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WinEunuuchs2Unix
Asked: 2016-09-19 09:15:56 +0800 CST

Failure to download extra data files: flashplugin-installer (not a duplicate question)

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This is not a duplicate of: askubuntu.../failure-to-download-extra-data-files-flashplugin-installer nor of askubuntu .../how-do-i-stop-failure-to-download-extra-data-files-error-with-pepflashpluginin.

The first link is the closest but the accepted answer does not work.

The Error Screen

Flashplayer Error Screen

The Recommended Solution

sudo apt-get remove --purge flashplugin-installer
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer

The new errors from apt-get

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  bbswitch-dkms dkms libcuda1-361 nvidia-prime
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
Suggested packages:
  x-ttcidfont-conf ttf-bitstream-vera | ttf-dejavu ttf-xfree86-nonfree xfs
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  flashplugin-installer
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 6,782 B of archives.
After this operation, 59.4 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/multiverse amd64 flashplugin-installer amd64 11.2.202.635ubuntu0.16.04.1 [6,782 B]
Fetched 6,782 B in 0s (17.6 kB/s)                
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously unselected package flashplugin-installer.
(Reading database ... 336994 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../flashplugin-installer_11.2.202.635ubuntu0.16.04.1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking flashplugin-installer (11.2.202.635ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
Processing triggers for update-notifier-common (3.168.1) ...
flashplugin-installer: downloading http://archive.canonical.com/pool/partner/a/adobe-flashplugin/adobe-flashplugin_20160913.1.orig.tar.gz
Err:1 http://archive.canonical.com/pool/partner/a/adobe-flashplugin/adobe-flashplugin_20160913.1.orig.tar.gz
  Could not open file /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/adobe-flashplugin_20160913.1.orig.tar.gz - open (2: No such file or directory) [IP: 91.189.92.191 80]
E: Failed to fetch http://archive.canonical.com/pool/partner/a/adobe-flashplugin/adobe-flashplugin_20160913.1.orig.tar.gz Could not open file /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/adobe-flashplugin_20160913.1.orig.tar.gz - open (2: No such file or directory) [IP: 91.189.92.191 80]

E: Download Failed
Setting up flashplugin-installer (11.2.202.635ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...

This problem seems to have ocurred after I removed google-chrome-beta but kept the regular google-chrome. Google chrome works fine for watching TV shows with pepper flash plug-in but it would be nice to keep firefox as a backup browser if chrome goes down. I believe firefox needs the separate flashplugin.

Is there a glitch in canonical somewhere?

Should I just apt-get remove purge flashplugin-installer and not bother apt-get install it again?

PS the ca. prefix on ubuntu.com website name means Canada servers for Canonical and has never been a problem before.

apt

1 Answers

  1. Credit to gunnar-hjalmarsson for this answer.

    Adobe once began life making fonts for Microsoft Windows. Later it became the premiere program for playing videos over the internet and live TV broadcasts (which I use it for). However now HTML5 is commonly used for playing videos in Google's YouTube and FlashPlayer is becoming marginalized.

    Within Google Chrome web browser PepperFlash support is built in so a separate flash plugin is no longer required for watching flash content. However on my system (perhaps because I deleted Google Chrome Beta) the error in the original question occurred.

    The error message:

    Err:1 http://archive.canonical.com/pool/partner/a/adobe-flashplugin/adobe-flashplugin_20160913.1.orig.tar.gz

    showed up because Canonical partners was not enabled. I don't remember turning it off but the solution is to turn it on.

    Enable Canonical Partners

    To enable partners in Canonical select System Settings then Software & Updates and then Other Partners. This screen appears:

    Canonical Partners

    Check the box to allow partners.

    As Gunnar points out flashplugin-installer isn't needed for firefox so adobe-flashplugin is a better option to install. Google chrome has flash player support embedded through a process called Pepper Flash Player and doesn't need flashplugin-installer either.

    The final solution is:

    sudo apt-get remove flashplugin-installer
sudo apt-get purge flashplugin-installer
sudo apt-get install adobe-flashplugin

    Thanks again to Gunnar for his comments to solve the pesky pop-up message.

    Although flashplugin-installer is in the title and body, the partner errors could apply to many situations and I welcome recommendations to change the title, question or answer.

    PS I realize remove and purge can be combined into a single line. I also realize apt-get is inferior to a solo apt in many respects.

    PPS Adobe also gets credit for .PDF files although on Linux platform many free alternatives exist.

    PPPS I notice there are other boxes not checked off on the screenshot above and if this answer can be improved by explaining them don't hesitate to comment. I am dpkg challenged as recent down votes have proved.

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