Closed Bug 516166 Opened 15 years ago Closed 7 years ago

Flash version check tells all GNU Gnash users to update Adobe Flash

Categories

(Websites :: plugins.mozilla.org, defect)

defect
Not set
major

Tracking

(Not tracked)

RESOLVED WONTFIX

People

(Reporter: tomasz, Assigned: kev)

References

Details

(Whiteboard: [plugincheck])

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; pl-PL; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090909 Fedora/3.5.3-1.fc11 Firefox/3.5.3 Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; pl-PL; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090909 Fedora/3.5.3-1.fc11 Firefox/3.5.3 I'm using Gnash (http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/) and not Adobe Flash. And yet, Firefox tells me to update to new Adobe Flash player.This is seriously wrong. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Run Firefox with Gnash installed
Version: unspecified → 3.5 Branch
Confirmed. Gnash gets caught as old flash with the current checks. It likes to call itself something like "Shockwave Flash 8.0 r99. Gnash 0.8.2". If we're checking for old Flash an exception needs to be made for Gnash here. If we really want to get fancy, it could even check for specifically what Gnash version is in use and see if that is too old and needs updating itself.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Component: General → www.mozilla.com
Depends on: 512483, upyourplug
Ever confirmed: true
Product: Firefox → Websites
QA Contact: general → www-mozilla-com
Hardware: x86 → All
Version: 3.5 Branch → unspecified
Summary: Firefox tells me to update Adobe Flash when I don't use it. I use Gnash. → Flash version check tells all GNU Gnash users to update Adobe Flash
This probably affects swfdec users as well (haven't tested, I don't use swfdec). A simple fix for gnash would be to check navigator.plugins['Shockwave Flash'].description, and see if it contains the string "Gnash".
This is a bug with Gnash. It shouldn't pose itself as Flash if it's not Flash.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 15 years ago
Resolution: --- → INVALID
(In reply to comment #3) > This is a bug with Gnash. It shouldn't pose itself as Flash if it's not Flash. And every browser in existence reports itself as Mozilla, but that doesn't mean we ignore that fact in user agent detection. It's a Flash substitute so it needs to pretend to be Flash to be used by things that need to detect Flash. They aren't going to change this any time soon and we really shouldn't tell every Linux user with Gnash that they should install latest Adobe Flash.
Yes, was aware of the stuff in comment #4. Reopening if someone wants to patch.
Status: RESOLVED → REOPENED
Resolution: INVALID → ---
(In reply to comment #1) > If we really want to get fancy, it could even check for specifically what Gnash > version is in use and see if that is too old and needs updating itself. Please do not. This is distros area, they should take care of having gnash, swfdec, ... security threats-free. Since they are open source it is not the same as with Adobe Flash Player.
Status: REOPENED → NEW
Whiteboard: [plugincheck]
Component: www.mozilla.com → plugins.mozilla.org
QA Contact: www-mozilla-com → plugins-mozilla-org
Michal: Gnash is not just used on Linux. We should certainly be checking Gnash versions, just as we check Adobe Flash versions and versions of all sorts of other plug-ins. That's what the plugin checker is for :-) Gerv
OS: Linux → All
For the URL http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.6/whatsnew/ mentioned in bug 641140 , the problem is in function flashWarning(). This winds up calling DetectFlashVer() and GetSwfVer(). I think these are minified versions of Adobe's example code to embed flash (but I can't find the "source" for mozilla.com on mxr). The simplest fix is to have GetSwfVer() short-circuit as comment #2 suggests: var flashDescription=navigator.plugins["Shockwave Flash"+swVer2].description; + if (flashDescription.indexOf("Gnash") !== -1) { return -1 }; var descArray=flashDescription.split(" ");
This bug affects me too and I'd really like to see it resolved. I hate seeing a huge notice telling me to install the non-Free flash software with a link to Adobe even though I'm using Free Gnash. Appreciate it's in a grey area regarding responsibility to fix (Mozilla / Gnash). Please mediate and fix it though; this message is very confusing to non-technical users who are quite likely to cause package problems if they try and follow the unnecessary link to Adobe with which they are presented.
This happens like comment 4 said... it's a substitute, so it self identify like Adobe Flash, due to the Flash detection identifiers versions... i guess this could be done creating an additional identifier... this could be done creating a bug in the Gnash bugtrack to create this identifier, this additional identifier will help to mozilla to detect when the people are using SWFdec, LightSpark, Gnash, Adobe or others... IE, an additional field in the plugins, that identify itself as one of the Flash alternative... then if the plugin it's too old, the same flash alternative have another field with the URL of the flash... so Firefox use that field to tell to the user to update to last version in that URL... or if that field who identify the flash alternative doesn't exist, in that case Firefox just tell to the user to update to Adobe Flash, but if that fields exist, so Firefox tell the other alternative... More easy could be to have another option, if the flash plugin crash, just tell: "You need to upgrade to the last version of the flash you use: http://www.gnashdev.org https://github.com/lightspark/lightspark/wiki http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/"
Assignee: nobody → kev
Given state of plugins and plugincheck, resolving wontfix
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 15 years ago7 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.