I know for most of you, this will be nothing new, but for the really new-to-linux users (like me), I thought this might be worth talking about.

I found this location on Canonical to download realplayer:
http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/...in/r/realplay/

which had several options for downloading for dapper, edgy and feisty.

I downloaded the deb file to my desktop, and used
right click>>install package
to install the program. This is not the plugin, but the full media player. You will have to accept an end-user license for this install. Basically it says that you can use it for personal use, and not distribute it, yada yada...

During setup, it indicated it was installing something for use with Firefox -not quite sure what - but when I try to play a realplyer file on the web, it pops a box asking to use the external player. Maybe it created a symbolic link? I am sorry I don't know much about this.

You can test the player here: http://guide.real.com/

You don't need realplayer to view the video on the site you posted. I haven't got it but I can watch it even so. what you really need is mplayerplug-in.

As for the firefox thing that was installed, that must be the realplayer plug-in for firefox. Have a look in /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins to find out.

I have the following in this directory:
nphelix.so
mphelix.xpt


So, it did appear to install the plugin, but it must have created the symbolic link the firefox plugin page tells you to create. This was the original reason I didn't download the plugin from there - I didn't know how to create the link, so I figured what the heck and did this instead. Everything is still a work in progress for me

If someone can tell me how to create symbolic links, that would be great to know for the future.

ln -s /path/to/location/of/original /path/to/symbolic/link

e.g.

ln -s /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/foo /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins/foo

The line will still get you the plugin even though it has been renamed. The name is now actually mozilla-mplayer. Doing it either way will allow firefox to play real media, among other formats.

In the file manager, drag the file into the folder where you want the link, then select "Link Here" from the pop-up menu. You could also use the commands jay73 listed from a terminal if you really want to, but there's no need to use the command line just to create links.

Real Player is one program, MPlayer is another. Different people have different preferences.