xine: audio works, no video.
mplayer: video somewhat works, no audio.

system: AMD 1400mhz/384MB, trident cyberblade w/8mb, debian sarge 2.6.7-1-k7. xine version 0.99.1. I'm not sure which version of mplayer.

With xine I'm getting frozen static for video. I have tried several versions of linux. Xine works on some, not on others. Xine did not work with sarge 2.4.25, it did work with sarge 2.6.5, it doesn't work with sarge 2.6.7. xine-check makes a fuss over there being no skins installed - do the skins actually matter?

mplayer is a somewhat rigged solution. I had to use an unofficial deb site in /etc/apt/sources.list to get mplayer to install. With mplayer the video is often in slow motion, and the sound is all chopped up - sort of like yelling though a fan. Also, I can't get the videos to loop with mplayer. loop=0 in the mplayer.conf file caused my system to crash. loop=0 at the command line just doesn't work.

IMHO, newbies shouldn't mess with kernel 2.6.x, it's a kernel in development, the stable one, 2.4.26 works flawlessly.

The 2.6.x is for geeks, people who understand what is going on, and more importantly, the instructions given to them by other geeks. Personally, i don't mess with it, i don't understand the intricacies of it, nor do i have the time.

Debian is a complex matter, as is any Linux for that matter, i'm a translator, i don't have time for mplayer, codecs, xine, etc, but that's me.

My wife OTOH, uses them, eventhough she knows much less than i do about Debian, i installed Libranet 2.8.1 free version (Sarge) in her laptop, it comes with 2 cds, installed xine, mplayer, flash, ATI driver, TTF, and a bunch of stuff from cd 2 with its XAdminmenu and the instructions from its support solutions database, Libranet compiled the 2.4.26 kernel for her with a script, and she's happy as a clam.

Everybody wants to be a geek, but nobody wants to spend hours googling, at the IRC #debian channel getting slapped by those ruffians, or patiently going thru the debian-user mailing list archives. A man should know his limitations or improve them.

No disrespect is intended.

My problem has nothing to do with trying to be a geek. I am just trying to set up a linux desktopl that basically works. I had the exact same problem with xine when using knoppix and morphix, among others.

I have probably gone though two dozen different distros in the last six months or so. Trying to find a distro that will basically work. Invaribly I run into a situation where one thing works, but something else doesn't, whenever I switch distros. Frankly, I'm getting tired and frustrated with re-installing and re-installing. I am also getting tired and frustrated with the eternal answer to every linux problem: "use a different distro." At this point, I think it may be better to pick one distro and make it work; rather than constantly changing distros hoping to find that one distro that works with everything across the board - because none of them do work across the board - not from my experience.

I have recently tried libranet and xandros with limited success. Both of those distro, by default, limit the apps that can be installed. In both cases, I tried editing the sources.list file to look like pure debian sarge. Xandros was a total disaster, everything crashed so bad I had to rebuild my system. Libranet didn't work very well either certain libraries will not be updated, certain apps won't work with certain applications, and so on.

Hmm, Libranet 2.8.1 free version works fine here.

Pointing your favourite web browser to the general xine faq (file:///usr/share/doc/xine/faq/faq.html) and doing a bit of browsing and reading might give you ideas on troubleshooting.

I'm using gxine and it has always worked out-of-the-box in Debian. I guess I'm just lucky with my hardware.

xine and mplayer work out of the box for me as well...static for video sounds like a codec problem...did u install xine ui??...also my exp with knoppix taught me that if I want to use debian I should use debain not knoppix or libranet or whatever thats BASED on debian BEcause the others are just differant enough that if you plan on using apt-get or synaptic or upgrading from the others to something in debian proper
..the others are just different enough to break things..I learned from exp

>>Hmm, Libranet 2.8.1 free version works fine here.<<

But you may find yourself version locked, or locked out of certain apps. That is what I found happening to me with Libranet 2.7. Libranet does not use pure debian libraries, and that can cause conflicts.

I installed Libranet, and changed the sources.list to all debian sources. Conflicts all over the place.

Maybe you'll get lucky, and never want anything not included, or available with 2.8; but I don't feel comfortable with it.

"But you may find yourself version locked, or locked out of certain apps. That is what I found happening to me with Libranet 2.7. Libranet does not use pure debian libraries, and that can cause conflicts."

I dist-upgraded this version 2.8.1 to Debian/Sarge.

Did i stuttered? didn't i say Libranet 2.8.1 Sarge? You are talking about Libranet 2.7 Woody. Version 2.8.1 comes with 2 cds, one, full of apps. You can keep the stock version OR change the sources.list to sid or just leave it Sarge and do a 'dist-upgrade' to Sarge or Sid.

But the stock version comes with more apps including the ones you are having problems with. After the dist-upgrade it gave me a 'dpkg error 1', i did an 'apt-get update', 'apt-get -f dist-upgrade' and finally a 'apt-get -f install' and it took off. But the stock installation won't give you any problems.

Now, you want to keep debian, it's fine too, i got gxine after reading your post, installed together with the 'suggested' packages (uixine or something like that), went thru the wizard, and voilá (all this in Debian Sid, it's running. What does that tell you? There's something rotten in Denmark.

"I installed Libranet, and changed the sources.list to all debian sources. Conflicts all over the place."

You are having the same bad luck now, and you ARE in plain Debian, so what's the diff? Everybody else's works outta the box, except yours. Maybe you are not doing it right.

"Maybe you'll get lucky, and never want anything not included, or available with 2.8; but I don't feel comfortable with it."

And that's ok, it's your prerrogative, but,.. Have you seen the list of apps in cd2?
How can you speak about it if you haven't tried version 2.8.1??

I see your posts all over the place, you have problems with your sound, with your video, with your printer, with xine, no screens, whatever, has it crossed your mind, your installation is no good?

Thank you Dead Parrot,

According to that website:

>>
This points to a problem with the Xv extension, which is used by xine to display the video image. To verify this, try running xine with the XShm video output plugin:

xine -V XShm
<<

I tried it and it worked. Ufortunately:

>>
XShm is a lot slower than Xv, so read on and see if you can get it working. Usually you should look for updated versions of the XFree driver module that belongs to your graphics card.
<<

Thing is my XFree driver module shouldn't be that old. I just installed it a few days ago, with my system set to debian testing. Oh well . . .


macondo,

What could I say? I tried libranet 2.8.1, and I didn't have the best luck with it.

your post said Libranet 2.7, no need to fib.

whatever makes you happy.

your post said Libranet 2.7, no need to fib.

whatever makes you happy.
------------------------------------------------

I've used both. On my standard desktop, I was not entirely happy with either. Altough I still use libranet 2.7, on my lower end system.

I have come to not trust debian derivitives. The deritivities usually put their own libraries in the system, and they can conflict with standard debian. That has been my experience. If you are happy with libranet, then good for you.

Have you tried Linspire 4.5? I loaded it on a laptop and it found all the hardware and everything worked including flash, Java, and streaming video from the web. It's also a Debian based distro and uses apt-get. hope this helps, Also one more note, I've just recently tried Yoper, also a Debian base, It looks really sharp and seems to be really fast.

the best way to use mplayer is compiling it form source, precompiled packages never work and youll notice a greeat diference
just download the source from the mplayer site, extract
./configure
make
make install

kernel 2.6 has nothing to do with it, the other posible problem are the video drivers

you shoul also give a chance to other non debian based distros, im a complete newbie and I was using Slackware fot 5 months and I never had this type of problems and I learned a lot, right now I'm trying debian, apt is simply fabulous and I love it, but the rest it's giving me a lot of headaches

-Mplayer isn't officially supported in Debian because it's not under GPL
-You can try to search it using http://www.apt-get.org/
-it's available at http://marillat.free.fr/ or ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ testing main

You can add this to your Debian /etc/apt/sources.list;
deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ testing main

then run;
runapt-get update
apt-get install mplayer-386