Use rpm packages in Ubuntu

I am having 64bit AMD system in which I was unable to play flash files in Mozilla firefox. I initially tried with gnash which is an open source version of flash player but i felt gnash still not mature enough to handle flash files as good as Macromedia Flash player so decided to go for Macromedia Flash player. First we need to uninstall if any gnash installed and then install Macromedia Flash player plugin-in for Mozilla Firefox. But the problem is Macromedia 64 bit flash player is not available for Ubuntu 7.04. So workaround for this problem is to make rpm package a debian package and install it.

Some libraries required before we install flash player

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs ia32-libs-gtk linux32 lib32asound2

Download and install the last version of .rpm files the Plugin and Viewer from his site

http://gwenole.beauchesne.info/projects/nspluginwrapper/files/nspluginwr...

http://gwenole.beauchesne.info/projects/nspluginwrapper/files/nspluginwr...
Install alien:

sudo apt-get install alien

The above rpm packages is being converted into debian packages.

sudo alien nspluginwrapper-0.9.91.2-1.x86_64.rpm
sudo alien nspluginwrapper-i386-0.9.91.2-1.x86_64.rpm

Download and install FlashPlayer from adobe site

http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_p...

Let’s go into the folder with the downloaded file and untar it

tar xf install_flash_player_9_linux.tar.gz

Go to the directory of created from untar and copy the 2 files “libflashplayer.so” and “flashplayer.xpt” into /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins

cp libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins

cp flashplayer.xpt /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins

Run nspluginwrapper

nspluginwrapper -i /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so

cp ~/.mozilla/plugins/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins/

For load the modules all times go to System > Preferences > Sessions click on New and:

Name: Nspluginwrapper

Command: nspluginwrapper -i /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so

thats it now completely close the browser and open again. Flash files will work smooth and clean.

However, we should keep in mind what the alien man page says:

"alien should not be used to replace important system packages, like init, libc, or other things that are essential for the functioning of your system. Many of these packages are set up differently by the different distributions, and packages from the different distributions cannot be used interchangeably. In general, if you can't remove a package without breaking your system, don't try to replace it with an alien version."

We can make rpm, deb, slp and make Solaris packages. so with this any rpm packages can be converted and used as deb and vice versa, although it is there from many but still many bugs and limitations are present.