In this article we will install VLC player on Ubuntu 12.04. VLC is a open source project. VLC player can play most multimedia files as well as DVD, Audio CD, VCD, and various streaming protocol. VLC is absolutely free, it comes without any spyware, Ads or User Tracking code or malware. We can install VLC in two ways. Either form Ubuntu Software Center or command line.
Install VLC from Ubuntu Software Center.
Open Ubuntu Software center
Type VLC in search box and press enter
Select VLC from list and click on install.
Type your super user password. Super user is the user which we create during the installation.
Wow! We have installed VLC in three easy clicks. We recommended you to use always this method as long as possible.Because it would install VLC from official repository. But for some reason it fails you can use other PPA from command line.
Install VLC from command line.
Press ALT+CTRL+T to open the terminal. Run following command to add VLC repository.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:videolan/stable-daily
Run following command to update the repositories
sudo apt-get update
Run following command to install VLC
sudo apt-get install vlc
Confirm when it asks
If it returns without any error congratulation we have successfully installed VLC.
To launch VLC click on Ubuntu button and search for VLC. Click on VLC icon
For first time it would show privacy policy.
VLC player is ready to use.
In some circumstances we may get unmet dependency error for VLC.
From software center installation fails with following error
From command line installation fails with following error
Troubleshooting unmet dependency error for VLC
Open software center.
From edit click on software source
Under Ubuntu Software tab, enable all the repositories except source code and click on download from
Select other from download drop down
Now click on select best server
You need to authenticate this with super user password.
Ubuntu will perform several testing to select best server for your location.
Once Ubuntu select best server for you click on chose server
Now click on other software tab.
One of the most common causes of unmet dependencies is PPAs, especially when used to upgrade the existing package in Ubuntu repositories. Remove any entry if you found for VLC. And click on close.
That all setting we need to in software center.
Now press ALT + CTRL+T key combination to open the terminal and run following command
sudo apt-get clean
This command would clears out the local repository of retrieved package files (the .deb files). It removes everything but the lock file from /var/cache/apt/archives/ and /var/cache/apt/archives/partial/. This is very helpful especially when you are facing unmet dependency errors.
Now run following command.
sudo apt-get -f install
The -f here stands for “fix broken”. Apt will attempt to correct broken dependencies. If you manually installed a package that had unmet dependencies, apt-get will install those dependencies, if possible, otherwise it may simply remove the package that you installed in order to resolve the problem.
Now run following command
sudo apt-get update
This command would update the repository. Any change which you have made in software source from Ubuntu software center will also take place.
Now run following command
sudo apt-get upgrade
This command would update the Ubuntu. This will ensure that you will get the latest Ubuntu. During the upgrading process you need to confirm several actions.
After upgrading reboot the system.
After reboot try again to install VLC from command line method.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:videolan/stable-daily sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install vlc
If you still have issue submit your issue to official Ubuntu forum [http://askubuntu.com].
M.Sathvik 