[osflash] Flex Builder 2.01 under Linux, including debugging

[Darron J. Schall]

David Rorex wrote:
> I've posted a very brief tutorial on how to get Flex Builder 2.01 
> running natively under Linux (no Wine or VMWare needed).

I've actually been using this configuration since 2/13 of this year, 
when I first discovered the initial post by Feiy on his weblog.  That 
initial version stopped working for me shortly thereafter, saying that 
the trial version had expired and I had to enter a registration code.  I 
tried both my windows and mac version, and it didn't like either format.

When Feiy released the "v1.2" update on March 8th, that's when I made 
the switch to Linux full time.  I was able to use my Windows 
registration code to get FB working on my laptop, so it functioned 
without issue.  I still dual boot, but I find myself using my openSUSE 
10.2 partition about 99% of the time.  The only time I use windows is 
when I have to VPN to one of my clients (and I couldn't get freeswan 
working on Linux to connect to their servers.. version issue I think... 
but that's another story)

There are only a couple of issues that I have:

 * Eclipse seems to need a lot more memory on Linux.  I have 2 GB ram in 
my laptop, but kept getting out of memory errors.  Changing the 
eclipse.ini to use between 512 and 1024 seemed to really help.  It never 
crashed now.
 * Every time I close Konquerer, I get a crash dialog.  Not sure if 
that's the Flash Player itself, or nspluginwrapper (I run 64 bit).. but 
it's mildly annoying.  The crash doesn't happen with 32-bit Firefox, so 
I guess it's nspluginwrapper.
 * When I debug in Firefox, every once in a while it fails to launch.  I 
have to kill firefox, open an empty window, then debug to get it to work.
 * Every once in a while the Flash Player crashes.  This happens 
probably at least once a day for me, but it's sporadic.  The same .swf 
will work 5 times, then (without modification) will crash the next time 
it's opened.  Again though, I don't know if this is just Flash Player, 
or nspluginwrapper, or maybe something else going on..
 * I'm not 100% sure this is legal.

In regards to the last point...  I had originally tried to get FB 
running on Linux on my own by copy the plugins and features from my 
/windows/C drive in Linux.  When I started Eclipse, I could see all of 
the menu options and wizards were there, but trying to do anything game 
me a class not found internal error.  So, something was up with the 
class loader.  I stopped at that point and didn't press further...

...which leads me to believe the Feiy had to decompile the FB packages, 
fix a few things, and then recompile them into a Linux-friendly 
distribution.  I'm pretty sure that that is a violation of the FB 
license terms, but I'm not a lawyer and I'm not that familiar with it.

I had a conversation with Adobe about this distribution.  The answer I 
got was "they're aware" of it, but didn't have an official stance yet.  
In my eyes, as long as it works on Linux and requires a valid 
registration code to run, then I think it's safe to use... but if I get 
a cease-and-desist order, I'll comply.. as much as I'd hate to go back 
to windows after using XGL for so long.  I absolutly love that I can use 
Linux full time now, and it would be a shame to have to go back.

Anyway, sorry for the book.. just wanted to elaborate a bit more.  This 
is a little bit shaky ground, but it's been *awesome* to be using 
FlexBuilder on Linux.  The debugger works quite well.. and I don't miss 
design view at all.  I'd absolutely *love* to see Adobe offer an 
official version of this.. even if it's not feature complete.  Throw it 
up on labs, or make it a free "express edition"... or, I'd even pay a 
reduced price for the core functionality.  Anything that makes me 
certain this is a legit use-case...

However, my understanding is that it's very difficult to certify 
software for Linux because of the all of the various distibutions, so 
the above might just be wishful thinking.. but I'm not giving up hope yet!

-d