Tags

, ,

If you are like me, you would have surely been wondering what happened to the Flash cache and why it was getting buffered in the /tmp folder like it used to. If you were re-winding the video and watching it, you will still be able to watch it fully, although it doesn’t get buffered in the /tmp folder. That led me to understanding that it was stored somewhere in the computer. So after a brief search on Google and UbuntuForums I found this.

So right down to the juicy part.

Step 1: While buffering the video or after buffering the video, pause it or something and open up a terminal (Applications –>Accessories –> Terminal )

Step 2: Run the following command and note the Process ID (PID) of the process that is responsible for flash plugin

ps aux | grep flash

flash_cache_1

Step 3: Then replace the part that says pid with the actual PID that you noted earlier

cd /proc/pid/fd

Step 4: Now we list the contents of the directory with

ls -lah

flash_cache_2

Step 5: Note the line that says something like

/tmp/FlashXXsomething [deleted]

This means that the video is still present in the memory but not on the disk and that’s why it’s not visible to us.

flash_cache_3

Step 6: Replace the fileno with the actual file number and use the vlc or mplayer or whatever you like and play the file for better viewing :)

vlc ./fileno

flash_cache_4

And that’s it. The mystery of the Flash Cache is solved (thanks to the geniuses and true linux heroes at the UbuntuForums ) :D

Ofcourse, this article is purely for educational purposes alone and for the curious bug in you that absolutely needs questions answered. We do not encourage copyright infringement of any sort with this article.