Flash 9 (WINE) on FreeBSD, finally

[18Googol2]

A couple of days ago, I attempted to view some photos on Google StreetView but I realised they use Flash instead of SVG like Google Maps. Frustrated, then I came up with the idea of running Opera portable version with Wine.

I was using Opera portable exclusively when I hadnt migrated to the BSD world. Its a complete package; it contains mail, personal settings...and plugins. So I thought, sounds very "Wine friendly" and why dont I give it a try.

Unfortunately, its very slow on Google StreetView (I guess because there are too many Flash "actions" and it slows down the Wine rendering), but for videos, it works!

Experiences videos with Flash 9:

- No audio sync issue.

- Minor lagging (but I do experience the lag on Flash 7, so pretty sure its because of my 1.2Ghz Pen M cpu. It would be very smooth on powerful CPUs).

- No freezing problem, you will feel like running another browser. The wine processes take less than 50% cpu usage

19953 gu            9  96    0   103M 65316K select   1:37 46.73% wine-pthread
29185 root          1 107    0   199M 34948K RUN     88:42 21.53% Xorg
41337 gu            1 105    0   250M   169M select 623:10 17.48% opera
19955 gu            1   4    0  4380K  2628K kqread   0:07  1.07% wineserver

Screenshot

So the verdict is, its very usable.

Ok, so here is the howto

0. Download Opera portable

http://www.opera-usb.com/download.htm

(The version I use is 9.27. If you downloaded 9.5 and it doesnt work, try the older one)

1. Install Wine, of course

2. Lauch Opera with wine

Note: the file to run is Op.com, not operausb.exe

%wine /opera/path/Op.com

3. Check plugin path by enter the following line into the address box:

opera:config#UserPrefs|PluginPath

Should be "program/plugins" dir

4. Copy the 2 Flash 9 files into the plugin directory:

NPSWF32.dll
flashplayer.xpt

They can be extracted from another Windows machine or you can download here:

http://asternix.org/misc/Flash9.zip

5. That is. Restart Opera and enjoy!

[mousesack]

This should be a sticky (imho), as this could be easiest method to date. brilliant method for the migrating people.

I would still use firefox 2 under wine for that purpose, as I'm more experienced with it.
But that has proven to be the not so stable method, at least for me.
Must try this one day!

[Weaseal]

This method should work with Firefox as well, iirc.
Now we just need wine working in FreeBSD/amd64

[lumiwa]

Originally Posted by Weaseal

This method should work with Firefox as well, iirc.
Now we just need wine working in FreeBSD/amd64

IMO, we need native Flash 9...

[vermaden]

Originally Posted by lumiwa

IMO, we need native Flash 9...

Tell that adobe ...

[Carpetsmoker]

What is so special, new, and different about this? The Windows version of Firefox, IE6, and Opera have worked with Wine for a very long time ...

btw.
This ``portable'' version of Opera (Whatever that may be) doesn't work ... All UI elements are black, I only see the webpage ...

[TerryP]

Same dang route that PC-BSD has taken.... But without the ease installer.


To bad the FreeBSD community lacks a man of Bill Gates wealth, that could pay for a native port!

[18Googol2]

Have been visitting ~20 flash sites, except Google StreetView, they all work fine

I've never been a Flash's advocate though. Flash itself is evil and it should be replaced shortly

[ivanatora]

Nice.
I want to keep my Opera settings and bookmarks. Will it be enough just to do:
cp -r ~/.opera opera951en/profile

How can I enable the scroll click to paste? Currently it tries to scroll the page (windows style).

[vermaden]

Originally Posted by ivanatora

I want to keep my Opera settings and bookmarks. Will it be enough just to do:
cp -r ~/.opera opera951en/profile

Yes, also exclude these dirs from backup they just take extra space and do not add anything to you profile:

~/.opera/opcache
~/.opera/images
~/.opera/vps
~/.opera/cache4

Originally Posted by ivanatora

How can I enable the scroll click to paste? Currently it tries to scroll the page (windows style).

You cant, WINE implements windows API and in windows version of opera middle click is scroll.

[18Googol2]

Originally Posted by ivanatora

Nice.
I want to keep my Opera settings and bookmarks. Will it be enough just to do:
cp -r ~/.opera opera951en/profile

How can I enable the scroll click to paste? Currently it tries to scroll the page (windows style).

Yes. Opera setting files are pretty much identical across flatforms. In fact, all the Opera settings in my FreeBSD atm were inherited from Windows Opera version last year. Just remember to make a backup, just in case

Vermanden is right about the scrolling feature

[Carpetsmoker]

You will probably need to edit some paths in opera6.ini.

[vermaden]

I just moved ~/.opera between BSDs, Mac OS X and Linux, so they are all very similar, I did not tried win <-> nix migration.

[Carpetsmoker]

When migrating from Win to Unix (or vica versa) you'll need to edit some paths in opera6.ini, i.e.:

[~]% grep "\.opera" ~/.opera/opera6.ini                                                                     phong:17:56
Windows Storage File=/home/carpetsmoker/.opera-devel/sessions/aaa.win
Button Set=/home/carpetsmoker/.opera/skin/opera_9_classic_skin-2.zip
Toolbar Configuration=/home/carpetsmoker/.opera/toolbar/standard_toolbar_2.ini
User JavaScript File=/usr/home/carpetsmoker/.opera/userjs/

[ivanatora]

So the ONLY way to use the clipboard with Wine (and optionaly the rest of the system) is ctrl+c and ctrl+v?

[vermaden]

Originally Posted by ivanatora

So the ONLY way to use the clipboard with Wine (and optionaly the rest of the system) is ctrl+c and ctrl+v?

If you find other way then let me know

[BSDfan666]

http://www.la-sorciere.de/Wine-HOWTO/wineclipboard.html Is this relevant?

[18Googol2]

The StreetView issue is now finally solved with Google Earth, phew

http://asternix.org/img/Streetview_on_FreeBSD.png

Sweet!

[tuck]

Some cool news for FreeBSD
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=517

[Weaseal]

Originally Posted by tuck

Some cool news for FreeBSD
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=517

Woah, that is cool. I'd like to see some kind of followup.