Today I stumbled accross a site that offered Real Media files, something I haven't encountered in a while.  Further, these .rm files needed a codec that is closed source to operate.  Never mind, I thought, I'll just apt-get RealPlayer for my distro.  As it turns out, however, RealPlayer is not available for Ubuntu Linux x86_64 archetucterues.  The following short tutorial will illustrate how you can install Real Player 11 on Ubuntu Linux x86_64 bit systems. (This will also work for most Linux distros and not just x86_64 bit systems).  This process is conducted within the terminal so I'll present all of the steps for those unfamiliar with command line arguments.

First, we need to get the instalation files from the internet.  To do so execute the following comand in the terminal.  (The easiest method for entering any of the commands presented here is to highlight them with your mouse, click the terminal window, and click your centre mouse button where the coursor is).

wget http://www.real.com/realcom/R?href=http://forms.real.com/real/player/download.html?f=unix/RealPlayer11GOLD.bin

If the above URL doesn't break on your screen (i.e. wrap to the next line so you can read it all) it is:

http://www.real.com/realcom/
R?href=http://forms.real.com/
real/player/download.html?f=unix/
RealPlayer11GOLD.bin

Now we need to modify the file that was downloaded to allow us to execute it as an application.  To do so enter the following.

chmod a+x RealPlayer11GOLD.bin

Simple so far?  Of course!  Next is to install the Real Player application proper.  To do so we need Root access to the computer.  The following command will give you Root priveledges and execute the installation process.  You will have to enter your password at the prompt.

sudo ./RealPlayer11GOLD.bin

After this has been processed you'll be asked if you want to modify the default instalation directory.  There is no reason to change this so just leave it as it is.

A whole heap of code will display on the screen and then a message saying that you've successfully installed Real Player 11.  You'll find Real Player 11 in the Aplications menu filed under Sound and Video.

If you'd like to modify your Firefox preferences so that .rm files play with Real Player 11 rather than mPlayer (or whatever the default is) then perform the following.

Start up Firefox and navigate to Edit -> Preferences (or alt + e + n).

Select the Content tab and under File Types select Manage.

You will be presented with a list of known filetypes that Firefox has encountered or will likely encounter.  The filetypes that you should alter are SMI, RA and RM.  These may not all be present and this doesn't matter.  You will find the filetype names listed in the first column. 

To change these to open with Real Player 11 click the filetype, select Change Action, select the Open Them With This Application button, and hit Browse.

You'll need to navigate to where Real Player 11 installed which, if you kept the default directory, is opt/RealPlayer/realplay (or something like that).  Hit OK and you're done.