SWF file weirdness

Malumake · 2013-11-22 04:38:19

Aloha all,

Flash games and videos play fine in Firefox and Chromium. My problem is playing actual SWF files locally. Everytime I try to play them, the browser goes to the download option and tries to download the local file again. I know its probably something simple, but I'm not seeing it. Please help.

Mahalo for your time in advance.

karol · 2013-11-22 05:55:57

How exactly are you trying to play them? 'firefox test.swf' works for me http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/SWF/ .
Does every swf file behave this way or just one or two? Can you share this file? Is it a movie, a game?

Last edited by karol (2013-11-22 06:00:11)

Malumake · 2013-11-22 06:00:39

It's all SWF files, and its a set of movies/class lectures. I have tried both drag/drop and Open File. And I can't ethically provide the files, because I paid for them.

Mahalo

Last edited by Malumake (2013-11-22 06:01:30)

karol · 2013-11-22 06:01:31

'firefox test.swf' works for me. You can test some files from http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/SWF/ .

Malumake · 2013-11-22 06:03:25

That's the weird thing! Regular click, and it plays (LOL old nintendo commercial)! As soon as I download and try to play, it goes to the download menu again from my own HDD.

Last edited by Malumake (2013-11-22 06:03:58)

skottish · 2013-11-22 14:12:06

If you have a copy on your local hard drive, try to play it with mplayer or mpv or some other media player.

Nattgew · 2013-11-22 17:51:31

I have been having this same problem, and it drove me nuts!
When I first installed Arch and all, this worked fine for me. But after maybe a week or two, it stopped working. Like Malumake, same with Firefox and Chromium, wants to download every time. I searched all over and found no answers. Completely wiped local config, reinstalled browsers, still does the same thing.
The files are fine if played externally. I also made a simple HTML wrapper to embed the files, which works fine. But it would be nice if the browser would just open them.

Malumake · 2013-11-23 04:22:14

mplayer and vlc will play audio on some of them, but video on none of them. I was thinking of putting them in an html page but I want to figure out why its doing it and not just do a work around.

karol · 2013-11-23 13:11:48

The text swf files play both audio and video in mpv.

skottish · 2013-11-23 13:30:59

Malumake wrote:

mplayer and vlc will play audio on some of them, but video on none of them. I was thinking of putting them in an html page but I want to figure out why its doing it and not just do a work around.

I just wanted to see what was going on with the files in order to check what was up with them. If you're willing to go off on one last quick tangent, install mediainfo, run it on the file with:

mediainfo <your_swf_file>

and post the output here.

***EDIT***

What I'm looking for is to see if these are DRM enabled files. If they are, install hal and hal-info from the AUR, start the hal service, and see if things are working in the browser.

Last edited by skottish (2013-11-23 15:24:24)

Malumake · 2013-11-23 21:14:58

Here it is::

General
Complete name                            : Lecture1of3.swf
File size                                : 92.8 MiB

No DRM

skottish · 2013-11-23 21:24:28

Malumake wrote:

Here it is::

General
Complete name                            : Lecture1of3.swf
File size                                : 92.8 MiB

No DRM

If that's the entire output, then mediainfo can't read inside of the file and it does support swf. I've never tried to run mediainfo against encrypted content, but it wouldn't surprise me if this is what happens if I did.

Anyway, that's all that I have to offer.

Last edited by skottish (2013-11-23 21:29:10)

Malumake · 2013-11-23 22:25:16

Well, installed hal and hal-info and started the service. Still would not open. I created an html wrapper and still tries to download. Now, I can use the files with no problem in Win7, but I'm trying to avoid using it as much as possible. I want to get to the point where I only use it for games and that's it (hopefully soon not even that).

Last edited by Malumake (2013-11-23 22:25:41)

skottish · 2013-11-23 23:51:41

It seems that I may have a *little* more to offer...

Malumake wrote:

Well, installed hal and hal-info and started the service. Still would not open. I created an html wrapper and still tries to download. Now, I can use the files with no problem in Win7, but I'm trying to avoid using it as much as possible. I want to get to the point where I only use it for games and that's it (hopefully soon not even that).

I'm taking a guess and thinking that these files may have a DRM component that assumes that there's an infrastructure in place to decode them (ActiveX?). The Linux browsers can't open them, so they're defaulting to being downloaded. mediainfo sees them as non-media files. From what I can tell without having the source files is that the headers on the file are either not readable (encrypted or corrupted?) or are directed to some other component that's assumed to be on the system that isn't present on Linux.

msthev · 2013-11-24 00:21:08

@skottish I don't think it has to do anything with the files themselves, as I'm getting this problem with every .swf file I try.

Can anyone confirm that it works in Chromium? I started getting this behavior a couple of weeks ago. Firefox works normally, while Chromium just downloads the files. Opening a site with the following contents also works:

<embed src="file:///path/to/the/file.swf"/>

It's just directly opening swf files with "file://" protocol that is problematic.

skottish · 2013-11-24 00:34:10

msthev wrote:

@skottish I don't think it has to do anything with the files themselves, as I'm getting this problem with every .swf file I try.
Can anyone confirm that it works in Chromium? I started getting this behavior a couple of weeks ago. Firefox works normally, while Chromium just downloads the files. Opening a site with the following contents also works:
<embed src="file:///path/to/the/file.swf"/>
It's just directly opening swf files with "file://" protocol that is problematic.

I hope that I'm wrong as the problem would be simple. The fact that mediainfo and {mpv,mplayer} can't open them suggests otherwise.

msthev · 2013-11-24 01:00:39

A sample file downloaded from the page that karol linked, mediainfo:

$ mediainfo test.swf
General
Complete name                            : test.swf
Format                                   : ShockWave
File size                                : 582 KiB
Duration                                 : 29s 833ms
Overall bit rate                         : 160 Kbps

Video #1
Duration                                 : 29s 833ms
Width                                    : 550 pixels
Height                                   : 400 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 1.375
Frame rate                               : 12.000 fps

Video #2
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : H.263
Width                                    : 160 pixels
Height                                   : 120 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 4:3
Compression mode                         : Lossy

Audio
Format                                   : ADPCM
Duration                                 : 29s 833ms
Channel count                            : 1 channel
Sampling rate                            : 22.05 KHz
Bit depth                                : 16 bits

mpv plays the file with both video and audio on. And yet Chromium still insists on downloading the file instead of displaying it.

So OP's files might as well be encrypted, but that's not the source of the problem.

skottish · 2013-11-24 01:32:07

msthev wrote:

A sample file downloaded from the page that karol linked, mediainfo:

$ mediainfo test.swf
General
Complete name                            : test.swf
Format                                   : ShockWave
File size                                : 582 KiB
Duration                                 : 29s 833ms
Overall bit rate                         : 160 Kbps

Video #1
Duration                                 : 29s 833ms
Width                                    : 550 pixels
Height                                   : 400 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 1.375
Frame rate                               : 12.000 fps

Video #2
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : H.263
Width                                    : 160 pixels
Height                                   : 120 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 4:3
Compression mode                         : Lossy

Audio
Format                                   : ADPCM
Duration                                 : 29s 833ms
Channel count                            : 1 channel
Sampling rate                            : 22.05 KHz
Bit depth                                : 16 bits

mpv plays the file with both video and audio on. And yet Chromium still insists on downloading the file instead of displaying it.

So OP's files might as well be encrypted, but that's not the source of the problem.

Malumake's posts show that there's no evidence here that these files can be read under Linux. Your example shows that the test files that karol posted can. I still hope that I'm wrong for everyone that's reading this thread's sake, but what you posted and what so far we're seeing doesn't necessarily seem to be the same thing.

Last edited by skottish (2013-11-24 01:34:22)

msthev · 2013-11-24 01:49:07

I think this post sums it up:

Malumake wrote:

That's the weird thing! Regular click, and it plays (LOL old nintendo commercial)! As soon as I download and try to play, it goes to the download menu again from my own HDD.

Yes, OP has problematic files, but the download behavior is present with any .swf files, not just those.

skottish · 2013-11-24 02:13:45

msthev wrote:

I think this post sums it up:
Malumake wrote:
That's the weird thing! Regular click, and it plays (LOL old nintendo commercial)! As soon as I download and try to play, it goes to the download menu again from my own HDD.
Yes, OP has problematic files, but the download behavior is present with any .swf files, not just those.

In chromium's case, I believe that it's searching to see if it's the default browser. If FF is the default browser, then chromium fails to open files directly. If you download the file then click on the downloaded files button (menu) then open file, does it work?

**EDIT**

xdg-mime default chromium.desktop application/swf

I found this by searching the forums. Does it work?

Last edited by skottish (2013-11-24 02:34:24)

msthev · 2013-11-24 12:52:01

That could be a good guess, since I don't use a DE and have no MIME configuration in my home directory. My only browser is Chromium, so it shouldn't try to launch Firefox, but everything can happen, so I did some testing.

skottish wrote:

If you download the file then click on the downloaded files button (menu) then open file, does it work?

skottish wrote:

xdg-mime default chromium.desktop application/swf
I found this by searching the forums. Does it work?

So before running any commands, clicking on the file would generate the following in Chromium's log:

xdg-open: no method available for opening '/tmp/test.swf'

The same would happen if I typed "xdg-open test.swf" in the terminal.

I then issued the command that you found — it didn't change anything. But I found that MIME for .swf files is "application/x-shockwave-flash". So I tried again with

xdg-mime default chromium.desktop application/x-shockwave-flash

And now typing "xdg-open test.swf" opens Chromium… which in turn downloads the file anyway ಠ_ಠ Clicking in the download window does the same, i.e. re-downloads the file.

For the sake of completeness, this gets printed every time when I try to open the file and it gets downloaded (regardless of MIME settings):

[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(348)] OnResponseStarted: file:///tmp/test.swf
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(478)] CancelRequestInternal: file:///tmp/test.swf
[1607:1607:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:web_contents_impl.cc(2267)] Failed Provisional Load: file:///tmp/test.swf, error_code: -3, error_description: Unknown error., is_main_frame: 1, showing_repost_interstitial: 0, frame_id: 1
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(388)] OnReadCompleted: "file:///tmp/test.swf" bytes_read = 32768
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(388)] OnReadCompleted: "file:///tmp/test.swf" bytes_read = 32768
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(388)] OnReadCompleted: "file:///tmp/test.swf" bytes_read = 32768
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(388)] OnReadCompleted: "file:///tmp/test.swf" bytes_read = 32768
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(388)] OnReadCompleted: "file:///tmp/test.swf" bytes_read = 32768
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(388)] OnReadCompleted: "file:///tmp/test.swf" bytes_read = 32768
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(388)] OnReadCompleted: "file:///tmp/test.swf" bytes_read = 32768
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(388)] OnReadCompleted: "file:///tmp/test.swf" bytes_read = 32768
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(388)] OnReadCompleted: "file:///tmp/test.swf" bytes_read = 32768
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(388)] OnReadCompleted: "file:///tmp/test.swf" bytes_read = 32768
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(388)] OnReadCompleted: "file:///tmp/test.swf" bytes_read = 32768
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(388)] OnReadCompleted: "file:///tmp/test.swf" bytes_read = 32768
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(388)] OnReadCompleted: "file:///tmp/test.swf" bytes_read = 32768
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(388)] OnReadCompleted: "file:///tmp/test.swf" bytes_read = 32768
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(388)] OnReadCompleted: "file:///tmp/test.swf" bytes_read = 32768
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(388)] OnReadCompleted: "file:///tmp/test.swf" bytes_read = 32768
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(388)] OnReadCompleted: "file:///tmp/test.swf" bytes_read = 32768
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(388)] OnReadCompleted: "file:///tmp/test.swf" bytes_read = 32768
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(388)] OnReadCompleted: "file:///tmp/test.swf" bytes_read = 5926
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(388)] OnReadCompleted: "file:///tmp/test.swf" bytes_read = 0
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:resource_loader.cc(647)] ResponseCompleted: file:///tmp/test.swf
[1607:1632:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:database_manager.cc(1081)] SafeBrowsingCheckDone
[7:7:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:transport_dib_gtk.cc(52)] Created SysV shared memory region 2359298
[1607:1607:1124/131216:VERBOSE1:x11_util.cc(1174)] X attached to shared memory segment 2359298
[1607:1628:1124/131216:WARNING:icon_loader_linux.cc(67)] Unsupported file type or load error:
[1607:1628:1124/131216:WARNING:icon_loader_linux.cc(67)] Unsupported file type or load error:

Last edited by msthev (2013-11-24 12:52:44)

Malstrond · 2013-11-26 20:49:14

I'm having the same problem - Chromium always attempts do "download" local .swf files instead of playing them. A simple page with <embed src="file:///...> works. It also started a few weeks ago, although I don't remember the exact date. It used to work.

r0b0t · 2013-11-27 16:04:55

Well, same problem here, with both firefox, chrome, midori, etc...
I think the problem here is not related with the browser itself but with the system.

r0b0t · 2013-11-27 16:16:12

I can't believe I had to start the http server to play the files...

sqlpython · 2013-12-06 06:09:15

Here is a solution that you may like.
Edit: This solved the annoying default of attempting a Download of the swf file with FIrefox during drag/drop... I will do Chrome in the future.
Shockwave Flash is of course a plugin. However you can get similar and satisfactory results from the Adobe Flash stand alone FlashPlayer.
Using the stand alone Flash Player either Alone or with Firefox you can get the the SWF fils to play by clicking via FileManager or drag and drop.

Also you can type the player location in the Browser's url address bar which will work.

I have done this with Gentoo & Arch linuxes.

I solved this for myself by downloading the Adobe Flash Player stand alone app. You can use versions 10 or 11.
The first link will get the tar.gz for ver 10 which I use and the Second allow you to choose the tar.gz for version 11

http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flas … _sa.tar.gz
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/?no_redirect

Simply download and extract. Now enter the newly created extracted directory.

You will see in the Extracted directory for version 10

flashplayer  flashplayer-installer  usr

and in the Extracted directory for version 11 you will see

libflashplayer.so  readme.txt  usr

With version 10 best to become root user to run the flashplayer-installer.
As this will install the flashplayer by default to/usr/bin and be available to all users like so

su
./flashplayer-installer

for those who have installed sudo and choose

sudo ./flashplayer-installer

With version 11 read the readme and then you will have to open a root user based FileManger to allow you to copy the files where necessary i.e. /usr/bin

Lastly, change the properities for your video.swf file to open with the new /usr/bin/flashplayer
Most easily done from your favorite FileManager. Simply navigate to the swf file you wish to open and right click on file and choose properties.

The Player will open as a full size app and not in the Browser page as the Adobe player IS a stand alone Player.

Enjoy!

As I am from the great unwashed hoards, I lowered my head and did not gaze directly upon the Arch as I posted

Last edited by sqlpython (2013-12-06 07:53:57)

Arch Linux

#1 2013-11-22 04:38:19

SWF file weirdness

#2 2013-11-22 05:55:57

Re: SWF file weirdness

#3 2013-11-22 06:00:39

Re: SWF file weirdness

#4 2013-11-22 06:01:31

Re: SWF file weirdness

#5 2013-11-22 06:03:25

Re: SWF file weirdness

#6 2013-11-22 14:12:06

Re: SWF file weirdness

#7 2013-11-22 17:51:31

Re: SWF file weirdness

#8 2013-11-23 04:22:14

Re: SWF file weirdness

#9 2013-11-23 13:11:48

Re: SWF file weirdness

#10 2013-11-23 13:30:59

Re: SWF file weirdness

#11 2013-11-23 21:14:58

Re: SWF file weirdness

#12 2013-11-23 21:24:28

Re: SWF file weirdness

#13 2013-11-23 22:25:16

Re: SWF file weirdness

#14 2013-11-23 23:51:41

Re: SWF file weirdness

#15 2013-11-24 00:21:08

Re: SWF file weirdness

#16 2013-11-24 00:34:10

Re: SWF file weirdness

#17 2013-11-24 01:00:39

Re: SWF file weirdness

#18 2013-11-24 01:32:07

Re: SWF file weirdness

#19 2013-11-24 01:49:07

Re: SWF file weirdness

#20 2013-11-24 02:13:45

Re: SWF file weirdness

#21 2013-11-24 12:52:01

Re: SWF file weirdness

#22 2013-11-26 20:49:14

Re: SWF file weirdness

#23 2013-11-27 16:04:55

Re: SWF file weirdness

#24 2013-11-27 16:16:12

Re: SWF file weirdness

#25 2013-12-06 06:09:15

Re: SWF file weirdness

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