When you think you're right about the name of a package, but you get a Unable to locate package ...
error, you should make sure you have the software source (also called a repository) enabled that provides the package.
For packages provided in official Ubuntu software sources, you can use Ubuntu Packages Search.
Searching for flashplugin-installer
reveals that it is in the multiverse repository.
That makes sense; this repository is for "software that is not free" (Repositories/Ubuntu). Adobe Flash Player is non-free (i.e., proprietary) software.
So, enable the multiverse repository component:
Then you can install flashplugin-installer
by running:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer
Alternatively, you can just use the Software Center to install flashplugin-installer ; it will figure out what repository is needed and let you enable it.
However, I recommend installing it via a different package altogether.
flashplugin-installer
works, but it has a couple of shortcomings:
- It does not directly provide the Flash Plugin; instead, it provides scripts that download them.
- It provides the 32-bit version of Adobe Flash on both 32-bit and 64-bit Ubuntu systems.
There is another package that provides Adobe Flash directly and in either 32-bit or 64-bit architecture: adobe-flashplugin .
You can install it in the Software Center, or you can manually enable the Partner repository (the software source that provides it) and then install it manually.
To enable the Partner repository:
To install adobe-flashplugin
from the command line, once Partner is enabled:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install adobe-flashplugin
Please note that you should not have both flashplugin-installer
/flashplugin-nonfree
and adobe-flashplugin
installed at the same time; if you managed to get both installed, they can conflict.