How To: Download Any Flash Video with flashrip in Ubuntu

Downloading flash videos in Linux was already not too difficult, but thanks to flashrip, it has gotten very easy. Here is a little demo how it works:



Once installed, you basically use one click to get a video preview and then a prompt with the filename to save the file. The script works by looking into the newest flash files in your /tmp folder, and creates a hardlink to the save destination. When the video has fully loaded, you can close the browser window. The temp file will get deleted, and the linked copy will remain.

Installing flashrip

Open a terminal like gnome-terminal or konsole, and run these commands:

wget http://martin.ankerl.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/flashrip.sh
chmod 755 flashrip.sh
sudo mv flashrip.sh /usr/local/bin

Now all thats left to do is to create a link in your gnome panel for ease of use: Right click the gnome panel, “Add to panel…”, choose “Custom Application Launcher…”. Choose a proper name, and a command like this: 

/usr/local/bin/flashrip.sh /home/manker/Videos

For the command, replace the second parameter with the default location where you want to save the ripped videos (you have to use the full path here!)

I have tested this in Ubuntu, but it should work on any linux where gnome is installed.

Have fun!

November 15, 2009 | Filed Under downloads, freeware, howto, linux, open source, tricks, tutorial, ubuntu, videos

5 Comments 

5 Responses to “How To: Download Any Flash Video with flashrip in Ubuntu”

  1. Mathias on November 15th, 2009 3:05 pm

    Nice script, thanks.

  2. eric on December 4th, 2009 11:02 am

    whats a console?, you mean a terminal, or…, what is it?

  3. eric on December 6th, 2009 5:08 pm

    It’s works now =) , that’s cool, THANKS!!!

  4. Martin Ankerl on December 6th, 2009 5:19 pm

    Hi eric, yes I’ve ment terminal Ive fixed the text, thanks :)

  5. eric on March 27th, 2010 2:33 pm

    hey its me again, so…your a programmer, your flash script got me interested into programming, I downloaded the C++ (code::blocks IDE) for my Ubuntu 9.10, any quick tips for a beginner? email me or reply

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