Ubuntu "Extras" to Add After an Installation

Ubuntu can play many non-free media formats such as Flash, MP3, Quicktime, WMV, DVD, etc. These formats are not supported "out of the box" due to various conflicts in licensing philosophies but they can be installed with a simple command entered in a terminal window:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

This link indicates that this is for Ubuntu 9.04, 8.10, 8.04 but it worked for my 9.10 version as well. There is an alternate 9.04 / 9.10 installation option on this link as well but I have not tried it yet.

Additional extras such as Google Earth, Real Player and video codecs can be installed via Medibuntu (Multimedia, Entertainment & Distractions In Ubuntu). "Medibuntu is a packaging project dedicated to distributing software that cannot be included in Ubuntu for various reasons, related to geographical variations in legislation regarding intellectual property, security and other issues."

To add the repository:

sudo wget --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list &&
sudo apt-get --quiet update && sudo apt-get --yes --quiet
--allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get
--quiet update

Full installation instructions are here, in the Ubuntu documentation.

The Medibuntu repository is deactivated by upgrading to a newer Ubuntu version so you will need to run the command again after upgrading.

Note that Medibuntu no longer provides Acrobat Reader (acroread). Instead, enable the Canonical partner repository under System->Administration->Software Sources->Third Party Software.