Kubuntu noob - How do I install VLC?

Van Hellseek · 15 Jul 2012 at 18:15

After replacing a hard drive on a netbook, I couldn't get windows to install on the new drive, so I've turned to Kubuntu, which has installed perfectly on the first attempt.

Only problem is the default media player won't play my movies. Even after downloading the codecs when promted. I do get picture, but no sound.

So I figure VLC would probably work. But when I click the ubuntu download link on the VLC homepage I just get an error message.

A google seems to suggest I need to open a program called 'adept' and install it from there, but I can't fint adept anywhere. :confused:

randal · 15 Jul 2012 at 18:19

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install vlc

from a terminal should do it.

|Thomas| · 15 Jul 2012 at 18:21

The easiest way to do this would be to open the terminal, called 'konsole' in Kubuntu, and type

Code:

sudo apt-get install vlc

Type in your password, then press Y and let it install

.

edit: beaten

PermaBanned · 15 Jul 2012 at 18:32

Quick google suggests that Kubuntu uses Muon as a software centre. Do you have it in your menu? If so, open it and search for VLC. Should be able to install it by clicking 'more info' then 'install' or something like that. I'm sure you can figure it out

Linux distros use a very different software management system than Windows. Each distro has a (or several) repositories of software that have been approved/tested/whatever. You can download and install from these repositories using a software manager, like Muon, or commands in a terminal emulator- i believe since it's Ubuntu based you would do something like 'sudo apt-get install vlc'. I don't know what happened to Synaptic, but that's not really important.

Systematic release distros like Ubuntu, which offer new releases every so often, will use much the same repositories throughout each release, occasionally updating a few packages here and there. Rolling release distros like Arch will update the repos as soon as an update is released (or at least, as soon as it's sanely possible to update after an update is released).

While most distros have very large repos with a huge variety of software, they don't have everything. It is possible to install software without using them. There are many ways to do this, Arch for example has the AUR (Arch User Repository). In Ubuntu as i remember there are three main options. PPAs: personal package archives which you can usually just add to your software manager and then that package will turn up in your searches. There's .deb files, which are probably the easiest to use, similar to .exe in that you basically just download then double click only there's no annoying wizard/license to sign. And then there's tarballs, which it's probably best to explain when you come to them

Van Hellseek · 15 Jul 2012 at 19:06

Using Konsole seems to have worked. Cheers.

Just out of interest though, for a newcomer to non-windows OS, is there a better choice than Kubuntu? I almost chose Mint Cinnamon.

Something more suitable, or stick with Kubuntu?

PermaBanned · 15 Jul 2012 at 19:09

I would have gone with Mint, yes. But there's nothing wrong with KDE. Not sure if Kubuntu is the best KDE distro though...

If you want to play around then by all means do. Try a few different things, see what you like. The only thing that will suffer is your bandwidth

masterluke · 16 Jul 2012 at 08:35

Mint Cinnamon would probably have been a better choice, but some people love KDE. Why not try out a Mint Cinnamon livecd and see how you get on. Mint MATE is great too.

freebooter · 16 Jul 2012 at 10:08

As said Muon is the package manager in the current kubuntu. It has two versions; Muon software centre is a simplified version like Ubuntu software centre and Muon package manager is the full version similar to Synaptic in Ubuntu.

The default player (Dragon player) isn't bad and would probably play your files with the right codecs. To get the full codecs you need to install the kubuntu-restricted-extras package.

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-restricted-extras

To play DVDs run

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

Because Ubuntu chose gnome most people have moved to that but KDE4 is pretty good now and KDE still has many of the best apps in linux. Now you have it installed give it a try for a while.

Van Hellseek · 16 Jul 2012 at 18:23

freebooter said:
Because Ubuntu chose gnome most people have moved to that but KDE4 is pretty good now and KDE still has many of the best apps in linux. Now you have it installed give it a try for a while.

Is gnome or KDE more user friendly for complete beginners?

|Thomas| · 16 Jul 2012 at 19:24

Van Hellseek said:
Is gnome or KDE more user friendly for complete beginners?

There isn't really a definitive answer to that, only different opinions. I think the best people can say is try both and see what you think

freebooter · 16 Jul 2012 at 22:25

Van Hellseek said:
Is gnome or KDE more user friendly for complete beginners?

No real difference wrt beginners. KDE has a more traditional layout as default now but they are both full featured desktops and should take little time to learn how to use.

Van Hellseek · 17 Jul 2012 at 13:57

Well I've had nothing but headaches with Kubuntu. I was getting a bug where the desktop wallpaper wouldn't change from anything except the default, and after running 'apt-get update' it completely broke the package system, and nothing would download/install. Also practically anything I wanted to do I needed to research how to do it via google. :/

So I tried mint cinnamon - it was certainly a sexy OS, but unfortunately it ran a little slow on my netbook, and I also got an annoying bug where it wouldn't remember file associations.

Which brings me to mint MATE. And so far it has been absolutely perfect. Everything works out of the box, and I haven't once had to consult google for anything. Win! :cool: