Plug-In Documentation for Opera on Linux

This document was last updated for Opera 9.01.

Table of contents

• Introduction
• Linux Distributions and Package Managers
• Plug-Ins

Introduction

Plug-ins are programs that extend the capabilities of Opera. Commonly used plug-ins include Acrobat Reader (Adobe), Flash Player (Adobe), and Java Runtime Environment (Sun). Other plug-ins enable you to play audio samples or view videos within a browser window.

All the major Linux distributions today have excellent systems for installing and updating software, making it possible to download and install a plug-in with a simple click or command. We recommend using such a package manager to install plug-ins; instructions follow. The alternative is to read the instructions for downloading and installing various popular plug-ins without a package manager.

Linux Distributions and Package Managers

To start, you should know which Linux distribution you are using, and become familiar with its package manager. Every major Linux distribution has its own informal support channels (mailing lists, forums, IRC, and/or wiki) that should help you to cope with any problems.

Next, you need to identify the name of the plug-in package, and use your package manager to install it. Different Linux distributions may use slightly different names.

In some cases, it may be necessary to locate and use third-party package repositories, because the license prevents your Linux distributor from offering it to you directly. For more detailed information, see the column labeled Plug-in Support in the table above. Users of .rpm-based distributions may find it useful to search in a database of .rpm packages.

For the case that this procedure fails, either because you do not know the name of the package, or because you cannot locate it, we give instructions for downloading and installing various popular plug-ins without a package manager.

Plug-Ins

Some of the more popular plug-ins are listed below. The package names in the second column should only be taken as a hint, because they depend on your Linux distribution. In this case, the names are taken from the Debian distribution, but they apply also to Ubuntu.