Installing Flash® Media Server on Ubuntu Linux

Run the following commands to install Flash® Media Server on Ubuntu:

markus@ubuntu:~$ wget markusbe.com/ifu
markus@ubuntu:~$ bash ./install-fms-3.5.3-ubuntu
These commands download and run the install script.

Ubuntu version support
Ubuntu version 32 Bit 64 Bit
10.04 LTS Server Supported Supported
Desktop Supported Supported
9.10 Server Supported Supported
Desktop Supported Supported
9.04 Server Supported Supported
Desktop Supported Supported
8.10 Desktop Supported Supported, but*
8.04 LTS Server Supported Supported, but*
Desktop Supported Supported, but*
6.06 LTS Server Supported Supported, but*

* Files will be installed bypassing the package manager. That means these files won’t be kept up-to-date by the package manager.

What will happen?
The script

checks whether your Linux version and architecture is supported
downloads Flash® Media Server 3.5.3 from this page on Adobe.com, if it doesn’t find it locally
unpacks the archive and checks its version
installs dependencies for the running version and architecture (32 or 64 bit) of Ubuntu
downloads and applies a patch for the Flash® Media Server installer that allows it to run on Ubuntu
runs the Flash® Media Server installer
Starting and stopping, manually and automatically
To restart, stop or start Flash® Media Server use the commands:

markus@ubuntu:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/fms restart
markus@ubuntu:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/fms stop
markus@ubuntu:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/fms start
Flash® Media Server starts automatically at startup. You can disable automatic startup:

markus@ubuntu:~$ sudo /usr/sbin/update-rc.d fms remove
You can later change Flash® Media Server to start automatically again:

markus@ubuntu:~$ sudo /usr/sbin/update-rc.d fms defaults
Uninstalling
You can later uninstall Flash® Media Server:

markus@ubuntu:~$ cd /opt/adobe/fms
markus@ubuntu:/opt/adobe/fms$ sudo ./uninstallFMS
Troubleshooting
Things to look for if something doesn’t work:

Virtual Server limits: If you run Flash® Media Server on a virtual server, see if you have the file /proc/user_beancounters. This file exists if the server is virtualized with Virtuozzo or OpenVZ. It contains a list of resource parameters with their current values, maximum allowed values and the number of times the maximum value has been reached (failcnt). If the failcnt number increases for a resource when you try to start or use Flash® Media Server, increase the limit for the corresponding resource. This can only be done from outside the virtual server.
I will add to this section whenever I find out about other causes of trouble.

Symptoms
When you try to install Flash® Media Server without the script, a number of warnings and error messages appear. I list them here so that people who search by the error message can find this article.

If you’re on 64 bit and haven’t installed 32-bit-support, this error message appears:

./installFMS: 172: ./fmsini: not found
And then:

./fmsini: error while loading shared libraries: libstdc++.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Then, regardless of architecture, a warning from the installer:

WARNING: Your distribution, unknown, is not supported by this
Adobe Flash Media Server installer.
An error about the group nobody not existing, if you accept the default group:

Please enter a valid user group for the "nobody" user: Default group [nobody]:

ERROR: "nobody" is not in the user group "nobody"
If you solved that problem by entering nogroup, next is a syntax error:

[: 1: ==: unexpected operator
or

[: 1: nobody: unexpected operator
Then installation starts, but a number of errors appear:

Proceed with the installation? (y/n/q): y

Installing Adobe Flash Media Server files...
Configuring Adobe Flash Media Server...
Adding "fms" service.
Setting default admin to "fms".
chgrp: invalid group: `nobody'
./installFMS: 1348: /sbin/chkconfig: not found
Setting autostart for "fms".
Server:fms command:start
ulimit: 30: Illegal option -u
[: 35: 32768: unexpected operator
NPTL 2.7
./server: 56: Bad substitution
Admin server:fmsadmin command:start
./adminserver: 41: Bad substitution

The Adobe Flash Media Server installation is complete.
If you see one of these error messages, see the top of this article.

Background article
There is a background article About running 32 bit programs on 64 bit Ubuntu and shared libraries that explains in detail what needs to be done and why to make Flash® Media Server work on Ubuntu and how the patch and install script achieve that.

Feedback
I’m interested how everything worked out for you. Especially when it didn’t , so I can fix whatever is wrong. Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment and share your experience.