Using Synaptic doesn't add installed program to menu

Some programs do not have a GUI (graphical user interface) and to access these you open a terminal window(Applications, Accessories, Terminal) and type the name of the program (ampache).

You can, of course, create an icon on your Desktop to launch that program or add an entry to your Applications menu.

Have you looked under Applications, Sound & Video or Internet?

I have never used Ampache and have found Exaile Music Player adequate for my needs. Try it.

Andre has the best answer there. you don't need to locate the equivalent of the exe file but just drop to a command-line - Alt F2 might give you a little one or a better one might be to go up to the top taskbar and click on

Applications - Accessories - Terminal

and into the terminal/command window/console start typing in the name of the package. When you use a command-line in linux it's a good plan to keep pressing the 'tab' key just above caps-lock. A single press of the tab key tries to help you autocomplete whatever you are typing in a way similar to 'predictive texting' on mobile phones but usually more intelligently and relevantly. Guess where they get that feature from? Many small hand-held devices such as mobile-phones have been running various special versions of linux for years :) A double press, like double clicking a mouse button shows all the options that it could make sense of given what you've already typed. Both these methods mostly help when typing in long pathnames to data files, especially over a network but they are also sometimes useful for checking 'correct' spelling as most of linux is case-sensitive so the pathname
/home/username/documents
gives an error because the 'correct' address for most of your data is
/home/username/Documents
lol, see the huge difference? Took me ages to work that out ;)
Another useful feature again on any linux command-line, not just Ubuntu, is to type -h (or --help in some distros such as Ubuntu) after the command. Even a newly installed program will then give you a 'cheat-sheet' style of help on the correct syntax for using the command and the various options it currently features. Sometimes an update might add new options but i don't really use programs that are that hot. Try typing

ampache -h

and then

ampache --help

where you can use --help you should also find that -h also works ;)

Having found out how to get a recalcitrant application to work you can then add a launcher to the desktop or to either taskbar or to the Applications menu. Just right click where you want the launcher and follow options such as "Add to panel" (taskbars are called panels in linux-land) or "Edit menu", "Add item" to get to something like "Create Custom Launcher" or whatever is closest, and then type in the command you used to launch the application ;) Editing the menu can be fun but creates 2 problems; 1) time flies by without achieving much and 2) When you ask for help from someone they get all confused about where anything is. I now tend to leave the menus as they start out but occasionally add a 2nd shortcut in another sub-menu and occasionally move things up and down the list until commonly used items are easier to reach. Err, i guess you can see i run into problem 1 quite a bit ;)

I still think you'd be best off installing another player instead, it sounds like ampache might be designed to run only from a command-line and something like this is probably going to be easier to use from a front-end gui, although i'm sure many fans would disagree, hopefully anyway. I thought the standard one was amarok but i get confused and maybe thats a movie player. It sounds like Andre's suggestion is best, it usually is.

Also if you are new to Ubuntu then there's a specifically Ubuntu work-sheet that should help you get most of your multi-media sorted out quite quickly, just follow the steps as you read
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu
You have to choose between commiting to OpenSource only (better for trouble-shooting and a better ethical stance to send a clear message to multi-media productions/distribution companies that attempting to subjugate people into DRM stuff will cut out a significant chunk of the their market and cut their profits (hopefully)) but personnally i went with non-free and have just had to cross my fingers that i don't run into problems because OpenSource stuff is easier to fix whereas non-free means you have to like it or lump it. Non-free doesn't necessarily mean you have to pay, i haven't, it just means you sell your soul into the hands of people more concerned with making money and profits out of you than in giving you a fair deal or treating you with any respect or at all fairly - on the other hand it tends to mean you can play all the latest movies and stuff more easily. I went for the easy life <shrugs>

Anyway, good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Oooo, i forgot my favourite feature of termial consoles is to use the up arrow (or roll the mouse wheel) I think it defaults to somethinglike the last 25 command-line entries but i'm not sure as i keep getting distracted when i try to count'em ;)

Tom & Andre,

Thanks for the info. It is useful in understanding how to use Ubuntu, but unfortunately, Ampache just isn't recognized. Synaptic show it installed, but when typed in the terminal it comes up as an error, no such command.

I installed Exaile. It was a snap. But, it does not appear to let you look for content stored on a NAS device. And I really need a media server so I can listen to tunes from my Roku in the living room.

COULD IT BE I should have installed 8.04 or 8.10 instead of 9.04? Is 9.04 too new? I see a lot of info for 8.x and not much at all about 9.04

To see if Ampache is installed anywhere on your system, use the "find" option under Places, Search for files. The default search field is your Home folder but if you click on the right of the rectangle that says "Look in folder" and select "File System", you will find where Ampache is installed.

9.04 is still fairly new so you would not see too many questions relating to what you want to do. No need to install previous versions of Ubuntu - just hang in there and you will receive help.

It might also be worth posting the question in a couple of other forums

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToGetHelp

http://www.linuxquestions.org/

Although this last one is a general linux forum so the help might not be specific to Ubuntu, they might be more familiar with the ampache and exaile packages though. :)

Have you worked through the Medibuntu page?
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu

Also it looks a bit to me like things might be a bit broken on your system. When you boot up do you get a few different options for booting into Ubuntu? Does the second option have "Recovery Mode" near the end of the line? This has a few options that are worth running through about once a month or something but avoid the "fix x-sever" unless you want to reset all your graphics and desktop eyecandy back to defaults! Also the reinstall grub etc is unlikely to be a good plan every month! The "Clear space" and "Fix broken packages" and "Fsck, check partition" are all good to do though:)

Really i'm just wondering if you have completely filled up your Ubuntu partition. Can you go up to the Places menu and open the Documents folder? You might need to use the view menu to get a status bar at the bottom. Does it show how much free space you have left on your drive? Did you make a separate /home partition? (You'd probably remember, it's not the default and isn't hugely easy unless you set out to do it - a good plan for after you've become a bit more comfortable with linux, maybe next week)

Also have you tried right-clicking on the Applications menu and had a look in the "Edit" option there. It could be the menu listing is there but just not ticked yet. Ticking it makes it visible in the menu.

Good luck
Hopefully useful?
Regards from
Tom :)

Tom and Andre,

Thanks so much. Here's what I was able to do.

I found Ampache in /usr/share as a directory and in that directory was a subdirectory /www with all sorts of stuff, mostly PHP files.

I opened up localhost/ampache in Firefox and low and behold I got the install first user screen!

But, I couldn't save the config file it automatically generated. So, I restarted Firefox through sudo and had permissions to do what I needed to do.

Unfortunately, when I then went to start the damned program again, through FireFox, I was directed to an error screen and told to see my Ampache Adminsitrator, who is me. So, I'm going to confer with myself for a while over a nice bowl of Java Chip ice cream. Then I'll start again tomorrow.

Lol, that "see System Administrator" is a dead give-away that linux desktops are setup to be secure family or some other type of multi-user machine - something that Windows is trying to catch up with. It's good to be ahead of the race with this :)

this doesn't solve my problem. How do I start "Play on Linux", described as a front end for wine. Synaptic says it is on my computer (sometimes. Then again sometimes it does not show it.)

What is going on? Problems like this are the reason most users don't use Ubuntu Linux. Unless you are a programmer and working with the system everyday, there are too many issues that are just like this.

I have a program on my computer but don't know how to make it run so I can use it. It worked fine under the new upgrade to 11.04, but when I changed back to Gnome it doesn't work.

donaldt

Hi :)

Please start a new question about this so that the new Answerers Team get a chance to see the question.
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+addquestion

It's also worth registering at the other forums
http://www.ubuntuforums.com
http://www.linuxquestions.org
because an issue like this is wider than just Ubuntu.

PLayOnLinux and Wine are independant projects so it might be a good idea to raise questions in their forums too.

Then whichever gives the best answer fastest would be good to link to from the threads you raised in the other forums, to help spread the knowledge a bit.

The first step is to just post a new question here tho
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+addquestion
Regards from
Tom :)