How to get trace output from PPAPI content debugger Flash Player

Question

I'm using Chrome 39.0.2171.95 on Windows 8. I ran Adobe's uninstall_flash_player.exe. I installed the PPAPI content debugger Flash Player announced in this Adobe blog post.

When I go to chrome://plugins and expand the details with the link at the upper right, I can see that the built-in PepperFlash player is still there, but is disabled. The plugin one:

Location:   C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash\pepflashplayer32_16_0_0_235.dll
Type:   PPAPI (out-of-process)

is enabled. So far, so good.

Based on information I gleaned from this Adobe forum post, I copied my mm.cfg file to:

%USERPROFILE%/AppData/Local/Google/Chrome/User Data/Default/Pepper Data/Shockwave Flash/System

(I had to create the System directory.)

The mm.cfg file contains:

TraceOutputFileEnable=1
ErrorReportingEnable=1
AS3Verbose=0
TraceOutputBuffered=1
AS3Trace=0

I assume that the log file this Flash player writes to is not the same as the one written to by the NPAPI player, because Chrome is very restrictive about filesystem access. In any case, there is nothing being written to the flashlog.txt file used by the NPAPI plugin. Nor can I find anything resembling a log file beneath

%USERPROFILE%/AppData/Local/Google/Chrome/User Data/Default/Pepper Data/Shockwave Flash

And I can't find anything resembling meaningful documentation from Adobe.

Has anyone successfully done what I'm trying to do?

Answer 1

After creating your mm.cfg file into "%USERPROFILE%/AppData/Local/Google/Chrome/User Data/Default/Pepper Data/Shockwave Flash/System", you should restart chrome and then run your swf file, your log file will be created here : "%USERPROFILE%/AppData/Local/Google/Chrome/User Data/Default/Pepper Data/Shockwave Flash/WritableRoot/Logs" and it's named flashlog.txt. If the path WritableRoot/Logs didn't exist, it will be created automatically.

So to recap all that for the debugger version of the PPAPI Flash Player on Chrome and Opera on Windows 7/8 :

Windows 7/8 PPAPI

mm.cfg :

TraceOutputFileEnable=1
ErrorReportingEnable=1

mm.cfg location :

Chrome :

"%USERPROFILE%/AppData/Local/Google/Chrome/User Data/Default/Pepper Data/Shockwave Flash/System"

Opera :

"%USERPROFILE%/AppData/Roaming/Opera Software/Opera Stable/Pepper Data/Shockwave Flash/System"

log file location :

Chrome :

"%USERPROFILE%/AppData/Local/Google/Chrome/User Data/Default/Pepper Data/Shockwave Flash/WritableRoot/Logs/flashlog.txt"

Opera :

"%USERPROFILE%/AppData/Roaming/Opera Software/Opera Stable/Pepper Data/Shockwave Flash/WritableRoot/Logs/flashlog.txt"  

Windows 7/8 NPAPI/ActiveX

mm.cfg location :

%USERPROFILE%

log file location :

"%USERPROFILE%/AppData/Roaming/Macromedia/Flash Player/Logs/flashlog.txt"

Mac Chrome PPAPI

mm.cfg location :

"/Users/%USERNAME%/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Pepper Data/Shockwave Flash/System/mm.cfg"

log file location :

"/Users/%USERNAME%/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Pepper Data/Shockwave Flash/WritableRoot/Logs/flashlog.txt"

Mac Chrome NPAPI (chrome NPAPI is deprecated, but this might also apply to other browsers like firefox)

mm.cfg location :

"/Library/Application Support/Macromedia/mm.cfg"

log file location :

"/Users/%USERNAME%/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/Logs/flashlog.txt"

For more information, click here for how to edit the mm.cfg file and from here to know the log file location. WARNING - the log files locations in this documentation may not be up-to-date.

Hope all that can help.

Answer 2

This has been driving me crazy for a week, but I finally figured it out. I'm on a Mac, and I have several Chrome User Profiles - which is a critical detail. The mm.cfg and flashlog.txt files need to be in a different directory depending on which Chrome User Profile you use.

( Note: I manually created the ".../System/..." directory for mm.cfg myself )

Location of mm.cfg file (Mac):

"/Users/%USERNAME%/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/%Profile #%/Pepper Data/Shockwave Flash/System/mm.cfg"

Location of flashlog.txt (Mac):

"/Users/%USERNAME%/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/%Profile #%/Pepper Data/Shockwave Flash/WritableRoot/Logs/flashlog.txt"

I hope that helps!