[solved]Flash only works as root?

cschep · 2008-06-30 06:40:13

So when I install a new system, I tend to not create my main user until after it's all setup. Typing sudo all the time is a pain. Once I've got things the way I like, for the most part, I make my user and I'm on my way.

I'm not super awesome at using linux, but I'm alright.

My problem is this, I installed firefox and flashplugin from pacman as root and have been using them pretty much fine on my awesomeWM desktop.

I created my user today, added him to the groups: wheel,video,audio.optical,storage

not sure if that matters at all, but when I run firefox as my normal "user" the flashplugin doesn't work. I surf to a bunch of pages and they all pop that thing up that says install plugin, and I said ok, but it won't install that way either.

I tried reinstalling them with sudo as my user, didn't change anything, but here is a clue.

When I do sudo pacman -S flashplugin, I get this weird message:

warning: directory permissions differ on usr/lib/mozilla/
filesystem: 700 package: 755

and when I do:

ls /usr/lib/mozilla/ <-- i get permission denied. that is odd. that's where the plugins are.

do I need to change the permissions of the directory? if so, why?? that is so weird. vimperator worked for both uers as well.

I know there are a lot of flash crappy errors floating around the message board, I hope I'm not doubling up on one that's already been posted. My searching didn't turn up anything super interesting.

Thanks for the help! I'm using 32-bit arch on an amd 64 x2 3800+ 2 gigs of ram...nvidia video... dunno what else would be relevant. It's a really fresh install of arch and up to date...

thanks for reading!

Last edited by cschep (2008-07-02 20:35:06)

UnbreakableMJ · 2008-06-30 17:15:06

Hello cschep

cschep wrote:

do I need to change the permissions of the directory?

Yes you do.

cschep wrote:

if so, why?? that is so weird. vimperator worked for both uers as well.

Because permissions matters a lot on UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems (including GNU/Linux).
You are not giving permissions to group nor to allusers. Just give rwxr-xr-x permissions for the directory and what's inside of it.

You don't have to use sudo all the time. However it is very recommended to do everything as user, and only use root for major issues.

cschep wrote:

Thanks for the help!

You are welcome.
Hope that helped.

cschep · 2008-06-30 17:54:01

Thanks for the reply. I'm at work now, but I'll try messing with the permissions on the directory later.

I guess my "why?" to that was less about why it matters, and more about, do you guys have any guesses as to why that directory had it's permissions changed in the first place? Or why they don't default so that users can use plugins? And why this problem only happens now, when it has never been a problem in the past?

Thanks again!

UnbreakableMJ · 2008-06-30 18:27:33

Thank you for making it clearer!

Mathematicians do not deal with "guesses" So here is some of the information we got:
* Almost all official Arch packages seem to deal correctly with permissions, especially the packages that we need here
* we used root for everything, including installing packages
* no other users were created from the beginning
* so when we create user, permissions will not take care of themselves.
I'm glad you didn't face other problems with other packages so far.. yet there always will be such problems, especially with more packages being installed.

If we were to test this, by deleting the directory, and removing the packages, then installing them again as user, they would work fine.

And if ever installing a package as user, requires user to go and miss with permissions, then it deserves to be fixed in the PKGBUILD (and probably reported as a bug).

When I first started installing Arch, I too (like many others who told me so) have done basically everything as root to setup the OS before using it. Then I forced myself to do it the proper way, and had to learn few more things, and I say it is worth it..

cschep · 2008-07-01 00:16:33

Excellent information. I didn't realize that by not creating my user that some permissions wouldn't get set correctly. Thanks for the prompt and accurate replies!

frojnd · 2010-02-07 11:45:27

I can also play youtube videos if I'm running firefox as root. However I did try chmod 755 /usr/lib/mozilla and chmod 755 /usr/lib/mozilla/extensions and I still can't run videos as normal user. Firefox will crash when I wanna watch videos thaz requires flash:

 $ firefox

(firefox:27165): Gtk-WARNING **: Ni mogoče najti pogona tem v poti module_path: "thinice",

(firefox:27165): Gtk-WARNING **: Ni mogoče najti pogona tem v poti module_path: "mist",
Illegal instruction

Chromium however won't crash it but I get message that extension /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/flashplayer.so has crashed. Any ideas how can I watch youtube videos as normal user and not root?

jac · 2010-02-07 11:57:09

frojnd, this thread is really, really old. You should start a new thread and link back to this one if you think it''s necessary. In the new thread, make sure you say how you installed it, through pacman, I hope? Also, chmod is not recursive by default, you might want to try to use the -R switch so the actual plugin also has the right permissions. Though, it should have worked by just installing it.

Last edited by jac (2010-02-07 12:01:36)

skottish · 2010-02-07 15:30:16

Agreed with jac. All answers go here:

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=90487

Arch Linux

#1 2008-06-30 06:40:13

[solved]Flash only works as root?

#2 2008-06-30 17:15:06

Re: [solved]Flash only works as root?

#3 2008-06-30 17:54:01

Re: [solved]Flash only works as root?

#4 2008-06-30 18:27:33

Re: [solved]Flash only works as root?

#5 2008-07-01 00:16:33

Re: [solved]Flash only works as root?

#6 2010-02-07 11:45:27

Re: [solved]Flash only works as root?

#7 2010-02-07 11:57:09

Re: [solved]Flash only works as root?

#8 2010-02-07 15:30:16

Re: [solved]Flash only works as root?

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