I complained last week that there’s no Flash for Linux 64-bit. Ziobudda asked why I didn’t just install the 32-bit Firefox. Why not? I couldn’t think of any good reason. So here’s how I did it.
First of all, I wanted to use yum so I could avoid all dependency issues (not to mention it makes everything really easy). So that yum would know where to look for 32-bit Firefox distributions, I added a file named fedora-base-i386.repo in the /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory, including this text (thanks to this forum for the mostly correct info):
[base-i386] name=base-i386 baseurl=http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/4/i386/os/ gpgcheck=1 enabled=0
Having already un-installed my 64-bit Firefox, I ran the yum install for the 32-bit Firefox like so:
yum --enablerepo=base-i386 install firefox.i386
and Firefox 32-bit was installed.
One remaining problem were the old Firefox extensions in the .mozilla/firefox/.../extensions/ directory, but I just moved them all into another folder.
Next, I downloaded Flash 7, extracted the file and ran the installer only to get the error message that Flash wouldn’t work with 64-bit architecture.
Here I found the suggestion to change the Flash installation file (flashplayer-installer) so that it doesn’t look for i386 architecture. Under the commented line “# check architecture” in the flashplayer-installer file, I changed i[3456]86) to x86_64), and it worked perfectly.
Missing most Flash-designed sites was no great loss, but now I can visit Homestar Runner and YouTube. And there’s no noticeable performance loss in using 32-bit Firefox instead of the 64-bit.
One Comment
Hello. How you resolved the dependencies? My FC4 instalation conplains about instaling firefox.i386. I follow your instructions, issue the command yum install …, the command output is:
# yum –enablerepo=I386 install firefox.i386
Setting up Install Process
Setting up repositories
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Parsing package install arguments
Resolving Dependencies
–> Populating transaction set with selected packages. Please wait.
—> Package firefox.i386 0:1.0.4-4 set to be updated
–> Running transaction check
…… (other similar stuff)
Dependencies Resolved
=============================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
=============================================================================
Installing:
firefox i386 1.0.4-4 I386 18 M
Installing for dependencies:
alsa-lib i386 1.0.10-3.FC4 updates 376 k
audiofile i386 1:0.2.6-2 core 98 k
esound i386 1:0.2.36-0.fc4.1 updates 127 k
gnome-keyring i386 0.4.2-1 core 120 k
libbonoboui i386 2.8.1-4 I386 356 k
libglade2 i386 2.5.1-2 core 92 k
libgnome i386 2.10.0-3 I386 705 k
libgnomecanvas i386 2.10.0-1 core 210 k
libgnomeui i386 2.10.0-1 I386 848 k
Transaction Summary
=============================================================================
Install 10 Package(s)
Update 0 Package(s)
Remove 0 Package(s)
Total download size: 21 M
Is this ok [y/N]:
y
Downloading Packages:
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Check Error: package firefox-1.0.8-1.1.fc4 (which is newer than firefox-1.0.4-4) is already installed
file /etc/alsa/ainit.conf from install of alsa-lib-1.0.10-3.FC4 conflicts with file from package alsa-lib-1.0.9rc4-2
file /etc/alsa/alsa.conf from install of alsa-lib-1.0.10-3.FC4 conflicts with file from package alsa-lib-1.0.9rc4-2
file /etc/alsa/cards/Audigy.conf from install of alsa-lib-1.0.10-3.FC4 conflicts with file from package alsa-lib-1.0.9rc4-2
file /etc/alsa/cards/Audigy2.conf from install of alsa-lib-1.0.10-3.FC4 conflicts with file from package alsa-lib-1.0.9rc4-2
file /etc/alsa/cards/CA0106.conf from install of alsa-lib-1.0.10-3.FC4 conflicts with file from package alsa-lib-1.0.9rc4-2
file /etc/alsa/cards/CS46xx.conf from install of alsa-lib-1.0.10-3.FC4 conflicts with file from package alsa-lib-1.0.9rc4-2
file /etc/alsa/cards/EMU10K1.conf from install of alsa-lib-1.0.10-3.FC4 conflicts with file from package alsa-lib-1.0.9rc4-2
file /etc/alsa/cards/EMU10K1X.conf from install of alsa-lib-1.0.10-3.FC4 conflicts with file from package alsa-lib-1.0.9rc4-2
file /etc/alsa/cards/HDA-Intel.conf from install of alsa-lib-1.0.10-3.FC4 conflicts with file from package alsa-lib-1.0.9rc4-2
file /etc/alsa/cards/ICE1724.conf from install of alsa-lib-1.0.10-3.FC4 conflicts with file from package alsa-lib-1.0.9rc4-2
file /etc/alsa/cards/PMacToonie.conf from install of alsa-lib-1.0.10-3.FC4 conflicts with file from package alsa-lib-1.0.9rc4-2
file /etc/alsa/cards/VIA8233A.conf from install of alsa-lib-1.0.10-3.FC4 conflicts with file from package alsa-lib-1.0.9rc4-2
…. (more stuff)
How you solved this problem??
Please help me, I’m? urged to install firefox 32 bits for flash plugin.
Thanks in advance,
Sebastian