Download RealPlayer
You can get it from . You will need to fill out a short form telling Real who you are, and what version you need (Linux/PPC 2000, PowerPC G3 or Higher, and your internet spped).
The download is 10MB, on a modem connection it will take about an hour to download.
Optional: Become root
If you want to make RealPlayer avaliable to everybody on your system, type su into a xterm. It will prompt you for the root password. Once you are logged in, remember this shell is now running as root.
Details: su stands for switch user. If you don't type in the user name it defaults to root. Once logged in you can tell you are root, because the normal user $ sign becomes a # for root.
Make RealPlayer Installer Excutable
You can do this by typing in a xterm: chmod a+x rp8_linux_powerpc_cs1.bin.
Don't want everybody on the system to be able to run this installer? Then use u+x (which means user can excute only).
Start The Installer
RealPlayer includes a graphical installer. You can start it by typing ./rp8_linux_powerpc_cs1.bin in a xterm.
The period and the slash are important -- it tells your shell to start in the current directory. Alternatively, you could use your filemanager to start up the installer by clicking that file.
Running The Installer
First off it will introduce itself.
Next it will prompt you where to install it. You can use the pull down menu to choose between the locations, if you are making it avalible to all users, /usr/local/RealPlayer7 is probably the best place. If you are only going to be using it (as you don't have root), put it somewhere in /home/imaclinuxtest (replace with your username).
After this it will ask you if you want to install (and where to install) the Netscape Plugins and configure the mimetypes. Don't even bother with the Netscape plugins if you use Netscape, as Netscape/PPC-Linux doesn't work right with plugins.
Make sure that the Configure mime types option is set, it will tell Netscape about RealPlayer, so it automatically plays RealAudio and RealVideo for you.
Finally, it will ask you to tell personal stuff about you. It requires you to fill in all of these blanks, most importantly is the connection speed. The connection speed determines what quality video and audio you get (depending on you net speed).
Errors while Installing
If you get an error about EOF or not being in the standard gzip format, this means your download was corrupted. Try downloading again.
If you are still having problems, see the .
Running RealPlayer
After the install, it should automatically start up RealPlayer. It will automatically play a short introduction to RealPlayer G2 7.0 for Linux PowerPC, then take you (using Netscape) to the Real site where you can find more media to enjoy.
Restarting RealPlayer
After you quit real player, you can restart it using either a xterm or your panel.
To start it in a xterm type in /usr/local/RealPlayer7/realplay (assuming you installed in /usr/local/RealPlayer7, replace it if you installed somewhere else).
KDE users should see a RealPlayer entry in K Menu -> Multimedia -> RealPlayer. If you do not, this means you ran the install as a different user (most likely root) then you are currently running KDE. Copy the RealPlayer.kdelnk from /root/.kde/share/applnk/Multimedia/RealPlayer.kdelnk to /usr/share/applnk/Multimedia. You can do this using this command (as root): cp /root/.kde/share/applnk/Multimedia/RealPlayer.kdelnk /usr/share/applnk/Multimedia. Next restart the KDE Panel, by right clicking on it, and choosing restart.
Common Problems
- RealPlayer is Unstable. Part of this is caused by it being statically linked to Lesstif. There is nothing you can do about it.
- RealPlayer Quits Playing Audio. Quit RealPlayer, Restart it. Most likely this problem is caused by your CPU load picking up, causing RealPlayer to mute, and not being able to unmute.
- RealPlayer Turns Grey, Inactive. It has crashed. Kill it by typing killall -9 realplay in an xterm.
- RealPlayer Disappeares. It has crashed. You will have to restart it.
