Multimedia Fixes for Hardy and Intrepid!

Ah, multimedia...who doesn't enjoy a nice DVD movie, or a relaxing thrash metal/screamo CD...um...bad example...lol! Anyways, if you're a music/video lover like me, you'll probably be very, very disappointed when you first fire up Ubuntu.

This is because Ubuntu can't come bundled with mp3, DVD encoding/decoding/playing features by default due to copyrights and stupid laws. Anyways, this can easily be solved in a few steps...So come on, let's try it out shall we?...

First, once you have a fresh install of Ubuntu running, and you want mp3 and music playback in general you must make sure your sound and video cards are being used correctly. Once you have everything set, you should open Synaptic (System>Administration>Synaptic package manager". Then search for:

ubuntu-restricted-extras

Install it and then your music, java and flash should work. But DVDs are still missing, or at least they play choppy and gross...Don't panic! Since you already have Synaptic open search for:

libdvdcss2
libdvdread3

and install them. (A faster way to install these packages is by typing: sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras libdvdcss2 libdvdread3 in to a terminal.) Once you've installed those two, it might be a good idea to reboot the computer. Everytime you install or remove packages, programs and things that have something to do with configurations you must restart to avoid ugly messes.

Ok, now that your computer rebooted, it might be a good idea to install VLC via Synaptic. This little program can cover all your music, video, DVD needs in a neatly and smooth way.

These fixes work on both Hardy Heron and Intrepid Ibex, I've tested both versions and I can assure you these fixes work. But in case they don't just post as comment below and I'll be more than happy to help. So don't be shy!

Hope this helped someone! NOTE: I've covered all of this before, I just wanted to compile everything in a single post to help people find the answers to their questions quicker.
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There I Went Again!

I just couldn't resist and after long hours of putting everything back together on Hardy, I went crazy and reformatted everything to put Intrepid Ibex BETA back into place! And I must say I LOVE IT!!! But there are still some major bugs...

I'll post the good things first...which will probably be "spoilers" for you guys, but I can't keep all this goodness to myself!

First, I was very happy to know that the updates were fixed and my wireless internet kept working even after updating network-manager (which was the culprit of last time's disaster). Then I went into more detail and was even happier to know that I won't need btnx anymore! My mouse is fully recognized! (Logitech V220) Everything works including horizontal scrolling, which was useless on Hardy unless I had btnx installed. Btnx is still not in the repos so that's why I haven't talked much about it, and I guess I won't. If you want more info about how to install and use btnx check this tutorial made available on Ubuntu Unleashed!

Now, the sad/bad stuff...

Mac4Lin is currently almost completely useless, anything apart from the cursors won't work (at least with the provided Installation Script, I haven't tried it with the old fashioned manual installation way).

Another thing that ticked me off is that Compiz wants to play rough with Intrepid. I tried to activate the Magnifier plugin in Compiz which I've always used, and Compiz unleashed a violent rampage against my video driver and Ubuntu in general and kept kicking me out to the GDM Login screen...I had to fix that manually with a LiveCD and tons of seek&destroy. I had to erase Compiz configurations through the LiveCD and reinstall it once inside Intrepid again.

Anyways, those two are my main concerns right now, but I know they'll be fixed in the final release! So I don't worry too much! There are also a lot of small bugs and crashes everywhere, but it's nothing hard to overcome.

So I hope you guys enjoyed my post and that you keep enjoying Ubuntu Hardy and very soon Intrepid Ibex...coming soon to a computer near you!
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