How to get the Ubuntu Linux operating system to download and install the ubuntu-restricted-extras package that allows mp3, DVD and video playback as well as support for Flash and the Java Runtime Environment.
Because Ubuntu and Linux is distributed as free software, to avoid potential legal problems for users of the operating system, Ubuntu comes without support for popular audio and video formats such as mp3, DVD and Flash.
However, luckily this is easily fixed by installing one package called Ubuntu-Restricted-Extras. Installing this package will install Microsoft Fonts, Java Runtime Environment, Flash, LAME, MP3 and audio encoding and decoding as well as DVD playback.
To install them first you have to allow the extra repositories in Ubuntu, these are where the software are downloaded from and also will help keep your software updated in the future. To do this on the top panel in Ubuntu click on System > Administration > Software Sources. As shown below make sure the boxes are ticked, and choose your country from the “Download from:” box.
(a screenshot of the sources window)
Next click on the Third Party Sources tab and make sure all the boxes are selected, then click close and from the dialog box click refresh, which will refresh the list all the available packages and programs now available to download and install.
Finally, click on System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager. As shown below you need to search for ubuntu-restricted-extras and selected it, then click apply and it should download and install. Now you can listen to you MP3 files, watch DVD’s and video files, and view flash flash files.
(A screenshot of the package manager)
As a final note, Kubuntu users should search for kubuntu-restricted-extras and Xubuntu users should search for xubuntu-restricted-extras
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