Adding the Medibuntu repository

For the final third-party repository to be added, we will add Medibuntu. This popular third-party repository is not affiliated with Ubuntu in any way, but provides many popular software packages (or as they put it, Multimedia, Entertainment & Distractions in Ubuntu) including Acrobat Reader (which can also be installed as shown in a previous post), Real Player, Google Earth, and Skype.
Medibuntu has two components to its repository, free and non-free. The free component includes software which, although it is distributed with an open-source license, it is not distributed with Ubuntu because of legal issues in certain countries that prevent it from being freely available worldwide. This includes software such as Amarok and Kaffeine, which are available from the Ubuntu repositories, but with certain functionality removed because of these kinds of legal issues. Medibuntu distributes these with this functionality.
By comparison, non-free includes software that is distributed under a license that restricts how they can be distributed. This includes the likes of Google Earth and Reader.
Anyway, that's the blurb out of the way. How do we add it? Simple. First of all, start your text editor with sudo, like so:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Now add the following line to the end of the document:

deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ gutsy free non-free

Save and exit, then enter the following:

wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

You know the drill from here! Just update your sources:

sudo apt-get update

Now you can install anything you want from Medibuntu. You may notice that if you do an apt-get upgrade, you get new versions of existing software such as Amarok. This is fine - as I said earlier, the versions in the Ubuntu repositories don't necessarily have the full functionality for legal reasons, so this just means it will automatically upgrade to a better version.

Adding the Last.FM repository

We're going to add another third-party repository here. Last.fm is an excellent Web 2.0 site - it allows you to create your own custom radio stations based on your own listening preferences, allowing you to only play the music you love, as well as recommending music based on what you are already listening to. It's a great way to discover new music. And best of all, they rely on free software, and are very Linux-friendly, so much so that they now have their own repository for Debian-based Linux distributions such as Ubuntu.


Just like with the Google repository, the first thing to do is import the key file. Open a terminal and enter the following:

wget -q http://apt.last.fm/last.fm.repo.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Now, open up your /etc/apt/sources.list again:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Now you need to decide which version of the repository you want to go for, stable or testing. If you go for stable, enter the following on a new line:

deb http://apt.last.fm/ debian stable

If you're a bit more adventurous, and decide to go for testing:

deb http://apt.last.fm/ debian testing

Press enter afterwards to move to the next line, then save and exit. Now, update apt-get:

sudo apt-get update

Now, you can install the Last.FM player with the following:

sudo apt-get install lastfm

Note that as it streams in MP3 format, you'll need to have already installed the appropriate codecs in order to enjoy it.
If you haven't already joined, you'll need to sign up to use the service. But don't worry, it's free to use (although you get more features if you subscribe). You'll need to start listening to it to build up a profile. This is now easier as they now offer many full tracks to listen to online, and will hopefully soon be integrating this into the player.
Have fun with Last.fm, and feel free to drop by my profile to say hello!

Adding the Google Linux software repositories

Google are pretty good for Linux support, so in this tutorial we're going to add support for their Linux repository. This includes Picasa and Google Desktop. Unfortunately, neither is as good as its Windows equivalent (Google Desktop lacks gadgets, and Picasa is actually the Windows version running in , not a native application). But it's still an easy way of keeping track of new versions of these applications.

Follow this link to get to the Google Linux Software Repositories page. If you're using Ubuntu and want to add the new repositories from a graphic user interface, follow the instructions for GUI configuration (don't worry that is says Ubuntu 7.04, I've used it in Gutsy without any issues). Xubuntu should be identical, but Kubuntu will be slightly different as that uses Adept Package Manager instead.

Once the key has been downloaded, Kubuntu users should open Adept Manager as usual, then once it has started, open Adept>Manage Repositories. Then click on Authentication and the Import Key File tab, and select the key file to import it. Then go to Third-Party Software and click on the Add... button. Paste in the text provided (which is actually the URL of the repository) and click on OK. Then close it. You should be prompted to reload your repositories. Once you have done this, the new applications will be available from Adept or apt-get.

But let's use the command line instead - that gives you more of an insight into what's going on, and is desktop-agnostic, so if you can do this in Ubuntu you can do it in Kubuntu as well.
Open the command line and enter the following:

wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -

What this command does is that wget downloads a file from a URL you enter (so if you find a link on the Internet to download something, you can copy the link address by right-clicking and selecting Copy Link Location, then open a terminal and enter wget, then paste the URL in, it will download it for you). The command sudo apt-key add - then installs this as a key in apt-get so it can authenticate packages downloaded from the repository. You may notice that the instructions Google give are slightly different - this is because not all distributions use sudo - users of Debian, for instance, would log in as root before they did this, as this needs root access.

Then enter the following:

sudo apt-get update

That's just to update the system. Now, you need to add the repository to your list of available repositories. This is stored in a text file, so it's easy to edit. The file is under /etc/apt/sources.list, so to open it in nano, enter the following:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Don't feel forced to use nano! Use any text editor you wish. Now, enter the following at the end of the text file, starting on a new line:

# Google software repository
deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ stable non-free

These need to go on two separate lines as the text "Google software repository" is commented out so it will be ignored by the system - if the 2nd line was placed on the same line as the first, it too would be ignored. Press enter to start a new line, then save and exit.

Now you just need to enter the following:

sudo apt-get update

And you will update apt-get. Now you should be able to download and install Google Desktop and Picasa without any problem using apt-get as normal!

An overview of the official Ubuntu repositories

As you'll know from my previous posts, the repositories are online libraries from which you can easily download and install new software (usually free of charge). Each Linux distribution will have its own set of repositories, and these contain all of the software that makes up the distribution, plus lots of other software that's available on demand.

Ubuntu has the following repositories:

• Main - Includes all the packages that are installed by default, such as the Linux kernel, the Gnome desktop, etc. These packages are officially supported (meaning they receive security updates during the support period of the Ubuntu release, which is 18 months for most releases, and 3 years for a Long-Term Support release). Only free software can appear in Main
  
• Restricted - These are packages that are not available under a completely free license - in other words, that don't qualify as free software. They may in many cases be necessary components, such as device drivers, where the Ubuntu developers have no alternative and not making them available would mean people could not use Ubuntu. They are clearly separated so that people who would prefer not to use them can remove them easily.
• Universe - Packages maintained by the Ubuntu community. This generally consists of applications people may want to use, but compiled against the libraries and using the tools present in Main so it should install and work well with the software in Main. However, unlike with Main there are no guarantees. However, like Main, Universe consists entirely of free software.
• Multiverse - Similar to Universe, but contains non-free software only, and is separate from Universe for this reason.
• Backports - This provides more up-to-date versions of packages alredy available elsewhere. Normally, during the life of an Ubuntu release, you will get minor version upgrades, such as bugfixes, but major upgrades, such as going from version 1.1 to version 2, will not be available. Backports includes more recent, but less well-tested versions of popular applications so those who like to live on the bleeding edge or just can't live without a brand new feature can have it without having to resort to either compiling from source themselves or installing from a .tar package (which can be a pain compared with using .deb packages). Refer to this link for more information.

So, those are the official Ubuntu repositories. There are also some third-party repositories around, and in the next few posts, I'll be showing you some useful ones you may want to consider using. But, be careful. Only use a third-party repository if it's trustworthy.