You are correct. I just do it to make it easier for people to copy and paste only some of the commands. ;)

You can write it in one line command, eq:

sudo aptitude install win32codecs virtualbox and soon

:-)

To answer your questions…

1) Upgrading the kernel on Ubuntu Hardy (8.04) can be done using the commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-image

But if you’re still denied access to the repositories, this will not work. Also, MAKE SURE you have BACKUPS of any data that you do NOT WANT TO LOSE, in the event of issues such as breaking your OS.

2) You’re not seeing medibuntu in the repository list because it was not added. Please read the post – Reading it will tell you how to add mediabuntu to your sources.list

3) Read the post. – It has the instructions on how to edit your sources.list. (ALWAYS make a BACKUP of your sources.list when editing, that way you can still restore the original file).

4) sudo apt-get clean, cleans (removes) the local archive of downloaded files.

5) The beginning of this comment response answers #5 – Is your IP address coming from a blacklisted range? Is your IP address being filtered through some kind of ISP proxy? If possible, try using the IP range of a completely different network from school, work, etc.

6) See answer to #5

I hope some of this helps you! :)

I did get a response to our email from Romain Beauxis of Ubuntu Lists, see it below:

“Err http://br.archive.ubuntu.com hardy-security/main libavutil1d
3:0.cvs20070307-5ubuntu7.3
403 Forbidden [IP: 200.236.31.1 80]”

I think the reason is pretty clear from the initial message. This user is
being denied its access by the HTTP server, returning an error 403 (which is
not far from another that you may know, the 404..).

Hence, you should advise him to check why he is refused access on this server,
and if needed, contact the web server administrator.

If you plan on preparing more tutorials, I would kindly advise you to be
prepared for some more feedback like this. That is all about helping
newcomers.

However, I think it is also important to try to do a bit more of analysis
before contacting the maintainers.

Romain“

One thing I find interesting is that I just did a search on Google about this issue: http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=ubuntu+update+403+Forbidden&btnG=Search&meta= and I do see a lot of issues listed. There is also a fair bit in various Ubuntu forums about this too. As such I don’t think the issue is necessarily as “clear” as Mr. Beauxis try’s to imply.

I am not expert in these matters. I am beginner.
But I follow your last guidance to describe what I did:

1) answer: How do I do this?

2) Now click the “Third-Party Software” tab. Do you see “http://packages.medibuntu.org…” there?

Answer: There is no “http://packages.medibuntu.org. There http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu

On the “Ubuntu Software” Tab, do you see all check boxes selected and the “Download from” as selecting a server from your country?

answer: all boxes are marked, and the server is selected in the country.

3) I have heard that substituting ftp:// in place of http:// has helped some people – But I am not sure if that would work in this case. I assume it would not hurt to try.

answer: where can I change this?

4)) Have you tried the command “sudo apt-get clean”

Response: This command clears what?

5) Try using the main repository instead of the one from your country, or try one from another country. When you do that do you still get the same error?

answer: I tried all and has not changed anything.

6) Are you running through a proxy server? If so, that could be interfering. Try removing reference to it form /etc/apt/apt.conf You can do this by looking for the code:

Acquire::HTTP::Proxy "false";
and changing it to say:
Acquire::::Proxy "false";

answer: I do not know to say about it.

———–

Thank you again!

More ideas:

1) Have you updated your kernel. Maybe after that the ffmpeg install might work?

2) Better, I remember a couple years ago I had trouble with this. One way I fixed it was to edit the sources list using Ubuntu (not gedit, nano, vi, etc.), then things started working.

Go to System / Administration /Software Sources (it will ask you to enter your password)

Now click the “Third-Party Software” tab. Do you see “http://packages.medibuntu.org…” there?
On the “Ubuntu Software” Tab, do you see all check boxes selected and the “Download from” as selecting a server from your country?

If not, make the appropriate changes (make sure you have backups!!!). After changing and selecting the “Close” button, you’ll see a pop-up that gives the option to “Reload” – Click that “Reload” button.

3) I have heard that substituting ftp:// in place of http:// has helped some people – But I am not sure if that would work in this case. I assume it would not hurt to try.

4) Have you tried the command “sudo apt-get clean”

5) Try using the main repository instead of the one from your country, or try one from another country. When you do that do you still get the same error?

6) Are you running through a proxy server? If so, that could be interfering. Try removing reference to it form /etc/apt/apt.conf You can do this by looking for the code:

Acquire::HTTP::Proxy "false";

and changing it to say:

Acquire::::Proxy "false";

These are some ideas, hopefully one of them will work for you?

I manually surfed to your repository (in Firefox) and downloaded the Packages.gz inside http://br.archive.ubuntu.com hardy-security/main. And found the floowing informattion for ffmpeg in it:

Package: libavcodec1d
Priority: optional
Section: libs
Installed-Size: 3996
Maintainer: Ubuntu MOTU Developers
Original-Maintainer: Debian multimedia packages maintainers
Architecture: amd64
Source: ffmpeg
Version: 3:0.cvs20070307-5ubuntu7.3
Depends: libavutil1d (>= 0.cvs20070307), libc6 (>= 2.7), libgsm1 (>= 1.0.12), libtheora0, libvorbis0a (>= 1.2.0), libvorbisenc2 (>= 1.1.2), zlib1g (>= 1:1.2.3.3.dfsg-1)
Filename: pool/main/f/ffmpeg/libavcodec1d_0.cvs20070307-5ubuntu7.3_amd64.deb
Size: 1574428
MD5sum: 9b68e519cb14cd90f8030414a78bc62b
SHA1: 5219e37d52d7d1fa717b928029fbf048044691ec
SHA256: 1122a632acee46f55818c8be6ba528ea368b6f87eb5ce8a70b87f832a8f47404
Description: ffmpeg codec library
This is the codec library from the ffmpeg project. It supports most existing
encoding formats (MPEG, DivX, MPEG4, AC3, DV…).

As you can see, the maintainers are: ubuntu-motu@lists.ubuntu.com and pkg-multimedia-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org

I sent the following email:

Hello!

One of my readers at UbuntuLinuxHelp.com is unable to Update Ubuntu as he posted a comment on my blog to that effect.

Please can you see that comment and if you have a moment – We would really appreciate a follow up comment as to what the issue might be? You can view the comments here: http://ubuntulinuxhelp.com/build-a-web-developer-pc-and-enable-most-media-playback-using-ubuntu-linux/

Please can you help my readers?

Thanks so much for your input!
Roger (at UbuntuLinuxHelp.com)

Hopefully they will be kind enough to give us a bit of extra help! :)