HowTo: Frostwire install on Ubuntu Linux 16.04. Answered for Carl of SC.

Frostwire Application

  "Switch to GNU/Linux and get your freedom on today!" A message I've been working to share for years! A simple way that I do this, is by wearing a shirt that says "Linux" as often as I can.
  So I was out on a road trip, proudly wearing my Ubuntu GNU/Linux shirt, and I pulled into a gas station to get a snack. That's when I met Carl.
  Carl saw my shirt and complimented Linux. We nearly did a high five right there in the gas station! Then, after a quick exchange of praise for our favorite operating system, and a solid hand shake, Carl asked if I knew how to solve a problem he was having with installing the Frostwire application for Ubuntu 16.04, or even in Pinguy OS.

  Frostwire is a GPL licensed, free and open-source software (FOSS) application for use with bit-torrent(file sharing/distribution), media-download(i.e., from YouTube, archive.org, etc.), and/or media-playback of a myriad of different media content types (i.e.,m4a,mp3, and more).
  So to get my new Linux buddy Carl up and running, I did a bit of testing to see what might be the issue with installing Frostwire on Ubuntu 16.04 64-bit(amd64) and I've documented the details below.

  First of all, I downloaded the Frostwire *.deb installer file for my Ubuntu 16.04 GNU/Linux machine, by simply navigating my web browser to http://www.frostwire.com and clicking the "Free Download" button appearing there (See Fig. 1).

Fig. 1

  If you're using the Google Chrome browser, there will be a prompt at the bottom of the browser with a warning about the *.deb installer file being a possible harmful one.
  Not to worry, this is the default safe-browsing behavior for any type if installer file that you will encounter on the web.  Click the "Keep" button and proceed with the download of the Frostwire *.deb installer file. In our case, the file was saved to the default download path of ~/Download (See Fig. 2).

  Note: At the time of this writing, the name of the *.deb installer file is "frostwire-6.3.6.all.deb". But keep in mind, the name of the installer file could be updated to a newer version name over time.

Fig. 2

  Upon testing this application, I noticed it failed due to not having some dependencies needed for installing the application (See Fig. 3).

Fig. 3

  A caveat to installing *.deb files in Linux with dpkg is that dependencies needed to install the application are not automatically calculated and installed along with the application.  So if there are any dependencies are needed for your application, the dpkg *.deb installation will fail to complete properly.
  Also, in the case of this specific Frostwire application *.deb installer, the dependencies I need to have installed before I can install Frostwire, require the 32-bit(ia32) architecture capability to be setup on my Ubuntu GNU/Linux 64-bit(amd64) operating system first.  I will show how to correct these issues below.

For Carl: So in order to INSTALL Frostwire on my Ubuntu 64-bit operating system, I simply need to run the following command in the terminal (press CTRL+ALT+t to bring up the terminal )(for visual example, See Fig. 4):

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 && sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jre lib32stdc++6 mplayer -y && sudo dpkg -i Downloads/frostwire-6.3.6.all.deb

Fig. 4

  Note: The above output doesn't show the packages downloading for install. So keep in mind that an Internet connection will be needed to run the install commands and the downloading of the additional packages may vary depending on your Internet connection speed.

  After the command in Fig. 4 completes, simply open your Ubuntu search glass, type frostwire, and you should be presented with an icon you can click to launch the application (See Fig. 5)

Fig. 5

  See the picture 'Frostwire Application' at the top of this post to see what Frostwire looks like after it's launched.

  Disclaimer: Frostwire is an application that can be used to download .torrent files. While torrent files and the related protocol are a fantastic way to share files and get fast downloads - I recommend only downloading files that you can independently verify as being legally downloadable in your locale, and safe to use for your system.  This post, or any post on my blog, don't advocate for downloading illegal content or breaking the law in any way.

  Should you want to remove/uninstall Frostwire and the packages it depends on, simply run the following command in the terminal (shown in Fig. 6):

sudo apt-get autoremove openjdk-8-jre lib32stdc++6 mplayer -y && sudo dpkg -r frostwire

Fig. 6

That's it! I hope this helps someone out there, especially Carl! Feel free to leave a comment below with any questions or comments. And as always, get your FREEDOM ON!! Switch to GNU/Linux today!

Cheers.

Shannon VanWagner

09/25/2016