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C
Chris Velevitch
Inspiring
April 17, 2015
Answered

FP17 Pepper debugger fails to install on Chrome 42 (OS X 10.8.5)

  • April 17, 2015
  • 6 replies
  • 25310 views

With today's update to Chrome 42, the Flash Player content debugger for Opera and Chromium based applications – PPAPI silently fails to install. Does anyone know who needs to know? A colleague is also having this issue and they're using a later version OSX.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer earth_sound

    Hi alebianco


    "Again, would be nice to see a proper plan in place to fix the situation."

    Google has not enabled the use of the non-embedded PPAPI plugin for Chrome on OS X.  Please file a bug with Google to implement the non-embedded PPAPI plugin on Chrome (Report an issue - Chrome Help).  The alternative to Piyush's suggestion above is to use Opera browser, which has enabled the use of the PPAPI plugin, release and content debugger.

    --

    Maria


    Since build 317656, chromium automatically uses the system version of Pepper Flash and chrome will, too, if you use the --disable-bundled-ppapi-flash option.

    It doesn't work, however, apparently due to how Adobe ships the Pepper Flash plugin's manifest.json with x-ppapi-arch set to mac. There is an issue open for this: Issue 470737 - chromium - Mac: Pepper Flash system installed plugin does not load due to x-ppapi-arch change in manife…

    Since Adobe made that change, Google will have to change CheckPepperFlashManifest to accep the new value.

    In the meantime, users apparently can 1) close chrome 2) edit their manifest.json and change "x-ppapi-arch": "mac" to "x-ppapi-arch": "x64" and then save the file and 3) restart chrome.

    6 replies

    piyush2508
    Adobe Employee
    piyush2508
    Adobe Employee
    April 25, 2015

    Hi Chris Velevitch ,

    Hope the responses have resolved your Query, but I would like to summarize the above:

    1. Pepper Installer [Release/Debug] is not applicable for Chrome/Canary/Chromium browsers. For Mac/Win Chrome, flash player is shipped on your system along-with the Chrome Package[App/Exe/Updates] only.

    2. Workaround to Install Flash Player Debugger Version on Chrome:

    • Uninstall PPAPI Plugin installed on your System, you will get uninstaller from here[Uninstall Flash Player | Mac OS‌]
    • Download PPAPI Debugger Installer[Download the Flash Player content debugger for Opera and Chromium based applications – PPAPI‌] applicable to both 32bit and 64bit browsers from our Developer Support Pages [Adobe Flash Player - Downloads ‌] here you will find Installers[Debug Type] for all Flash Players.
    • Install Pepper Debugger Type Flash Player on your System. Now comes the tricky part;
      • Goto Location --> /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/PepperFlashPlayer/  [This folder will not get created until you have installed the above Flash Player]
      • Copy Plugin --> "PepperFlashPlayer.plugin"
      • Goto Location--> /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/Versions/<current_chrome_version>/Google\ Chrome\Framework.framework/Internet\ Plug-Ins/PepperFlash/
      • Paste the copied plugin
    • Restart Chrome App.
    • Goto: Flash Player Help Click on check Installed Flash Player Version, you will see the Installed Flash Player Details on your screen.

    Now you can use Flash Player Debugger. Also the use-case you have displayed is subjected to internal discussions on providing debugger plugin for chrome on our developer support page.

    Hope this is helpful.

    --

    Piyush

      Y
      yavstr
      Participating Frequently
      April 25, 2015

      Do not waste your time trying this it doesn't work.

      As soon as you try to debug from your IDE the player crashes.

      I turned the support for the plugins back on and used terminal to disable auto updates to Chrome and it's all working again, best of all I'm no longer subjected to these problems.

      alebianco
      alebianco
      Participant
      April 23, 2015

      This behaviour was to be expected since a timeline for the deprecation of the NPAPI plugins was defined in early 2014 by the chromium project

      NPAPI deprecation: developer guide - The Chromium Projects

      For the moment, until september 2015, you can go to visit the url chrome://flags/#enable-npapi and re-enable the NPAPI support. Flash debugger will be loaded and work as expected.

      Would be nice to hear what are Adobe's plan to address this current and future change.

        piyush2508
        Adobe Employee
        piyush2508
        Adobe Employee
        April 25, 2015

        Hi alebianco,

        Enabling NPAPI Plugin won't be the right solution, because NPAPI Plugins support has been deprecated by Chrome long time ago. Although these Plugins still run on chrome via the tweak you have recommended above but developers are not recommended to use them.

        Chromium Blog: Saying Goodbye to Our Old Friend NPAPI

        Adobe Flash Player plug-in - Chrome Help

        --

        Piyush

        alebianco
        alebianco
        Participant
        April 27, 2015

        hi piyush2508‌

        As I said, it's a temporary workaround.

        Also, i find really hard to believe that Adobe's suggesting that alternate solution (disinstall, install, move files manually, disable updates ... really?) which is a lot more complex and has a major drawback: the player does not log traces and errors to the flashlog.txt anymore. I haven't tried testing debugging from an IDE but it looks like there're problems there as well.

        Again, would be nice to see a proper plan in place to fix the situation.

        Varun_Bhal
        Adobe Employee
        Varun_Bhal
        Adobe Employee
        April 21, 2015

        Hi,

        This change has been done by Chrome in its recent update on MAC that it will use only its bundled PPAPI plugin and will not detect the PPAPI plugins installed using installers. Even the old PPAPI installers will not work on latest version of Chrome now. So its not a bug of Adobe Flash Player but a recent change from chrome resulting in this behaviour. But you can follow the below workaround steps to test PPAPI debugger on Chrome.

        1. Install PPAPI debugger on your system using http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/updaters/17/flashplayer_17_ppapi_debug.dmg

        2. Copy "PepperFlashPlayer.plugin" from /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/PepperFlashPlayer/ and replace in  /Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/Versions/<current_chrome_version>/Google Chrome Framework.framework/Internet Plug-Ins/PepperFlash/

        3. Restart chrome and see if you can use the PPAPI Debugger plugin.


        Note : You may need to follow these steps everytime chrome updates the bundled plugin.

        Hope it solves your problem.

        -Varun

          C
          Chris VelevitchAuthor
          Inspiring
          April 21, 2015

          For some reason /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/PepperFlashPlayer is not visible in the Finder, but you can use the Finder search to find the file and the copy it to Chrome.

          薛定谔的蓝猫
          薛定谔的蓝猫
          Participant
          April 20, 2015

          Experiencing the exact same issue. Now has to use an alternate browser.

          C
          Chris VelevitchAuthor
          Inspiring
          April 18, 2015

          I've logged this on the Adobe bug base.

          N
          NooRotic_x
          Participant
          April 17, 2015

          I am currently seeing the same behavior. My whole department tried to figure out how to install the debugger in Chrome 42. In the meantime developers are using other browsers. I do not think it even attempts to install in Chrome. If you have Chrome open, the installer does not require you to close Chrome.

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