HowTo: Fix being unable to click in Flash applications in Ubuntu 64-bit

by HyRax January 10, 2010

Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) has a curious bug on the 64-bit Intel/AMD version whereby on some systems you can play Flash perfectly, but the Flash application does not recognise any mouse clicks in it. This means in sites such as YouTube, you can’t click the mouse to play and pause, or seek in a video – you’re forced to use the keyboard.

This is a known bug with the flashplugin-installer package and is currently being worked on by Canonical. In the meantime, if you wish to fix the problem yourself now rather than wait for the official fix, just follow these instructions…

After you have installed Flash in the usual manner, open a terminal and type in the following:

$ sudo gedit /usr/lib/nspluginwrapper/i386/linux/npviewer
Once the GEdit text editor (or substitute your favourite) opens, insert the following line just before the last line (should appear in most installations as the fourth line out of a total of five lines):

export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1
Save your changes and exit your text editor.
Now restart any applications that use Flash, such as Firefox.
In the case of Firefox, go and visit a page that uses Flash. You should now find that you can now click in Flash without a problem.
Pat yourself on the back. You’re done.