A couple of problems for a new linux user.

[Guest]

A good friend of mine just convinced me to make the switch. I am using Kubuntu 7.10. I am having trouble getting the mp3 to work and i can't install firefox for the life of me. How do you go about installing programs with linux. I tried adept but it just wont work. Any help will be appreciated.

[Smatt454]

Re: A couple of problems for a new linux user.

there are a few ways to install programs

the easiest is called Adept Manager
it's in your K menu(KDE's "start" menu) under systems
just type in the name of the program you want. a list of related packages will appear. (a package is basically a collection of all the necessary files for particular software.) right click on the package you want and request an install. then at the top of Adept Manager click "Apply Changes"

you can also use "Add/Remove" programs from the K menu, which is fairly straightforward

you can also type in the command like

sudo apt-get install [package name]

for example

sudo apt-get install firefox

there are other ways, but those are the most user friendly.

if you cant find the software you want, download the tarball (a compressed file, usually ending in .bz2 of .tar.bz) from a website then compile it

tar xvzf package.tar.gz (or tar xvjf package.tar.bz2)
cd package
./configure
make
sudo make install

obviously the "package" needs to be replaced with then name of the package you are installing.
the tar xvzf command extracts the tarball. you can replace this step by right clicking the tarball and choosing the extract here option

if any of this is over your head, i apologize, and please please ask for clarification. also note that every time you install software, you must input your password. this is because important tasks such as installing software must be done by the "root" user. the root user holds many important privileges. a normal user may do any command as root by using the "sudo" command followed by the command you want to perform.


also....what exactly is the problem you are having with mp3s?

[KStorm]

Re: A couple of problems for a new linux user.

Kubuntu uses Amarok as the default mp3 player. Click on an mp3 file to start Amarok...you will be notified that Amarok currently cannot play mp3 files. Click on 'install mp3 support', enter your root password, restart Amarok after the mp3 support (via Adept) is installed, and you should be fine.

If Adept is causing problems, you can open up a terminal (K Menu > System > Konsole) and install Firefox from there. Do 'sudo apt-get install firefox' and you should be fine.

[RJ Hythloday]

Re: A couple of problems for a new linux user.

Don't give up, the

sudo apt-get install firefox

will definitely work.

You'll probably also need

sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

If you're not sure the name of the package you'll have this search bar in firefox once it's installed. Packages search

[SpikoPath]

Re: A couple of problems for a new linux user.

When installing firefox I used the command, the same as everyone else here

sudo apt-get install firefox

Two things that would make your firefox experience that much better, would be installing flash plugins. I just visited a site that requires flash and installed the missing plugin there I.e. http://www.fat-pie.com <- this is not a plug by the way. The other is Java 6 by sun.

Go to K-Menu> Settings > Adept Manager, in thee search field type 'java6' evetually you will see them. Select to install the java6 package ending in "-bin", this will auto select the package ending in "-jre". Also select to install the package ending in "-plugin". Click to apply changes then and your firefox should be setup.

Reagrding MP3s and other media files I've selected these options within Adept Manager.

ffmpeg < select the ffmpeg option that mentions xine in its package name
w32codec
libdvdread3
libdvdcss2
libvisual-plugin <- this is for visualisations used in Amarok "Jess" is best

Before you do this though head over to this web address and follow the repository howto:

www.medibuntu.org

[RJ Hythloday]

Re: A couple of problems for a new linux user.

Before you do this though head over to this web address and follow the repository howto:

www.medibuntu.org

Thanks for that!