unable to play videos sent to me-says I need codex, what is codex?

I want to be able to click on the link and see what has been sent me. I can not do this with Ubuntu evidently. Please help me out.

Please read https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats. Towards the bottom there is a command that needs to be typed into the terminal which can be found by going Applications > Accessories > Terminal.

I need to know the password to do anything. My former son in law installed this ubuntu program, and I have no idea what the user name is. Now I am stuck in space doing nothing. We are not on social terms now, (on account of family breakup). How do I get the name I need to put in?

who is the system manager of my ubuntu program? I need to know this before I can resume work on this. thanks

Open a terminal (Menu Applications > Accessories)

Then you will see something like

vdquynh@quynh:~$

that says the user name (to login) is "vdquynh" and the computer name is "quynh"

Now for the password, you need to ask the person who installed it. You need this password to be able to install the "ubuntu-restricted-extras" packages that will make you able to see common proprietary video and sound formats (avi, flv, mp3, etc.). The reason why it is not incorporated by default is because of the proprietary licenses that does not allow for a free distribution.

Otherwise, there is the option to use a live CD Ubuntu to boot your system and change the password, but this will need commands on the terminal. If you feel like doing it, somebody else more familiar with this stuff can help you.

Vo Do Quynh is correct however, I would install VLC player and not just codecs. It plays everything.

Play mp3 and dvd under Ubuntu install skype googleearth acroread and other stuffs using Medibuntu

First please install https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats

You need to have extra repositories enabled..

Please first enable the universe and multiverse repository:

Open System → Administration → Software sources → [ Tab Ubuntu software ]

enable "Community-maintained Open Source software ( universe )"
enable "Proprietary drivers for devices ( restricted )"
enable "Software restrictecd by copyright or legal issue ( multiverse )"

Close and confirm the repository reload.

Then open a Terminal from the menu Applications→Accessories→Terminal

Tip: right click with mouse on the terminal title caption and select the item "Always on Top" doing this you will force the terminal window to stay on top of the other windows and you will find very easy to copy single row from this web page into the terminal...
Something more about using the terminal https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UsingTheTerminal

Then type or better copy and paste a row a time then press enter:
(Tip: select the single row to copy then right click into the terminal and to quick paste click with middle button of mouse )

and type or better copy and paste:

sudo aptitude install vlc smplayer mplayer

To get better dvd playback and optional packages here the medibuntu available software list http://packages.medibuntu.org/
you need to add the medibuntu http://www.medibuntu.org/ repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list file:
( here the medibuntu howto https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu but see below )

In short please open a Terminal from the menu Applications → Accessories → Terminal and type or copy and paste:

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/`lsb_release -cs`.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list; sudo apt-get -q update; sudo apt-get --yes -q --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring; sudo apt-get -q update

-- give your user password when requested, you don't see nothing when you type it, then press enter

Now to install, type:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras libxine1-ffmpeg
sudo aptitude install libdvdread3 libdvdnav4 libdvdcss2 regionset gnome-mplayer
sudo aptitude install non-free-codecs w32codecs
sudo aptitude install gstreamer0.10-pitfdll gstreamer0.10-plugins-good
sudo aptitude install gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse

give your user password when requested, you don't see nothing when you type it, then press enter.

You can also install other Medibuntu repository provided optional software http://packages.medibuntu.org/ :

sudo apt-get install skype
sudo apt-get install googleearth
sudo apt-get install acroread

Hope this helps