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Edit: This is for Gutsy only
I just spent a few hours combing the community documentation and the Ubuntu Forums looking for the best resource for installing Flash on 64-bit systems. Wow, I was mesmarized by all of the information to do such an easy task.

If you are using a 64-bit system, you do not have to:

1. install a 32-bit edition of Firefox
2. download the Adobe Flash Player from their website
3. don’t have to mess with Pango
4. and a whole slew of others…

I was successful using the following commands in order to get not only get Flash to work with Firefox on a 64-bit system, but also Konqueror. Granted, Konqueror and Flash aren’t best of friends right now with Gutsy, and either is OpenOffice.org with Kubuntu Gutsy. Anyways, here is exactly how I did it, and I would like you all to give it a shot and let me know if it works for you. I am doing this all command line, so bear with me.

First, install flashplugin-nonfree from the repos:

sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

Second, wrap the flashplugin-nonfree with nspluginwrapper:

nspluginwrapper -i /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so

Third, create a link from the new file located in your home directory to the Firefox plugins directory:

sudo ln -s ~/.mozilla/plugins/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/libflashplayer.so

If you are using Firefox, you are good to go. Those of you using Konqueror just have to go into the plugin settings in the Konqueror configuration and scan for new plugins. It should be there and working. If you have issues with this, could you please let me know. Thanks. And if you are using Kubuntu Gutsy, I know that Konqueror locks up when going to websites with flash animation or movies embedded. Thanks everyone.

Yes, this is a howto on how you should post your Ubuntu related howto. We can all agree howtos are great, however posting them to a blog that not everyone may read, or at least they may not read it today or this year. That is why the great people within the Ubuntu Documentation Project suggest that you should post it to the Community Documentation Wiki. In order to do so, you must first create an account on Launchpad. Once you have created your account, you are ready to begin editing the wiki pages as well as creating new wiki pages. And just in case you aren’t sure about editing a wiki page, you can always send your text that you would like added to ubuntu-doc (AT) lists.ubuntu.com.

Now time for some howto howto

Planning

• Make sure your howto isn’t already on the wiki. If it is, think about how you may better what is already there by clarifying and cleaning up the processes
• Plan on who you are writing this content for: Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced
• Plan on your content
• Plan on your content layout

Writing

• Write your content in English first if at all possible. If not possible, see about getting it translated to English first.
• Make sure you content is understandable, prior to posting, test your howto by following the exact steps you have created. Have others help test it if needed.
• Add a section at the bottom for feedback, or start a thread in the Ubuntu Forums and link to it for feedback. Remember, what may work for you may not work for others.

Editing and Creating Wiki Pages

• First thing to do is consider a name for your howto using CamelCase or a Wiki name.
• Do not use Howto in the title
• Once you have the name, type it as http://help.ubuntu.com/community/YourHowtoName
• Use wiki formatting and try to follow and utilize the Wiki Guide at all times
• If you need help with editing wiki pages, refer to the Help Contents Wiki Page

If you have any questions or comments about editing the wiki pages, please do not hesitate to contact the Ubuntu Documentation Project by the email provided above. Also for good measure, it might be a good idea to subscribe to the Documentation mailing list. You can also catch most of us on IRC in #ubuntu-doc on the Freenode server (chat.freenode.net).

And finally, once you have it posted, feel free to blog about your new creation and link to it here so everyone may enjoy it that is reading today. Thank you for your cooperation and we look forward to the many great howtos you all have brewing inside of you.

Until next time…

Well, I gave my little talk today for the Ubuntu Open Week on the Ubuntu Documentation Project. The talk actually went quite quick, just under 30 minutes. However, even though I had a 1 hour time slot, it was still filled with some really great questions from Monika, Samgee, and Ryanaka. To see my little talk that I wrote up as well as the questions asked, take a look at the wiki page. The log file will not be much different than that, except for a couple of Addons I did. I am sure those will be posted shortly and accessable via the Open Week wiki page. Thanks to everyone who participated! Tomorrow I will be giving another talk on Creating a LoCo Team for those who are interested. Check out Open Week page for more information.

Yet Another Open Week Post…

Tomorrow, Friday, April 27^th, I will be giving a talk for the Ubuntu Open Week on the Ubuntu Documentation Project. On Saturday, April 28^th, I will be giving another talk on Creating an Ubuntu Local Community Team. Now prior to, in between, and after my talks there are many other amazing talks. Check out https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek for more information on the talks. If you see a talk that you missed, don’t worry, they are publishing the logs and I heard they are going to extend some of the talks into next week for a second go round. I look forward to seeing you all there.

Here is what you do to come see the talks (via IRC):

• Server: chat.freenode.net
• Port: 8001
• Channel: #ubuntu-classroom (note that #ubuntu-classroom-chat will be open for you to ask your questions during the talks.

Yes, we are beating the hell out of this topic. Why? Because we are looking for Ubuntu enthusiasts who are either:

1. Apart of a Local Community Team (LoCo)
2. Looking to join a LoCo
3. Possibly interested in starting a LoCo

No matter your status we do in fact want and need your help. We are working on documenting everything, and we mean everything, about LoCo teams. Do you have questions you want answered? Well we want our documentation to answer them for you, so bring your questions! Want to know what all is involved in setting up, running, and maintaining a LoCo? Well our documentation should be able to answer those questions for you. No matter the topic, the question, or anything else you can think up, we want and need it in our LoCo documentation.

So what we, the Ubuntu LoCo Community, have done is created the Ubuntu LoCo Docs Day. What is it you might ask? It is a full day, 24 hours or more if you can stay awake that long, of documenting everything and anything LoCo. The better the LoCo documentation the easier it is for new enthusiasts to get involved in this wonderful Ubuntu community.

So when is it? I knew you were going to ask that. How does March 3rd suit you? Yes, no matter where at in the world you are at, March 3rd from 00:01 all the way unti 23:59 of that day is LoCo Doc Day.

So where is it? Worldwide dude! No really, everywhere in the world it is LoCo Doc Day on March 3rd, so no matter where you are at, that’s where it is OK, really it is in #ubuntu-locoteams on IRC. How do I connect to IRC? Wow, you are just loaded with questions today aren’t you? You have your options, but since you are asking, here are the easy ones. X-Chat and Gaim for you GNOME/Ubuntu users and Konversation for you super-smart KDE/Kubuntu users (/me waits for the flames). You will want to set your respective client to connect to chat.freenode.net and use port 8001 just to be secure. Don’t worry, we aren’t a bunch of silly hackers sitting in a channel waiting for you to connect so we can grab your IP and create world havoc. OK, well not all of us, just Joey and Melissa. Once you have connected to the server, most clients will respect you typing /join #ubuntu-locoteams and then pressing enter.

CALLING ALL TRANSLATORS!!! We definitely want and need you big time for this event. Not only do we want English documentation, but we also want documentation for your language. Why? Well not everyone is down with this English thing. I was raised all my life in the United States and I still suck at English. Anyways, it is easier for prospective members in your locales to read their native language. So if you can take English and convert it to <insert your language here> then you are a must

https://help.ubuntu.com & https://help.ubuntu.com/community are two more locations for instant support gratification. This is in response to Michael Stemle, Jr.’s post.

https://help.ubuntu.com is the system documentation that is already installed on your Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu and/or Xubuntu system.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community is yet another wiki, this time for the entire community to contribute their documentation to. So if you want to let the world know how you got something specific setup, head on over there and setup a wiki page.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com is more or less the staging area for Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, and Xubuntu development. You will notice a lot of things specific to development, artwork, specifications and such.

No matter if you work on the Community Wiki or the Development/Staging Wiki, there is a Styling Guide to follow. If Wiki hacking is your thing, you might be interested in the Ubuntu Wiki Team. They are a part of the Ubuntu Documentation Project and communicate on the ubuntu-docs mailing list and on IRC in #ubuntu-doc.

NOW! Calling all documentors! We need your help with content in the Edubuntu Handbook as well as the new Kubuntu System Documentation. The Doc Team utilizes DocBook XML however if plain text works for you, it works for me. You can always send the text files directly to me and after a quick run through I will manually put them to DocBook files. We work from a Subversion Repository so there are only a select group of individuals who can commit,  however anyone can check out, edit, and submit patches to ubuntu-docs(at)lists.ubuntu.com.

If anyone is interested in helping out, try and stop by #ubuntu-doc on IRC (chat.freenode.net | port 8001). Thanks everyone!