Downloading software

I'm a newbie to Linux - and no kind of computer expert in any case. Still this is a good machine, and I've downloaded Skype from the Acer site without any problem, and in general am enjoying using the AAOne - the Skype facility is very useful. I decided to be a bit more adventurous and download VLC Media player from the same site, and to start playing video - the installed M Player won't play AVI files.

The VLC player won't download. The file vlc.sh.zip downloads into the Downloads box and Xarchiver duly opens. Acer's website says 'there should be a new file named "vlc.sh" in the same folder with vlc.sh.zip. There's a file named vlc.sh in the Xarchiver dialogue, and a ReleaseNote PDF file, but no vlc.sh.zip. When I select vlc.sh and choose extract a dialogue box opens with an 'Extract to' window, with /tmp/vlc.sh in it. I extract and this takes me back to the Xarchiver dialogue, with the same file (vlc.sh) as before.

I've tried other things, like downloading vlc with an rpm extension from another website. This fails at the 'resolving dependencies' stage. I've tried installing RealPlayer from the Add/Remove Software window. RealPlayer is, according to this, already installed, but there's no sign of it. I even found my way round Terminal as far as using YUM and tried installing vlc and Realplayer from there, but both times I get 'nothing to do' and 'no packages' and 'no files exist'. I have managed to install Helix Player and Kaffeine and Amarok - they all appear in the Multimedia window, but none of them will open AVI files. HelixPlayer plays sound. I tried going to the Helix Player website and getting codecs, but get bogged down with the various versions of *.rpm packages available for Fedora - there doesn't seem to be anything for Fedora 8 which is, I understand, what this AAOne uses.

Any ideas?


thanks

 

You should read the instructions for installing the VLC player that is available on this forum (as well as on Macles blogg).