How To Run Adobe Flash On Your iPad Using Frash

BY Jason

Published 7 Jul 2010

Flash for mobile platforms may not be ready

If you were missing Adobe Flash content on your iPad then we’ve some great news for you.

Frash, the hack that was going to allow Flash content to run on Apple’s iDevices is now available for iPad.

You can currently install Frash only on a jailbroken iPad.

Here are the installation instructions courtesy folks at Engadget:

1. We haven’t tried it out yet so please proceed with caution and at your own risk. Please take a backup your iPad before you proceed. You can refer to this post for instructions on how to backup your iPad.

2. You can use Spirit to jailbreak your iPad. You can follow our step-by-step guide, which is also applicable for iPad.

3. Download Frash.deb and keep it nearby. Update: It also looks like Frash isn't ready for prime time, you can get more details at the end of the post.

4. Decide how you’re going to get files onto your iPad. For Mac users, it’s dead simple — just install Netatalk, which will automatically pop up your iPad in the Finder’s Sharing list. Windows users can try out this guide at iClarified to get OpenSSH installed and running and use WinSCP — it’s just as easy. Either way, the login is “root” and the password is “alpine.” Remember, you can seriously screw things up while you’re in there, so be careful!

5. Once you’ve got access to the iPad’s filesystem, navigate to /var/root/Media.

6. Once there, open Media and create a folder called “Cydia.”

7. Open the new Cydia folder and create another new folder called “AutoInstall”

8. Upload Frash to your new folder.

9. Restart your iPad a couple times.

10. You’re set! Now just navigate to a page in Safari with non-video Flash content and hit the F logo to play it.

You can checkout these videos of Flash content running on the iPad after installing Frash:

 

Frash currently only runs on the iPad that runs on iPhone OS 3.2, but Comex had mentioned that support for other devices like iPhone, iPod Touch as well as support for iOS 4 is planned.

Update 1:

Frash currently doesn't support video currently, but Flash games and simple content works fine.

Update 2:

It also looks like Frash wasn't ready for prime time based on comments by chpwn on Twitter so please proceed with caution:

The reason @comex didn't post a guide is because it /isn't ready/ and he /didn't want to/ release it!

The Frash source is available for /developers/ to work on, not for someone to release unfinished. 

Thanks /so/ much to whoever put Frash on Engadget, illegally including Adobe files and making @comex look bad.

Please don’t forget to drop us a line in the comments to let us know how it goes.

[via Engadget]