My experience with Ubuntu...not great

Paul Gear paul at libertysys.com.au
Wed Nov 4 12:51:23 GMT 2009


Ishwor Gurung wrote:
> ...
>> Well, the first problem was listening to music. MP3s were associated
>> with the movie player.  I managed to sort that out easy enough but
>> even when I pointed MP3s at Rhythmbox, no go...it can't play layer1
>> MP3s or something.  Not a good start.
>>     
>
> libmad - http://www.underbit.com/products/mad/ (Choose one you like
> down the bottom). Use Ubuntu's package manager called Synaptic to
> install any software that are provided by a particular software
> repository. http://packages.ubuntu.com/karmic/libmad0 has mad so you
> need to install libmad0 using Synaptic. If you prefer command line
> then -
> $ aptitude install libmad0; as root.
>
>   
What Ishwor didn't mention is the reason that this is difficult: MP3s
must be disabled in the default installation for legal reasons.  See
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/mp3 for more details.
> ...
>> OK, let's get Skype going.  I downloaded the proper version only to
>> have the install fail with the friendly message about a dependency
>> needing dbus >= 4.3 I think it was.  At this point I can imagine the
>> average mug giving up and I wouldn't blame them, but I was
>> determined.
>>     
> http://packages.ubuntu.com/karmic/libdbus-1-3. That's in Karmic. I
> don't know how/why its asking for >= 4.3.
>
>   
>> It took me a while to find dbus to download but I did it.   Oh shucks,
>> it depended on something or another XML.  I grabbed that and guess
>> what...on and on it went.  It was just too hard.
>>     
> Yep. Always try and use a package manager _unless_ the need be for
> source install.
>   
You can find the package manager in System -> Administration -> Synaptic
Package Manager.  If you had selected dbus in there, it would have
pulled in all the dependencies automatically.

I suggest you also use System -> Administration -> Software Sources to
enable the universe, multiverse, and partner repositories before doing
this - then Skype (and almost everything else you'll ever need) should
just show up in there as well.
> This is not meant as a troll, I am genuinely disappointed and look
> forward to hearing from people about what you think...maybe even some
> solutions, but I fear it is going to be ongoing dramas every time I
> try to install something.
The most important thing to remember with installing software is: use
the right tool for the job - this usually means Synaptic in the GUI, or
aptitude/apt-get from the command line.

Hope this helps - welcome to Ubuntu, and i hope your experience improves
as you learn and explore!

Regards,
Paul

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-au/attachments/20091104/207f8749/attachment.htm 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: paul.vcf
Type: text/x-vcard
Size: 203 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-au/attachments/20091104/207f8749/attachment.vcf 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: smime.p7s
Type: application/x-pkcs7-signature
Size: 4646 bytes
Desc: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature
Url : https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-au/attachments/20091104/207f8749/attachment.bin 


More information about the ubuntu-au mailing list