Tuesday, June 12, 2007

How to easily play MP3 files in (K)Ubuntu Installations

After some searching, I've found the fix to repair or install MP3 support in (K)Ubuntu distributions. It is actually a pretty simple process. Please follow the instructions below exactly:
  • Close your favorite player (Amarok, Juk, etc)
  • Delete the .xine folder from your home directory. Beware that the folder is hidden and you must first activate the 'Show Hidden Files' option in your file manager.
  • Open your audio player and enjoy all your MP3 music files.

Please Note: This will also fix the problem with the thumbnail generation of your video files in Konqueror.

The above fix is for systems with MP3 support already installed, but I think it's a good idea to let everyone know that Ubuntu doesn't ship with MP3 support and to fix this problem as well, follow the instructions below:

For Kubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft)
  • Open Amarok and play an MP3 file. Amarok will ask if you would like to add MP3 support.
  • Open Synaptic Package Manager and install the libxine-extracodecs package.

For Kubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn)
  • Open Synaptic Package Manager, search and install the package libxine1-ffmpeg.

Be advised that in Kubuntu 7.04 there is also a new package that contains some restricted software (Flash 9, JRE 6, Gstreamer Ugly plugins etc) called ubuntu-restricted-extras. You can install this package as well.

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