Installing RealPlayer in Ubuntu

How to install RealPlayer in Ubuntu 8.0.4 and play RealPlayer video in Firefox 3.0.

1. Download RealPlayer

• Go to http://www.real.com/linux and download the RealPlayer11Gold.bin file.

2. Make RealPlayer11Gold.bin file into an executable file.

• Open a Terminal window.
• Navigate to the directory that contains the bin file.  For example:

  • cd download

• Make the bin file into an executable file.

  • chmod +x RealPlayer11Gold.bin

3. Run the bin file

• sudo ./RealPlayer11Gold.bin

• Accept the default values by pressing the Enter key.
• By default, RealPlayer will be installed in /opt/real/RealPlayer

4. Setup RealPlayer

• In the “Application” menu, select “Sounds & Video | RealPlayer 11″
• It will display the RealPlayer Setup Assistant.  Just follow the setup instructions.

5. In Firefox, go to a website and try to play a .ram file.

• If you don’t know a website, you can skip this and go to the next step.
• After it downloaded the .ram file, Firefox will ask you what program to use to open the file.  The default selection is “/opt/real/RealPlayer/realplay”.  Enable the checkbox: “Do this automatically for files like this from now on”.  This will add a new Content Type to FireFox’s settings.  We’ll need to change it later.  Even though I told it to use RealPlayer, Firefox will use the Totem Movie Player.  So we have to manually configure it in Firefox.
• Open the Firefox Preferences Dialog.  Select the “Applications” button at the top.  In the “Content Type” column, find the RealPlayer content type.  It should have something like “RA file” or “RealPlayer document”.  In the “Action” column, select “Use other…”.  Browse to select the RealPlayer program which is “/opt/real/RealPlayer/realplay”.  After the program is specified, it should display “Use realplay” in the “Action column”.  Close the Preferences Dialog.
• Try to play the same .ram file again.  It should automatically use RealPlayer to play the video.  If it doesn’t work, restart FireFox.

6. Setup Firefox to play embedded RealPlayer file.

• Type “about:plugins” in the Firefox address bar.  Find the RealPlayer plugin.  Note that it uses Totem player.

  • Helix DNA Plugin: RealPlayer G2 Plug-In Compatible (compatible; Totem)
       File name: libtotem-complex-plugin.so
       The Totem 2.22.1 plugin handles video and audio streams.

• I don’t know why the RealPlayer setup program didn’t install the RealPlayer plugin in Firefox.   Since we don’t want to use Totem player, we have to remove the plugin.
• Find where the Totem RealPlayer plugin is located.
  • Type “about:config” in the Firefox address bar.  Go ahead and agree that you’ll be careful.
  • Type “plugin” in the “Filter” field.  Find the “plugin.expose_full_path” preference.  Right click on the entry and select “Toggle” to change the value from “false” to “true”.
  • Type “about:plugins” in the Firefox address bar again.  Find the RealPlayer plugin.  It should display the fullpath of the plugin.
  • For example:

    • File name: /usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so

• Remove the Totem RealPlayer plugin.
  • Open a Terminal window.  Go to the Totem plugin directory.

    • cd /usr/lib/totem/gstreamer

  • Remove the plugins.

    • sudo rm libtotem-complex-plugin.*

  • Restart Firefox.  Type “about:plugins” in the Firefox address bar.  Make sure there is no RealPlayer plugin.

• Copy RealPlayer plugin to Firefox.
  • Copy the RealPlayer plugins into the Firefox plugins directory.  For me, Firefox is installed in /usr/lib/firefox-3.0 and RealPlayer is installed in /opt/real/RealPlayer.

    • sudo cp /opt/real/RealPlayer/mozilla/*.* /usr/lib/firefox-3.0/plugins

  • Restart Firefox.  Type “about:plugins” in the Firefox address bar.  Make sure RealPlayer plugin is installed.

    • Helix DNA Plugin: RealPlayer G2 Plug-In Compatible
          File name: /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins/nphelix.so
          Helix DNA Plugin: RealPlayer G2 Plug-In Compatible version 0.4.0.4005

• Test if the plugin works or not. Go to a website that has embedded RealPlayer file.  For example:

  • http://www.film.com/movies/mediaplayback/wall-e/15329145

I think the entire process is too complicated.

References:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RealPlayerInstallationMethods?action=show&redirect=RealplayerInstallationMethods