How in the Tech

Adding Flash, DVD Playback, MP3 to Ubuntu Hardy Heron in One Command

By Adam Myers ⋅ May 9, 2008 ⋅ Tags: google earth, hardy heron, medibuntu, skype, ubuntu tips

April has came and went, leaving us with the latest Ubuntu Linux release - Hardy Heron, available here. Ubuntu is heralded for it’s user-friendly and polished approach to desktop Linux. The overriding goal of each release is to win over converts from other operating systems, though mainly Windows, through a somewhat familiar desktop and suite of applications. The goal is admirable and obtainable, but also lofty and slow going. However, no one would argue that Ubuntu is not headed in the right direction.

Unfortunately, out of the box Ubuntu is multimedia handicapped. Because of copyright and patent restrictions that complicate the distribution process, the entirely free Ubuntu has chosen not to include support for proprietary codecs. Enter Medibuntu, a repository of Ubuntu packages that provide Adobe Flash, DVD Playback and MP3 codecs, Skype, Google Earth, and more.

Open a Terminal Window, Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal.

Then type:

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2 w32codecs

* If you have an AMD64 processor, replace w32codecs with w64codecs

Additionally, installing Skype, Acrobat Reader, or Google Earth is just as easy.

sudo apt-get install skype

sudo apt-get install acroread

sudo apt-get install googleearth-4.2

Ubuntu just got better in 5 minutes!

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