cant install Linux multi media software on ubuntu hardy heron ubuntu 8.0.4 gnome

Hi everyone

for the past 2 days now i have trying to install lmms on my distro i have tried everything from changing repos to trying to unpack the folders using konsole and terminal the file comes in 3 packages control.tar.gz
data.tar.gz and Debian binary the computer says they are installed yet there is no icon available. if there is someone who could suggest how to unpack these archives or suggest a less troublesome audio workstation package i would be much obliged

thank as always for your unwavering support

noel

If only the icon is missing, you can launch it by typing lmms into a terminal.

This is the way I did it successfully.

Note: Those items to be entered by you and marked with quote marks do not need the quote marks typing as part of the entry.

1.Start Synaptic by clicking "K", "System" then "Synaptic"
2.Once in Synaptic click "Settings"
3.Click "Repositories"
4.Ensure that every box except the greyed-out one is ticked.
5.Click the "OK" button then follow the instructions to reload the repositories.
6.Click "Search"
7.Enter "lmms" in the search box.
8.When the search locates the lmms files click their check box to mark them for installation then click "Apply" and wait for the download and installation to finish.

To add lmms to your KDE menu

1.Right click the "K" icon.
2.Select "Menu Editor"
3.In the menu on the left click "Multimedia".
4.Click "New Item" in the toolbar.
5.Type "lmms" in the "New Item - KDE Menu Editor" dialog box. This will cause an entry to appear in the dialog box to the right.
6.Enter your preferred application description in the line titled "Description".
7.Click the folder icon to the right of the line marked "Command". This will open a Konqueror style file manager.
8.Navigate in the file manager to "/usr/bin"
9.Scroll right until you see "lmms", click it and click the "OK" button. This will add the lmms command to the dialog box.
10.To select an icon to go with the package click the icon to the right of the "Name" and "Description" lines.
11.In the "Select Icon - KDE Menu Editor" dialog box select the radio button "Other Icons". This might bring up a selection of the lmms icons but you can find more by clicking the "Browse" button which opens up a Konqueror style file manager.
12.Navigate in the file manager to "/usr/share/lmms/themes/default". You will find a large number of icons in this directory. You might like to use Konqueror first to review your options before using the menu editor.
13. Close the KDE Menu Editor, remembering to save your menu changes when asked.

You should now be able to click the "K" button then "Multimedia" then "lmms" and the package should run.

You can add lmms to the quick launcher in the usual way and this procedure will display the icon you selected in step 12 in the quick launch bar.

Sorry if I appear to be attempting to teach my Granny how to suck eggs, but I am hoping that these step by step instructions will be of help to others who might be struggling to install packages or their icons. I teach Age Pensioners how to use Windows and this is the method I use in my class notes. I am trying to convert all of the pensioners to Linux.

Unpacking tar.gz files is not my favoured way of installing packages. Some times it is unavoidable, but where a package exists on the Ubuntu repositories I prefer to get it from there as it will have been properly tested.

From time to time I read of a new package in a magazine and am pleasantly surprised to find it and then install it by this method.

Now you have whetted my appetite I am looking forward to trying lmms which is now loaded on my computer.

Good Luck

Look at this site http://www.medibuntu.org/ and you will be able to install a lot of multimedia applications.

Also look at the package ubuntu-restricted-extras, that will give you some multimedia stuff, like codecs.

Remember to always install your application using synaptics.