Installing Adobe Flex on Ubuntu
Well its been a while but i have been XTra busy finishing off the ATW application for the folks over at Justfares, but i guess my side of developing the application is about finished, not it is up to them to do what they want with the elements that surround the actual app.
Well i decided to install flex on Ubuntu and give it a chance, and it wasn’t as hard as i imagined. It basically used the main components that are readily available and fairly common. These are:
- Adobe Flex SDK.
- The Java Runtime Environment.
1.
So to begin i installed the JRE by firing up the terminal and entering :
$ sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts
And sitting through the install.
2.
When that was done i then installed the Adobe Flex SDK. by scrolling down to the section entitled "Free Flex 2 SDK and Japanese Language Pack". Keep in mind you have to register to download the product which is no big deal.
3.
When that was done unpacked the .zip file graphically, by clicking and extracting it to the desktop. Then i moved the folder to somewhere more practical for me, which is the web Dev folder. Now keep in mind that the applications that are packaged in the samples, are in simple HTML files so they can be run and viewed basically anywhere.
4.
At this point i opened the folder and navigated to /home/timani/web_dev/flex/samples
To get to the directory where the sample files that came with the .zip where. Right-clicked the file called “build-samples.sh” and selected to open the file, and at the prompt which appeared. I selected “Run in Terminal.” and the output looked something like this
processing ./explorer/build.sh
Loading configuration file /home/timani/web_dev/flex/frameworks/flex-config.xml
/home/timani/web_dev/flex/samples/explorer/explorer.swf (294050 bytes)
building containers/AccordionExample.mxml
Loading configuration file /home/timani/web_dev/flex/frameworks/flex-config.xml
/home/timani/web_dev/flex/samples/explorer/containers/AccordionExample.swf (141880 bytes)
building containers/DividedBoxExample.mxml…
5.
Once done the rest is fairly simple. Navigate to the desired sample application, and double click the file and viola it appears in your browser. Pretty neat!!!
However there is the issue of how do i develop flex applications???? And that is where my favorite IDE Aptana comes in 
10 Responses to “Installing Adobe Flex on Ubuntu”
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Great article on how to install Flex, thanks! I work on the Flex team - please email me your address and I’ll send you a Flex book and some Flex posters.
Thanks!
Mike
By the way, you can install the Flex SDK without having to sign in to Adobe:
http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/downloads/
Mike
I did exactly what you suggested….on right-clicking the file build-samples.sh , i don”t get the option of “Run in terminal”.So I opened it with terminal.This is what I got:
root@ayush-laptop:/home/ayush/flex_sdk/samples# sh build-samples.sh
processing ./explorer/build.sh
exec: 9: ./build.sh: Permission denied
processing ./flexstore/build.sh
exec: 9: ./build.sh: Permission denied
processing ./hybridstore/build.sh
exec: 9: ./build.sh: Permission denied
processing ./photoviewer/build.sh
exec: 9: ./build.sh: Permission denied
processing ./restaurant/build.sh
exec: 9: ./build.sh: Permission denied
what now?
I tried running it on the terminal as the root..Still cant get through.Thanks..
Thanks for your quick response..but you see even though i changed the folder and file settings to read -write-execute..it still says permission denied.When i change the folder and file settings as you said,it doesn’t save the changed settings once i close the properties window for some unknown reason.
When i tried doing it through the Terminal,it said:
root@ayush-laptop:/home/ayush# chmod 777 flex_sdk
root@ayush-laptop:/home/ayush# cd flex_sdk
root@ayush-laptop:/home/ayush/flex_sdk# chmod 777 samples
root@ayush-laptop:/home/ayush/flex_sdk# ls -la
total 144
drwxrwxrwx 9 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 .
drwxrwxrwx 47 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-25 16:49 ..
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ayush ayush 17156 2007-02-06 18:34 additional-legal-notices.htm
drwxrwxrwx 4 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 asdoc
drwxrwxrwx 2 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 bin
drwxrwxrwx 6 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 frameworks
drwxrwxrwx 2 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 lib
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ayush ayush 53345 2007-02-06 18:35 license.htm
drwxrwxrwx 3 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 player
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ayush ayush 9476 2007-03-05 09:32 readme_hotfix1_159086.htm
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ayush ayush 13922 2007-02-06 18:34 readme.htm
drwxrwxrwx 3 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 resources
drwxrwxrwx 7 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 21:23 samples
root@ayush-laptop:/home/ayush/flex_sdk# cd samples
root@ayush-laptop:/home/ayush/flex_sdk/samples# ls -la
total 48
drwxrwxrwx 7 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 21:23 .
drwxrwxrwx 9 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 ..
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ayush ayush 128 2007-02-06 18:34 build-samples.bat
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ayush ayush 319 2007-08-24 21:23 build-samples.sh
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ayush ayush 174 2007-02-06 18:35 build-samples.sh~
drwxrwxrwx 10 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 explorer
drwxrwxrwx 6 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 flexstore
drwxrwxrwx 4 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 hybridstore
drwxrwxrwx 7 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 photoviewer
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ayush ayush 559 2007-02-06 18:34 readme.css
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ayush ayush 290 2007-02-06 18:34 README.txt
drwxrwxrwx 6 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 restaurant
root@ayush-laptop:/home/ayush/flex_sdk/samples# chmod 777 build-samples.sh
root@ayush-laptop:/home/ayush/flex_sdk/samples# ls -la
total 48
drwxrwxrwx 7 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 21:23 .
drwxrwxrwx 9 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 ..
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ayush ayush 128 2007-02-06 18:34 build-samples.bat
-rwxrwxrwx 1 ayush ayush 319 2007-08-24 21:23 build-samples.sh
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ayush ayush 174 2007-02-06 18:35 build-samples.sh~
drwxrwxrwx 10 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 explorer
drwxrwxrwx 6 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 flexstore
drwxrwxrwx 4 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 hybridstore
drwxrwxrwx 7 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 photoviewer
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ayush ayush 559 2007-02-06 18:34 readme.css
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ayush ayush 290 2007-02-06 18:34 README.txt
drwxrwxrwx 6 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 restaurant
root@ayush-laptop:/home/ayush/flex_sdk/samples# chmod 777 build-samples.sh~
root@ayush-laptop:/home/ayush/flex_sdk/samples# ls -la
total 48
drwxrwxrwx 7 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 21:23 .
drwxrwxrwx 9 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 ..
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ayush ayush 128 2007-02-06 18:34 build-samples.bat
-rwxrwxrwx 1 ayush ayush 319 2007-08-24 21:23 build-samples.sh
-rwxrwxrwx 1 ayush ayush 174 2007-02-06 18:35 build-samples.sh~
drwxrwxrwx 10 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 explorer
drwxrwxrwx 6 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 flexstore
drwxrwxrwx 4 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 hybridstore
drwxrwxrwx 7 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 photoviewer
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ayush ayush 559 2007-02-06 18:34 readme.css
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ayush ayush 290 2007-02-06 18:34 README.txt
drwxrwxrwx 6 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 restaurant
root@ayush-laptop:/home/ayush/flex_sdk/samples# sh build-samples.sh
processing ./explorer/build.sh
exec: 16: ./build.sh: Permission denied
processing ./flexstore/build.sh
exec: 16: ./build.sh: Permission denied
processing ./hybridstore/build.sh
exec: 16: ./build.sh: Permission denied
processing ./photoviewer/build.sh
exec: 16: ./build.sh: Permission denied
processing ./restaurant/build.sh
exec: 16: ./build.sh: Permission denied
root@ayush-laptop:/home/ayush/flex_sdk/samples#
It still din work…Any suggestions?Thanks
Oh, and by the way, I just realized,for some arcane reason,the file settings for builder-samples.sh continue to be the same:
root@ayush-laptop:/home/ayush/flex_sdk/samples# ls -la
total 48
drwxrwxrwx 7 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 21:23 .
drwxrwxrwx 9 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 ..
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ayush ayush 128 2007-02-06 18:34 build-samples.bat
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ayush ayush 319 2007-08-24 21:23 build-samples.sh
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ayush ayush 174 2007-02-06 18:35 build-samples.sh~
drwxrwxrwx 10 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 explorer
drwxrwxrwx 6 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 flexstore
drwxrwxrwx 4 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 hybridstore
drwxrwxrwx 7 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 photoviewer
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ayush ayush 559 2007-02-06 18:34 readme.css
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ayush ayush 290 2007-02-06 18:34 README.txt
drwxrwxrwx 6 ayush ayush 4096 2007-08-24 20:51 restaurant
root@ayush-laptop:/home/ayush/flex_sdk/samples#
So the problem narrows down to saving the permission settings..
Hey ! i finally did :
chmod 777 -R flex_sdk
and it worked!!!
Thanks dude!
Cheers (”,)
Just a quick note, as i was chatting with Ne-Yawn we emailed each other and noted the permission issue. For some reason the GUI method of updating folder permisions wasnt working, in the end
chmod 777 -R (folder_name)
from the terminal did the trick, to apply the changes recursively. Make sure you have permision to execute the command.
Just keep that in mind
[…] flex thing. I had personally been using Flex 2 on Linux platform for sometime, (before a certain timani tunduwani from the US replied to one of my emails telling me the immense beauty of Flex in Windows though he […]
Thanks. I’d been having issues with this.
Thank you for sharing!