Hello,

I have installed the latest ArchBang on hard disk (https://sourceforge.net/projects/archbang/)
It has a built-in media player DeaDBeef but it cannot render MP4 files.
I tried to install VLC media player like this (https://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-archlinux.html)

sudo pacman -Sy vlc
Synchronizing package databases
error: failed to update core / extra / community (no server configured for repository)

I also downloaded the file vlc-3.0.4-6-x86_64.pkg.tar but I don't know what to do with it (https://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/vlc/)

How can I install VLC or other solution for playing MP4? Thank you

DeaDBeef is audio only - VLC is your answer but no need to download it from the VLC site - use pacman. For Linux, there should rarely be a need to download anything from a software "vendor's" site, unless that software is not in a specific distro's repositories.

Sounds like your repository(s) are not configured. I assume Archbang has documentation? Did you follow the install documentation and configure repositories? I don't use ArchBang and haven't used Arch in a while so perhaps some Arch user can chime in as to how to do this.

FYI, don't ask this question on the Arch forums or you will get a lot of flack - they are for pure arch only...

1 members found this post helpful.

DeadBeeF also cannot play MP4a (audio) files so maybe some codecs would be required ... installation of ArchBang was very plain, it's just a lightweight distribution for old computers with low resources ... so repositories must be configured

So, this error message clearly states there is no repository configured: Have you uncommented an appropriate repository in ?

1 members found this post helpful.

The problem with repositories was solved by uncommenting the "Worldwide" Section of mirrorlist file ... installation started and at the end of it

(4/4) Updating the vlc plugin ...
/usr/lib/vlc/vlc-cahe/gen: error while loading shared libraries: libidn.so.12: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
error: command failed to execute correctly

now when I right-click a video mp4 file and choose VLC from the menu to play it application doesn't start ... instead DeadBeeF can now play audio MP4a

The mirrorlist is intended to use a specific server based on your physical location. Worldwide is probably fine but you may get better performance from a mirror that is local to wherever you are.

After uncommenting a mirror, did you run to ensure everything is synced up? This is essential before installing anything.

From the Arch Wiki:

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pacman -Syyu solved the issue of VLC installation ... now right after any file is open and start playing application is instantly closing

Thank you very much for your help ... I give up playing MP4 in ArchBang

Try running vlc from the command line, then opening up a video file with it. You will be able to see what the error messages are in the command line and perhaps a fix can be found.

I might suggest using Arch linux instead of Archbang - Arch is very well supported and works very well. The documentation is second to none as well.

1 members found this post helpful.

I tried that too and it shows some error messages but it's really WAY too much for a newbie .. I will close the thread ... thanks again

You are welcome, glad I could help.