Hi, I am a newbie in Linux and I am using Ubuntu 11.04. How do I play dvd's on my computer.

Hi and welcome to LinuxQuestions!
You have to install libdvdcss2. Take a look at the ubuntu community documentation, here.

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install vlc to play DVD and all other formats..
use this command

even with vlc, you still will need libdvdcss2 though to play most commercial dvds. just to clear things up vlc doesn't make libdvdcss2 unnecessary.

Using synaptic package manager or software store try installing "ubuntu restricted extras". I believe that will put in place all the multimedia pieces and parts you need. VLC player is also worth installing.

Ken

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http://medibuntu.org/

That should help you with all your multimedia needs in ubuntu, including playing DVD's

I have Mandriva 2010 spring. I have installed libdvdcss2 I believe. I followed the instructions on this page for the all codecs file also. news.softpedia.com/news/How-to-Install-Multimedia-Codecs-in-Linux-39555.shtml I can play streaming movies and downloaded video's but still can't get dvd's to play. All I can get to play is the sony pictures intro on Xine. Movie player says "An error occured. Could not read from resource". Dragon Player doesn't nothing. VLC says "Playback Failure: DVDRead could not read block 0". MPlayer will spin up the dvd but doesn't give me an error. I have looked up a bunch of codecs. I have gstreamer decoders installed, the all201110131, and another site said to install cmpci-5.68.3lksmp. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, forgetting something or it's having a brainfart. I'm lost and any help would be appreciated.

Here is the wiki site for mandriva multimedia http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Docs/Des...ltimedia/Video Good luck to you.

ok I am a newbie to this I'm trying to install gstreamer as specified by one of the many sites to play dvd's on my laptop. I couldn't tell ya the specifics on the laptop but this is the message I'm getting with trying to install gstreamer and dependencies on mandriva 2010.
[root@localhost gst-plugins-good-0.10.6]# ./configure
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking nano version... 0 (release)
checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no
checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed
checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep
checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E
checking for ld used by gcc... /usr/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking for /usr/bin/ld option to reload object files... -r
checking for BSD-compatible nm... /usr/bin/nm -B
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking how to recognise dependent libraries... pass_all
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking dlfcn.h usability... yes
checking dlfcn.h presence... yes
checking for dlfcn.h... yes
checking for g++... g++
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
checking whether g++ accepts -g... yes
checking dependency style of g++... gcc3
checking how to run the C++ preprocessor... g++ -E
checking for g77... g77
checking whether we are using the GNU Fortran 77 compiler... yes
checking whether g77 accepts -g... yes
checking the maximum length of command line arguments... 32768
checking command to parse /usr/bin/nm -B output from gcc object... ok
checking for objdir... .libs
checking for ar... ar
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking for strip... strip
checking if gcc supports -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions... no
checking for gcc option to produce PIC... -fPIC
checking if gcc PIC flag -fPIC works... yes
checking if gcc static flag -static works... no
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... yes
checking whether the gcc linker (/usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64) supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether -lc should be explicitly linked in... no
checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes
checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build static libraries... yes
configure: creating libtool
appending configuration tag "CXX" to libtool
checking for ld used by g++... /usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64
checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64) is GNU ld... yes
checking whether the g++ linker (/usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64) supports shared libraries... yes
checking for g++ option to produce PIC... -fPIC
checking if g++ PIC flag -fPIC works... yes
checking if g++ static flag -static works... no
checking if g++ supports -c -o file.o... yes
checking whether the g++ linker (/usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64) supports shared libraries... yes
checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
appending configuration tag "F77" to libtool
checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build static libraries... yes
checking for g77 option to produce PIC... -fPIC
checking if g77 PIC flag -fPIC works... yes
checking if g77 static flag -static works... no
checking if g77 supports -c -o file.o... yes
checking whether the g77 linker (/usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64) supports shared libraries... yes
checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking for msgfmt... /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for gmsgfmt... /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for xgettext... /usr/bin/xgettext
checking for msgmerge... /usr/bin/msgmerge
checking for ld used by GCC... /usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64
checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64) is GNU ld... yes
checking for shared library run path origin... done
checking whether NLS is requested... yes
checking for GNU gettext in libc... yes
checking for pkg-config... /usr/bin/pkg-config
checking pkg-config is at least version 0.9.0... yes
checking for VALGRIND... no
configure: Using GStreamer Good Plug-ins source release as package name
configure: Using Unknown package origin as package origin
checking sys/socket.h usability... yes
checking sys/socket.h presence... yes
checking for sys/socket.h... yes
checking winsock2.h usability... no
checking winsock2.h presence... no
checking for winsock2.h... no

configure: *** checking feature: building of plug-ins with external deps ***
configure: building external plug-ins

configure: *** checking feature: enable building of experimental plug-ins ***
configure: not building experimental plug-ins
checking whether byte ordering is bigendian... no
checking whether byte ordering is bigendian... (cached) no
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... (cached) yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... (cached) none needed
checking dependency style of gcc... (cached) gcc3
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... (cached) yes
checking whether g++ accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking dependency style of g++... (cached) gcc3
checking for g++... yes
checking how to run the C++ preprocessor... g++ -E
checking for objcc... no
checking for objc... no
checking for gcc... gcc
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking if Objective C compiler works... yes
checking for valgrind... no
Using config source xml:merged:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults for schema installation
Using $(sysconfdir)/gconf/schemas as install directory for schema files
configure: Looking for Python version >= 2.1
checking for python... /usr/bin/python
checking "/usr/bin/python":... okay
checking local Python configuration... looks good
checking whether to build plugin documentation... no (gtk-doc disabled or not available)
checking for cos in -lm... yes
checking for ANSI C header files... (cached) yes
checking for stdint types... stdint.h (shortcircuit)
make use of stdint.h in _stdint.h (assuming C99 compatible system)
checking netinet/in.h usability... yes
checking netinet/in.h presence... yes
checking for netinet/in.h... yes
checking for winsock2.h... (cached) no
checking for FIONREAD in sys/ioctl.h... yes
checking for lrint... no
checking for lrintf... no
checking for stdlib.h... (cached) yes
checking for unistd.h... (cached) yes
checking for getpagesize... yes
checking for working mmap... yes
checking for GLIB... yes
checking for LIBOIL... yes
checking for GST... no
configure: Package gstreamer-0.10 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `gstreamer-0.10.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'gstreamer-0.10' found
configure: error: no gstreamer-0.10 >= 0.10.13 (GStreamer) found
[root@localhost gst-plugins-good-0.10.]#

Please someone help me. I have no knowledge of computer engineering or any crap like that I'm just trying to get this to work on my laptop. Probably a bigger step then I should of tried but this is what i'm trying to do this.

and to add please give specifics to my cause. Explain this to me like a 5 year old for instants

Looks like you're trying to compile it from source, rather than install a ready made package using the package manager. I haven't used Mandriva for ages, so can't help you with that. But someone else will...hopefully.

I tried to find a ready made package but from what I could find they don't have them. believe me I wish there was. This is 2 days I'm slowly getting this thing to work.
But ty for replying.
"sitting patiently"

See this
http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Docs/Des...ltimedia/Video

yeah I got that thats not helping me now. I've gone through that. Install libdvdcss and libcss I instlled all the plf for gstreamer and any other codec I could find. I did find rpms for gstreamer so didn't have to mess with the console as far as I know, but still can't play dvd's. Tried using mplayer, dragonplayer and gzine. Still no go.

I think this may be the time to abandon the sinking ship. The current Mandriva development team are a different lot to those who made your copy (who all went off to Mageia!) Mandriva 2011 is not as good as 2010, and the company is nearly bankrupt. Suse or Mepis might be a better bet.