Linux install

JæKæ

Hey lads,

Just installed Ubuntu there. I'm new enough to linux. What's the mp3 player for it? Something fairly minimal like winamp preferably.
Also, what's the best mail client?
Any other essential apps or software?

ntlbell

xmms

Try Thunderbird?

Essential apps?

I hate this question, find what you need to do try out a few apps and find your "essential" app

Saruman

Ubuntu does have an mp3 player, however due to license issues it does not have the codecs pre-installed.
Google mp3 on ubuntu and you will find instructions. You pretty much just download restricted format stuff and you will be fine.

Fallen Seraph

If you want a winamp 2 style mp3 player try XMMS, if you want a winamp 5 type thing, then I'm afraid you're out of luck. I reckon Linux just doesn't have anything as good as it, but Amarok does come usably close.

XMMS should play mp3 without any foostering, and Amarok sorta auto-installs mp3 support, but is very moody about it. It works in the end, though.

Also, I prefer thunderbird to the inbuilt evolution mail.

JæKæ

I'm trying to install Xmmc and rtorrent. They were downloaded in tarball form, which I extracted. Looking at the install guide for each, I need to run ./configure.
When I do, I get this error message:
'checking for C compiler default output file name... configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables'
I ran sudo apt-get install build-essential to get past this. When I try it again, I get 'configure: error: *** GLIB >= 1.2.2 not installed - please install first ***'

sobriquet

JæKæ wrote: »

I'm trying to install Xmmc and rtorrent. They were downloaded in tarball form, which I extracted. Looking at the install guide for each, I need to run ./configure.
When I do, I get this error message:
'checking for C compiler default output file name... configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables'
Do I need to install some C compiler?

You don't need to install software on Ubuntu by doing that. Go to System/Administration/Synaptic Package Manager, and use that instead. Search for xmms, and it'll give a list of packages related to it. Find the one titled simply 'xmms', and right-click and select 'mark for installation'. Click 'Apply' on the menu-bar to install it.

An alternative to using the GUI is to use apt-get on the command line (to which Synaptic is a front end). For xmms for example, you just need to type 'sudo apt-get install xmms'.

Software in Ubuntu comes prepackaged in what are called 'repositories.' This system means that any dependencies the package has can be resolved automatically - for xmms that might be libraries for Ogg and MP3 etc.

Hope that helps. For other commonly used packages, the Ubuntu Guide might be useful: http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Gutsy

Explosive_Cornflake

sudo aptitude install build-essential has to be one of the first commands you need to run after a base install of *buntu. It should get rid of most the errors for ./configure. Get a binary if you can.
If you are searching for anything else, aptitude search <str>, and you'll need the *-dev version of you are compiling from source.

JæKæ

thanks lads. I'm actually learning a fair bit by installing manually, rather than using the synaptics. Google and ubuntu forums show solutions for most errors
Explosive Cornflake: How do I get a binary?
'If you are searching for anything else, aptitude search <str>, and you'll need the *-dev version of you are compiling from source.'
How do I do this exactly

PogMoThoin

Here's a guide i always keep backed up for any friends who make a move to linux. This isn't my guide, so there are some programs that you'll not use, just install them all for a start, figure out which you'll use, & delete the ones you don't.

CUSTOMIZATION:

After you have installed Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon on your laptop you'll need to add some things, add the Medibuntu repository, and after that you'll need to add quite a few packages.
Here's how:

1.Go to Applications > Accessories > Terminal.

2.Enter this: sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/gutsy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

3.Hit enter.

4.Now enter: wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add - && sudo apt-get update

5.Hit enter.

6.When that has completed, close the Terminal.

7.Go to: System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager

8.Enter your password.

9.If you are a multimedia junkie like I am, you'll want to add these codecs and programs to make your life easier and so that DVD's, CD's, and Media files play properly and so you can convert them if you need to. I recommend you install these and if you don't like any of the programs you can always remove them later.
Hit the Search button, and individually search for the following and hit right click and Mark for Installation for all of them:
ubuntu-restricted-extras, firestarter, flac, gnash, vlc, mencoder, libmad-dev, ffmpeg, ffmpeg2theora, k3b, libk3b2-mp3, gtk-recordmydesktop, mplayer, sane, lame, acroread, mozilla-acroread, googleearth, w32codecs, pdfedit, iriverter, audacity, epiphany-browser, galeon, opera, libopenexr-dev, openexr, libaspell, libaspell-dev, streamtuner, bluefish, gFTP, thoggen, exfalso, flashplugin-nonfree, scribus, soundconverter, libdvdcss2.

10. Once Synaptic has completed installing all those programs, search for: gstreamer. Make sure that the following are installed, if they aren't then install them: gstreamer0.10-alsa, gstreamer0.10-esd, gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg, gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs, gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad, gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse, gstreamer0.10-plugins-base, gstreamer0.10-plugins-base-apps, gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly, gstreamer0.10-plugins-multiverse, gstreamer0.10-tools, gstreamer0.10-x, gstreamer0.10-pitfdll, libgstreamer0.10-0, libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0, totem-gstreamer.
Most of those should already be installed, but double check.

If you want to test how well everything is working, you should put an; mp3, ogg, flac, swf, flv, wmv, mp4, on your desktop and try to open each one. I recommend right clicking and selecting Properties, then Open With and choosing the right program for each. For flv files, use VLC. For swf files use Gnash. For mp3, flac, and off you use your preffered music player. For mp4 choose VLC. You should go online and test out your flash player and mplayer plugin too.

Ok, probably a really good time to restart the computer now. ;-)

Best of luck

Explosive_Cornflake

From the shell.
I use aptitude instead of apt-get, pretty much the same thing, but aptitude manages dependenices better upon removal.
All yours sources of apt are in /etc/apt/source.list
Uncomment the multiverse, backports, source ones (everything pretty much)
sudo aptitude update to see the changes
then aptitude search <pkg> so for xmms if you search you'll get back 131 results, one of which is xmm2, sudo aptitude install xmms2 will install it.
aptitude show <pkg> will give you some details.
The horrible generic response is man apt-get, but you will learn a lot from looking at the man page.
A binary is anything you don't compile yourself, so if you install it with apt, or download a .deb (and install it with dpkg -i <pkg>.deb) that's a binary. With ubuntu being so popular you'll find .debs for almost everything, but once you get comfortable you'll be downloading the source and making everything yourself for the cutting edge version.
Further questions, ask away.

JæKæ

Kyuss and linux, good combo!
I'm not too keen on that Xmms actually, reminds me of Win 95. Any other recommendation, maybe not quite as basic?
Pogmothoin and cornflake, cheers, I appreciate the tips there

ethernet

JæKæ wrote: »

Kyuss and linux, good combo!
I'm not too keen on that Xmms actually, reminds me of Win 95. Any other recommendation, maybe not quite as basic?
Pogmothoin and cornflake, cheers, I appreciate the tips there

Look at Banshee or VLC as well.

djmarkus

Amarok, without a doubt the best music player for linux

PogMoThoin

If your looking for something different in a media payer try Songbird, its open source, built on the mozilla platform & will remind you of firefox with tabs & add-ons. Looks a little bit like itunes with some great features.

JæKæ

Cheers lads.And what about a torrent program?
I have been recommended Ktorrent, Deluge, Transmission as gui-based programs, and Rtorrent as a CLI-based program.
Any views on these?

Explosive_Cornflake

I actually use µTorrent under wine. Works pretty well for the web access, although ktorrent is supposed to have gotten good.

markyboy

Explosive_Cornflake wrote: »

ktorrent is supposed to have gotten good.

I was sticking to Azureus, but made the switch last month. There are a few plugins you can add that make all the difference.

Amarok is fantastic as a music player. Does everything and more.

Explosive_Cornflake

Amarok is pretty good alright. Not the most stable though, but it's definitely the best music player on any platform in my opinion.
It has decent mtp and ipod support also. If your collection is large though, it's an idea to dump the sqlite for postgres or mysql though, speeds things up on a large collection.

Hedgepig

Amarok is the best. Not lightweight but good.

sound_wave

Amarok is a great music application alright but running under gnome its prone to the odd crash and launches http cleaner for some reason, in the end I stuck to using Rhythmbox and that does what I need it to do just fine.

Regarding a torrent client, KTorrent is great alright but for an equally good torrent client which intergrates well into Gnome I use Deluge which in my opinion mimics utorrent pretty well in both look and features.

JæKæ

I notice amorok crashing a bit alright, I get distortion at the start of songs too. I think I'll stick with Rhythmbox. It looks very like iTunes, but sure can't win them all.

pickarooney

XMMS has been replaced by Audacious. You might want to try the Full-screen version of Amarok also, which is classy enough in its own way.

Juk is kind of ugly but works rather well, Banshee is similar and Songbird, although much prettier, was very finicky I found. I can't remember the bug exactly but it forced me to give up on in after a week. Whatever it was might be resolved now.

Does anyone else find the volume in Amarok is really low no matter what settings are used? I tried running replaygain on my collection but if anything it made it quieter.

Explosive_Cornflake

Never had an issue with sound level in amarok. You've checked all the levels I assume. Anything weird in the engine being used?

Hedgepig

I never had problem with sound quality or volume in Amarok but I will concede that it does tend to crash at times on my system. I've never once been fully happy with a music player on any system. A few years ago I used beep media player for ages but that crashed too.

Capt'n Midnight

automatix is handy for installing many of those odds and ends
http://www.getautomatix.com/wiki/index.php?title=Installation