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I'm currently using a CentOS Linux release 7.2.1511 (Core) operating system on a Dell machine. I've been trying to watch YouTube videos with Mozilla Firefox ESR 45.1.1, but it never worked.

enter image description here ("It's necessary Adobe Flash Player to play this video. Download the updated version of Flash Player")

I downloaded it but nothing worked. I also tried to install some Firefox Add-Ons for Flash playing (YouTube Flash Video Player and Enable Your Youtube Flash Player) but nothing worked.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

DavideChicco.it
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    Visit https://www.youtube.com/html5 , to verify that all feature of html5 are enabled. (blue=enabled) – GAD3R Jun 23 '16 at 17:20
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    Yes they are. What should I do? :-/ @GAD3R – DavideChicco.it Jun 23 '16 at 19:47
  • I think you should not require Flash if you are playing the videos with HTML 5. Did you click on the blue button saying "Request the HTML5 player" in the link pointed above by @GAD3R ? – Barun Jun 24 '16 at 06:41

5 Answers5

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While HTML5 should be the default player and not Flash, try using an add-on for Firefox to force it to actually use HTML5. Here are some add-ons that should do the job:

To make sure your browser has complete HTML5 support, you should also update it to the latest version if you haven't already.

edaemon
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I just tested it on latest CentOS, it should work:

  1. First, go to https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

  2. Select either yum or rpm is ok:

    enter image description here

  3. Click Download now button in right side:

enter image description here

  1. Software Install is not reliable, so we must choose Save File:

enter image description here

  1. Open you terminal:

Navigate to ~/Downloads directory which hold the rpm you've downloaded just now, and do sudo rpm -i <.rpm file name> and sudo yum -y install flash-plugin:

[xiaobai@localhost ~]$ cd ~/Downloads/
[xiaobai@localhost Downloads]$ ls
adobe-release-x86_64-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
[xiaobai@localhost Downloads]$ sudo rpm -i adobe-release-x86_64-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
[xiaobai@localhost Downloads]$ sudo yum -y install flash-plugin

Close all firefox window and restart it, it should work now. Visits to https://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ should able to see your version:

enter image description here

Footnotes:

  1. After rpm -i <.rpm filename>, it will make yum search flash-plugin work, and so yum install flash-plugin will succeed.
  2. Press Ctrl+C to kill and wait for few seconds to try yum install flash-plugin again, if you see yum lock error.
  3. Keep in mind that most of the popular YouTube videos shouldn't need Flash. Your question didn't state is it not working for all videos or only few videos. This is important statement since I have no problem to play YouTube videos in a freshly installed CentOS without flash player.
  4. Update your Firefox if still not working. Disable all of your Firefox Extensions/Plugins(except Flash Player) to test if still not working, because UA header might affect YouTube decision to give you flash or html5 code. Ensure Plugins page's Flash Player set to Always Activate for testing purpose. Log-out your account and start a New Private Window to test if still not working.
林果皞
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You can try the approach here:

https://www.centos.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4926

Basically, it's 

sudo yum install flash-plugin

And some updating work/fix dependencies.

It's a possible threat to the security of your system. At your own risk, like many have stated.

WesternGun
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Adobe abandoned Flash for Linux years ago. Which is a good thing because Flash is a security nightmare.

If you really must play a flash video, the best method is to just download it and play it with mplayer or similar. Or convert it from .flv to .mp4 or something with ffmpeg or handbrake. There are several video-downloader plugins available for firefox that make it easy to download a video rather than play/stream it.

Alternatively, use google chrome or the open-source version chromium with the Pepper Flash Player. Note, however, that flash is and always will be a constant stream of security holes that may be used to compromise your system via a cunningly mal-crafted flash program.

I have no idea if it's pre-packaged for Centos or not, but it's packaged for debian as pepperflashplugin-nonfree - that contains a script which downloads google chrome, extracts the flash player and installs it for chromium to use (so you can get the flash player in chromium without google's other proprietary spyware).

Note that support for 32-bit has been dropped by chrome's pepper flash.

cas
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  • The answer approach of "just don't do that" isn't really valid. It's fair to have a comment stating alternatives or security concerns, or to include those in a real answer. However to say the solution is to circumvent the question doesn't attempt to answer it. – Centimane Nov 22 '16 at 15:05
  • you are, of course, entitled to your opinion, however wrong it may be. there are many solutions to most problems, and some of those ARE "don't do that, do something else" (and sometimes they're even the best solution). Even the most-upvoted answer above by @edaemon is another variant of "do something else", i.e. make firefox use the HTML5 player rather than the flash player. – cas Nov 23 '16 at 15:56
  • BTW, there are still many youtube videos that are flash-only, not available as HTML5....which means that my answer (use chromium or pepper-flash, or download and use a standalone player) is the only answer that will work for all youtube videos, even the old ones...and the question specifically mentioned flash videos. – cas Nov 23 '16 at 15:59
  • The question is how to play youtube videos in firefox. edaemon's suggestion was to use addons for firefox so it could play flash videos IN FIREFOX.You're suggestions were play outside of a web browser, or use chrome, neither of which address the question "How to watch youtube videos in Mozilla Firefox?" – Centimane Nov 24 '16 at 16:16
  • The question specifically referenced flash videos and edaemon's answer does **not** describe how to play flash videos in firefox, it describes how to set firefox to use HTML5 videos. That's a good, easy "do something else" answer and it will work great for many/most youtube videos (i.e. those that are HTML5 or that have both flash and HTML5 versions). It will not work at all for flash-only videos...for those, the "do something else" needs to be more extreme. As always, use the right (or best) tool for the job, and don't let yourself get trapped by the first tool that comes to mind. – cas Nov 25 '16 at 02:54
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Here's how I was able to view HTML5 YouTube videos in Firefox running on CentOS7 using the Gnome desktop.

Using the default Firefox install, press "alt" and "T" key to select "Tools" on the browser (using shortcut keys will show pull down menu if not active). Then, select "addons" from the pull-down menu. Once on plugin page, select "get add-ons" and did a search for HTML5. There were many plug-in choices, apparently enabling both HTML5 and Flash to be viewed on YouTube. Several are "free" at the moment, but with varying degrees of data collection and possibly other annoying behaviors. The plug-in installed automatically just by pressing the install button next to the plug-in. It did not require a browser restart.

As for which plug-in, the "f|5" plug-in worked for me. I picked it only due to it's popularity.

Ima
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