how can I revert to previous version of flash?

The other day I applied updates and broke my ability to watch amazon videos on my computer. I am not alone. See the amazon forum post.

How can I rever to the previous version of Flash?

Here's what I've tried so far. Using

tail -10 /var/log/dpkg.log

I found this line that looks like the culprit on my system:

2013-04-10 16:31:56 status installed flashplugin-installer:amd64 11.2.202.280ubuntu0.12.10.1

At this point, I'm not sure what to do. And I think the issue is complicated by the fact that the package I'm referring to is an installer, not an actual plugin.

2 Answers

Here is the fix:

1. Close running instances of your browser.

2. If you don't already have synaptic package manager installed (it isn't by default) install it. From the terminal type:

   sudo apt-get install synaptic

3. You will also need to install "hal" and "hal-info", unless already installed:

   sudo apt-get install hal hal-info

4. Start Synaptic Package Manager
5. In the top right of the application is a search box. Search for "flashplugin-installer"
6. Highlight the package and press Ctrl + E
7. The "Force version" window should open
8. Pick version 11.2.202.243 instead of the currently installed 11.2.202.280
9. Apply changes by clicking the button that says "Apply" with a check mark under it.
10. With the package still highlighted, select from the top menu: Package->Lock Version
11. Close Synaptic and open a terminal

12. We need to remove old cached versions of the plugin. First type:

     cd ~/.adobe/Flash_Player

13. Next type:

     rm -rf NativeCache AssetCache APSPrivateData2

14. You can now close the terminal and reopen your browser

Thanks to Rob S for the instructions on how to do this. The above instructions are his with only slight modifications. Additionally, the last few instructions are from the Arch Linux Wiki.

I use the adobe-flashplugin package instead of the flashplugin-installer package, so I fixed it a different way; I downloaded the old .deb file for the adobe-flashplugin package and installed it with dpkg:

wget
sudo dpkg -i adobe-flashplugin_11.2.202.275-0precise1_amd64.deb

I'm using 12.04 (precise); you can find the appropriate download urls for other ubuntu releases by following the links here:

One big drawback to doing it like this is that apt-get will refuse to install or update any other packages until you upgrade your adobe-flashplugin package back to the latest version with this command:

sudo apt-get -f upgrade adobe-flashplugin

Hopefully amazon fixes their flash player soon.