiled with gcc 3.0) on a linux x86 system. But when a page containing
a flash object was loaded, mozilla crashed with the following error:

        /usr/local//lib/mozilla-1.0.0/mozilla-bin: error while loading
        shared libraries: /home/after/.mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so:
        undefined symbol: __builtin_vec_new

A quick search in the shared libraries showed that __builtin_vec_new is
defined in:

        /usr/lib/libstdc++-libc6.1-1.so.2
        (which is a symlink to libstdc++-2-libc6.1-1-2.9.0.so)

The debian package page for this library [1] says that this lib is
needed by "C++ programs built with the gnu/egcs compiler version 1.1.x".
For example, some (all ?) versions of the sun's java runtime environment
require this library.

For an obscure reason, the flash plugin was unable to find the
symbol __builtin_vec_new in /usr/lib/libstdc++-libc6.1-1.so.2. One
of the solutions to this problem is to set the LD_PRELOAD environment
variable:

        $ env LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libstdc++-libc6.1-1.so.2 mozilla

With the above command, the flash plugin does not crash mozilla anymore.

Explanation: libstdc++, the gnu standard c++ library [2], is included
in the gcc package, and it is said in [2] that "older snapshots of this
library were given the name libstdc++-2.9x up until the release of
gcc 3" (this old version is named "libstdc++-libc6.1-1.so.2" on my
system).

This explains all: gcc 2.9x includes libstdc++-2.9x, gcc 3 includes
libstdc++-v3, but the flash plugin needs libstdc++-2.9x... So, the
correct statement is not "most plugins fail when using a gcc 3 build",
but "most plugins fail when libstdc++-2.9x is not found".

Those plugins can work on a system on which gcc 3 is installed: just
install libstdc++-2.9x (this will *not* conflict with the already
installed libstdc++-v3) and set the LD_PRELOAD environment variable
so that it points to the libstdc++-2.9x shared library...

Libstdc++-2.9x source can be found here [3]. Binary versions of this
library are also available, check [1] and [4].

[1] http://packages.debian.org/stable/oldlibs/libstdc++2.9-glibc2.1.html
[2] http://gcc.gnu.org/libstdc++/
[3] ftp://gcc.gnu.org/pub/gcc/libstdc++/old-releases/
[4] http://at.rpmfind.net/opsys/linux/RPM/libstdc++-libc6.1-1.so.2.html

Comment 5

[Marc Bevand]

Oops ! Please iqnore my previous message :) I have written it when I was not
aware of the fundamental reason of the problem (gcc 3.x and gcc 2.9x have
different name mangling as well as a different ABI).

However, I still confirm that the macromedia flash plugin 5.0r50 (for linux)
*works* with mozilla 1.0.x (compiled with gcc 3.0) when the LD_PRELOAD
environment variable points to a 2.9x version of libstdc++.

Comment 6

[Russell Jones]

One can download RP9 compatable codecs for realplayer.  I've tried to use them
with Galeon 1.3.something (not Mozilla).  Real player is not perfect, but often
works embeded in the browser.  I don't know how much effect using the patches
has; I haven't investigated this.

http://realforum.real.com/cgi-bin/unixplayer/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=announcements&Number=3128&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5

I guess the information should be added to:
http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/linux.html

Happy to follow your click through, BTW, Hendikins.

rjones-mzlaSPAM (e-mail address) icoSPAM,vivaSPAM,orgLOVELYSPAM

Comment 7

[Michael Hendy (Hendikins)]

Information from Comment 6 added (amongst other things)

Comment 8

[Stanislav Brabec]

Linux plugin list does not mention mozilla-bonobo: Mozilla plugin for using
bonobo components (GNOME). Can work in any platform where GNOME works.

http://www.nongnu.org/moz-bonobo/

Comment 9

[Clément Stenac]

Hello,

Could you please add the VLC media player plugin (GNU/Linux and Windows).
http://www.videolan.org/vlc

Comment 10

[Mike Traum]

I agree with comment 8 - I just discoved mozilla-bonobo and it's REALLY nice!

Comment 11

[Berend Veldkamp]

To install Adobe SVG viewer in Firefox, follow the instructions on 
http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/linux.html#SVG, but replace all occurences of
"mozilla" in install.sh to "firefox" before running it.

Berend

Comment 12

[Kevin Brosnan]

This bug does not seem to be tracking plugindoc.mozdev.org work any more. Hendy has done several revamps since 2005. If you disagree with this closing please reopen.