Lately, I’ve been wondering how to use Flash Builder on Linux. You know, Adobe is apparently putting Flash Builder (formerly also known as Flex Builder) for Linux on hold. So, if you are a Linux user, you’d better look for alternatives to FB (and certainly, there are a few...) However, I think that FB is the most feature-packed IDE for Flex development. So, how could we use that tool in our beloved system? Well, I managed to install it using Wine 1.1.23 on Ubuntu 9.04. This is the process that I’ve followed.
Download Flash Builder for Windows from Adobe Labs. Before the installation, you will have to configure Wine and install some needed DLL files. To do that, first and foremost, you’ll need to download the winetricks application and make it executable:
$ wget http://www.kegel.com/wine/winetricks
$ chmod a+x ./winetricks
$ ./winetricks
Now, you must select vcrun2005 and vcrun2005sp1 to install the needed dependencies : MS Visual C++ 2005 libraries and the related service pack.
Ok, time to install Flash Builder under wine:
$ wine flashbuilder4_b1_win_060109.exe
After finishing the installation, if you try to execute the application, you’ll get the following error:
«Licensing for this product has stopped working . This product has encountered a problem which requires that you restart your computer before it can be launched»
Restart the computer? on Linux? No way! 🙂 Now comes the tricky part, because you have to copy from a Windows installment some needed files:
a) On Windows, open the regedit tool and export the following branches:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREAdobe –> adobe.reg
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesFLEXnet Licensing Service –> flexnet.reg
b) Back on Linux, import the previously saved registry branches
$ wine regedit
(now import adobe.reg and flexnet.reg files)
Now, mount the windows partition and copy this folders to the related wine folder:
$ cp -R /mnt/windows/Program Files/Common Files/Adobe ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Common Files/
$ copy -R «/mnt/windows/Program Files/Common Files/Macrovision Shared» ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Common Files/
Voilá! After entering the Serial Number or choosing the trial version, you’ll be able to work with Flash Builder on Linux 🙂 Enjoy!
Note: don’t forget to visit the WineHQ AppDB page about Flash Builder, for learning some hacks&tweaks that will allow you to address some annoying issues with code completion and the use of spaces as tabs.
Hold on a sec…! Is it a mirage or DiarioLinux has started a new brand section?! i.e. HowTo Learn English in 2 days!! 😛
Best regards fellow!
Great guide! Thanks for your contribution. I don’t have an HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREAdobe entry in my Windows registry after installing, but I do have HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesFLEXnet Licensing Service. Unfortunately, transferring only this entry doesn’t seem to stop the «licensing error.» Any ideas, or way that I could get a copy of your adobe.reg? (I’m not sure what’s in there, so if it’s in any way sensitive information, don’t worry about it).
Thanks!
An additional note: now that I think about it, it’s probably related to the fact that my Windows installation is 64-bit.
@Timothy: unfortunately I don’t have a 64-bit system to test. Have you tried to search the SoftwareAdobe branch through the registry?
Anyway, here you have
http://files.getdropbox.com/u/284325/hklm_adobe.reg
my adobe.reg copy. Now that I’ve read it thoroughly it seems to me that it only has Acrobat Reader related information, so it’s harmless, and it could be an extra file that certainly is not needed.
I fixed it! As I suspected, it was the result of my Windows installation being 64-bit: Flash Builder being a 32-bit program, it gets installed into «Program Files (x86)» in Windows. Thus, the FLEXnet registry entry pointed to «C:Program Files (x86)Common Files….» and needed to be corrected.
Thank you for uploading your file; I can confirm that it is indeed superfluous and not relevant or necessary to get Flash Builder working. The only steps needed are to copy the Common Files and flexnet.reg to WINE.
One thing I would add to your (excellent) guide: I did need to install comctl32 (in addition to vcrun2005sp1) using winetricks as per the WINE AppDB page; otherwise, the program crashes after the licensing screen.
Thank you again for your contribution to the WINE community! An excellent post.
i have windows 7 running on my virtual box,
and it might be the reason,
i cant get flash-builder-4 to work on ubuntu-9.04
because my :
program_flescommon_files
or
my windows registry are different than your case?
can u come up with any solution also for me ?
🙁
I too was running Windows 7 and it worked for me. Copy the files in Common Files/Adobe and Common Files/Macrovision (as documented) and the registry entries from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesFLEXnet Licensing Service; install vcrun2005sp1 and comctl32 using winetricks.
The only caveat is if your Windows 7 installation is x64; then, you should look under Program Files (x86)/Common Files and you will need to slightly modify the FLEXnet Licensing Service entry.
THE TOP OF MY STUCK:
/home/eyun5/.wine/drive_c/windows/profiles/eyun5/Adobe Flash Builder Beta/.metadata/.log
===============
!SESSION 2009-06-27 13:06:05.568 ———————————————–
eclipse.buildId=unknown
java.version=1.5.0_11
java.vendor=Sun Microsystems Inc.
BootLoader constants: OS=win32, ARCH=x86, WS=win32, NL=en_US
Command-line arguments: -os win32 -ws win32 -arch x86 -clean
!ENTRY org.eclipse.osgi 4 0 2009-06-27 13:06:13.661
!MESSAGE An error occurred while automatically activating bundle com.adobe.flexbuilder.ui (223).
!STACK 0
org.osgi.framework.BundleException: Exception in com.adobe.flexbuilder.ui.UIPlugin.start() of bundle com.adobe.flexbuilder.ui.
at org.eclipse.osgi.framework.internal.core.BundleContextImpl.startActivator(BundleContextImpl.java:1028)
================================================
can someone help me to locate the error ?
thanks..
I’ve got the same problem as brown. 🙁
Anybody experience this and have a fix? 🙂
Thanks
Joe
I’ve followed this guide with no success. First of all, the flash builder installation return the message «could not create java virtual machine», but if I install the sun jre, it don’t works. Any idea?
this is a port version,Port Adobe Flash Builder to Linux:
http://code.google.com/p/fb4linux/
Thanks, very nice post!
Hi
currently i am using Flexbuilder3 IDE .already flex 3 is installed in my system.can i install flash builder 4 also in the same operating system?will it make any problem?whether i need to uninstall my flexbuilder 3?.Please let me know comments.I am using windows 7 as operating system.
Thanks
Ganesh
Nice post!
The FB port for linux on http://code.google.com/p/fb4linux/ works great!
Installation instruction here: http://www.brighthub.com/hubfolio/matthew-casperson/articles/78818.aspx are awesome!