Here’s his initial post:

Linus Torvalds on 2008-03-31 15:37 EST

Description of problem:

youtube no workee – fedora 9 not usable for wife

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

swfdec.x86_64 0.6.2-1.fc9
swfdec-gtk.x86_64 0.6.2-1.fc9
swfdec-mozilla.x86_64 0.6.0-1.fc9

How reproducible:

I didn’t try a lot of videos, but I couldn’t find a single one that actually
worked. And what’s the internet without the rick-roll?

Some just show a light gray background, some give the play buttons etc, but show only a black screen even when the red ball at the bottom moves along..

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install current Fedora 9
2. Rick-roll!
3. No profit!

Actual results:

Some videos just show a light gray background, some give the play buttons etc, but in the latter case show only a black screen even when the red ball at the bottom seems to moves along..

Expected results:

Rick Astley in all his glory! People have reported that youtube videos are supposed to work with swfdec, so I presume they have worked at some point and have been broken recently.

Just to test that this isn’t just a anti-rick-roll security feature, I also tested some other videos, but let’s face it – we do need Rick for the “Full Internet Experience”.

Additional info:

This is “high” priority because the wife will kill me if she doesn’t have her videos. And the adobe player won’t install on current rawhide due to some library issues.

“Obi-wan Kenobi, you’re our only hope”

I can imagine his wife standing there, arms crossed, “You wrote the Linux Kernel, and you can’t get my YouTube videos to play!!! (Actually he only wrote about 2% of what is now the current Linux Kernel, but that wouldn’t make it any funnier).

The rest of the forum thread can be read here.