Just a few moments ago I was granted with the following popup message as I tried to play a few podcasts I downloaded
I know Kubuntu doesn’t support MP3 playback by default due to copyright/licensing/patent/legal issues, as seen from this part of the ubuntu documentation
Ubuntu strives to make every piece of software available under the licensing terms laid out in the Ubuntu License Policy. Patent and copyright restrictions complicate free operating systems distributing software to support proprietary formats.
Ubuntu’s commitment to only include completely free software by default means that proprietary media formats are not configured ‘out of the box’.
It’s cool that they’ve automated it though: click the install button, supply your password, wait for the package to download and install, restart amarok and it’s all good.
Kudo’s to programmers, and bleh to non-free standards
The Wheat Field 
You can always use OGG Vorbis, or any of the other open-standards.. :P
In fact I do use OGG Vorbis for my own music, thats why I only encountered this yesterday. Load my OGG’s to my PDA and play in the car, but not all podcasts have an OGG Vorbis feed so what choice do I have?
I tried just that. Somehow Adept barfed while trying. Now, either nothing happens when I click on “Install MP3 Support” or the dialog box that _should_ say that is devoid of text.
I tried un-installing Amarok altogether and re-trying but I get the same behavior.
I’m guessing somewhere a file got corrupted trying to install the codecs, but I have no idea what to do, being a complete noob.
Any suggenstions? TIA
Adam
Hey Adam. Nice to see you taking a step into the Linux world =) You failed mentioned which Linux distribution you’re using but if you are using an Ubuntu or Debian based distribution you can try the following.
1. Open up Konsole or the command line
2. Type “apt-get install libxine-extracodecs” and press enter
For Ubuntu based distros add “sudo” in front of the command. That should work. Any other error messages would probably be shown there. And remember Google is your friend!
All the best and hope that helps
Thanks for your kind reply. Tried, no joy; tried using the autoremove feature first as well.
I’m beginning to think my version of Kubuntu/Edgy is a bit too… edgy. Getting the same thing, (Amarok hanging, etc.) and I notice sometimes when I try to launch programs like the Adept installer, I get an hourglass and nothing comes up. Maybe I should try Dapper, it being more stable as I hear.
I have high hopes for GNU/Linux as a Windows user who cannot bring himself to let Microsoft get away with that Vista nonsense.