The VideoLAN Forums

1. try: the graphical way

I triple checked that a universe repository is activated but
the Synaptic Package Manager shows me only vlc-1.1.4.

2. try: the command line way

again I triple checked my etc/apt/sources.list and yes a universe mirror is listed there.
The "apt-get install vlc" gave me a maverick-updates/universe vlc amd64 1.1.4-1ubuntu1.4

3. try: from source

/usr/bin/ld: /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.4.5/../../../../lib/libmatroska.a(KaxAttached.o): relocation R_X86_64_32 against `libmatroska::KaxAttached_Context' can not be used when making a shared object; recompile with -fPIC
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.4.5/../../../../lib/libmatroska.a: could not read symbols: Bad value
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[6]: *** [libmkv_plugin.la] Error 1


Why is it such a nightmare to install vlc ?

yes, at the moment it is a nightmare. i had it installed for months in maverick from the built-in repositories. last time i updated however, vlc was automatically removed, and now won't install because of missing repositories. this is maddening, because it was my default player for some things, and there are some dvds that don't seem to play on anything else. i hope a ppa for maverick becomes available.

anyway, i've seen this before over the years with vlc. just hope it comes back soon.
none the less, great work everyone, vlc just keeps getting better, when it is installable.

I have never had a problem installing VLC on an Ubuntu release, and I have tried every one of them since 06.10, though it is not always the last VLC version. Something so gross as missing dependencies would be caught immediately by Debian/Ubuntu multimedia developers anyway. Just make sure you have enabled matching "main" and "universe" repositories.

If that does not work, I have to suspect you have enabled some buggy PPA or other external repository that came with incompatible packages.

here is my /etc/apt/sources.list (without comments).
I never changed anything and I don't know what a PPA is.


well, I'm sorry, I can't post my /etc/apt/sources.list
I get the message:

Your message contains too many URLs. The maximum number of URLs allowed is 4.