su + permissions = nothing
 

Hi all!
I'm a total Linux n00b who is currently using Fedora Core 4.
I have installed MPLAYER (somehow)and so far so good, but I wanted to add all of the codecs(win32...)so I could enjoy my mpeg,wmv,divx movies. To make a long story short I downloaded Mplayers codec pack, it was a tar.bz2 and tried to extract it to /usr/local/lib/codecs,but it seems I don;t have permission to do this ?
I have even logged in as root using "Su"
and it got me nowhere. What am I doing incorrectly? I couldn't even create a folder to name it codecs in the lib folder either? I swore I was root when I used the "su" command. What gives?Nor was I able to drag the file to the folder either :(
I'm running out of ideas now and this is hours later. I'd appreciate any input or help.

To make sure you are in fact root, after you 'su -', type 'id'. If it returns 0, then yes you are root. Can you paste the exact error message it says when you try to create that folder in that directory?

-twantrd

why not just login as root instead of using su?

Hmm what do u mean by that? I thought I was root when I used the "su" command?
I don't know any other way to log in, this is all very new to me.

There's nothing to be gained by that, it's just more work.

You're right, you ARE root with a su, however, with a
su as opposed to a "su -" you keep the normal users
environment, not that that should impact on permissions,
though.

What exactly is the invocation of tar you're using to
unpack the codecs, from where are you doing it?




Cheers,
Tink

the file is "essential-20050412.tar.bz2". Its all of the codecs for Mplayer it will allow me to play almost every file type...win32 codecs all of that. I have no idea what to do. This is so crazy. I just want to watch a few videos on my box :(
Anyways hopefully with ur help I can get this to work. Here are some of my other issues.

How come when I use Yum_extender when I see something I want to install it says they're missing dependencies , like I need to also get those files but they are not included ? I don't understand the logic here? Also I need to edit the yum.conf file but it was read me only. I ws not able to make changes to add repos :(



I also would like to know how to see my 2 other XP machines and swap files over my network. I had no idea how to do that with SUSE and now I have FC4 its still a problem. Everything I read has just given me more questions. How come there isn't a sticky for these things? BTW the search function is acting weird :(

I hope I'm not asking for too much, either way I will accept any help and ur good deed won't go unoticed :)

to extract the files you would
tar xjvf cornbread.tar.bz2
then as su
cp cornbread/* /usr/local/lib/codecs/

did you type id while logged in as su and did it return 0?

[cam@localhost ~]$ su
Password:
[root@localhost cam]# id
uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groups=0(root),1(bin),2(daemon),3(sys),4(adm),6(disk),10(wheel) context=root:system_r:unconfined_t
[root@localhost cam]#


I can't make sense of this. I assume I'm not root since I see a "0" there :(

no, you are root.
now try
tar xjvf cornbread.tar.bz2
then
cp cornbread/* /usr/local/lib/codecs/

Ok it extracted some where, though when I input the second part I get this message:
cp: missing destination file
Try `cp --help' for more information.
[root@localhost cam]#

Also do I have to make the codec folder? It doesn't exsit yet,is that why it failed?

I noticed that the extracted folder is now in my home folder,it has a small red "lock" over it
Now what? I'm listening attentively :)

do a ls and it should show you all of your files in the current dir, where you just extracted it too. yours would be "essential/" probably. Those are the files you want to copy or mv to the destination dir.

do you have a /usr/local/lib/codecs/ ? is that where it should go?
try "whereis codecs" without the quotes

[root@localhost cam]# ls
Azureus_2.3.0.4_linux.GTK.tar.bz2 essential-20050412
Desktop essential-20050412.tar.bz2
[root@localhost cam]#
the above files are in the home folder,and no there is no codec folder as of yet in /local /lib. I tried to make one manually, but there was no option to do so sadly. I feel like I'm almost there. Can I do this via the terminal(make a folder or directory?)then execute the command?Yes that is where it should go,to answer ur question.

if you are positive that is where mplayer is looking for the codecs, then just do a
mkdir /usr/local/lib/codecs/
then
cp essential-20050412/* /usr/local/lib/codecs/

alright, it worked, but it seems that the video file (wmv) is not playig, I'm getting :
Error opening/initializng the selected video_out(-vo) device :(

Hmmm I wonder what happened ?

Probably exactly that, the "default" video device is
unaccessible ...
mplayer -vo help
will list all available ones, you probably want to use
mplayer -vo xv
or
mplayer -vo x11

I *highly* recommend reading mplayers man-page
before posting, it's worth it ;)


Cheers,
Tink

ok ok heres the new deal...I uninstalled Mplayer :)
Now I can actually play files, though I'm using xine and VlC, while they play wmv audio they don't show any video...just sound no picture, and yes I plan on reinstalling mplayer :)
I just wanted to see if this problem was affecting all of the players and that it wasn't the file. I'm assuming theres something amiss here. If I only knew where :(
wmv= plays audio but no video

mplayer= didn't play wmv at all
xine & vlc= played wmv only no video ,just audio.
I'm sorry if I'm changin pace a bit but its the same issue.