Here's the IRC logs:

#ubuntu-desktop:
<chrisccoulson> i think what has happened is that nss got dropped from ia32-libs, but flash links against nss
 (a 32-bit nss)
<mdeslaur> chrisccoulson: yeah, that's possible
<chrisccoulson> so, it's all broken unless multiarch is enabled
<mdeslaur> it may still be broken with multiarch enabled...I need to test it
<chrisccoulson> i'm just about to ;)_
<kenvandine> mdeslaur, just checked on my test box, it is multiarch enabled and has nspluginwrapper 1.4.4-0ubuntu3
 and suffers from the same problem
<mdeslaur> kenvandine: what version of the flash package are you using?
<chrisccoulson> mdeslaur, ah, it's still going to be broken
<kenvandine> flashplugin-installer 10.3.183.4ubuntu3
<chrisccoulson> nspluginviewer doesn't have an explicit dependency against nss (it doesn't use it)
 but flash is going to need it
 it certainly isn't getting pulled in on my system here
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<kenvandine> chrisccoulson, exactly which package?
<mdeslaur> kenvandine: what about if you do "apt-get install flashplugin-installer:i386" on your test box
<kenvandine> i have some libnss3 packages
<chrisccoulson> kenvandine, amd64 packages?
<kenvandine> yes
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<mdeslaur> chrisccoulson: the amd64 version of flashplugin-installer is only pulling in ia32-libs, but that doesn't contain the libraries anymore, so installing the :i386 package should pull in all the multiarch libs
<kenvandine> this is bringing in i386 nss packages
<mdeslaur> but, the :i386 package doesn't have nspluginwrapper as a dep
* mdeslaur needs to figure out what to do
<chrisccoulson> ah, ok
 so, it still sounds like it's a bit of a mess
* mdeslaur looks around for slangasek
<mdeslaur> chrisccoulson: yeah, I need to ask slangasek how we're supposed to handle that
<kenvandine> ok... that fixed it
 i think

#ubuntu-devel:
<mdeslaur> slangasek: can a amd64 package depend on i386 packages?
<infinity> mdeslaur: Implicitely, not explicitely.
<mdeslaur> infinity: what do you mean by that?
<infinity> mdeslaur: As in, you can depend on a package that only exists on i386, and it'll work out, but you can't explicitely depend on package:i386
<mdeslaur> infinity: hmm...not exactly the answer I wanted
 infinity: so, I need flashplugin-installer to depend on nspluginwrapper on amd64 only
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<mdeslaur> infinity: so either I get rid of the amd64 package, and figure out a way to have an arch-specific depends
<infinity> mdeslaur: Which, in turn, depends on nspluginviewer, which is i386 only.
<mdeslaur> infinity: or I keep the amd64 package, depend on nspluginwrapper, but need a way to specify :i386 depends
<infinity> No you don't...
<chrisccoulson> mdeslaur, infinity - that bit seems to work already (ie, installing flashplugin-installer pulls in nspluginwrapper, which pulls in nspluginviewer:i386 and all of it's i386 dependencies)
<infinity> If you keep the amd64 package, it depends on nspluginwrapper, and you're done.
<infinity> chrisccoulson: Indeed.
<mdeslaur> infinity: no, because the amd64 package won't pull in all the required i386 libraries
<chrisccoulson> what's broken is that flashplugin-installer needs to pull in libnss3:i386
 ^^infinity
 that used to be shipped in ia32-libs
 and now flash is broken on amd64, because nothing pulls it in
 which i s breaking firefox ;)
<infinity> Perhaps nspluginviewer needs to depend on libnss3?
<chrisccoulson> infinity, not really. that's technically incorrect, as it doesn't need it
 the flash plugin does though
<infinity> Fair enough.
<chrisccoulson> flashplugin-installer:i386 does pull it in though
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<mdeslaur> infinity: any ideas?
<infinity> Well, then.  flashplugin-amd64 depends flashplugin-installer (>= [version where you stop building it on amd64], nspluginwrapper
 And then you die a little inside.
 And try to figure out an upgrade path.
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* mdeslaur dies a little inside
<mdeslaur> ideally, the flashplugin-installer package would go away completely, and we would only keep adobe-flashplugin in partner
<infinity> Ideally, sure.
<mdeslaur> chrisccoulson: I know! make firefox amd64 depend on nspluginwrapper :P
<chrisccoulson> lol
<infinity> Is there a reason we don't just ship the actual amd64 build of flash?  Just fear of unsupported betas, I guess? :/
<chrisccoulson> over my cold hard dead body ;)
 (to firefox depending on nspluginwrapper)
<mdeslaur> infinity: it's not updated for security fixes, and I'm pretty sure adobe won't let us redistribute it
<infinity> Fair on both counts.
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<mdeslaur> hopefully they'll ship flash 11 before we release oneiric
<infinity> But yeah, given the current wrapper/viewer situation, something evil's going to happen to transition flash to multiarch.
<chrisccoulson> i've subscribed you both to bug 830802
<ubottu> Launchpad bug 830802 in flashplugin-nonfree (Ubuntu Oneiric) "firefox freezes and grays out" [High,Triaged] https://launchpad.net/bugs/830802
<chrisccoulson> the freezing is a symptom of flash going crazy ;)
<infinity> I guess if you don't want the above evil situation, you could create a "flashplugin-installer-noreally-we-mean-it-this-time" cause there aren't enough flash packages depending on flash packages already.
 Then you can keep -installer on both arches, have both depend on the (i386-only) new package, and make it work.
<mdeslaur> I need to think about that a minute
 you're confusing my feeble brain
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<mdeslaur> infinity: oh, interesting
<infinity> mdeslaur: Basically, move the current installer code from -installer to -downloader (or something) and make it i386-only, with correct dependencies.  Then turn -installer (on both arches) into a metapackage that just depends on -downloader and (on amd64) wrapper.
 mdeslaur: That gets you a smooth upgrade path on both arches.
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<mdeslaur> infinity: yes, very interesting...that would do the trick
 infinity: thanks!