How-To: Compile and Install xine-lib 1.1.15 in Debian Lenny and Ubuntu 8.04

Xine is an engine which allows to play audio CDs, DVDs, VCDs, various audio and video formats like AVI, WMV, MOV to list a few. The last version of xine-lib is 1.1.15, released on August 14, 2008.

Installation in Debian Lenny
To compile from source and install xine-lib 1.1.15 in Debian Lenny you'll have to follow the steps below.

1. Enable the sources repositories
Make sure you have a line like the following in your /etc/apt/sources.list file:

deb-src http://ftp.ro.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free

Then update the packages list as root:

apt-get update

2. Install the dependencies
As root, type:

apt-get build-dep libxine1

This will install the development packages and the tools needed to compile Xine.

3. Download the source, compile and install
Download the last xine-lib version from here, uncompress it and compile as usual:

./configure
make
make install

Last one as root.

xine-lib should be now installed in /usr/local/lib/.

Installation in Ubuntu 8.04
Ubuntu Hardy comes with libxine 1.1.11, so if you want to update to the latest version, you need to follow the steps above, with the exception of preceding the commands which need root privileges with sudo. For example:

sudo apt-get build-dep libxine1

./configure
make
sudo make install

With your user's password.

Video players using Xine
I can recommend Kaffeine and Xine-UI, both these players use the Xine engine.

Kaffeine 0.8.6

Updated: Sep 12, 2008

How-To: Make UT2004 Use OSS on Debian Lenny

Some of us playing Unreal Tournament 2004 may be familiar with the error open /dev/[sound/]dsp: Resource temporarily unavailable. This is usually caused because the sound system is busy (for example, you have an audio player opened, or a paused movie).

The simplest way to get over this problem is to install the alsa-oss package, which contains the aoss wrapper to allow the use of ALSA OSS library. In Debian, type as root:

apt-get install alsa-oss

Then run UT2004 like this:

aoss ut2004

Or:

aoss /usr/local/games/ut2004demo/ut2004-demo

Depending on where your game is installed. The good thing about this is that you can now listen to music in a player separate from the one included in the game and also hear the UT2004 sounds.

How-To: Compile and Install Banshee 1.2.0 on Debian Lenny

Banshee is a powerful audio player written using GTK, featuring audio and video libraries, support for podcasts and much more. The last version, 1.2, was released on July 30, 2008.

1. Install the necessary dependencies
As root, type:

apt-get install build-essential
apt-get build-dep banshee

For the last one, make sure you have sources repositories enabled in your /etc/apt/sources.list file (there is a line which starts with deb-src).

2. Download the source tarball
Download the source tarball from here, under the Source releases, then change the current working directory to where you saved the archive, and uncompress it:

tar -xjf banshee-1-1.2.0.tar.bz2

Change the working directory to banshee-1-1.2.0, and proceed to the next step.

3. Compile Banshee 1.2.0
In the banshee-1-1.2.0 directory, issue the usual:

./configure
make
make install

The last command as root. Banshee 1.2 should be now properly installed. Run it as banshee-1 from command line or pressing ALT+F2 and typing the name in the run dialogue that appears.

Running Banshee 1.2.0

How-To: Compile and Install Code::Blocks from Source in Debian Lenny

Code::Blocks is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for C and C++, built using the wxWidgets kit.

The latest version is 8.02, available for download from the official downloads page. To install the dependencies, use:

apt-get install build-essential
apt-get install libwxgtk2.8-dev wx-common libgtk2.0-dev

Next, uncompress the source and issue the usual:

./configure
make
make install

Last one as root. You can launch Code::Blocks by running codeblocks in a shell or typing ALT+F2 and type codeblocks in the run dialogue.

Codeblocks 6.02

How-To: Compile and Install Exaile 0.2.13 from Source in Debian Lenny

Exaile is an audio player built in GTK which aims to provide the same features as the popular Amarok for KDE. The last stable version is 0.2.13, released on April 2, 2008, which fixes cover art fetching from Amazon.

In order to compile Exaile on Debian Lenny, first make sure you have sources repositories enabled, that is, you have a line which starts with deb-src in your /etc/apt/sources.list file, like the one below:

deb-src ftp://ftp.ro.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free

Next, install the necessary dependencies:

apt-get update
apt-get build-dep exaile

Download the source tarball from the official website here, uncompress it, change the current working directory to exaile-0.2.13 (or whatever your package is called) and issue:

make
make install

The last one as root. Exaile should be now installed in /usr/local/bin/exaile.

How-To: Compile and Install PCMan FM 0.4.5 in Debian Lenny

PCMan FM is a basic GTK file manager with a simple interface, providing features like tabs, compression menu (bzip2, gzip, zip), or bookmarks. The last version is 0.4.5, and to install it issue as root:

apt-get build-dep pcmanfm
apt-get install intltool

Next, download the source from SourceForge.net, here. Uncompress it and follow the usual commands:

./configure
make
make install

The last one as root.

How-To: Compile and Install BasKet from Source on Debian Lenny

BasKet is a powerful and fully-featured notes-taking application for KDE3, and there are also plans to port it to KDE4 (read about it here). The current version included in Debian Lenny's repositories is 1.0.2, however the last stable release is 1.0.3.1, so if you want to compile it from source, all you have to do is:

1. Make sure you have sources repositories enabled
Edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file and make sure you have a line similar with the one below:

deb-src ftp://ftp.ro.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free

2. Install the needed dependencies
Use apt-get build-dep as root to install BasKet's dependencies:

apt-get build-dep basket

3. Download the source
Get the source tarball for the latest BasKet release from the official homepage.

4. Compile and install
Uncompress the tarball, change the current working to basket-1.0.3.1 (or whatever version you may have), and issue the usual:

./configure
make
make install

The last one as root. BasKet should be now properly installed.

BasKet 1.0.3.1 - Even better!

I recently wrote a full review of BasKet, you can read it here.

How-To: Install xine-lib 1.0.14 from Source in Debian Lenny

Xine is an engine used by various video players on Linux, like the popular Kaffeine. According to the official website, the last stable release, 1.0.14, adds Xv port and type selection and improved content type detection for HTTP streams.

To compile the last version on Debian Lenny, you will need the dependencies, so make sure you have sources repositories enabled in your /etc/apt/sources.list file and issue the following command as root:

apt-get build-dep libxine1

Next, download the source from here. Uncompress it, change the working directory to xine-lib-1.0.14 (or whatever version you may have) and type:

./configure
make
make install

The last one as root. xine-lib should be now properly installed in /usr/local/lib/.

How-To: Install the Crystal Window Decoration for KDE3 in Debian Lenny

Crystal is a KDE window decoration theme, and the last version available for download is 1.0.6. Crystal features desktop semi-transparency, it looks very nice and it's highly configurable. To compile and install it, first get the needed dependencies:

apt-get install build-essential libqt3-headers kdebase-dev

Download Crystal 1.0.6 from the KDE-look.org page, here. Uncompress it, compile and install it:

./configure
make
make install

Last one as root. To set it as a window decoration, open KControl (ALT+F2 and type kcontrol in the Run dialogue that appears), then go to Appearance & Themes -> Window Decorations and select Crystal from the drop-down list. You can configure it in any way you like there.


Crystal allows you to set the transparency level (including tint colour), buttons styles (including Vista or Kubuntu Dapper), border size and several more settings.

How-To: Use cdparanoia to Rip Audio CDs

cdparanoia is a command line tool which reads audio CDs and allows you to rip the tracks to WAV files. You can then take those and compress them as FLAC or using a lossy format like Ogg Vorbis or MP3. The last stable release is cdparanoia III 10.0, which is included in Debian Lenny's repositories. To install cdparanoia on Debian, issue the following command as root:

apt-get install cdparanoia

The easiest way to use it is to insert an audio CD and rip all the tracks to default WAV format:

cdparanoia -B

The default output files will be located in the current working directory, under names like track01.cdda.wav, track02.cdda.wav, and so on.

Ripping an audio CD with cdparanoia

Alternately, you can rip only a single track or several tracks:

cdparanoida -B 5

Will rip only track 5, while:

cdparanoida -B 3-7

Will rip all the tracks from 3 to 7, including them. You can also rip a track starting at a certain time up to a certain time. For example, to rip track 2 from seconds 35 up to minute 2 and 30 seconds, you would issue:

cdparanoia "2[:35.00]-2[2:30.00]"

There are plenty more arguments which cdparanoia accepts and for more options see cdparanoia --help and man cdparanoia. You may also find useful the FAQ on the official website.

Updated: Jul 08, 2008 (Created: Jul 08, 2008)

How-To: Use apt-file to See What Files a Package Installs

Install apt-file

apt-file is a tool which allows you to see what files contains a package in the repositories, without the need to necessarily install it. It also allows searching for files inside packages. To get it on Debian Lenny, type as root:

apt-get install apt-file

Next, update the cache:

apt-file update

This will take a while.

Using apt-file

1. Search for a specific file in all the packages

apt-file search file_name

For example, try this:

apt-file search ogg123

ogg123 is a command line player for Ogg Vorbis included in the vorbis-tools package on Debian. However, if you don't know the exact name of the package but you know the tool's name (in this case, ogg123), you can search for it. Here's the output:

$ apt-file search ogg123
irssi-scripts: /usr/share/irssi/scripts/ogg123.pl
python-pyvorbis: /usr/share/doc/python-pyvorbis/examples/ogg123.py
vorbis-tools: /usr/bin/ogg123
vorbis-tools: /usr/share/doc/vorbis-tools/examples/ogg123rc-example
vorbis-tools: /usr/share/man/man1/ogg123.1.gz

So you can see that the package vorbis-tools contains the binary which will get installed as /usr/bin/ogg123.

Using apt-file to search for a specific file without knowing the exact package name

2. List files in a given package
Let's try to list all the files which a specific package will install. Here are the first entries from the output of the command apt-file show vorbis-tools:

$ apt-file show vorbis-tools
vorbis-tools: /usr/bin/ogg123
vorbis-tools: /usr/bin/oggdec
vorbis-tools: /usr/bin/oggenc
vorbis-tools: /usr/bin/ogginfo
vorbis-tools: /usr/bin/vcut
vorbis-tools: /usr/bin/vorbiscomment
vorbis-tools: /usr/bin/vorbistagedit

3. Purge the cache
To purge the cache generated by apt-file update, use:

apt-file purge

As root. You will have to create the cache again with apt-file update.

# apt-file purge

$ apt-file show amarok
E: The cache directory is empty. You need to run 'apt-file update' first.

For more details about apt-file, use the help and the manual page:

apt-file --help
man apt-file

Updated: Jul 08, 2008 (Created: Jul 08, 2008)

How-To: Compile and Install Kaffeine 0.8.7 in Debian Lenny

Just a few days ago I reviewed Kaffine 0.8.6, which was supposed to be the last release for KDE3. However, according to the official website, there is more work at the KDE4 port so a new version, 0.8.7, was released for the stable KDE3. This new release includes several fixes and DVB features.

Kaffeine 0.8.7 on KDE 3.5.9

I noticed the bug crashing Kaffeine when clicking the Play Audio CD button when there is no audio CD in the drive is still there. Anyway, follow the steps below in order to compile and install Kaffeine on Debian:

Compile and install
This version will probably get in Lenny's repositories in about one week or so, however if you want to compile it by yourself, install the dependencies first:

apt-get build-dep kaffeine

Running the configure script

As root. Also, make sure to have the sources repositories enabled in /etc/apt/sources.list and the build-essential package installed. Next, download the source, uncompress the Kaffeine tarball and issue the usual:

./configure
make
make install

The last one as root. Kaffeine should be now installed in /usr/bin/.

Updated: Jul 07, 2008 (Created: Jul 07, 2008)

A Collection of Top Debian Websites

Official
http://www.debian.org/ - The official Debian website - it contains very much documentation, mailing lists, download locations, security advisories and mainly everything official related to Debian
Sub-categories:
http://www.debian.org/distrib/ - Download Debian stable
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/ - Download Debian testing
http://www.debian.org/doc/ - Official documentation: this is important, read it
http://www.debian.org/MailingLists/ - Debian mailing lists

Anything related to Debian
http://debian-news.net/ - Debian news from all over the web
http://forums.debian.net/ - Debian user forums
http://planet.debian.net/ - Debian Planet: blogs about Debian
http://women.debian.org/home/ - Debian Women Project
http://xlife.zuavra.net/ - Life in X: Not necessarily only Debian-related, but contains useful Linux tutorials, reviews and articles
http://www.debian-administration.org/ - Debian administration resources: configuration, tutorials, how-tos and much more
http://www.debianadmin.com/ - Tutorials, articles, and more Debian-related stuff
http://debianhelp.co.uk/ - Debian tutorials
http://www.debian-art.org/ - Debian art, same style as kde-look.org, gnome-look.org, kde-apps.org or gtk-apps.org
http://www.debiantutorials.org/ - Just as the title suggests, the website contains Debian tutorials and articles related to Debian
http://pkg-kde.alioth.debian.org/ - Debian KDE Team

Note: This list is opened for suggestions, so please leave a comment if you have some website you think is worth to put in here. Blogs are welcomed too, as long as they have original content.

Updated: Jul 07, 2008 (Created: Jul 05, 2008)

How-To: Install Codecs and DVD Support in Debian Lenny

Note: This is a classic how-to intended for beginners and it describes how to install video codecs and DVD support on Debian Lenny in several easy-to-follow steps.

1. Add debian-multimedia.org repository to your sources.list file
To edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file, type as root:

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Next, add the following two lines:

deb http://debian-multimedia.org/ lenny main
deb-src http://debian-multimedia.org lenny main

Save the file with ^O (CTRL+O) and close Nano with ^X.

For additional information about the debian-multimedia.org repository, visit the website.

2. Install debian-multimedia-keyring and update the list of packages
As root, type:

wget http://debian-multimedia.org/gpgkey.pub -O - | apt-key add - && apt-get install debian-multimedia-keyring

Then, to update the list of packages type:

apt-get update

3. Install w32codecs and libdvdcss2

apt-get install w32codecs libdvdcss2

That should do it. Next, you will need a video player, and I recommend one of VLC, SMPlayer or Kaffeine.

To install either of those, use:

apt-get install vlc
apt-get install smplayer
apt-get install kaffeine

That's it, you should be done now.

Updated: Jul 05, 2008 (Created: Jul 05, 2008)

How-To: Install MythTV in Debian Lenny

Add the Debian multimedia repositories into your /etc/apt/sources.list file:

deb http://debian-multimedia.org/ lenny main
deb-src http://debian-multimedia.org/ lenny main

Next, fetch the dependencies needed to compile MythTV:

apt-get update
apt-get build-dep mythtv

Download the source from here, uncompress and issue the usual:

./configure
make
make install

The last one as root.

Updated: Jun 30, 2008 (Created: Jun 29, 2008)

How-To: Install RealPlayer in Debian Lenny

RealPlayer is a video player, native for Linux and based on the Helix engine.

To install RealPlayer, you will first need the Debian multimedia repositories enabled. Just edit file /etc/apt/sources.list as root and add:

deb http://debian-multimedia.org/ lenny main

Adding Debian multimedia to the repositories

Next, issue this command as root:

wget http://debian-multimedia.org/gpgkey.pub -O - | apt-key add - && apt-get install debian-multimedia-keyring

Then update the list of packages and install RealPlayer:

apt-get update && apt-get install realplayer

That should do it.

RealPlayer 10.0.9.809

A Compilation of Libraries You Might Need on Debian

This post lists the necessary libraries needed to either compile or run several applications on Debian Lenny. For the applications already included in the repositories (like Amarok, Wine, Banshee and so on) use this guide. Make sure to always try apt-get build-dep application_name first, then see if you really need some other dependencies. This is not a general-purpose guide, it's mostly KDE oriented and lists dependencies for programs I need and use, yours might or might not be in this list.

build-essential - GNU Compiler Collection and several other utilities needed for compiling software (this is essential if you plan to compile from source)

kdebase-dev - headers and development libraries needed to compile most KDE applications

lsb-cxx - required by the QtCurve KDE3 style

libxpm-dev - required by KDocker

libstdc++5 - required by many programs, UT2004 among them

libqt0-ruby1.8 - required by Wiki-Lyrics Amarok script

python-qt3 - required by ConTEXT Amarok script

libboost-dev - required by Wesnoth

pyste - required by Wesnoth

konq-plugins - required by Ark for Konqueror integration

ident2 - ident daemon, required by Konversation (not essential)

ntpdate - keeps your date synchronised with an Internet server

libglib1.2-dev - required to compile XMMS

libgtk1.2-dev - required to compile XMMS

Just use apt-get install library_name as root in order to install any of the above.

Updated: Jun 19, 2008 (Created: Jun 19, 2008)

Tutorial: Easy Minimum Debian Installation

Notice: I published an updated version of this tutorial here, for Debian Lenny.

Debian Lenny installs by default the entire X Window System and the GNOME desktop environment.

In order to have only a minimum and basic Debian installation, when the installer reaches to the window where it asks you to select which software you want to install (including Web Server, Desktop Environment, Basic System and several more options), deselect Desktop Environment and make sure Basic System remains selected (use SPACE to select/deselect options).

After Debian installs the basic system, it will ask for a reboot, then it will present you with a nice shell login. Login as user, type su, then enter your root password. Now you'll be logged on as root, so be very careful with the commands you issue.

Next, to install a desktop environment, issue one of the following commands:

For KDE:

apt-get install x-window-system-core kdm kde-core

For GNOME:

apt-get install x-window-system-core gdm gnome-core

The first one will install the X window system, the K Display Manager, and only the basic libraries and applications KDE provides, while the last one will install the GNOME Display Manager and GNOME's libraries and basic applications.

Now everything should be in place, so it's time to fire up the GUI:

/etc/init.d/kdm start

Or, for GNOME:

/etc/init.d/gdm start

Login with your username and that should be all.

Updated: Jun 16, 2008 (Created: Jun 16, 2008)

How-To: Compile and Install Google Gadgets in Debian Lenny

Note: This how-to may also work in Ubuntu and other Debian-based distributions.

Google Gadgets is an open-source application which allows you to beautify your desktop using the huge number of useful gadgets Google provides. The project is still in development, so there is possible to have several bugs, but nevertheless, it works.

In order to compile and install Google Gadgets, first install the necessary development packages:

apt-get install build-essential autoconf automake libtool
apt-get install libcurl4-openssl-dev libdbus-1-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev libgtk2.0-dev libmozjs-dev libqt4-dev libqt4-opengl-dev librsvg2-dev libxml2-dev libxul-dev xulrunner

Next, download the source from the project's website. Uncompress it, change the current working directory to google-gadgets-for-linux-0.9.3 (or whatever version you have) and do the usual:

./configure
make
make install

make install as root. Google Gadgets should be built with both GTK and Qt interface, and to run it use ggl-qt for Qt or ggl-gtk for GTK.

Google Gadgets with Qt interface - hundreds of gadgets available

Updated: Jun 16, 2008 (Created: Jun 16, 2008)

What You Need to Compile Software in Debian

Make sure to have sources packages enabled
First of all, make sure that you have included sources repositories in your /etc/apt/sources.list file. That is, a line which starts with deb-src should be there, like this one:

deb-src ftp://ftp.ro.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free

You can read this how-to to see how to use a text editor and edit this file if you're new to Linux.

Install the tools needed for compiling
Next, install the package build-essential, which will automatically install the main tools needed to perform a compilation, like gcc, g++ or make:

apt-get install build-essential

Note: You have to be root in order to install software with apt-get. Type su in a shell and enter your password. For security reasons (sometimes you will need to copy/paste a portion to an IRC channel or Pastebin in order to troubleshoot something), the password is hidden when you type it, but it goes in. Press Enter when you're done.

Note: Ubuntu users, precede these commands with sudo, since the root account is disabled by default in Ubuntu.

Fetch the dependencies
Usually, you will want to install newer versions of the applications already present in the repositories. For example, the current version of Wine in the Debian Lenny repositories is 1.0RC2 (release candidate 2), but the latest Wine version is 1.0RC5. So what you'll actually need are the dependencies of Wine, and to install them do:

apt-get build-dep wine

The same goes for any other application, like Amarok or XChat, for example. The only problem which can appear is when newer releases need several more dependencies or newer versions than the ones already present in the repositories (which get installed with apt-get build-dep) in order to compile.

Compile the source code
Next, just uncompress your source, change the current working directory to whatever yours is called and follow the usual steps, i.e.:

./configure
make
make install

The application should now be installed.

Get help reading the INSTALL and README files
Some applications have specific steps which you must follow, so make sure to read either the README or INSTALL files coming with the source code.

For applications which are not in the repositories, read the instructions provided by the INSTALL or README files included with the source. Every decent application provides enough instructions for you to be able to fetch the necessary development libraries.

Uninstall applications that you compiled
I recommend you keep the source directories of the applications you install this way, so that way if you'll need to uninstall it in the future and use the repositories or any other version, you'll only have to issue this command in the source's directory (as root):

make uninstall

Updated: Jun 18, 2008 (Created: Jun 14, 2008)