Revision 8 as of 2006-06-20 11:25:06

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Introduction

RealPlayer is available from several sources:

None of these methods are ideal:

  • RealPlayer8 is obsolete and no longer supported by RealNetworks. Also, the installation process requires some manual tweaking because the installer looks for a file with a different name on the RealNetworks site.

  • The RealPlayer10 installers from Real or Helix do not integrate at all with Ubuntu's package management system. If you decide to remove RealPlayer, you will need to locate and remove files scattered around your system.

  • The RealPlayer10 rpm packages need to be converted to .debs in order to integrate with Ubuntu's package management tools.

  • RealPlayer10's debian package does not make RealPlayer the default player for RealMedia or Smil file types (although this can be changed easily).

attachment:IconsPage/eyes.png You can play most of RealNetwork's non-free media formats with [:MPlayer:MPlayer], [:MultimediaApplications:xine], and [:MultimediaApplications#head-fc1f00f34ce59b1533a7b0f359d04e6f5ce13f70:Totem-xine] if the [:RestrictedFormats#w32codecs: w32codecs] package is installed.

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Installing RealPlayer

Installing RealPlayer10 from a .deb file

  • RealPlayer requires libstc++5, the GNU Standard C++ Library v3. Make sure it is installed before you proceed. 

    sudo apt-get install libstdc++5

  • Download the RealPlayer .deb package from the [http://www.debian-multimedia.org/ Debian-Marillat repository] and install it using dpkg: 

    wget -c http://www.debian-multimedia.org/pool/main/r/realplay/realplayer_10.0.7-0.0_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i realplayer_10.0.7-0.0_i386.deb

  • RealPlayer should now be installed on your system.

Since this method has the fewest issues, it is documented on RestrictedFormats

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Installing RealPlayer10 from RealNetworks

  • Go to the [http://www.real.com/linux RealNetworks Linux page] and click on the yellow Download RealPlayer button. Save the RealPlayer10Gold.bin file to your Desktop.

  • Make sure libstc++5 is installed. Make the downloaded installer file executable. Finally run the installer: 

    sudo apt-get install libstdc++5
cd ~/Desktop
chmod +x RealPlayer10Gold.bin
sudo ./RealPlayerGold.bin

  • When the installer asks for a directory, use one of the customary locations for locally maintained software: /opt/RealPlayer or /usr/local/RealPlayer.

  • RealPlayer should now be installed on your system.

attachment:IconsPage/eyes.png Note: This installation method is not recommended.

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Installing RealPlayer10 from the Helix site

You can download the latest version of RealPlayer from the [https://player.helixcommunity.org/2005/downloads/ Helix Project download page].

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Installing RealPlayer8 from Multiverse

Go to the [http://forms.real.com/real/player/blackjack.html RealPlayer legacy page] and download the [http://forms.real.com/real/player/blackjack.html?platform2=Unix&product=RealPlayer%208&proc=Linux%20i386%20RPM&lang=en&show_list=0&src=blackjack RealPlayer 8 for Linux 2.x (i386) rpm]. Save the file rp8_linux20_libc6_i386_cs1_rpm to the Desktop.

  • The realplayer installer from the Multiverse repository expects the file to be named rp8_linux20_libc6_i386_cs2_rpm. Thus, rename the file first, then run the installer. 

    cd ~/Desktop
mv rp8_linux20_libc6_i386_cs1_rpm rp8_linux20_libc6_i386_cs2_rpm
sudo apt-get install realplayer
  • When the installer asks for the file, indicate its location.

attachment:IconsPage/eyes.png Note: This installation method is not recommended.

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Mozilla plugins

  • To add the RealPlayer plugin to firefox, copy the files nphelix.so and nphelix.xpi from the */RealPlayer/plugins folder to the firefox plugins folder at /usr/lib/firefox/plugins.

  • Restart firefox and go to the "about:plugins" page to check that the plugin named Helix DNA Plugin is being loaded.

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Troubleshooting

  • RealPlayer 10 and SCIM Applies to: Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger)

    The SCIM package has a gcc ABI incompatibility problem when used with programs that are compiled with a different gcc version. In particular, the proprietary RealPlayer 10 is compiled with gcc 3.2 and thus conflicts with SCIM in Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger) (as SCIM is compiled with gcc 4.x). RealPlayer 10 will fail to launch when SCIM is running.

    To resolve this conflict, modify the startup script of RealPlayer as follows:

    • Edit the file /usr/bin/realplay 

      sudo gedit /usr/bin/realplay
    • Then add the following line right after the bash declaration statement: 
      GTK_IM_MODULE=xim ; export GTK_IM_MODULE

    • Now RealPlayer 10 should work fine even when SCIM is running.

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See also

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CategoryDocumentation CategoryCleanup