Install Amarok 1.4 in Ubuntu 9.04

26 Apr, 2009 Multimedia, Tutorials

In the latest Ubuntu Release, Ubuntu 9.04, that has just been published, our favourite music player Amarok 1.4 has been updated to its successor 2.0. To be honest, Amarok 2 has been restyled quiet a lot, although it works perfectly. So, if anybody wants to get the older version back, here you'll find how to do it.
You'll need to execute the following three commands in a terminal:

echo -e "\n## amarok 1.4 \ndeb http://ppa.launchpad.net/bogdanb/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main\ndeb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/bogdanb/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install amarok14

You'll notice, that the first line is going to add an repository to the list. It's because of this add, that Ubuntu will show you a warning, while executing the second line, telling you that one of the repositories couldn't be verified. To solve this problem, you can read the following tutorial which we wrote some weeks ago, explaining how to solve the GPG error of launchpad.net.

Now you're ready to enjoy Amarok, as you were used to...

Post - Update:

To install Amarok 1.4 on Ubuntu 9.04 you should use the following instructions...

echo -e "\n## amarok 1.4 \ndeb http://ppa.launchpad.net/surfed/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install amarok14

Thanks to Vitor!

27 Comments so far »

Fooey said

am May 5 2009 @ 8:41 pm

Thank god. Amarok 2 is hell.
Rob said

am May 8 2009 @ 5:01 am

Agreed, removing it now… its the worst “update” I’ve ever seen… now its like every other media player….
John said

am May 15 2009 @ 12:55 pm

Thanks! Thank God I can get rid of amaroK2. I love amaroK1. What a regression. I had so much respect for the amaroK guys when it came to the clean GUI of amaroK1. It’s weird they could get it so wrong for their user in 2.
John Ó’Ríordáns Blog » Install the “old” amarok 1.4 in KDE 4 said

am May 15 2009 @ 1:15 pm

[...] Since I use Kubuntu I had to look for how to do it in Ubuntu. After a bit of googling I found the ubuntu-blog which showed me how to do it. I have pasted the instructions [...]
Nichlas said

am May 16 2009 @ 10:29 am

My biggest gripe with 2.0(.2) is that it crashes on me all the time. Makes it pretty much unusable for me…

So, getting 1.4 back and waiting for at newer release is my strategy.
brett said

am May 21 2009 @ 10:30 am

Amarok 2 has caused my system to crash repeatedly. I do not like the fact that upgrading to 9.04 automatically “upgraded” VLC and Amarok. Both cause problems. Why the hell can’t Ubuntu upgrades leave applications alone or at least alert that upgrade to Ubuntu requires application updates for whatever reason? I am getting to the point where I am wasting more time with these issues than I was screwing around with XP. May go back to the MS kingdom soon and spread the gloomy truth about Linux
brett said

am May 21 2009 @ 10:50 am

M previous gripes aside, thanks for this tip, worked great, back to the real Amarok!
Emiliano said

am May 22 2009 @ 12:22 am

We’re glad that we could help you with this entry… thanks for your comments! Glad that everyone agrees with us about the amarok 2 update…
Andrea said

am May 27 2009 @ 10:06 am

Totally agree…amarok2 really sucks….at least to me
predator said

am May 27 2009 @ 1:58 pm

thank you so much! amarok2 sucks! amarok 1.4 is the best music player for linux and even better than winamp!
Iphone under Ubuntu. | Adrian's blog said

am May 28 2009 @ 5:23 am

[...] I Amarok 1.4. (guide til å installere 1.4 under ubuntu 9.04) [...]
Andrew said

am May 30 2009 @ 6:48 pm

Thanks so much! I hated the new interface!!
David said

am June 3 2009 @ 10:40 pm

Now if only they’d fix the problems in 1.4 (such as 24bit flacs not playing), and added a few more features (replaygain?), it would be beyond perfect. That, or songbird could get it’s head out of it’s cloaca and implement keyboard shortcuts.
Farid said

am June 10 2009 @ 10:03 am

A few weeks ago i was able to use the above instructions to install amarok 1.4.

Yesterday I did a security update and amarok disaapeared.

I tried to reinstall it and get the following error:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
amarok14: Depends: amarok14-common (>= 2:1.4.10-0ubuntu3~ppa3) but it is not going to be installed
E: Broken packages

Any suggestions will be welcome
Ahepas said

am June 10 2009 @ 4:02 pm

@ farid
same here.after upgrading to the new kernel(2.6.28-13)no amarok! help please!
vitor said

am June 10 2009 @ 7:43 pm

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/surfed/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1152094&page=2
Chad said

am June 11 2009 @ 7:29 pm

Thank you so much. Criminy that version is awful. It’s like amarok got gang raped by all the lousiest music programs and this is the bastard offspring that resulted.
shwango! blog » Good software gone bad said

am June 14 2009 @ 10:50 am

[...] I’m sure the Amarok guys had good intentions with Amarok2, but I just don’t like it. Actually I hate it and think it really sucks. Not intuitive at all – I just want to play my music. The “upgrade” is an unfortunate side effect of upgrade Ubuntu from 8.10 to 9.04. I’m going back to 1.4. [...]
justwally said

am July 3 2009 @ 6:04 pm

Thank you for the 1.4 repo information. I thought I was going to have to kill myself for that “upgrade.” I know they’ll get it right, but I already had 1.4 “right” and 2.x just killed the buzz.

Thanks again!
Max said

am July 7 2009 @ 10:19 am

It is amazing how a nice, virtually perfect interface of Amarok 1.4 could have been screwed out so awfully in version 2. And you know why? because of some “dark side” influence to a few developers, trying (as usual) to emulate what is being done for Mac or Microsoft. Don’t you have self-respect? Dudes I love Amarok 1.4 and I want it to saty like that.
Jack Campbell said

am July 7 2009 @ 5:27 pm

Amarok2: MS felattio.
David Hogston said

am July 8 2009 @ 7:27 pm

Have been using Amarok since I began first using Ubuntu 7.04 and has been one of the reasons I have been becoming a devoted user of Ubuntu. 2.x Amarok wouldn’t even play anything on my system as it didn’t like the sound chip-set on my motherboard even though 1.4 ran flawless. To say that I think 2.x sucks would be an understatement.
Samwise said

am July 20 2009 @ 10:30 am

Amarok2 is such a hell. No proper GUI, sound not working initially (had to install some libraries), crashes, and not such a great sound. Thanks for the tip, I have my Amarok1 back.
Philcox said

am July 30 2009 @ 4:22 am

Thanks !
Amarok 1.4 is much better than Amarock 2.
I’ve spent hours trying to install Amarok 1.4 in KDE4 !!!
Perfect.
LA said

am September 27 2009 @ 3:19 am

Hooray! Amarok 2 messed up my ipod, splattered songs everywhere and lost all the album covers. Amarok1.4 does an excellent job of ipod managing so afters months of my ipod being a distaster, its all good again.
Flatmyster said

am October 27 2009 @ 4:08 am

Could not agree more with the comments I have read. It took me ages to work out how Amarock 2 worked and then my system died.
Re-installed 1.4 on 9.04 and a happy chappy again.

I love the free society but some things just don’t need improvement and here is a good example. Stay away from the bubblegum look that MS love to produce
droog said

am March 26 2010 @ 7:55 am

Thanks for this post, I first tried out amarok 2 when it was just released only to be disapointed and downgraded to 1.4, now I upgraded to Jaunty and it upgraded amarok 2. Its like testing was not done at all prior to release. What really made me love amarok so much was the simple interface but now its just a load of tripe.