Flash Beta 3 and Firefox 3.6 via Launcher Downloads Menu

[JimWiley]

Please read first

Flash Beta 3 is experimental. It may crash Boxee and lock your ATV in some instances. Do not install it if you are not prepared to suffer these consequences. If Boxee does freeze DO NOT pull the power plug - this is a great way to corrupt system files if you have you root system mounted rw. So what should you do? For future reference if Boxee won't respond, then ssh in and run:

ps -awxx

take note of the pid number (left hand column) and run

kill -9 {pid}

this will get you back to the UI without possibly damaging any system files... If you are not sure about messing around with your ATV, then don't! That's solid advice. We're at the stage where things are still being tested and worked out by people who are not afraid of the possibility of nuking their system (that possibility increases dramatically if you have no idea what you are doing and are only blindly entering in commands you've never seen before!)

Anyway, if you accept that then read on:


UPDATE: Now added Flash 10.1 Beta 3 below. Apparently, preliminary reports from Users are suggesting performance of Flash Beta 3 is not greatly improved over Beta 2, however not enough people have tried it out yet across enough sources... so who knows, there may be other factors that are affecting performance on these Users systems?

This has got a bit buried in the "Beta on ATV" thread, so I thought I'd make a fresh post so that people can get the info. This is new, I have tested it to make sure that it works, but perhaps it won't work for everyone? So I'm looking for testers!

Note: you can find your existing Flash version by issuing:

less /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/Flash\ Player.plugin/Contents/Info.plist | grep 10.

or if you have run a newer flash installer, or a newer version of the Boxee installer you might have to try:

less /Users/frontrow/Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/Flash\ Player.plugin/Contents/Info.plist | grep 10.

You'll work it out!

For Advanced Users and Testers Only:

You want to try out a different version of Flash? Maybe move from 10.0 Final to 10.1 Beta 3 and back again? Well now you can:

To add Flash Installer to Menu:

To add Flash 10.1 Beta 3 Installer to Launcher Downloads window, issue:

defaults write com.teamxbmc.xbmclauncher XBMCAdditionalDownloadPlistURLs -array-add http://atv-xbmc-launcher.googlecode.com/svn/tags/ul-info/additional-plists/Flash10.1Beta3update_URLS.plist

and then add Flash 10.0 Final Installer by issuing:

defaults write com.teamxbmc.xbmclauncher XBMCAdditionalDownloadPlistURLs -array-add http://atv-xbmc-launcher.googlecode.com/svn/tags/ul-info/additional-plists/Flash10.0FinalUpdate_URLS.plist

Clicking on a flash download removes your current version and installs the version selected. If you are a real tester - you know who you are! - then perhaps you will test out various sources with each flash rev so that we can draw up a definitive list of what sites work best with which Rev. Then we'll be getting somewhere!

To add Firefox 3.6 to menu:

Please note this one only works with Launcher 3.2.4, so update Launcher first if you are on an older version....

defaults write com.teamxbmc.xbmclauncher XBMCAdditionalDownloadPlistURLs -array-add http://atv-xbmc-launcher.googlecode.com/svn/tags/ul-info/additional-plists/FireFoxUpdate_URLS.plist

Good luck and good testing!

Jim

[vcosta]

Hi Jim, thanks for pulling this post to this thread.
I have firefox installed on the "NitoTV" menu. It came with the manual Boxee installation I made, it is REALLY convenient to have it as sometimes both computers at home are in use and an extra browser is needed, but in order to pull the application need to go to NitoTV|applications|firefox.app, I know there must be an easier way to bring that link into either the main menu OR to the launcher menu. Somewhere more accessible, can u confirm that's what that piece of code is meant to do ? if not, how to go about it? thanks in advance mate! peace!

[maximusfacq]

For Advanced Users and Testers Only:

You want to try out a different version of Flash? Maybe move from 10.0 Final to 10.1 Beta 2 and back again? Well now you can:

To add Flash Installer to Menu:

To add Flash 10.1 Beta 2 Installer to Launcher Downloads window, issue:

Code:
defaults write com.teamxbmc.xbmclauncher XBMCAdditionalDownloadPlistURLs -array-add http://atv-xbmc-launcher.googlecode...._URLS.plistand then add Flash 10.0 Final Installer by issuing:

Code:
defaults write com.teamxbmc.xbmclauncher XBMCAdditionalDownloadPlistURLs -array-add http://atv-xbmc-launcher.googlecode.....plistClicking on a flash download removes your current version and installs the version selected. If you are a real tester - you know who you are! - then perhaps you will test out various sources with each flash rev so that we can draw up a definitive list of what sites work best with which Rev. Then we'll be getting somewhere!

This didn't work for me. It removed the Beta with no issue, however, when it was done "installing" there was nothing at all for Flash in the Internet\ Plugins folder.

[JimWiley]

This didn't work for me. It removed the Beta with no issue, however, when it was done "installing" there was nothing at all for Flash in the Internet\ Plugins folder.

Except I've designed it to do that: in order to save space on the / partition. This is the way I've had mine set-up from the start (and I do mean start!). You should find it now in ~/Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/

Also, I've altered the boxee.sh that the launcher uses to install Boxee. It now reads the /etc/rc.local for turbo's enabler. If it doesn't find it, then it grabs a copy and inserts it at the top of rc.local and also launches there and then so that the user doesn't need to reboot in order to get the emulation. I'm just waiting for the ok, before I commit the code. And then we will no longer need to tell users they need to install Nito to run Boxee Beta - unless they want all the other goodies that Nito brings, of course!

Jim

[JimWiley]

Hi Jim, thanks for pulling this post to this thread.
I have firefox installed on the "NitoTV" menu. It came with the manual Boxee installation I made, it is REALLY convenient to have it as sometimes both computers at home are in use and an extra browser is needed, but in order to pull the application need to go to NitoTV|applications|firefox.app, I know there must be an easier way to bring that link into either the main menu OR to the launcher menu. Somewhere more accessible, can u confirm that's what that piece of code is meant to do ? if not, how to go about it? thanks in advance mate! peace!

No, Launcher is designer to Launch apps, give them the screen and pass remote control functions along. This is what it does with XBMC/Boxee. If firefox was a fully featured/remote controlled app, then this makes sense. But since it's a bit of a hack job what with needing VNC as well, I don't think the project owners would be happy with adding it to the main Launch screen...

Anyway, if you don't have firefox and want an easy way to install it (which will be everyone who has installed Boxee Beta through the Launcher, which in turn three-six months down the road will probably be the lion's share of users) then you can install it through here and Launch it through Nito.... not ideal, I know, but since the only reason for having Firefox 3.6 in the Launcher Downloads section at all is to allow the Youtube/Hulu/4OD mature content hack to work on your box, well you get the picture....

Here is what I see happening: the Dev team will iron out the remaining SMB issues as a priority since a lot of people have a large media collection on a NAS and use smb to connect to it. I think this is a TOP priority (even though I don't use it personally) since there are a whole host of performance and stability issue wrapped up in it. Then I think they will expand the core functionality of the built-in browser. I think it will get to the stage where it'll be a bit like a cut down Firefox that you can use a remote with (i.e. Clickable items!). Then you will be able to login to Hulu/Youtube directly in the browser thus eliminating the need for Firefox with a Boxee install. Then it will probably be removed from the Launcher as no longer relevant.

Same thing with flash: when Adobe release a 10.1 version that works across all web content, then we will update the Launcher Boxee installer to give everyone that version: then the Flash Installers will also be removed.

So really it's all a stop-gap measures until the Boxee Devs and Adobe release newer versions that address the above-mentioned short-falls. I'm very grateful to the Launcher project owners for allowing me to do this because it's not really what their application's for and they would have been well within their rights to tell me to p!$$ off! They are not even Boxee users, so it makes willingness to help out (or more accurately help me to help out) even more significant...

Hope this clears it up re: Launching apps from Launcher! Of course none of this is set in stone, but the functionality of Launching any app regardless of whether they have a ATV sympathetic to the UI/control method is really very well served by NitoTV....

Jim

[maximusfacq]

After some tinkering last night, I got the Flash Plugin moved to /

It would not work at all in ~/

Not sure why, it just failed. All is well now. I was actually able to play Hulu shows with minor choppiness. It seemed to be a little better than 10.1 b2 was, tbh.

Not sure why it works for you in ~/ and not for me.

[JimWiley]

After some tinkering last night, I got the Flash Plugin moved to /

It would not work at all in ~/

Not sure why, it just failed. All is well now. I was actually able to play Hulu shows with minor choppiness. It seemed to be a little better than 10.1 b2 was, tbh.

Not sure why it works for you in ~/ and not for me.

I'll whack a symlink in there and see if that works.

Actually, I'm at work and can't get at my box. Do you think you could move it back to ~/ and then symlink it to / and test it out?

If it does, I'll put a symlink in the installer, if not then I'll change the install location...

Jim

[hfisher999]

So Jim, I've been following everything you've done and got it to work...so what will I gain here if I add Flash 10.1 and Firefox? I have installed from the Launcher and lots of Apps work great with 10.0? So will Hulu work better if I do whats described in this post?
Update...

I did this! Do you have to launch Firefox each time? I get the Flash stuff and have been switching back and forth to see what works...

Gametraiors for sure only works with the 10.1 version
Thanks

[benphia]

Hello Jim,

First I want to thank you for all the fine work you have done. I wonder if you can also add a Silverlight download to the launcher as well.

Thanks,
Ben

[JimWiley]

So Jim, I've been following everything you've done and got it to work...so what will I gain here if I add Flash 10.1 and Firefox? I have installed from the Launcher and lots of Apps work great with 10.0? So will Hulu work better if I do whats described in this post?
Update...

I did this! Do you have to launch Firefox each time? I get the Flash stuff and have been switching back and forth to see what works...

Gametraiors for sure only works with the 10.1 version
Thanks

This is for testing flash beta versions against existing apps and then reporting back to see what works best for each app. This is not to make the user experience better for the average user in their day-to-day usage. This is more for people who want to do the hard work of testing various sources with various versions of flash.

Jim