I am brand new to Linux so can you (try) to keep answers as simple as possible. A few days ago I did a fresh install of Ubuntu 11.10 on an old computer (just under 500mb of RAM) and once I had completed the install. I installed the restricted extras thingy. I then tried to load up a Flash video in Firefox but it failed: all it would show is a blank box where the video should have been.

At this point I tried various different video sites (iplayer, Youtube, etc) and I even tried opening up a downloaded flash game in Firefox but still I was just getting a blank box where the flash content should have been.

Next I tried doing a fresh install of Ubuntu 12.04 32bit, installing the restricted extras thingy again but it still just showed up the blank box. Finally I tried various different methods for getting it to work including:

• Trying a different browser~ same issue
• Trying different websites~ same issue
• Reinstalling the Flash plugin via the software center~ same issue
• Reinstalling the Flash plugin via the Adobe website~ same issue
• Installing Flash-aid (a plugin designed to solve any issues with flash)~ same issue
• Disabling the flash plugin for Firefox~ Flash was no longer detected so the websites told me that I needed to install the flash plugin to play the content

Not really sure what else to try???