Is w32codecs Freezing Your Ubuntu?

Wanted to play an Realmedia file? Installed w32codecs? Now Totem is freezing your Ubuntu Hardy? And by freezing, I mean: you can move the mouse, nothing else works, no ctrl-alt-backspace, no ctrl-alt-F1.

Then do the following:

  1. Make sure you have gstreamer0.10-pitfdll installed.
  2. Install (if you haven’t already) w32codecs.
  3. Execute the following three commands in the terminal: rm -rf ~/.gstreamer-0.10 gst-inspect-0.10 gst-inspect-0.10 pitfdll
  4. Try Totem again. Should work now.