We have enjoyed watching many of the Amazon Prime videos in the past. Unfortunately, on the last few machines that I have rebuilt, they wouldn’t play. It just said to upgrade the Flash Player. The usual tricks didn’t work.
Update: I found a different but easier solution for Ubuntu 13.10. See this post.
Thanks to Ask Ubuntu and Aaron, I found the solution. In summary, here are the commands that got the job done:
sudo apt-get install hal sudo mkdir /etc/hal/fdi/preprobe sudo mkdir /etc/hal/fdi/information /usr/sbin/hald --daemon=yes --verbose=yes rm -rf ~/.adobe
Here are the steps…
Step 1: Install the hal package
The hal package used to be the only thing needed. Apparently, there are some problems with it now. But first, make sure it is installed.
$ sudo apt-get install hal Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done hal is already the newest version.
This was already complete for me, so I moved on to the next step.
Step 2: Create /etc/hal/fdi/preprobe
This was not there for me:
$ ls /etc/hal/fdi/preprobe ls: cannot access /etc/hal/fdi/preprobe: No such file or directory
So, I created it:
sudo mkdir /etc/hal/fdi/preprobe
Step 3: Create /etc/hal/fdi/information
This was not there for me:
$ ls /etc/hal/fdi/information ls: cannot access /etc/hal/fdi/information: No such file or directory
So, I created it:
sudo mkdir /etc/hal/fdi/information
Step 4: Run hald
$ /usr/sbin/hald --daemon=yes --verbose=yes 14:23:17.521 [I] hald.c:672: hal 0.5.14 14:23:17.521 [I] hald.c:673: using child timeout 250s 14:23:17.521 [I] hald.c:685: Will daemonize 14:23:17.521 [I] hald.c:686: Becoming a daemon
Step 5: Clear Adobe Settings
rm -rf ~/.adobe
Step 6: Troubleshooting Hal
Changing the –daemon option to no allows you to see the output and what is happening. So, I tried this:
skp@pecan:~$ /usr/sbin/hald --daemon=no --verbose=yes 14:32:07.886 [I] hald.c:672: hal 0.5.14 14:32:07.886 [I] hald.c:673: using child timeout 250s 14:32:07.886 [I] hald.c:741: Will not daemonize 14:32:07.886 [I] hald_dbus.c:5444: local server is listening at unix:abstract=/var/run/hald/dbus-aHmkd6knGp,guid=3d95eb9c54d8a6d0b23e4ada51f806a7 14:32:07.889 [I] hald_runner.c:304: Runner has pid 15975 Runner started - allowed paths are '/usr/lib/hal:/usr/lib/hal/scripts:/usr/bin' 14:32:07.891 [I] hald_runner.c:184: runner connection is 0xafa7c0 14:32:07.892 [D] util_helper.c:126: drop_privileges: could not set group id
As best I can tell, I need root privileges. So, I added “sudo” in front. That showed me my problem:
skp@pecan:~$ sudo /usr/sbin/hald --daemon=no --verbose=yes 14:36:12.344 [I] hald.c:672: hal 0.5.14 14:36:12.344 [I] hald.c:673: using child timeout 250s 14:36:12.344 [I] hald.c:741: Will not daemonize 14:36:12.346 [I] hald_dbus.c:5444: local server is listening at unix:abstract=/var/run/hald/dbus-eQO1H1Gio7,guid=ee92bf0106a3b3a35926075951f8079c 14:36:12.349 [I] hald_runner.c:304: Runner has pid 16091 Runner started - allowed paths are '/usr/lib/hal:/usr/lib/hal/scripts:/usr/bin' 14:36:12.351 [I] hald_runner.c:184: runner connection is 0x1f2a700 ** (process:16090): WARNING **: Failed to add monitor on '/etc/hal/fdi/preprobe': No such file or directory 14:36:12.356 [I] mmap_cache.c:126: Regenerating fdi cache.. Run started hald-generate-fdi-cache (60000) (0) ! full path is '/usr/lib/hal/hald-generate-fdi-cache', program_dir is '/usr/lib/hal' 14:36:12.388 [E] create_cache.c:551: Cannot scan '/etc/hal/fdi/preprobe': No such file or directory 14:36:12.388 [E] create_cache.c:709: Error generating fdi cache pid 16093: rc=1 signaled=0: /usr/lib/hal/hald-generate-fdi-cache 14:36:12.389 [I] mmap_cache.c:104: In regen_cache_cb exit_type=0, return_code=1 14:36:12.389 [E] mmap_cache.c:153: fdi cache regeneration failed! 14:36:12.389 [I] mmap_cache.c:156: fdi cache generation done 14:36:12.389 [I] mmap_cache.c:278: cache mtime is 1375208541 *** [DIE] mmap_cache.c:di_rules_init():70 : Unable to open cache /var/cache/hald/fdi-cache
Something had happened where I didn’t run the mkdir command that I thought I had or the directory was deleted. Once I created the /etc/hal/fdi/preprobe, it worked.
Resources
Ask Ubuntu: Is there a work around to get protected Hulu or Amazon Prime instant videos working?
Worked on my Linux Mint 15 Cinnamon with Firefox 24.0. Thanks!
Just an FYI, the hal package is not available using the standard repositories in Mint 16. I found that using this zombie hal will work: https://launchpad.net/~mjblenner/+archive/ppa-hal