Help with using Ubuntu 7.04

[eddie]

1) There is no download manager for Linux which can integrate with FIrefox. If there is tell me plz. I tried aria & d4x. They are next to useless

downloadthemall has already been suggested and it is an excellent solution. If by any chance you don't like it, then you can use flashgot to integrate download managers like d4x etc. in firefox.

 

[gxsaurav]

Well DOwnlooad manager problem is solved. Now I need help in how to install GAIM 2 beta 7? Can someone refer me to either a deb package, synaptic source or something like that from where i can download it.

Leave it, I installed it myself. Downloaded the deb package for Pidgin after searching on google. So flaw 2

2) Beta apps are not there in synaptic even if i want to install them.

Now looking for updated Guification plugin for beta 7

Anyway, I played an AVI video & Ubuntu told me to download gstreamer codec automatically as expected, neat. It said "make sure it is legal in your country" . However 3gp files do not give audio.

I am still looking for a proper dock application to emulate Mac OS X dock.
Here is my desktop so far. Now is there anyway of getting compositing effects like shadows etc? is that what beryl do?

Here is how my desktop looks like (hides from Macboys)

*img396.imageshack.us/img396/5683/71001058oi5.th.jpg

Here is a Linkin Park Video Playing.

*img479.imageshack.us/img479/5462/shotwb4.th.jpg

I installed the restricted packages & JAVA, wma doesn't playes in Totem but plays in Rhythembox. Isn't there something like centralised codecs which every player can use?

 

[mehulved]

Well DOwnlooad manager problem is solved.

and I hope your FUD gets over soon too.

I installed it myself. Downloaded the deb package for Pidgin after searching on google. So flaw 2

if you don't find a deb, then install it using checkinstall

However 3gp files do not give audio.

I don't know about gstreamer but there was this problem in w32codecs you needed to compile w32codecs with amr support. Try to check for gstreamer codecs with amr. 3gp files use amr for audio normally. So, it seems you're missing some amr codecs.

I am still looking for a proper dock application to emulate Mac OS X dock.

there's avant dock it seems pretty much like MacOS one but I've never used it and I guess it needs beryl to get that proper look but give it a try, I've never used it myself.

I installed the restricted packages & JAVA, wma doesn't playes in Totem but plays in Rhythembox. Isn't there something like centralised codecs which every player can use?

what backend for totem? xine or gstreamer?

 

[gxsaurav]

Actuilly Download manager problem is not solved. I just got downloadthemall extension which forms from firefox but is not a standalone download manager. Oh well, in ubuntu there is only one browser by default so it does the job but i can't customize it much.

@ mehul

whats checkinstall? I still got that tar.gz file which is source code. How do i compile that? is there something like Gdebi for tar.gz which can automatically compile it. Also beta packages are not there in synaptic how to enable those.

The default media player for videos is Totam. I just followed the noob proof way, played a file & it said to install codecs, so i did. Now DIvX playes fine using gstreamer but 3gp do not. My music collection is in WMA which was not playing in rythembox so i installed Ubuntu restricted packages which was about 32 MB+ with JAVA runtime too using Add\Remove program. Now if i open Rythembox & then play wma it plays fine but not all files for some reason beyond my knowledge. It skips some songs, however if i double click on a wma it opens in totem & refuces to play, it says internal error. I downloaded the latest deb & installed for W32 codecs too. So question

3) How do i associate the wma file to always open with rythembox.

VLC for some reason is just not starting so i uninstalled it, Reinstalling it, too bad it doesn't provides minimize to tray. Like I said, isn't there some unified codec database so that all codecs play in all players?

I got avant dock in form of source code, so again it is useless for me as there is no GUI package manager for tar.gz

about backend for totam. I don't know, i haven't changed anything so must be default, i guess gstreamer cos it told me to download gstreamer packages

totem backend is gstreamer, & gr8 music is playing with no media player running how do i stop it.

 

[mehulved]

With wget around I don't see why linux would need another download manager, though there are a couple of them around.
why do you insist on getting everything in source form? If you want source form learn to manage it, it will need you to understand the working of CLI. If you don't want to learn CLI well then use the PACKAGE MANAGER. Avant dock has to be there in the repositories just that it may require you to add an extra one.

 

[gxsaurav]

Totem had gstreamer backend. & again a problem. I removed the gstreamer backend & switched to XINE. Now divx videos won't play in totem but wma does.

 

[kalpik]

^^ Install totem-xine and libxine-extracodecs

 

[freebird]

libxine1-ffmpeg it should be ? along with totem-xine or totem-gstreamer.also totem-gstreamer improved a LOT.

 

[gxsaurav]

right now i m in linux.

OK, so totem & rythembox both with Gstreamer backend doesn't play some of my wma files. But they play DivX AVI fine. Now the performance & frame rates is choopy but that i can understand cos i m playing in VM. Or maybe some hardware problem.

So going to follow what u guys just said, hope it works. I am uninstalling TOtem-gstreamer & installing totem-XINE & Libxine ffmpeg.

By the way, what does backend means? Is Totem 2 things? like gstreamer playback engine + a GUI skin using that playback engine?

 

[kalpik]

^^ libxine-extracodecs will automatically install libxine1-ffmpeg

 

[gxsaurav]

Thats it, linux got some serious shortcomings with multimedia playback. Can we have a single all in one player? cos Linux does need one seriously.

Just installed Totem-xine & libxine-extra codecs & libxine-ffmpeg. Now all my wma play fine in Totem but still they don't play in rhythmbox. For video playback in totem XINE sux, if the quality of gstreamer is that good in totem in VM that I can just imagine what it will be in a regular computer.

I am back to gstreamer backend in totem. Atleast videos play fine but this brings me back to where I started, lack of WMA playback in Totem & rhythmbox

So, is there any aduio player for linux using XINE backend cos XINE is atleast playing all my WMAs.

When one thing works other doesn't. I tried using mplayer but it cannot play a playlist & only playes one file at a time. If you have a working wma/audio player for linux let me know]

Well I prefer Gstreamer in Totem so i m installing all the gstreamer .10.xxxx version plugins in synaptic. something will work atleast I hope. What is "bad" set?

@ Mehul

No luck with 3gp file so far

VLC PLayer for some reason doesn't give any audio output.

I forgot to mention, the UI fonts are very bad in Ubuntu, atleast to me they don't look nice. I M changing all of them manually to segoe UI right now.

 

[eddie]

Thats it, linux got some serious shortcomings with multimedia playback. Can we have a single all in one player? cos Linux does need one seriously.

No we cannot and we do not want it either. The whole Linux community is moving towards keeping things simple by splitting things between engines & GUI and that is how it should be. If you don't like GUI of a particular player, you can have a new one but you can keep the same engine. This reduces the redundancy and in-turn increases the capacity of developers to focus on improving a particular part of the project. For example: GStreamer/Xine developers can work on improving the core engine or back-ends while Totem/Kaffeine/KMplayer/Amarok developers can concentrate on improving the user interface part.

If you have a working wma/audio player for linux let me know

I am not a GNOME user but all my WMA files play fine on Audacious/Amarok with Xine engine. BTW since you are already using Linux...why not try Amarok (arguably the best audio player on planet)?

 

[gxsaurav]

amarok uses XINE right? but it's for kde means 48 MB Download in GNOME. I finished my work in linux but will try this amarok tomorrow. I wrote my verdict about the sorry state of linux which I will post tomorrow

 

[praka123]

Using amaork or exaile or rhythmbox are the same.whatever backends it have.It will depend on personal choices whether GNOME or kde for DE.
as reg so called sorry state u gonna post.I dont understand.3gp videos can be very well played in Linux.
I tried playing some clips from *3gpforfree.net/ and it all played very smoothly.
did u installed gstreamer plugins as per:
*ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Feisty
install gstreamer0.10 plugins-all or @tleast gst-ugly to have these fuctionality.

 

[mehulved]

amarok uses XINE right? but it's for kde means 48 MB Download in GNOME. I finished my work in linux but will try this amarok tomorrow. I wrote my verdict about the sorry state of linux which I will post tomorrow

get the amarok-xine package.

 

[gxsaurav]

@ prakka

3GP Video does playes in totem but not the audio. Same goes with many other wma's of mine which do not give audio output with even VLC Player.

I m downloading Amarok xine, cos i already got all possiber gstreamer packages & ugly pack

 

[praka123]

^ I got audio everything working.btw do u have a muted volume?jus check

 

[gxsaurav]

lolz,....audio is fine. I got audio in some files while not in some others.

Looks like ubuntu isn't for me. I need to download lods of things, will check if Kubuntu 7.04 is good

Hmm....amarok worked, so that does it for me, the trial is over & I m back to Windows. Like I have said many times & I am saying it again, Linux has potential but right now it is nowhere close to Windows or Mac in desktop usage for mass acceptance. Obviously some fan boys will bash me saying "who the hell told me to try Linux". Well, I did it cos I had 2 days to spare & i just wanted to.

1) Linux without internet is nothing. Synaptic helps a lot but you will have to rely on the repository for packages. If some application is not in synaptic then u r mostly out of luck

2) Most of the apps which are not available in the native .deb format, have no other way to install for a general user.

I found some packages in either rpm format or source code of tar.gz. Now, I tried converting the rpm to deb using alien, it made the deb file but on installation it didn't show up in GAIM. So either wait or search for .deb or be out of luck. There is no guarantee that converted rpm will work.

Hardcore users can always go ahead & compile from the source code, but here is the thing again. In ubuntu deb packages installed automatically using gdebi which I really liked so why not something for these source code? Why not something which can write these commands automatically

./configure
make
make install

instead of the user to read a readme file to compile it? Just compile using the default settings cos general user will not enter commands like -gcc-g4 etc to optimize it. In other words make compiling from source an easy GUI based task not a command line based task with an application like gdebi.

3) I on my trial refrained from using the command line as much as possible. Its 2007, a general home user doesn't want to learn commands & type them, even though some might argue that command line is easy. For some users it is, for some it is not.

4) A unified codec system is very much required. There is gstreamer & XINE. Now I don't know which one is better but in Totem using gstreamer & every plug-in available for gstreamer installed, I was not able to play all of my wma files. With XINE backend I was able to play all my wma files in totem but again the video quality suffered which I am attributing to the VMware video card (Software emulated).

Linux has no proper music player & library manager available. I used exaile & rythembox which both are based on gstreamer so the same problem as above. Some wma played while some did not. I couldn't even switch the engine to XINE in these. I installed everything, restricted codecs, win32 codecs, XINE FAAD everything, still no go.

Like I said a unified codec approach is really required. So that all codec’s are at a single location & shared, meaning all the media players can use the same codecs. If I go in control panel & select the XINE engine means all the media players switch automatically to XINE engine. Some users might argue but this is a good thing that Windows have been using from ages. Unified direct show codecs for audio & videos which results in any media player which is directshow compatible to play using that centralized codec.

Or if u do want to use multiple engines then make a player such that it switches the engine if one engine is not able to play a file. Like in my case, totem should have switched to XINE engine automatically when it encountered new WMAs.

About photo management in Linux, well I was not expecting an ACDSee clone but atleast an XNView clone. Again both FSpot & gthumb are not upto the mark. FSpot doesn’t shows a folder view while gthumb doesn’t let me increase the thumbnail size. Anyway, gthumb was a bit good. Again, linux needs some good apps to achieve desktop acceptance. Fpost & gthumb are severally limited in features compared to any windows counterpart.

These 2 point, audio video & photo management summarize the multimedia flaws of linux. Unless these are solved Linux is not a threat to Windows in desktop market.

Now coming to the usability part. I wanted rythembox to be my default audio players. Means when I click on wma file it should open in rythembox instead of totem. How do I do that? I selected an audio file -> & the open with dialog in from Windows 98 in functionality. I had to write rythembox cos it was not showing up in the dialog. Ok fine, I wrote but it opened rythembox but didn’t play the file as I intended for it to. There was some other command like “ rythembox –u “ or something like that. Go tell this to a noob who is just trying to play an mp3.

I tried GAIM for IM & it looked & worked like some 2001 era chat client. No webcam support, no voice chat support. (yahoo can be attributes that it is proprity)

I went to Trash & where is the "restore" button?

From quite some time I saw Linux users advertising & bashing MS in this forum. Here is the thing; you all need to understand one thing that singing this “MS is monopoly” song will not help you in achieving anything. Instead making proper things will help u instead. Stop singing the tune that MS in monopoly & we windows users are blind, why should we bother so much with Linux when Windows does everything already without slowing us in any manner. There are many users who do not mind paying money for less hassle. This is how the software industry started, you pay me money & I will make software for u. What wrong in it? Ok, free stuff in money is good for home users but again, make Linux good enough then so that it is at least comparable to Windows or Mac in features.

No one was able to help me here in even compiling a package. Kalpik was the only linux user sensible enough who really is a helper. Appreciated man.

One thing which closed source companies & GPL makers should do is that closed source companies should relese decoders for things like music format or video format in closed source & GPL should allow these properity packages to be included in Linux distro. Decoders are free to use & distribute, it's just GPL which is holding back linux distros to include such packages. Whats the problem in colaborating? Linux has some potential but unless it has enough features, it is not even close to beating or competing the rest of the 2 main desktop OS.

 

[mehulved]

Whats the problem in colaborating?

Cos closing the source sucks and patents suck even more. Knowledge is free and it needs to be shared freely.

 

[freebird]

Will post soon with detail.the audio problem u mentioned and playing .wma,.wmv files are not at all faced by me and many others.
but You missed a BIG point.
Linux is NOT Windows:

Problem #1: Linux isn't exactly the same as Windows.

You'd be amazed how many people make this complaint. They come to Linux, expecting to find essentially a free, open-source version of Windows. Quite often, this is what they've been told to expect by over-zealous Linux users. However, it's a paradoxical hope.
The specific reasons why people try Linux vary wildly, but the overall reason boils down to one thing: They hope Linux will be better than Windows. Common yardsticks for measuring success are cost, choice, performance, and security. There are many others. But every Windows user who tries Linux, does so because they hope it will be better than what they've got.
Therein lies the problem.
It is logically impossible for any thing to be better than any other thing whilst remaining completely identical to it. A perfect copy may be equal, but it can never surpass. So when you gave Linux a try in hopes that it would be better, you were inescapably hoping that it would be different. Too many people ignore this fact, and hold up every difference between the two OSes as a Linux failure.
As a simple example, consider driver upgrades: one typically upgrades a hardware driver on Windows by going to the manufacturer's website and downloading the new driver; whereas in Linux you upgrade the kernel.
This means that a single Linux download & upgrade will give you the newest drivers available for your machine, whereas in Windows you would have to surf to multiple sites and download all the upgrades individually. It's a very different process, but it's certainly not a bad one. But many people complain because it's not what they're used to.
Or, as an example you're more likely to relate to, consider Firefox: One of the biggest open-source success stories. A web browser that took the world by storm. Did it achieve this success by being a perfect imitation of IE, the then-most-popular browser?
No. It was successful because it was better than IE, and it was better because it was different. It had tabbed browsing, live bookmarks, built-in searchbar, PNG support, adblock extensions, and other wonderful things. The "Find" functionality appeared in a toolbar at the bottom and looked for matches as you typed, turning red when you had no match. IE had no tabs, no RSS functionality, searchbars only via third-party extensions, and a find dialogue that required a click on "OK" to start looking and a click on "OK" to clear the "Not found" error message. A clear and inarguable demonstration of an open-source application achieving success by being better, and being better by being different. Had FF been an IE clone, it would have vanished into obscurity. And had Linux been a Windows clone, the same would have happened.
So the solution to problem #1: Remember that where Linux is familiar and the same as what you're used to, it isn't new & improved. Welcome the places where things are different, because only here does it have a chance to shine.

more:
*linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm