How to Install fre:ac audio converter in Ubuntu 16.04 / Higher

Last updated: August 14, 2017

fre:ac audio converter

This quick tutorial is going to show you how to install the free ‘fre:ac’ audio converter in Ubuntu and manually create app shortcut to be able to launch it from Unity Dash, Gnome app launcher, or other app launcher.

fre:ac is a free audio converter and CD ripper works on Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and FreeBSD. It offers Linux packages but lacks application shortcut.

Download fre:ac:

First download the latest version of the audio converter from the link below:

Download fre:ac for Linux

Select download:

  • freac-yymmdd-linux.tar.gz package for 32-bit system.
  • freac-yymmdd-linux-x64.tar.gz package for 64-bit system.

Then extract it. In the case below, I downloaded the 64-bit tarball:

You can now launch the audio converter by run the executable file from its context menu:

Create app shortcut for fre:ac audio converter:

To be able to launch the software from Unity Dash, Gnome app launcher, or other app launcher, you have to manually create an app shortcut for fre:ac.

To do so, open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or from app launcher, and do following steps:

1. Move the source folder to /opt/ directory for global use by running command:

sudo mv ~/Downloads/freac-*-linux /opt/freac-linux

Input your password (no visual feedback while typing due to security reason) when it asks and hit Enter.

Then change the ownship via command:

sudo chown -R root:root /opt/freac-linux

2. Create a symbolic link to the executable file, so you can easily run command freac to launch the software:

sudo ln -s /opt/freac-linux/freac /usr/bin/freac

3. Finally run command to create and edit a .desktop file for the audio converter:

gksudo gedit /usr/share/applications/freac.desktop

And paste below lines into the file and save it.

[Desktop Entry]
Name=freac
GenericName=freac audio converter
Comment=fre:ac free audio converter
Exec=env LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/opt/freac-linux/ freac %f
Icon=/opt/freac-linux/icons/freac.png
Terminal=flase
Type=Application
Categories=Audio;
MimeType=application/ogg;application/x-extension-mp4;application/x-flac;application/x-matroska;application/x-ogg;audio/ac3;audio/mp4;audio/mpeg;audio/ogg;audio/x-flac;audio/x-matroska;audio/x-mp3;audio/x-mpeg;audio/x-vorbis;

It’s important to add variable env LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/opt/freac-linux/ to the value of Exec, or it won’t launch the software and output error:

freac: error while loading shared libraries: libsmooth-0.8.73.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

4. Finally launch fre:ac audio converter from app launcher (might need log out and back in) and enjoy!

How to Remove:

To remove fre:ac audio converter, simply remove the source folder, symbolic link, and app shortcut by running following command:

sudo rm -rf /opt/freac-linux /usr/bin/freac /usr/share/applications/freac.desktop

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I'm a freelance blogger who started using Ubuntu in 2007 and wishes to share my experiences and some useful tips with Ubuntu beginners and lovers. Please comment to let me know if the tutorial is outdated! And, notify me if you find any typo/grammar/language mistakes. English is not my native language. Contact me via [email protected] Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/ubuntuhandbook1 |

One response to How to Install fre:ac audio converter in Ubuntu 16.04 / Higher

  1. Just what I was looking for, thanks a lot