I had a hell of a time trying to figure out how to properly configure my Ubuntu system for red5 application development. If all you need is red5 server, go ahead and use the prepacked .deb installer.

However, if you want to build your own red5 apps (or have a generally masochistic personality) you're gonna want the bleeding edge red5 from trunk (v .8 r3 at time of writing).

I am modifying and expanding on this tutorial: http://osflash.org/red5/ubuntu804 , as it did not work completely for me and failed to explain a number of key concepts newbies need to know.

1) Get the packages you need
sudo apt-get install subversion java-package sun-java6-jdk sun-java6-jre ant

2) Get the latest red5 source from Trunk ( v.8rc3 at time of writing ) . NOTE- you can put red5 anywhere - I like to keep it in a "projects" directory in my home folder. Feel free to change the paths.

3) Set environment variables: NOTE- Make sure these paths are the same on your system. The paths from the red5 tutorial did not work for me.

4) Build red5 with ant (will take ~10min while ivy resolves all your dependencies- go get some tea)

5) Build & start red5.

5 - alternate) NOTE - the other way of doing this is using the red5 startup script "red5.sh", which will not rebuild red5. If you want to go this route, here's what you gotta do:

In either case, make sure to leave the terminal window open...if you close the terminal it will shutdown red5 improperly.

6) Test red5.
Browse to http://localhost:5080/demos/port_tester.swf and hit "connect". Ironically, this page always breaks Firefox when I navigate away from it. But it will show you whether your ports are open. You only really need two to work - 5080 (http) and 1935 (rtmp). Unless you explicitly set up a firewall, these should work fine.

If everything looks good there, go to http://localhost:5080/installer and install some of the Java 6 demos - oflademo and SOSample are the two important ones, in my book. Once they're installed ( It should be fast - I had the installer hang, but it worked...if it is taking a really long time, try refreshing the page and trying to install again. If it tells you that it is already installed, you're good to go. )

7) Shutdown red5. The reason I prefer to use "ant server" is because I have been having problems with shutting down red5 if I start it using "red5.sh". "red5-shutdown.sh" works fine for me, though. To use it:

NOTE- you only need to change permissions on it once. After that, you can just run "./red5-shutdown.sh"

Cool! It worked and we didn't pull out all our hair yet!

Next up: Building our very first red5 application, hey hey...