Amazon Prime Fix Again

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?