nspluginwrapper

nspluginwrapper is an Open Source compatibility plugin for Netscape 4 (NPAPI) plugins. That is, it enables you to use plugins on platforms they were not built for. For example, you can use the Adobe Flash plugin on Linux/x86_64, NetBSD and FreeBSD platforms. Another goal of nspluginwrapper is to confine plugins into a specific execution domain, for reliability or security purposes (with SELinux or RSBAC). i.e. a sandbox in Google Chrome terminology.

nspluginwrapper also provides a standalone NPAPI plugins player. That is, a program that allows you to execute a plugin without a browser. i.e. it implements a (subset) of the NPAPI specification.

nspluginwrapper is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL), version 2 or later. nspluginwrapper is a trademark of Gwenole Beauchesne.

Recent updates: [ 2009/01/02 -- Version 1.2.2 (stable) | Additional information ] [ 2009/01/02 -- Version 1.3.0 (development) ]

The following plugins work reasonnably well:

• Acrobat Reader (5.0.9, 7.0.1, 8.1.2)
• DejaVu Libre (3.5.14)
• Flash Player (7.0, 9.0, 9.0 update 3, 10.0)
• Linux JPEG 2000 (0.0.2)
• Mplayerplug-in (2.80, 3.25)
• Real Player (10.0.5)
• ICA Citrix Client
• Squeak VM (3.7)
• Tcl/Tk (3.1.0)
• 3DMLW (1.0.3)
• VLC (0.8.6)

• Note that you need both the Plugin and the Viewer for correct operation. Please also read the release notes.

• nspluginwrapper 1.2.2 (02.Jan.2009)

  • Plugin, Viewer, Standalone Player (x86_64, glibc 2.3, gcc 3.4)

  • Sources: [ tar.bz2 ] [ rpm ]

• Older releases

• The SVN tree can be fetched as follows:

  svn co http://svn.beauchesne.info/svn/gwenole/projects/nspluginwrapper/trunk nspluginwrapper

  Note that trunk is where development happens and can break at any time. Besides, don't forget to always re-wrap your plugins as changes to RPC can happen without triggering a version change.

• You can browse SVN online at http://svn.beauchesne.info/gwenole/projects/nspluginwrapper/.
• Branches: nspluginwrapper-1.2-branch, nspluginwrapper-1.0-branch (obsolete).

• A mailing-list is also available to follow or discuss nspluginwrapper development.

More detailed documentation is available in the Help Center.

• On package installation, 32-bit plugins are automatically recognized and installed system-wide, provided they are available in the /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins directory.

• You can then manually install/remove/update plugins with the nspluginwrapper program.

• Installing an additional plugin (e.g. the JPEG2000 plugin) into the user's Mozilla plugins directory:

  nspluginwrapper -i ~/downloads/npjp2-0.0.2/src/npjp2.so

• Updating (with detailed operations) all installed plugins from system and user's directories:

  nspluginwrapper -v -a -u

• Removing a plugin:

  nspluginwrapper -r ~/.mozilla/plugins/npwrapper.npjp2.so