Flash Player 10 on Linux

Question

Hi all,
I've got a strange problem on Linux (Ubuntu 8 running in
VMware): I've got a quite complex Flex application running in FP
10.0.12.36 where (in both Opera and Firefox)
- the "Settings" link in the FP context menu is greyed out
- the Settings popup does not appear when the Flex app tries
to save more data in a SharedObject than currently allowed for this
domain
- the Settings popup window does not appear when deliberately
triggered (via Security.showSettings)
With another simple Flex test application running in the same
OS as the same user in the same browsers, all these problems don't
appear. The only difference which I can see at the moment (apart
from the complexity of the application which of course shouldn't
play a role) is that the complex application is compiled from an
Ant task whereas the simple app is created and compiled inside Flex
builder.
I did not deliberately set anything in the Ant task which
could avoid the "settings" issue to work properly. In the Flex
compiler options I also can't see anything related to these
settings.
Does anyone have had a similar problem? Any clues or
suggestions?
btw: here is the Ant task:
<target name="compile_annex_flex_files"
depends="checkFlexHome">
<echo>Compile: start</echo>
<echo>FLEX_HOME: ${FLEX_HOME}</echo>
<mxmlc file="${ANNEX_SOURCES_DIR}/AnnexInterface.mxml"
output="${ANNEX_OUTPUT_DIR}/AnnexInterface.swf"
locale="en_US" debug="false" use-network="true"
static-rsls="false">
<load-config
filename="${FLEX_HOME}/frameworks/flex-config.xml"/>
<runtime-shared-library-path
path-element="${FLEX_HOME}/frameworks/libs/framework.swc">
<url
rsl-url="${SERVER_PATH}/framework_${FLEX_BUILD}.swz"/>
<url
rsl-url="${SERVER_PATH}/framework_${FLEX_BUILD}.swf"/>
</runtime-shared-library-path>
<compiler.source-path path-element="src"/>
<compiler.library-path dir="${basedir}" append="true">
<include name="lib/scrollbar.swc"/>
</compiler.library-path>
</mxmlc>
<echo>Compile: end</echo>
</target>
Thanks,
Thomas

Answer 1

Just in case anyone wants to know the solution (took me a
couple of hours of tedious nitty-gritty testing): the problem was
caused by using wmode = transparent for the Flex app while using
the Quicktime player in a different div on a higher layer (i.e.
here z-index = 3).
Please note that the problem did not appear on Windows and
Mac computers, only on Linux.
If I didn't use wmode = transparent then there were problems
with the Quicktime player which would disappear after a second or
so behind the Flex app (briefly showing the first image of the
selected video).
So, if you're running into the same problem and you have to
cater for Linux, there are in my opinion two options:
1. use Quicktime (e.g. if you have to) and set wmode =
transparent. Then the "Settings"-related things won't work in Linux
but if you have an application where the involvement of the media
player is crucial, you won't be able to use QT anyway in Linux.
There seem to be a couple of ways to get QT behaviour running in
Linux (using mplayer or totem) but from my own and colleagues'
testing this works on some Linux machines, on others it just won't
(don't ask me why). So this is probably not an avenue to go down if
you have to deal with a "unknown" target audience.
2. use a Flash/Flex-based media player and omit the wmode =
transparent setting. This sounds easy and straightforward but there
may be reasons beyond your reach (legacy support for QT, no flash
streaming server available, ...)
Here are the corresponding snippets from the embedding HTML
page:
AC_FL_RunContent(
"src", "${swf}",
"wmode", "transparent",
} else { // flash is too old or we can't detect the plugin
// -->
</script>
<div id="quicktime" style="display:block;
position:absolute; left:192; top:96; z-index:3;">
<!-- the Quicktime player will be dynamically loaded into
this div by JavaScript -->
</div>