This post has been updated. Scroll down for a new solution.
If you have tried watching a youtube video on a psubuntu installation you have probably been greeted with the message:
Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe’s Flash Player.
The reason for this is that Ubuntu only includes completely free software, which excludes media formats controlled by patents or license restrictions.
While there is currently no Flash version for the PowerPC architecture, you can try installing the free SWF movie player Gnash and its firefox plugin to watch youtube videos:
sudo apt-get install gnash mozilla-plugin-gnash
Restricted extras
Another way to get Gnash is to install the restricted extras package. ubuntu-restricted-extras gives you a lot of useful functionality, like Java, common fonts and multimedia formats. Install with the command:
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras
Note that there is also xubuntu-restricted-extras (for Xubuntu) and kubuntu-restricted-extras (for Kubuntu).
See this forum thread for more information.
UPDATE:
SwiftBiscuit has posted a tutorial on how to use mplayer instead of gnash for improved youtube video playback. Using the Firefox extension Greasemonkey and this user script, you will be able to improve the quality of video playback on web pages.
Forum thread in PSUbunTutorials
This post is tagged gnash, greasemonkey, mplayer, multimedia

13 Comments
Jan 17th, 2009
Hi there, thanks for posting this.. I’m using ubuntu 8.10 btw
When I download the restricted extras package for ubuntu, I think flash went wrong or got mixed up with something, idk. Everytime I open up a site that has flash like youtube, or hulu, firefox will crash. This is only if I activate the flash by pressing what I think is the gnash play button. Now once I go to that site again, there’s no need to press that gray play button to activate flash, it will just auto crash when something with flash is loaded.
Jan 21st, 2009
HI, if you have problems with gnash in Ubuntu, you maybe try to install adobe flash player with medibuntu repositories. Here
http://elcuervovuelabajo.wordpress.com/2008/08/08/repositorios-de-medibuntu/
you can view “howto” to do it. Sorry for my English, it,s no so good.
Jan 23rd, 2009
thanks for the heads up about this handy little greasemonkey. I got it going on my ps3 and also on my pc, which has never yet played audio under any of the flash players. I could get Firefox to use mplayer for some sites, but never youtube.
Jan 27th, 2009
that sounds great…thanks for the info
Feb 19th, 2009
Many thanks for the great tip, it works great. If there only was a simple way to use mplayer for all flash video content on the web. Then Linux on the PS3 is starting to become a great PC alternative (My PC is in repair, motherboard or processor malfunctions, so that why I´m so existed about using mplayer for every video content).
Gtz The Prodejeff
Apr 7th, 2009
I have been using Xubuntu 9.04 Beta and have been unable to get flash working after following the directions here. Any chance if someone who gets Flash working for YouTube or Hulu could post how they got it to work? Please & many thanks!
Apr 10th, 2009
I’ve created a support case with Adobe, requesting that they release a version of Flash player to support Linux PPC.
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/support/index.cfm?event=casedetail&id=0180871472&loc=en_us
May 22nd, 2009
One can try installing pytube on ubuntu. What pytube does is that it downloads youtube clips and converts them to another file format. It might work unless ffmpeg needs flash to convert flash videos.
Aug 3rd, 2009
Thanks for the help- I now have youtube playing on my PS3 with the greasemonkey deal. Now how can I get Hulu to work.
Anyone? Thoughts?
Aug 19th, 2009
hello. I installed xubuntu on my ps3 and i’m using opera as my default web browser. Is there a way to do this in opera? and is there a way to be able to watch flash outside youtube using this tweak (without using gnash)? i’ve tried to look for some howto’s but i have found none…
thanks
Nov 22nd, 2009
hi im new to ubuntu. all i did was enter this code into terminal:
sudo apt-get install gnash mozilla-plugin-gnash
and then i believe it installed gnash. i tried youtube some videos would work but the ones that work would tend to lag. is that all u have to do, enter the code into the terminal or is there more to do because i wouldn’t know how linux works. is there a step i missed or did not do or was that it.
Jan 10th, 2010
Hello
does anyone have a Flash Player that plays every Flashs like Adobe does no just for YouTube?
Jun 9th, 2010
slm bende ps3 ubunu 9.4 var ama flash java kuramad?m yard?mc? olurmusunuz yazarsan?z sevinirim
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