How to Install Flash CS on Ubuntu

The software has been in development for more than 12 years and just reached beta status in the fall of 2005. But Wine has been in widespread use for quite some time, and it’s included in most distributions, including Ubuntu.

Install Wine

The Wine software included with Ubuntu is frequently at least a step behind the current version, so to run the latest version you’ll want to edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file and add Wine’s own apt repository. You can do so manually, or with the Synaptic Package Manager.

To add the line yourself, open Terminal and enter this command:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

After you furnish your password, the nano editor will open sources.list. Enter this line at the end of the file:

deb http://wine.sourceforge.net/apt binary/

Save the file (press Ctrl-O), then close, open Terminal again and run:

$ sudo apt-get update

This will update the package cache. Now you can install Wine with the command:

sudo apt-get install wine

Configure Wine

The first thing you will want to do with Wine is configure it. You do so by running the Wine configuration utility, winecfg. In Terminal, enter:

winecfg

It’s generally fine to accept the defaults, but you may find it helpful to add a new Windows drive (via the Drives tab) that explicitly maps to your CD-ROM drive. To do so, click the Add button to create a new Windows D drive, and then click Browse to select the path to your CD-ROM (such as /media/cdrom0/). Finally, click the Apply button to finish.

There’s one more thing you should attend to before you begin to install Windows apps, and that is to install Microsoft TrueType fonts (so applications running in Wine can render text correctly) and cabextract, a useful tool for extracting the contents of Microsoft .cab archives. You can install both packages via apt by issuing this command in Terminal:

sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts cabextract

To install Flash 8 or CS3 on Ubuntu is very easy. Flash doesn’t only work on Ubuntu, it actually works faster on Ubuntu than on Windows or Mac! Since the main Flash distribution targets Windows users, you first need to install Wine – an open source Windows compatibility layer. So before installing Flash, let’s first install Wine. To install and configure Wine, read how to Install and Configure Wine on Ubuntu above.

Ok, if you have successfully installed Wine, it’s time to install Flash, if you install Flash from a CD ROM, pop the installation CD for your Windows app in your drive. Open Terminal and type the command wine, followed by the path to the installer.

For example: wine "/media/cdrom0/Adobe Flash 8/flash8-en.exe"

Or if you have downloaded the Flash Windows installation exe somewhere like your desktop, you can also point to that location:

For example: wine "/home/shi/Desktop/Adobe Flash 8/flash8-en.exe"

To launch the application, you will find it under: Applications -> Wine -> Programs -> Macromedia -> Macromedia Flash 8