the empty quarter

I used the following steps to install RealPlayer in order to listen to BBC Radio. Although I did this on Xubuntu 8.04, it should also work for Ubuntu and other distros.

1. Download and install RealPlayer for Linux from Real. I downloaded the deb package and installed it through gdebi.
2. My install path was now /opt/real/RealPlayer. Check that the following two files exist:
   
   /opt/real/RealPlayer/mozilla/nphelix.so
   /opt/real/RealPlayer/mozilla/nphelix.xpt

3. Copy those two files to the Firefox plugins directory (the code below should be a single line):
   
   sudo cp /opt/real/RealPlayer/mozilla/nphelix.* /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins/

4. Restart Firefox. You can verify that Firefox has picked up the plugin under Tools > Add-ons > Plugins. It should say something along the lines of “Helix DNA Plugin: RealPlayer G2 Plug-In Compatible”.

Good luck and happy listening.