Browser plugins
There are two types of browser plugins, based on the plugin API they use:
Flash players
Adobe Flash Player
An older standalone version can be installed with the flashplayer-standaloneAUR package. This package predates the hard coded end-of-life clock being inserted in Flash Player and therefore continues to work.
Gnash
Gnash is a free (libre) alternative to Adobe Flash Player. It is available both as a standalone player for desktop computers and embedded devices, as well as a browser plugin, and supports the SWF format up to version 7 (with some features of versions 8 and 9) and about 80% of ActionScript 2.0.
Lightspark
Lightspark is another attempt to provide a free alternative to Adobe Flash aimed at supporting newer Flash formats. Lightspark has the ability to fall back on Gnash for old content, which enables users to install both and enjoy wider coverage. Although it is still very much in development, it supports some popular sites.
Lightspark can be installed with the lightsparkAUR or lightspark-gitAUR package.
Ruffle
Ruffle is a Flash Player emulator written in Rust. It runs natively as a standalone application, and on all modern browsers through the use of WebAssembly. While still being under active development, basic ActionScript 1.0/2.0 support is in place and improving; ActionScript 3.0 support is forthcoming.
Ruffle can be installed with one of the or ruffle-nightly-binAUR packages.
Java (IcedTea)
To enable Java support in your browser, you have two options: the open-source OpenJDK (recommended) or Oracle's proprietary version. For details about why OpenJDK is recommended see .
To use OpenJDK, you have to install the IcedTea browser plugin, .
If you want to use Oracle's JRE, install the jreAUR package.
Multimedia playback
Many browsers support the GStreamer framework to play multimedia inside HTML5 and <video> elements. Check the optional dependencies of the browser package (or of the web engine, e.g. or ) to see if GStreamer is supported. See GStreamer#Installation for the description of each plugin.
For media formats that are not natively supported by your browser (e.g. most browsers do not play files), the following plugins are available:
MozPlugger
MozPlugger is a NPAPI plugin which can show many types of multimedia inside your browser. To accomplish this, it uses external programs such as MPlayer, xine, Evince, OpenOffice, TiMidity, etc.
MozPlugger can be installed with the mozpluggerAUR package.
To modify or add applications to be used by MozPlugger just modify the file. For a more complete list of MozPlugger options see .
PDF viewers
If you want to use MozPlugger with Evince, for example, you have to find the lines containing in the file and modify the corresponding line after GV() as below:
repeat noisy swallow(evince) fill: evince "$file"
(replace with something else if it is not your viewer of choice).
When using Firefox, you may need to change 2 values in :
- Change 's value to true;
- Change 's value to an empty value.
Then restart Firefox to use the plugin.
Use LibreOffice instead of OpenOffice
For example, MozPlugger uses OpenOffice by default to open files. To change it to use LibreOffice instead, look for the OpenOffice section: and add LibreOffice at the beginning of the list:
Open ccp files in Kate
As another simple example, if you want to open files with your favorite text editor (we will use Kate) to get syntax highlighting, just add a new section to your mozpluggerrc file:
Use mpv instead of MPlayer
To change the default of MPlayer so that mpv is used instead, change the appropriate lines such that:
Troubleshooting
Firefox: plugins are installed but not working
A common problem is that the plugin path is unset. This typically occurs on a new install, when the user has not re-logged in before running Firefox after the installation. Test if the path is unset:
$ printenv MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH
If unset, then either re-login, or source and start Firefox from the same shell:
$ source /etc/profile.d/mozilla-common.sh && firefox