VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player and multimedia framework capable of reading most audio and video formats (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, DivX, MPEG-1, mp3, ogg, aac …) as well as DVDs, Audio CDs VCDs, and various streaming protocols.

It can also be used as a media converter or a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on networks.

Installing VLC on Ubuntu using PPAs

Let’s see how to install VLC on Ubuntu (Jaunty) using PPAs.

Add the following lines to your Software Sources Third-Party Software tab.

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/c-korn/vlc/ubuntu jaunty main
 
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/c-korn/vlc/ubuntu jaunty main

Adding the Signing Key

We need to add the signing key. You can do it by simply typing the following command at the terminal.

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 7613768D

However, if you are behind a firewall (like me the keys are not added as http://keyserver.ubuntu.com is blocked ) you can go the signing key page and copy the key into gedit and save the file by the name vlc.

Import the saved file into your Software Sources Authentication tab.

Installing VLC

Drop to terminal and type the following commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install vlc vlc-plugin-esd mozilla-plugin-vlc

Once installed, you can run VLC by going to Applications > Sound & Video > VLC Media Player

You can also make video files to open with VLC by default. All you have to do is to right click the video file, go to properties and select Open With tab and select VLC Media Player.

Links

VLC PPA page

https://launchpad.net/~c-korn/+archive/vlc

VLC Signing key page

http://keyserver.ubuntu.com:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xD739676F7613768D

Earcandy

Features

• All volume adjustments are fades
• Fade out music/video players on skype call
• Fade to music player with focus when more than one
• Fade out music player when video playing
• Push sound to USB headsets on plugin
• Categories to assign to clients
• Sniffs desktop files to guess application category … music/video/VoIP
• Simplified pref UI for creating rules
• Volume sniffing to fix youtube video issue
• PID matching
• Reset volumes for streams on exit (so streams dont get stuck at a low level)

Installation

Installation of EarCandy is fairly simple.

Adding the PPA to the software sources

1. In order to add the EarCandy PPA to software sources list open software sources by going to System > Administration > Software Sources

2. Go to Third-Party Software tab and click the add botton and add the following lines one by one

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/earcandy-devel/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/earcandy-devel/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

Adding the OpenPGP keys

1. To add the OpenPGP keys of EarCandy, go to the OpnePGP signing key page (link in the link sections).

2. Copy the key (looks like the one below) on to gedit and save the file as EarCandy.

3. Go to the Authentication tab in Software Sources window and click Import Key File to import the EarCandy signing key you just created.

Installing EarCandy

We are now left with installing the application. To do so drop to terminal and type the following command.

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install earcandy

This should install EarCandy. Once started it’ll run unobtrusively in the system tray.

Note: You’ll get an error like the one below once you start earcandy.

There’s a small bug and earcandy won’t launch as it’s path by default is /usr/bin/earcandy. However, the correct path is /usr/bin/ear_candy. You’ll have to change the path in the startup application menu to /usr/bin/ear_candy.

Links

PPA Page

https://launchpad.net/~earcandy-devel/+archive/ppa

Signing key

http://keyserver.ubuntu.com:11371/pks/lookup?search=0xE03A1B636105AA6F2002C0482D01D614E00F07B5&op=index

About the Bug

http://www.mail-archive.com/universe-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com/msg115858.html

Features

• Innovative interface designed to be clear and simple
• Automatic saving of all data.
• Loud reminders
• A rich text journal for everyday in which you can even drag and drop images
• Searching through every entry in the journal and in the schedules
• A clear and simple todo list ( general one, not for every day)
• A flexible timetable for students which even supports different content for odd and even weeks (this is used by universities)
• A student booklet in which the user can keep track of the marks he gets in school, it even calculates averages and stores the date when the mark was given.It
• also contains absences too.
• The ability to print any page (the calendar, the todo list, the timetable and the booklet are separate pages)
• The ability to choose the storing mode: text files, sqlite database or MySQL database over the network.
• The ability to upload the stored data to an FTP server and download it. This is useful, because the user can access the data wherever he is.
• Ability to save between storing modes(so the risk of data loss is even lower)
• Maximal configurability
• 14 languages:
  English,Russian,Portuguese,Spanish,Slovenian,Estonian,Albanian,Macedonian,Hungarian,Romanian,Dutch,German,French,Polish

Let’s see how to install qOrganizer.

1. We’ll have to download the necessary deb file. Download link is mentioned at the end of the post.

2. Double click the downloaded file (qorganizer-3.1-4-i386.deb) to install qOrganizer.

3. You can start qOrganizer by going to Application > Office > qOrganizer

Links

Home page

http://qorganizer.sourceforge.net

Download qOrganizer for Ubuntu

http://sourceforge.net/projects/qorganizer/files/

• Fullscreen & Slideshow
• Rotate, flip, save, delete images
• Animation support
• Browse only selected images
• Navigation window
• Set image as wallpaper (only under GNOME, see INSTALL file)
• Simple interface

Install Viewnior

To install viewnior download the deb file mentioned at the end of the post. Double click it and install.

Running Viewnior

Go to Applications > Graphics > Viewnior to start Viewnior

Download Viewnior Deb File

http://cloud.github.com/downloads/xsisqox/Viewnior/viewnior_0.5-1ubuntu1_i386.deb

]]> http://linuxhub.net/2009/08/viewnior-a-simple-and-elegant-image-viewer/feed/ 9 http://linuxhub.net/2009/08/gedit-plugins-extension-and-customization-guide/ http://linuxhub.net/2009/08/gedit-plugins-extension-and-customization-guide/#comments Fri, 07 Aug 2009 11:12:53 +0000 Vivek http://linuxhub.net/?p=367 Sometime back one of my friend tweeted saying he could install notepad++ using wine on Ubuntu. We had a good discussion on why he doesn’t prefer using gedit or similar applications which come as native applications for Linux. His argument was because Notepad++ is highly extensible. So, I thought of looking at ways to extend gedit and make it gedit++ . Following guide will show how to extend gedit to make it even more powerful text editor that what it already is.

Enabling Line Numbers on Gedit

Line numbers are very important for coders and by default gedit doesn’t have line numbers enabled. In order to enable line numbers in gedit, go to

Edit > Preferences

Under the view tab, check the box that says Display line numbers.

You will now have line numbers on your gedit. You can also check “Highlight current line” to have a better typing experience.

Auto Save Gedit files

For lazy people like me who repent of not saving the file, there’s a feature that comes to your rescue. It enables autosave of file.

Go to Edit > Preferences > Editor (tab)

and select the checkbox that reads “Autosave files every”. I have set it to 5 minutes.

Changing the look and feel (Making Gedit colorful)

Go to the tab on the preferences window which reads Font & Colors and uncheck “Use system fixed width font” and choose one of  the color schemes.

Use/Install plugins

This is one of my favorite features. You can extend Gedit by installing plugins. Following is a list of official plugins:

Here follows a list of plugins currently available in gedit-plugins:

• Bracket Completion: Add automatically a closing bracket when you insert one
• Charmap: Select characters from a charactermap
• Code Comment: Comment or uncomment blocks of code
• Color picker: Select and insert a color from a dialog (for html, css, php)
• Join lines/ Split lines: Join or split multiple lines through Ctrl+J and Ctrl+Shift+J
• Session Saver: Allow to bookmark working sessions in order to get them back for further use
• Smart Spaces: Allow to unindent like if you were using tabs while you’re using spaces
• Show tabbar: A very basic plugin which shows or hides the gedit tabbar
• Terminal: A simple terminal widget accessible from the bottom panel

You can install these plugins using the following command by dropping to the terminal:

sudo apt-get install gedit-plugins

Third Party Plugins

And if you thought you had enough of extending Gedit, wait there’s more. You can find and exaggerating list of third party plugins at:

http://live.gnome.org/Gedit/Plugins#third_party

Final Result

Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)

The VirtualBox Linux kernel driver (vboxdrv) is either not loaded or there is a permission problem with /dev/vboxdrv. Re-setup the kernel module by executing

‘/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup’

as root. Users of Ubuntu, Fedora or Mandriva should install the DKMS package first. This package keeps track of Linux kernel changes and recompiles the vboxdrv kernel module if necessary.

About DKMS

This package contains the framework for the Dynamic Kernel Module. Support (DKMS) method for installing and updating kernel modules.

Solution

Install the DKMS package by typing the follow command at the terminal.

sudo apt-get install dkms

This should install DKMS and should take care of coordinating upgrades of individual applications with upgrades of the linux kernel in future, so they always stay in synch.

However we have to still fix the current virtualbox error. To do so, reinstall VirtualBox. Follow the steps at How to install virtualbox on Ubuntu 9.04 and run WindowsXP as virtual OS.

Don’t worry about your current setting and VMs and Vdi disks. All the settings will be saved. You’ll no more face a similar situation once you have DKMS and wont have to worry about Linux Kernel Upgrade.

Homepage

http://linux.dell.com/dkms

Songbird

Homepage

http://getsongbird.com/

Description

Songbird is an open-source customizable music player.

Users can add features and change functionality in Songbird by installing extensions. Community coded extensions are available on Songbird’s addons support page.

Skins are referred to as “feathers” in Songbird, and give users and artists the ability to change the look of Songbird via an extension which generates a default skin.

Download

Let us download the deb file of songbird from here.

Install and run songbird

1. Once you have downloaded the deb file, installation is pretty simple. Just double click the file to install songbird.
2. You can run songbird by going to Applications > Sound & Video > Songbird.

When you run it for the first time you’ll be greeted with various screens

Following is how the main window of songbird looks like:

In order to install a new theme for songbird, you can go to the following link and click install to install a new theme.

http://addons.songbirdnest.com/addons?category=appearance

To get new extensions in order to customise song bird go to the following link:

http://addons.songbirdnest.com/recommended

We hope this guide makes it easier for you to install songbird on Ubuntu.

There could also be scenarios like you want to play Windows based games on your Ubuntu and wished there was a way. In all such circumstances Wine will come to your rescue. Let’s see how to install wine on your Jaunty machine:

Home Page

http://winehq.org/

Description

Wine is a free software application that aims to allow Unix-like computer operating systems on the x86 or x86-64 architecture to execute programs written for Microsoft Windows. ~Wikipedia

Installation

1. Start the Software Sources program as we’ll have to add the repositories of Wine for Ubuntu (Jaunty). Go to System > Administration > Software Sources to start the software sources.

2. Click on the tab that reads Third Party Softwares. Click the Add button to add the repositories.

3. Add the following line to the APT line box:

deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt jaunty main #WineHQ - Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope"

4. Download an authentication key to be added to the trusted key list of the repository. You can download the key here. Right click on the link and click “Save link as..“. Save the key on your Desktop.

5. We’ll now have to add this key for wine in the trusted key list. To do so, click the tab on the Software Sources window which says Authentication.

6. Click Import Key File and import the downloaded key from your Desktop.

7. Click close. You’ll be prompted to reload the software channel. Click Reload.

8. In order to install wine, click this link. You’ll prompted with a window which says install. Click install to being the installation.

Once installed Wine will appear Wine will appear under Applications > Wine.

Let’s install a Windows based application using wine on Ubuntu. For the purpose of testing we’ll install IPMessenger which is only availalble for Windows. Download a copy here.

Extract IPMSG.exe and double click on IPMsg.exe to start using IP Messenger on Ubuntu.

Similarly you can install other windows applications like, MS Office, Photoshop, dreamweaver etc. Enjoy the windows apps on Ubuntu!

Skype

Home page

http://www.skype.com

Description

We all love something for nothing. With Skype’s free software – by the way, it works seamlessly with your internet connection – you can chat away with free Skype-to-Skype calls and never worry about cost, time or distance. Share the love and get your friends to download Skype so you can talk, instant message (IM) or make video calls for nothing. You can also make local, long distance and international calls to phones and mobiles at great rates too.

Installation

1. Download the deb file for skype for Ubuntu here.
2. Double click on the downloaded deb file (skype-debian_2.0.0.72-1_i386.deb) to begin installation.

This should install skype on your machine.

Running Skype

1. In order to start skype post installation go to Applications > Internet > Skype.

2. You should see the End User License window. Click agree to start skype

3. Enter your user name and password to start using Skype

Have fun skyping on Ubuntu!

XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is really very easy to install and to use – just download, extract and start.

Let’s see how to install XAMPP.

Installing XAMPP

1. Download the latest version of XAMPP for Linux from here.

2. Bring up your run prompt by hitting ALT+F2 and type “gnome-terminal” (without quotes) to bring up terminal window.

3. Type the following to begin the installation:

cd Desktop

sudo tar xvfz xampp-linux-1.7.1.tar.gz -C /opt

This means we are installing XAMPP in /opt directory. If everything goes right you’ll have XAMPP installed.

Starting XAMPP

In order to start XAMPP, type the following in your terminal window

sudo /opt/lampp/lampp start

Test XAMPP Installation

You can test your XAMPP installation by opening firefox and typing localhost in the address bar.

You’ll see the following screen

Select your desired language and you are good to go.

Enjoy the journey of developing great web application with a great LAMP package on your Ubuntu!