I recently installed Suse Linux 9.2 on my Compaq Evo N1015v laptop and all seems to be working great. I am a newbie to Linux and I am really beginning to enjoy it. I have two questions that I need answered. The first one will be only for this post.

PROBLEM:

I am not able to play any DVD's with Linux. I have Vidoe players Kaffeine and Xine installed on my system,that came with the Suse Linux 9.2 version, but each one says that the player lacks support for playing DVD's for legal reasons. It also says there no pligins for this device. I went back and checked the Suse Disks and installed any plug in I cuold find from the disk, but still, it won't play.

How can I get my DVD's to play ? Is there someone out there that can help this poor old nebie to Linux ?

Your probably missing libdvdcss. There is probably an RPM for it somewhere...actually it looks like you can get it here.

~Thomas

You need to remove the Suse-supplied Xine and install an alternate build as well. Suse hard-coded xine to not decrypt DVDs. If you had searched you'd have found another thread on the subject where I posted the following:


Remove all xine components, but leave noatune (and kaffiene if you wish) on the box (tell YaST to ignore the dependency issues)

go to rpmfind, rpmbone, or any other RPM repository and download/install the following:

libdvdcss-1.2.8-2.network.i386.rpm
w32codec-0.52-1.i386.rpm
libxine1-1_cvs-041119.i686.rpm
xine-mozilla-plugin-0.2-041119.i586.rpm
xine-ui-0.99.2cvs-041119.i586.rpm

Once all of the above are installed, you'll be able to play most formats, including wmv, wma, and of course encrypted DVDs. Of course, if you find newer versions of each library, go with the newer build to get the latest features and codec support.

--Kim

That thread is:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=276697

By the way,... as long as you are not trying to rip DVDs, there is a serious legal question as to whether installing Xine complete with all the necessary codecs is illegal at all. It seems to me and to other lawyers that it runs along the fair use exception of patent law and the DMCA. Of course that's not legal advice. It's just that if you ever get tangled up because of it, that's your possible legal argument.

KimVette, Thanks! I got those packages installed, and opened up Xine... it played a DVD fine!

Good, I'm glad it worked.

KimVette:

Thanks for that interesting post on fixing up Xine. I'm running Xandros, and I've added a bunch of dll's and codecs in the Win32 directory. I can now view a number of video formats in Kaffeine (which I installed), but not everything works the way it should. I also have SuSE 9.2 on a spare box, and I'm just beginning to experiment with it. I've cut and pasted your response to my 'Linux tips database' and will refer to it when I get a chance to play with this.

Frank.

KimVette,

Thank you so much for the help. I did as you stated and finally got the Xine DVD player to work. I finally understand the process of downloading and installing with Yast2. I can now watch DVD's with Xine.

twsnnva,

Thanks for your help and info also.

JaseP,

Thanks also for your help and info.

This newbie to Linux has a great big grin on his face.

Fair use and interoperability are exempt according to both Copyright Law and the DMCA however ambulance chasers looking for a buck and ambulance chaser-ridden organizations such as the MPAA and RIAA would have you believe otherwise.

Frank616

What isn't working as it should? Post specifics and folks here will try to help you resolve the issues.

KimVette:


>What isn't working as it should? Post specifics and folks here will try to help you resolve the issues.<

One day I'll try that. Time is the limiting factor. In the meantime it works 'well enough' for my immediate needs.

Thanks for the offer.

Frank.

I was interested to read this as I have now installed Mephis after being impressed with the Live CD. Xine tries to open the DVD and for a split second I can see the splash screen you see when a DVD starts giving all the copyright info etc. However, before the DVD can continue, Xine- controls, screen and all- disappears completely. I've checked the inputs and they look ok; Xine identified the drive and the name of the DVD ok and, as I said, launched it correctly. It just doesn't stay launched.... will the solutions above work in this scenario?

You could also try VLC.
OpenSource, precompiled binaries for some distris, and source code and libraries for others.
official homepage of vlc

VLC plays pretty much everything without the need of installing codecs. Plays vobs as well.