Help & FAQs

BBC iPlayer Help

What do I need to know about installing Adobe Air on a Linux machine?

This page has full instructions on installing BBC iPlayer Desktop on a Linux machine. In some cases, however, you may need the information detailed below, which is based on the information Adobe supplies here. There are also tips on resolving issues with Air on Linux.

These links will take you to a website outside bbc.co.uk. The BBC is not responsible for content or software downloaded from external sites.

64-bit distributions

If you have a 64-bit Linux distribution, see Adobe's advice on what you may have to do.

This link will take you to a website outside bbc.co.uk. The BBC is not responsible for content or software downloaded from external sites.

Information about installation of Adobe Air for Linux

  • You need to be running the latest version of Flash (10.0.15.3), which is available from here. This link will take you to a website outside bbc.co.uk. The BBC is not responsible for content or software downloaded from external sites.
  • You need to remove any Beta or previous versions of Adobe Air before installing BBC iPlayer Desktop.
  • Installation of Air on Linux requires administrative privileges. You invoke the installer as a normal user without administrative rights.
  • The installer would automatically elevate it to an administrative operation by asking for the admin password (root password for non-Debian systems and Sudo user's password for Debian systems).

  • Air on Linux does not work when connecting through a proxy.

  • The runtime is installed in /opt/Adobe AIR/Versions/1.0.

Runtime installation and uninstallation Details

  • The runtime installer is a binary file named AdobeAIRInstaller.bin
  • You need to grant execution rights to the bin file (chmod +x AdobeAIRInstaller.bin).
  • The runtime requires a running X server to install.
  • The runtime gets installed as a native package, ie, rpm on a rpm based distribution and dpkg on a Debian. Currently AIR doesn't support any other package format, so it may not install on distributions like Slackware etc.
  • The package name is adobeair1.0 and adobe-certs.
  • To uninstall the runtime, use the Uninstall AIR Runtime menu item in the Programs/applications menu. Use the system's package manager to remove the adobe-certs package.
  • The Air and BBC iPlayer Desktop installs to  /opt folder without asking for root permission. This is a known issue with any Linux application which requires elevation - when a user opens a system setting/preference dialogue, he is prompted for the root/sudo password. On opening another such dialogue within a few minutes of the first instance, the root/sudo password is not required: the system remembers that the current user does have superuser privileges.

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For further help you can Contact Us, or you can discuss this issue at the BBC iPlayer messageboard.