I have a bunch of old files that are in Real format. I was still running Gutsy back then. Helix can’t open them, and I couldn’t remember what the hell they were, only that I’d “liberated” them from BBC and for that reason, they might actually be useful, so I installed Real Player; I think it was v.11.0, might have been 10.x. Real’s Linux player doesn’t suck nearly as much as their Windows player, so I didn’t really mind having it…until I actually installed it. It took over all of my multimedia icons, and wouldn’t let me change them for file types, only for individual files. No thanks–I don’t have that much time left on earth. I uninstalled the player, even using –purge, but nope. Little fuckers were still there. I went into my /home, showed hidden files and hunted down every last reference I could find to that goddamned player. Nope. Still there. By that time, I was pissed, but decided that since Hardy’s release was imminent anyway, I’d just do my usual clean install, then never, ever install Real anything again. I googled for an answer, just in case, and although I found a couple of people who were as annoyed as I was, none of their questions had an answer. Apparently most people are slightly less fussy about their multimedia icons. Go figure. I upgraded to Hardy, then never went near Real again. I have Helix, but it’s well-behaved, so I don’t mind it. Now, I want to open one of my old files, and I know Helix can’t do it, so it’s Real or nothing. I think that if I install it and then do:

sudo /opt/real/RealPlayer/postinst/install_icon_resource.sh uninstall

I should be okay, but if that doesn’t work, I’m gonna be royally pissed. Then again, I haven’t got around to my Intrepid upgrade, though I did do a bunch of backups in preparation. I guess that if the world came to an end and I ended up with stupid, ugly Real icons, I could just light a fire under my arse and get around to the upgrade I’ve been meaning to do anyway. We’ll see. 🙂