[Slackware] Do I need an x-server running to watch video?

nyle · 08-09-2008, 09:39 AM

Hello,

I want to drop an old workstation running Slackware on my entertainment center.

Ideally all I want to have going is that by default the user is presented with a terminal on the television screen. They can use a mounted keyboard to type in a command like "vlc video_clip.divx" and have VLC pop up in full-screen and play the video, hopefully terminating when the clip is done. I'm not going for user-friendly here

But to watch video, do I need to have an x-server running?

If yes, what window manager is easiest to navigate using keyboard only?

Thanks

antegallya · 08-09-2008, 12:01 PM

Hi,
I think you can without X started, using framebuffer, but I don't know much about it.

Anyway, if you start X, you don't need a WM for what you want do to.
You can just put xdm without WM set it will spawn a xterm on the screen.

Hope this helps.
Antegallya

ErV · 08-09-2008, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nyle

But to watch video, do I need to have an x-server running?

No. You'll need mplayer compiled with svgalib support, svgalib and (for certain versions of svgalib) svgalib_helper module in kernel. Just launch mplayer from terminal.
I think that by default it uses 256 color video modes, but maybe there are some options for that somewhere.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nyle

If yes, what window manager is easiest to navigate using keyboard only?

KDE or Gnome. Both aren't lightweight. However, if gui program (which uses window manager) isn't well written, window manager won't help. Many programs have poorly written gui without assigned shortcuts, broken tab order, unreachable (via keyboard) gui elements, etc, which will make programs unusable without mouse, no matter which window manager you use.

jay73 · 08-09-2008, 12:35 PM

No x-server required as long as have framebuffer support. If you use mplayer, you can play with mplayer -vo fbdev -vf scale=horizontal_size:vertical_size file_name.

nyle · 08-10-2008, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ErV

No. You'll need mplayer compiled with svgalib support, svgalib and (for certain versions of svgalib) svgalib_helper module in kernel. Just launch mplayer from terminal.
I think that by default it uses 256 color video modes, but maybe there are some options for that somewhere.

KDE or Gnome. Both aren't lightweight. However, if gui program (which uses window manager) isn't well written, window manager won't help. Many programs have poorly written gui without assigned shortcuts, broken tab order, unreachable (via keyboard) gui elements, etc, which will make programs unusable without mouse, no matter which window manager you use.

thanks for the tips. you're totally correct about the poorly written gui being a keyboard problem.

i got mandriva running well on the machine, so i think i'll do the opposite of what i had planned and ditch slackware for a gui-based system with the only input device being a mouse. the mouse looks nicer than the keyboard anyway.

ErV · 08-10-2008, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nyle

i got mandriva running well on the machine, so i think i'll do the opposite of what i had planned and ditch slackware for a gui-based system with the only input device being a mouse. the mouse looks nicer than the keyboard anyway.

Well, it's your choice, but i think that computer without keyboard is completely unusable for most of common tasks.