Installing Common Functions

When setting up an Ubuntu desktop system, there are some packages that most people want to install. Many of these center around multimedia functionality: playing MP3 files, DVD movie media, and multimedia streams with RealNetwork RealPlayer. Although downloading with apt-get is relatively easy, many of these packages still require configuration before they can be used. At this point, you have two options: use an automated installer that will perform any required configurations, or install and configure packages by hand.

Using EasyUbuntu

EasyUbuntu is a script designed to download and automatically configure common packages. It only supports about 40 widely used packages (not every available package) and it does not install any source code packages. This software has one other limitation: EasyUbuntu is not found in any of the main, restricted, universe, or multiverse repositories. Instead, you will need to visit the EasyUbuntu homepage (http://easyubuntu.freecontrib.org/) and follow the installation instructions. The installation itself is straightforward:

1. Apply all updates. EasyUbuntu can have problems if the system is not up to date. Fortunately, problems simply means that components are not installed; problems do not cause system instability.

    sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade 

2. Go to the EasyUbuntu home page and follow the installation instructions. These are usually a few lines of code for installing and running EasyUbuntu. Be sure to choose the current release. For EasyUbuntu 3.022, the installation instructions are:

    wget http://easyubuntu.freecontrib.org/files/easyubuntu-3.022.tar.gz tar -zxf easyubuntu-3.022.tar.gz cd easyubuntu sudo python easyubuntu.in 

   Note 

   If you use these commands as is, you will use EasyUbuntu version 3.022. Newer versions are periodically released as packages are updated. You should use the current version (whatever version number that may be). Newer versions may also include different installation steps. See the EasyUbuntu homepage for the latest installation instructions.

3. Open a terminal window (Applications Accessories Terminal) and paste the installation instructions into the terminal.

4. The final sudo command will prompt you for your password. After that, the graphical interface will start up.

Easy Does It

EasyUbuntu cannot be installed using apt-get because it does not exist in any of the repositories. The reason is mainly based on legal issues. EasyUbuntu can help you install drivers that may not be legal in your country. For example the w32codecs enables you to play proprietary Windows multimedia files, and libdvdcss2 enables you to play DVD movies by cracking the DVD encryption. In some countries, these packages are illegal.

EasyUbuntu also supports packages from the Penguin Liberation Front (PLF) repository. As with main, restricted, universe, and multiverse, PLF is a specialized repository. It can be added to /etc/apt/sources.list and used to install software. The line to add is:

 deb http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/ dapper free non-free 

However, PLF has an interesting history: it distributes software that cannot be included in the standard repositories due to copyright, patents, or other legal restrictions. Installing software from this repository may also be illegal depending on your country's laws.

The user interface for EasyUbuntu displays four tabs showing the different package categories, and each tab displays the available packages. Since some packages are not available on every platform, only the available software is displayed (see Figure 4-4). For example, since the binary audio packages gstreamer0.10-pitfdll and w32codecs, and the NVIDIA video drivers do not exist for the PowerPC, EasyUbuntu on a PowerPC does not display the Binary Codecs option.

Figure 4-4: The EasyUbuntu user interface as seen on a PC (i386) and Macintosh (PowerPC). Some options are not available on all platforms.

EasyUbuntu uses dpkg to check which software has already been installed. If a package already exists on the system, then the check box is grayed out. This prevents you from trying to reinstall software. After making your selections, you can click OK to perform the installation. Depending on your choices and network speed, this may take a while.

Note 

EasyUbuntu is used only to install and configure packages. You cannot use it to remove software.

Software sometimes changes faster than EasyUbuntu-the EasyUbuntu developers are constantly playing catch-up with other package developers. If an installation fails, EasyUbuntu will not corrupt your system. Instead, it will create a variety of popup windows that display errors and warnings. These are similar to the messages given by APT. You will need to manually install any failed packages.

Debugging EasyUbuntu

Errors during EasyUbuntu installation are usually due to invalid entries in /etc/apt/source.list, missing repositories, new package locations, or bad package dependencies. Unfortunately, EasyUbuntu will not tell you what failed or why. The /var/log/dpkg.log file will show you specific package failures, but not missing repositories. In other words, if the installation cannot find a required package, EasyUbuntu will not tell you about the failure.

If EasyUbuntu fails, try installing each checked item individually. This enables you to identify which packages fail. In the EasyUbuntu directory is the file packagelist-dapper.xml. This shows every package that is installed for each selection. For example, when I select Video from the Web tab, EasyUbuntu 3.022 installs the package totem-gstreamer-firefox-plugin. Unfortunately, on the PowerPC platform, this package depends on a specific version of totem- gstreamer, and the dependency was outdated. Although the failure was due to the repository, EasyUbuntu does not identify what caused the installation failure. Instead, I narrowed down this problem by installing each item, one at a time, until I found that Video would not install. Then I looked in packagelist-dapper.xml and saw that it included totem-gstreamer- firefox-plugin. Finally, I performed the installation by hand using apt-get and saw the cause of the failure.

 $ sudo apt-get -s install totem-gstreamer-firefox-plugin Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree... Done The following packages have unmet dependencies:   totem-gstreamer-firefox-plugin: Depends: totem-gstreamer (= 1.4.1-0ubuntu4) but 1.4.3-0ubuntu1 is to be installed E: Broken packages 

My solution to this problem is to download the source code to the plug-in (apt-get source totem-gstreamer-firefox-plugin) and compile it manually.

Ain't So Easy

There is an alternative to EasyUbuntu: Automatix. This tool is similar to EasyUbuntu in many ways. Automatix automates software installation and is not found in any of the standard repositories. Visit the Automatix home page (http://www.getautomatix.com/) for installation instructions.

Automatix supports more packages than EasyUbuntu, but has other limitations. The biggest concern with Automatix is its automatic installation of potentially harmful packages. It is very possible to trash your system if you select incompatible packages. It also requires modification to /etc/apt/sources.list for installation, and it requires a high technical level to understand all of the options.

In my opinion, community recommendations carry weight. Most forums that compare Automatix with EasyUbuntu recommend EasyUbuntu because of the low technical requirements, safe installations, and simpler download instructions. Two evaluations of these tools are available at https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/2006-March/071696.html and http://nalioth.hostdestroyer.com/comparison.html.

If you just want to click-and-run, then EasyUbuntu is the simpler option. If you're looking for more detailed configurations, consider the Easy Linux Ubuntu Guide, available at http://easylinux.info/wiki/Ubuntu_dapper and http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Dapper. Although this guide is not automated, it is very complete-covering more options than either EasyUbuntu or Automatix-and has relatively easy to follow step-by-step instructions.