Last week, we walked through installing Ubuntu Linux.
It's not a particularly hard process, and Ubuntu is great because it clearly illustrates the basic steps every Linux distribution goes through when it installs on a hard drive. Even if you don't use Ubuntu or a derivative, just looking at the installer screenies gives a nice story arc to a generic Linux install.New users often find the first time they log in to their shiny new Linux desktop that not only are many things they need installed and ready, but a few things they really want aren't. They'll have a browser, but the Flash plug-in won't be activated. They'll have a media player, but it won't play .mp3 or .wma files. It won't play DVDs. What's up with that?
The main reason this happens is due to licensing, copyright and distribution issues. It will vary from distribution to distribution a little bit (Puppy Linux usually includes Flash with its browser, and Xandros usually peppers in a few media codecs), but for the most part, the free (as in speech) aspect of the software is kept separate from the proprietary. Legality is the major player, but there are quite a few open source folks out there who like to keep their machine free of the proprietary stuff on principle.
That's totally fine, we say. To each his own. But we have this movie we want to watch right here, right now.Hold up. Let's say a few things about the following bit of exposition. It is based on Ubuntu (mainly because it's what's currently on the menu here), so repositories will be different and package names may vary slightly if you're using another distro. The general concepts, however, can be applied across distributions, and we're going to try to include alternate information (as much as we can) about other distros.
First things first, we log into our new desktop. As we explore, and our eyes travel around the screen, we discover a funny little icon in the task bar. The icon varies depending on distribution and desktop environment, but if we hover on it the tool tip will tell us we have system updates.
In our case, the icon is a little box with the alarmingly red triangle. In most distributions, clicking on the icon will launch the installer application. Though it is possible to install all your extra applications at the same time you update everything, we find it's a lot more likely for something to get borked in the process. So we're just going to install our updates.
It's a good opportunity to take this time to get out, exercise, and get some fresh air. Or just take a nap. It usually takes a bit to do the updates, anyway. You can use the computer while it is updating if you want. We just really like naps.
When the updates are done, we start with the fun stuff. We usually start with Flash, because honestly (no, really!) it's quick and easy. There are several ways to install Flash. We could fire up Firefox, and install it from the "Missing Plug-ins" bar. Truth be told, this causes us problems about half the time. We could go to Adobe's site and try a manual install from there. They offer non-platform-specific binary installs and .rpm installs, but we've also found that this is more work than we'd like.
We have the most luck (with any distribution) searching the repositories for a package named flashplugin-nonfree. It's quick, it's easy, and because it's packaged for our distribution, if anything gets mucked up or upgraded, the installers going to know about it and fix us up.
Puzzling to many is the fact that .mp3 support is not always available right out of the box with Linux. Depending on your distribution and chosen media player, this could be a big annoyance or a minor hiccup. Today we're using Kubuntu, which uses Amarok as the primary audio player.
Amarok alerts us when we start that it can not, as yet, play .mp3s, and asks if we'd like to enable this ability. We click, it fires up the installer, and here we go.
If you don't use Kubuntu, or Amarok, and don't get such a prompt, fear not. There are a number of packages you can install to get .mp3 playback (and a few other goodies) working, much like Kubuntu and Amarok do. Installing LAME and ffmpeg is where we usually start. Depending on our desktop environment, we might install gstreamer and the associated plug-ins. This usually will pull in packages such as mpeg2dec, imlib, faad2, faac and libdvdread as dependencies, and we should be good to go.
It's a good opportunity to take this time to get out, exercise, and get some fresh air. Or just take a nap. It usually takes a bit to do the updates, anyway. You can use the computer while it is updating if you want. We just really like naps.
When the updates are done, we start with the fun stuff. We usually start with Flash, because honestly (no, really!) it's quick and easy. There are several ways to install Flash. We could fire up Firefox, and install it from the "Missing Plug-ins" bar. Truth be told, this causes us problems about half the time. We could go to Adobe's site and try a manual install from there. They offer non-platform-specific binary installs and .rpm installs, but we've also found that this is more work than we'd like.
We have the most luck (with any distribution) searching the repositories for a package named flashplugin-nonfree. It's quick, it's easy, and because it's packaged for our distribution, if anything gets mucked up or upgraded, the installers going to know about it and fix us up.
Puzzling to many is the fact that .mp3 support is not always available right out of the box with Linux. Depending on your distribution and chosen media player, this could be a big annoyance or a minor hiccup. Today we're using Kubuntu, which uses Amarok as the primary audio player.
Amarok alerts us when we start that it can not, as yet, play .mp3s, and asks if we'd like to enable this ability. We click, it fires up the installer, and here we go.
If you don't use Kubuntu, or Amarok, and don't get such a prompt, fear not. There are a number of packages you can install to get .mp3 playback (and a few other goodies) working, much like Kubuntu and Amarok do. Installing LAME and ffmpeg is where we usually start. Depending on our desktop environment, we might install gstreamer and the associated plug-ins. This usually will pull in packages such as mpeg2dec, imlib, faad2, faac and libdvdread as dependencies, and we should be good to go.
Now that we've got our music in action, let's move on to the last bits: DVD playback and codecs.
There are a few ways to give our Linux install the ability to play DVDs. We covered one such way back in February. It works, but there's an easier way that lets us kill several innocent birds with one huge stone, at least in Ubuntu.
Enter the Medibuntu repositories. The Ubuntu wiki has a perfectly good (and quite detailed) how to on installing the repositories and appropriate packages. Without too much repetition, the procedure is this:
There are a few ways to give our Linux install the ability to play DVDs. We covered one such way back in February. It works, but there's an easier way that lets us kill several innocent birds with one huge stone, at least in Ubuntu.
Enter the Medibuntu repositories. The Ubuntu wiki has a perfectly good (and quite detailed) how to on installing the repositories and appropriate packages. Without too much repetition, the procedure is this:
Add the repositories to your sources.list file. You don't have to do it via command line. You could do it through Synaptic, or Adept, or by editing the file by hand. This is pretty quick and easy though.
Next you'll add the GPG key. Now your installer knows this is a safe and trusted repository, and won't bite your head off every time you update.
Now the fun stuff. Let's fire up our installer, and refresh the repository list. The package we want to add is libdvdcss2. The development files are usually unnecessary for the average user.
Next you'll add the GPG key. Now your installer knows this is a safe and trusted repository, and won't bite your head off every time you update.
Now the fun stuff. Let's fire up our installer, and refresh the repository list. The package we want to add is libdvdcss2. The development files are usually unnecessary for the average user.
Make your kids, husband, wife, or significant other go make some popcorn. We'll be over in a few to watch a movie with you. But before we get there, there's one more thing...
There are other media formats. What about .wma, or .wmv, for instance? No worries. You've installed Medibuntu repositories, and it's easy to get these working as well. The packages you'll want are the codec packages. They are dependent on chip architecture. If you installed an x86 version of Ubuntu, you'll want w32codecs. If you installed a different version, you'll want the codec package that corresponds to the architecture name (w64codecs, or ppc-codecs),
There are other media formats. What about .wma, or .wmv, for instance? No worries. You've installed Medibuntu repositories, and it's easy to get these working as well. The packages you'll want are the codec packages. They are dependent on chip architecture. If you installed an x86 version of Ubuntu, you'll want w32codecs. If you installed a different version, you'll want the codec package that corresponds to the architecture name (w64codecs, or ppc-codecs),
That's very Ubuntu specific. We know. We apologize. Fans of other distributions need not worry. If all else fails, you can get the latest libdvdcss from the developers, in both .deb and .rpm formats. You can also pick up codecs from the MPlayer site (and be sure to read the README!) Chances are very good, however, that even the most obscure, specialized distros have had someone package the codecs and put them on a trusted repository. So save yourself some time in the long run, and do a bit of preliminary searching if you can't find your packages in the usual places.
Is installing media packages in Linux a bit of a nuisance? Well, yeah, totally. We admit it. There is a time investment (though not as much as you'd think, usually). Keep in mind, though, it's not particularly a weak spot of the operating system so much as a legal snafu. And you've got to admit, it's pretty cool to watch at least the first instalment of the Matrix trilogy on a Linux box.
Is installing media packages in Linux a bit of a nuisance? Well, yeah, totally. We admit it. There is a time investment (though not as much as you'd think, usually). Keep in mind, though, it's not particularly a weak spot of the operating system so much as a legal snafu. And you've got to admit, it's pretty cool to watch at least the first instalment of the Matrix trilogy on a Linux box.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-21-2008 @ 12:14PM
Gardiner Westbound said...
I have been busting to run Linux on an old HP Pavilion 6460 and have tried the Live CD version of several distros including Ubuntu, Lindows, Susie, Mepis and others.
Ubuntu 'Just Works' says the the website. Not in my experience. I got Ubuntu 6.06 connected to my Linksys WUSB54GV4 adapter with NDISwrapper after days of reading and experimenting and got onto the net work, essential to reach the forums and download the additional required bits and pieces. I never got the Riptide modem/audio card working, giving up after weeks of reading forums and experimenting with various drivers and work arounds.
Every time Unbuntu releases a new version I try again. Ubuntu 7.04 seemed to recognize the Riptide card and found the USB Network adapter, but wouldn't let me onto the network. Not one to give up easily, I am currently working with Version 7.10. It seems to have the same issues as 7.04.
Having messed around with the parts of Ubuntu that do function I am persuaded it is a tremendous system. Perhaps upcoming Version 8.04 will "Just Work" so I can permanently adopt it.
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3-23-2008 @ 3:42AM
TtfnJohn said...
Personally I find Ubuntu, along with Kubutu and the other distros in the Canonical series to be both highly overrated and, at times, difficult to get working on a number of fronts.
GNOME is beautifully supported in Ubuntu, KDE support and selection Kubuntu has been incomplete and half hearted to be completely honest. (I'm more comfortable with KDE than with GNOME's attitude about users and a few other aspects about the desktop so, if I was to use a Canonical distro daily it would be Kubuntu.)
And, in my experience, some things that should just work, and do in other distros, don't in Canonical stuff.
I have to admit I'm not as thrilled with Ubuntu's package repository systems as others seem to be or the software they use to interact with it. Maybe I'm just used to Mandriva and how it does things. I find it hard to interact with and hard to actually find things.
However, as has been mentioned each release of the major Linux distros gets better and better so no matter which one you use or try they do get things better as time goes by.
Mandriva's install is light years ahead of anyone elses though! :-)
ttfn
John
3-21-2008 @ 12:34PM
Matt said...
I've followed Ubuntu for about 3 revisions now and the most distinct thing about this OS is how fast it improves. When I first tried it I couldn't get anything to work on it (No wireless, no multiscreen, no compix, etc...) without at least 5 hours of hair pulling frustration. Now though It comes with most of that out of the box and everything has GUI front-end now. (Ndiswrapper is point and click now! Yay!) Look out Vista you're buggy eye-candy is no match for real development!
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3-21-2008 @ 4:21PM
archpope said...
And this is exactly way Linux, unless it changes its ways, will never, EVER be taken seriously as an operating system. As technology grows and evolves, it's supposed to become simpler and easier to use, while becoming more powerful. 80 years ago, to listen to radio, you needed to buy a crystal set, attach an antenna, attach a ground wire, calibrate the tuner, and attach an earpiece. Today, you flip a switch.
I have experimented with several different flavors of Linux, including Knoppix, Mandrake, Red Hat, and the dreaded Ubuntu. NONE of them were even as stable as Windows 95, or as useful as MacOS6.
Despite how this article tries to simplify the process, it usually goes like this:
I want to install [feature]. The website for [feature] has a download but no install info. So I look around on the forums. Someone says "Here's all you have to do:"
sudo command1 bin/lib/etc/file.ext thing2 bin/lib/etc/file.ext
sudo command2 home/usr/bin/file.ext thing1 home/usr/ -wtf
command3 -- omg
command4
"And that's all there is to it."
Fair enough. So I cut and paste:
sudo command1 bin/lib/etc/file.ext thing2 bin/lib/etc/file.ext
OK
command1 failed. Code 1337
Of course, command2 is dependent on command1 succeeding. So I look around online for more help. Since it worked perfectly on the first try for the guy who left the comment, he has no help. So I look some more. Someone else will suggest a completely different idea that had absolutely nothing to do with the first idea, except that it has about as many steps. So I try that. I get an error on step 1. Maybe I'll get all the way to step three so I can have some hope that maybe just this once, Linux will do what I tell it to.
Nope.
But I'll keep trying, because I read comments from people online that Linux is so great. While I suppose it's great to have a hippie OS to go with one's hippie philosophy, I need to get some work done, and I have never found a version of Linux that I could get to the point where I could do real, honest-to-goodness WORK on it.
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3-21-2008 @ 5:33PM
Kristin Shoemaker said...
I just finished tie-dying my alpaca hair wood pellet tote bag, so I thought I'd respond.
All kidding aside... I have had my fair share of Linux headaches. I also really like figuring this stuff out. And yes, I have had situations arise where someone's solution online... or several people's solutions, haven't fixed the problem I'm having (usually due to some far off distant dependency).
Of course, I've had problems in Windows that I've not really figured out with less frustration. Heck, I've had problems installing freakin' CODECS in WMP that were a lot more frustrating to wrap my head around than the same codecs in Linux.
However... In the case of codecs and DVD playback... There really ISN'T a whole lot open source software can do to make it much easier. Okay, well... They could change their licensing structure some, and charge a fee or two... Like Xandros does... and see if people go for that. From what I know about Xandros, not too many are.
And maybe it is blaming "the man." That's not really the point, though.
As far as getting work done, also a legitimate complaint. If you need to run Groupwise, or Access, or Photoshop or some other vital bit of proprietary code to perform your job duties, then, yeah, there *are* real issues with using Linux. Although a lot more people get actual honest-to-god work done when Flash and libdvdcss2 aren't installed. ;)
3-23-2008 @ 3:30AM
TtfnJohn said...
Perhaps a reality check would do with your problem with finding software to do what you want.
Any well supported distro, Fedora, Ubuntu, SUSE, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS (to a lesser degree) will usually have what you're looking for in their software repositories already compiled for your system.
That's the first place to look even if you have found your first reference on a web site somewhere.
What can be annoying, though is that package names can be different than the simple name of the software so be sure to look both for the name and some description of what's in the package.
Unlike, even as recently as 4 years ago, I rarely compile from scratch anymore because my distro, Mandriva, has it in 99.99% of cases.
ttfn
John
3-22-2008 @ 1:40AM
JYC said...
For Ubuntu you can just install ubuntu-restricted-extras for codecs (audio and DVD), Flash, Java, etc.
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3-23-2008 @ 9:00AM
Ben said...
So I tried installing Linux about a year ago with no avail. I used an old Dell laptop because it was lying around and I read the same things, "Linux is amazing!" Or "Linux is simply great!" Now, I am no computer programmer or electrical engineer. I am, however, a very smart guy with a great knack for computers. To me, Linux is something for the computer programmers and technological "wiz-kids" because I found it to be a total headache. I spent HOURS reading forums and trying different workarounds just like others have posted here. In the end, I couldn't get my wireless card to work. That virtually rendered the laptop useless in my opinion. When I looked online and found photos of amazing looking desktops with fantastic "themes," I quickly learned that for someone like me it would take hours to get my computer looking like that. To be honest, I don't know if I could ever do some of what these people had done.
In the end, to me Linux is NOT easy and beautiful. It is an operating system for programmers and those of the like. It is nowhere near ready for the general population, especially if someone like me can't wrap their head around it with hours and hours worth of work.
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3-28-2008 @ 5:11PM
Superevil said...
"Now, I am no computer programmer or electrical engineer. I am, however, a very smart guy with a great knack for computers."
I'm the same exact way. I've been working with computers since I was 10, so 15 years now and I've been using Ubuntu seriously for about 2 months now and I've gotten so used to it so fast that I rarely use my XP desktop I have at home. I've used Red Hat 8 and SuSE 10 but hated both of them and I threw in the towel on linux until I decided to give it one last shot with Ubuntu 7.10 and I love it. I installed it on an HP NC8230 laptop and have had ZERO issues with anything (even my ATI X600 works perfectly after using Envy to install the current driver). I'm also quite pleased with the level of customization options with linux. When I finally have some extra money I'll be purchasing a larger hard drive for my desktop so I can use a highly tweaked XP install for my games and whenever I'm not gaming I'll be using linux for pretty much everything else.
3-24-2008 @ 8:20AM
Gardiner Westbound said...
I took TtfnJohn's advice and checked out Mandriva Linux One.
This is it!!! Mandriva comes with all the applications most people will ever need, is completely intuitive, and installs and sets up faster and easier than Windows XP. Windows users will be comfortable with the K-Desktop. There is even a facility that automatically transfers-in Windows settings and documents.
Linux' lower processor and memory requirements did not transform my past its prime computer into a speed demon, nor could I get my Rockwell Riptide sound card working notwithstanding hours on the Mandriva forums and help sites looking for a solution.
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4-01-2008 @ 3:49PM
cw said...
I've tried installing ubuntu 7 on at least two machines and have come away dazed and confused. Here's hoping 8 is better.
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