Ubuntu 9.04: No Sound with Flash Videos

Before upgrading to Ubuntu 9.04, you should know that users are reporting that they are unable to hear sound while watching flash video. And it has been reported as a bug on launchpad.

After I upgraded to jaunty jackalope, I tried to watch a video on youtube but there was no audio. When I played an mp3 file I could hear it okay.

I tried to follow a ubuntu geek tutorial to fix the problem but it did not work for me. You have to install about a dozen packages in the synaptic manager and change sound settings.

Possible Solution

1. Uninstall flash through Applications> Add/Remove. I removed Macromedia Flash plugin.

Now you will manually install Flash. The following is based on an article from howtogeek.

2. Download Flash Player directly from Adobe’s website. Choose .tar.gz for Linux.

3. After the file downloads, right click it and Extract Here.

4. Open the folder named install_flash_player_10_linux. Go to Edit> Preferences. Under the Behavior tab, select Ask Each Time under the Executuble Text File heading. Then Close.

5. Make sure Firefox is closed and double click on flashplayer-installer. Choose Run in Terminal.

6. Follow the instructions in the terminal window. Installation is complete.

When you go to this flash player page, it should show that the latest version 10,0,22,87 is installed.

Now I can hear audio while playing flash videos. I hope it works for you.

Password Protected Folders

I wanted a folder that requires a password to view its contents so that important documents could be secured and private.

In Ubuntu 8.10, there is a new feature called Encrypted Private Directory which is similar to what I wanted. It creates a new folder called Private under the Home directory. But it’s not very private because the folder is always visible. Accessing the folder is complicated because you have to mount it in the terminal window. If you try to access it through the file browser, you are told “THIS DIRECTORY HAS BEEN UNMOUNTED TO PROTECT YOUR DATA — Run mount.ecryptfs_private to mount again.”

One alternative is Crypt Manager which will encrypt a folder and then require a password to access it. Be sure to read the comments because some people had trouble installing the program and encrypting folders.

I decided to use Crypt Keeper which can be installed from Applications> Add/Remove Programs. After installation, go to Applications> System Tools> Crypt Keeper. A yellow lock will display in your taskbar.

By left clicking the lock icon and choosing New Encrypted Folder you can create a folder that will be password protected. Just be sure to click Forward to move to the next step.

Crypt Keeper does not run at start up. The protected folder is not visible in the file browser until you run Crypt Keeper, select the folder and enter the password.