Problems playing protected video content | Ubuntu Linux, Flash Player 11

Ubuntu 10.x and 11.x Linux OS users sometimes see a blank or black screen with Flash Player 11 when playing protected video content. (For example, this issue occurs on services such as Amazon Instant Video.) A missing Ubuntu HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) module, which is not installed by default, causes this behavior. If the vendor exposes errors message, users see a DRM error 3323 or 3322.

For Ubuntu 10.04 or later, ensure that the Hardware Abstraction Layer module is first installed using apt-get.
(Watch carefully for “hal” install errors, as a damaged package install can continue to affect video playback.)

sudo apt-get install hal

After the "libhal" (HAL) library install completes, close the browser and clear the Adobe Access directories by executing the following shell commands:

cd ~/.adobe/Flash_Player
rm -rf NativeCache AssetCache APSPrivateData2

Adobe publishes platform support for 32-bit and 64-bit Linux in the system requirements section of the Flash Player 11 site. Currently supported distributions (32 bit and 64 bit) are Redhat Enterprise Linux 5.6 or later and Ubuntu 10.04 or later.

openSuse is also supported.

Navigate to http://www.adobe.com/go/flashplayer to install the latest Flash Player for your platform and architecture.

If unsure which Linux package to install, click Do you have a different Operating System Or Browser? for more OS choices.

Some Linux distributions have their own way of managing packages, notably openSUSE. openSUSE uses RPM as its native package format. However, it has its own high-level tool to manage system software installation. 
.rpm installs on openSuse (32 bit and 64 bit) are temperamental. They sometimes throw the generic error " Message did not receive a reply (timeout by message bus)".

In these cases, download the .tar.gz archive instead and place Flash Player (libflashplayer.so) in this location:

/usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin/libflashplayer.so

1. First, launch the Adobe demo video player container: http://drmtest2.adobe.com:8080/SVP/SampleVideoPlayer_FP.html
   
   Note the Adobe Flash Player version in the lower left of the demo video shell. Make sure that indicate 11.2 or higher
    
2. Play sample protected content.
   
   Enter the following URL in the field "Input the video URL: (case-sensitive)
   http://drmtest2.adobe.com:8080/Content/anonymous.f4v
    
3. Press the [Play] button at the bottom of the video container.

The anonymous.f4v protected content should play. (This video is called the Getty "train" video.)

Adobe Flash Player 11, Flash Access (FAXS), Ubuntu 10.x & 11.x Linux