Comprehensive Multimedia & Video Howto

[ubuntu-freak]

I managed to get the other sites working by disabling an FireFox extension... AdBlock Plus!
Funny how that works...

Thanks for the help!

Damn, yeah. I had to disable it on my previous installation.

Glad you're all sorted.

[Roasted]

Need more info. Which version of Ubuntu are you running? Does that issue occur with ALL the films you tried? Did Totem, VLC and MPlayer all fail to play the film? Install Gxine and see how that performs. Did my troubleshooting section not help?

Totem and VLC both failed.
Hardy Heron 8.04.
Did not try Gxine.
I have tried like 5 guides and never got anywhere with them. I have a feeling I have some stuff installed from each guide that is conflicting with one another. Is there a way to revert them, or should I just do a fresh install?

[bluester]

Totem and VLC both failed.
Hardy Heron 8.04.
Did not try Gxine.
I have tried like 5 guides and never got anywhere with them. I have a feeling I have some stuff installed from each guide that is conflicting with one another. Is there a way to revert them, or should I just do a fresh install?

If I may make a suggestion....
I too had some troubles with Ubuntu and 'most' were resolved by poking around in this forum and with the help of others.
If you have a basic install and did not configure and remember the basic configuration.. i.e. you followed several multimedia type guides and remember how to configure your sound, video, and networking, it may be best to start with a fresh install and follow this guide.
Unless you can backtrack and get Ubuntu back to its semi-original state.
I sometimes get lost with following so many guides, I reinstall because it is easier and the configuration and data on my drive is simple to restore to my liking.

What type of system do you have? Video, memory, etc.
Any special features you enabled after startup that may cause the movie to stop?

I had a video issue, initially - choppy DVD playback - and it was resolved by editing my /etc/X11/xorg.conf found in this thread
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...install&page=2
Viola, DVD playback is no longer an issue.

[abhiroopb]

This is a great guide. I have already done most of everything that has been suggested in here by using various guides. I would like to suggest one thing. Perhaps it would be a good idea to have a "quick fix" summary. So, instead of having to follow the entire guide (and read all the explanations), it is possible to just copy and past one massive command to install anything. Just a thought. Guide is brilliant but it is a bit long.

[ingridt]

Intallation
UBUNTU FAMILY 8.04 HARDY HERON USERS ONLY
64-Bit Ubuntu Users:

sudo apt-get install alsa-oss compizconfig-settings-manager faac faad flashplugin-nonfree gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse ia32-libs icedtea-gcjwebplugin liblame0 non-free-codecs openjdk-6-jre unrar

I tried above code after adding all repositories as explained in preparation.
It is not executed,instead I receive an error that ia32-libs cannot be found.

What to do?

(ubuntu 8.04 on a laptop acer travelmate 6292)

[ubuntu-freak]

I tried above code after adding all repositories as explained in preparation.
It is not executed,instead I receive an error that ia32-libs cannot be found.

What to do?

(ubuntu 8.04 on a laptop acer travelmate 6292)

Not executed? It should install everything else. Are you sure you're running the 64-bit Ubuntu? Strange how those libs were the only package missing, especially as they are from the main repo.

[silkstone]

Many thanks ro - the part of your guide about downloading Adobe Flash v10 beta and installing libflashplayer.so from that seems to have stopped FF3 from closing when trying to load the second or third flash video from the BBC website and others.

But I did also have to remove libflashsupport for this to work, and I wonder if that advice should be included in the same section of your tutorial.

[ubuntu-freak]

Many thanks ro - the part of your guide about downloading Adobe Flash v10 beta and installing libflashplayer.so from that seems to have stopped FF3 from closing when trying to load the second or third flash video from the BBC website and others.

But I did also have to remove libflashsupport for this to work, and I wonder if that advice should be included in the same section of your tutorial.

Really? Others have said leaving libflashsupport installed made no difference. The long purge command does remove libflashsupport though.

Also, thanks for your comments.

[silkstone]

I ran...

sudo apt-get purge flashplugin-nonfree && sudo mkdir /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree && sudo cp -f ~/Desktop/libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/ && sudo ln -sf /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so /etc/alternatives/firefox-flashplugin && sudo ln -sf /etc/alternatives/firefox-flashplugin /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins/flashplayer-alternative.so

... and that worked but returned a message that I can't quite remember now - something like "could not remove the plugins folder because it is not empty".

Although the new flashplayer plugin was installed and being recognised by FF, it still shut down when trying to load the second or third flash video. I checked in Synaptic and libflashsupport was still installed, so I removed it and everything has been OK since.

Thanks again for your help.

[bluester]

I ran...

sudo apt-get purge flashplugin-nonfree && sudo mkdir /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree && sudo cp -f ~/Desktop/libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/ && sudo ln -sf /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so /etc/alternatives/firefox-flashplugin && sudo ln -sf /etc/alternatives/firefox-flashplugin /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins/flashplayer-alternative.so

... and that worked but returned a message that I can't quite remember now - something like "could not remove the plugins folder because it is not empty".

Although the new flashplayer plugin was installed and being recognised by FF, it still shut down when trying to load the second or third flash video. I checked in Synaptic and libflashsupport was still installed, so I removed it and everything has been OK since.

Thanks again for your help.

I ran into the same issue before (I was trying to get rid of all old flash plugins that were still installed after running the command once already; and reinstall the new flash plugin).
The error I received was because the directory "/usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree" already existed and it could not make it again - the command (to my knowledge) stops at that point and does not proceed. I had to run the following command:
'sudo apt-get purge flashplugin-nonfree && sudo rm /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree && sudo mkdir /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree && sudo cp -f ~/Desktop/libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/ && sudo ln -sf /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so /etc/alternatives/firefox-flashplugin && sudo ln -sf /etc/alternatives/firefox-flashplugin /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins/flashplayer-alternative.so'

I hope this helps....