Configuring Online Radio in Linux

By default online radio services dont work in Linux. I currently had configured the same for my Ubuntu box and thought about writing this article. We must remember that all Linux distributions are limited by patents and license restrictions in some countries, which make it illegal for the distributions to have support for certain restricted formats - They have to avoid formats suppressed by DRM (Digital Rights Management, or Digital Restrictions Management), and hence they are often unplayable.

Now to install these restricted formats on a Ubuntu system -

First ensure the relevant repositories are enabled.

• Click System → Administration → Synaptic Package Manager → Settings → Repositories and then click Add. Check the Community maintained (Universe) and Non-free (Multiverse) boxes. When you close the window, click Reload.
  
  
• Install the packages. While you could install packages individually using Synaptic, a quicker way would be as follows. Click Application → Accessories → Terminal and paste the following command:
  
  

  sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-pitfdll gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
  gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse
  gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse gxine
  libxine-main1 libxine-extracodecs ogle ogle-gui
  

• To play most DVDs you'll need the libdvdcss2 package from here. This is a third party package, and not supported by Ubuntu. See instructions to install the file.
  
  
• You can also install Adobe Flash Player and additional Windows codecs that are only available in third-party repositories.

After this go and click ahead on any online radio site and enjoy the music. You can find about the Hindi radio I wrote about few days back here.

More info - Detailed instructions