flaking firefox

racebit · 12-07-2005, 02:01 PM

Greetings All,
I recently made the big step from being a livecd linux user and converted full fledged to ubuntu.I'm loving this debian-based distro, but I have some issues in regard to a couple things.
1) I like to use myspace.com frequently. However, when i click to add a comment or veiw more pictures on a persons profile, firefox closes. No errors, just a dissapearing act/
2)Seems i can't play .mp3 in totem, only .ogg. Any resolve to that?

Any insight on these obviously newbie questions is greatly appreciated.

kevinatkins · 12-07-2005, 06:15 PM

Hi,

Glad you're enjoying Ubuntu; I like it too.

I've come across both these problems -

1. Flaky Firefox. Have you, by chance, installed the libflash-mozplugin package for flash support? If so, I have found that this causes random closures of the browser. The solution is to install the non-GPL flashplayer-mozilla package instead, which works fine. You may need to add the Universe and / or Multiverse repositories to enable this.

2. mp3 support is now not included by default in Ubuntu. You'll need the Universe / Multiverse repositories, from which you can add mp3 support. If you're using a stock install, Totem will be using the GStreamer media engine, so the package you'll need is gstreamer0.8-mad, I think.

Incidentally, to add the repositories, open up Synaptic, then click on Settings->Repositories. On the panel that appears, click 'Settings' and make sure that 'Show disabled software sources' is ticked. Then you should be able to scroll down the list of repositories and tick the Universe / Multiverse options to enable them.

racebit · 12-09-2005, 02:15 PM

Kevin.
Much thanks for the help, the repositories fixed up that .mp3 problem...or appeared to. Now when i open up a mp3 file in XMMS it will play fine, but if i close XMMS and come back a minute or two later and try to open a .mp3 file, it gives a warning about something blacking my soundcard. However, i noticed that clicking play repeatedly will make it play after about 5 warnings or so.

Firefox is still deathly scared of myspace.

Any ideas would be great, and thanks for the previous attempt.