Missing bits?

Keithj · 05-12-2005, 03:39 PM

Hi! I'm a 3-days-into-Linux newbie and finding the learning curve very steep. Windows experience (more than I care to admit) isn't helping. I'd very much appreciate pointers as to where to go with my problems so far.

SuSe 9.1 installed like a dream off the CD, and most bits worked immediately. However,

1. I can't get my Trust 450L mouse to work properly with Linux (it does with Windows). It looks like a driver problem - except that I can't find a driver download site for it. Are there any, or do I have to put up with most of the buttons not working?

2. Kaffeine (using Xine) will play .mpg files OK, but won't work with .avi, .mov or .wmv. I assume drivers again - anyone know where to find them? Or what to do?

3. I installed Mozilla (I've used it for many years in Windows), and I can run it from the file manager but it doesn't appear in the Start menu. Is there a way to get it there? I installed the latest version of Xine (the existing one didn't work), and that appears twice!

4. XMMS worked fine till I installed the updated Xine, now it doesn't. Is there an alternative that I should try?

Advice gladly received - preferably in Newbie language. My days of long JCL strings are long behind me: stuff with lots of - and : and [ ] scares me.

Keithj

__J · 05-12-2005, 03:46 PM

what desktop are you using?

for your video problem, start up Yast and look for a package called "win32codecs" or something similar and install that, it has the codecs for quicktime, wmv, wma, realmedia, etc...

how many buttons does your mouse have?

Keithj · 05-12-2005, 04:25 PM

Thanks for that!

Desktop is KDE.

Yast tells me w32codec v0.52-1 is installed - all 20.3mb of it. I'll have a Google to see if I can find a later one to download.

The mouse has 5 buttons (one of them being "press the wheel"). The left and right standard buttons and the wheel work. I've got the same mouse on the other machines and the same habits for which button does what.

Keith

__J · 05-12-2005, 04:33 PM

if the win32codec package is installed, kaffeine should pick them up automatically, I'm not sure about suse's package though ( I've always just done it manually), check /usr/lib/win32 and see if the dll's are in there.

in kde, look in the system tab or utilites for a menu editor ( IIRC it's kmenuedit) to add mozilla to wherever you like in the menu

mouse:

as root, open up /etc/X11/xorg.conf, scroll down to the Mouse section and make sure you have the option:

Option "Buttons" "5"

Keithj · 05-12-2005, 05:17 PM

Yes, there are 20MB worth of various in /usr/lib/win32, dated from 1999 to about 2002.
I've just downloaded a set with a 2005 date, but they are only 9MB as downloaded - I'll try those later.

There's no menu editor in my KDE. I'll do a search for the filename later, in case it's sitting uninstalled somewhere.

I don't have a xorg.conf. There is an XF86Config but it's marked DO NOT EDIT with various warnings about it being generated automatically by ISaX. Curiously, if it's the one in use, it says the mouse has 7 buttons. i'll have a play in Sax2, and if that doesn't work I'll edit the XF86Config.install file (which Yast will let me edit - the other one it won't).

Another funny - the monitor is an oldish Samsung TFT. Every time I boot, the system tells me it's not reporting its X and Y dimensions and may need adjusting/do I want to? I adjusted it when I first set up SuSe (it was a bit off-centre) and it's been fine ever since. Is there a way to stop it asking every time? I can live with it - it's just a bit annoying.

Keith

piscikeeper · 05-12-2005, 05:37 PM

have you read this thread yet? it covers adding additional sources to download suse rpm's from.the pacman source has a lot of multi-media packages

.
for menu editing,just right-click the suse logo on the panel.
edit the config file with all the warnings (just ignore them).........it's the one suse uses after the initial install.and while editing the config,you might want to substitute the H and V frequencies for your monitor if they are incorrect.

Keithj · 05-12-2005, 06:16 PM

_J - many thanks for your patience.

The new download of w32codec is 29MB instead of the previous 20, but the display still doesn't work for anything except .mpg. I'll have a look next week for the MPlayer that I saw mentioned.

I edited the mouse controls with Sax2, and now have 3 out of 5 buttons working - that setting is buried deep, but knowing something had to be there, I dug for it.

I couldn't find a kmenuedit, but I now have home-made links on the desktop so can live without the menu entries.

Piscikeeper - I've been there (on Tuesday) and downloaded some, but will have another go.
The editor for the Start button was so obvious! All sorted now, and thanks!

Keith

__J · 05-13-2005, 04:55 AM

start up kaffeine and:

click settings->Xine engine parameters->decoder

make sure it has the paths correct there.

Keithj · 05-13-2005, 05:37 AM

Yes, they were correct in there - /usr/lib/win32. Still only .mpg will display, though.

I was browsing around here, and found something about missing permissions causing blank Kaffeine screens, but since Kaffene manages to display one file type correctly, I don't see that as a likely reason in my case.

i tried installing MPlayer, but it wanted two other bits of software. They in turn wanted two or three others, and eventually it got to wanting one I couldn't find for download, so I gave up on that. Installing Firefox and Thunderbird, on the other hand, was a breeze.

The answer seems to be "Don't use Linux for video". This machine will probably get relegated as a fileserver soon: I think the new learning curve for Linux is too steep for me at my age - I'm deeply ingrained in Win XP.

Thanks for your help - I've learned a lot this past 24 hours.

Keith

__J · 05-13-2005, 05:47 AM

Quote:

Yes, there are 20MB worth of various in /usr/lib/win32, dated from 1999 to about 2002.

what do you mean by that?
here is what mine looks like:

Code:

ls /usr/lib/win32/
AvidQTAVUICodec.qtx                    atrc.so.6.0   msms001.vwp     voxmsdec.ax
BeHereiVideo.qtx                          clrviddd.dll  msscds32.ax     vp4vfw.dll
CLRVIDDC.DLL                               cook.so       nsrt2432.acm    vp5vfw.dll
CtWbJpg.DLL                                 drvc.so       qpeg32.dll      vp6vfw.dll
DECVW_32.DLL                              dspr.so.6.0   qtmlClient.dll  vssh264.dll
LCMW2.dll                                     iac25_32.ax   rt32dcmp.dll    vssh264core.dll
LCODCCMW2E.dll                          cmw_32.dll   sipr.so.6.0     vssh264dec.dll
QuickTime.qts                               imc32.acm     tm20dec.ax      vsslight.dll
QuickTimeEssentials.qtx                 ir41_32.dll   tokf.so.6.0     vsswlt.dll
QuickTimeInternetExtras.qtx           ir50_32.dll   tokr.so.6.0     wma9dmod.dll
README                                        ivvideo.dll   tsd32.dll       wmadmod.dll
VDODEC32.dll                 jp2avi.dll    tssoft32.acm    wmsdmod.dll
ViVD2.dll                    lhacm.acm     tvqdec.dll      wmspdmod.dll
acelpdec.ax                  lsvxdec.dll   vdowave.drv     wmv9dmod.dll
alf2cd.acm                   m3jp2k32.dll  vid_3ivX.xa     wmvadvd.dll
aslcodec_dshow.dll           mi-sc4.acm    vivog723.acm    wmvdmod.dll
atrac3.acm                   msh261.drv    vmnc.dll        wnvwinx.dll

piscikeeper · 05-13-2005, 05:52 AM

did you read the post i linked to in my thread?just add those sources to YAST and you'll have everything you want.

" The answer seems to be "Don't use Linux for video" ".this one of my suse machines,and it runs video just fine.it did with 9.2,9.1,and 8.2 also.

Keithj · 05-13-2005, 07:50 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by __J
[B]what do you mean by that?
here is what mine looks like:

Mine doesn't look anything lke that. I can't do a screen grab to paste, but my /usr/lib/win32 has 126 items with a total size of 29.8MB. It starts with acelpdec.ax 60.5kB and ends with wnvwinx.dll 91.0kB.

Quote:

piscikeeper: add those sources to Yast.

I tried most of those, but got a wad of error messages telling me I needed to install other stuff first. I spent a couple of hours trying to do that, but each item wanted more to be installed first, and in the end they wanted several packages that Google couldn't find so I gave up. The last one "missing", the one that made me give up the unequal struggle, was just called "X" - that didn't Google at all well.

I'm not a Linux expert - I tried it once before and gave up after a week of nothing working. This time, with SuSe, I've got a lot further, but user-friendly it ain't. No doubt if I spoke fluent C++ and Perl, I'd be OK. But with only English, French, German, Latin, Russian, Hebrew and Greek, Basic, Fortran, and Cobol I'm not doing at all well.

Windows may have its limitations (it does) but downloads "just work", or "just crash", and most of them work fine. I've downloaded about 50 Linux packages, and done all the "./configure" and "make" and "make install" stuff, and 4 or 5 of the 50 now work. Some downloads were "rpm" and they were fine. Mozilla, Firefox and Thunderbird all installed OK, with no problem apart from not appearing in the menu afterwards - but I've fixed that now.

I'm abandoning the learning curve for the weekend. Thanks for the help, and I'll have another look at this stuff when I get back from the weekend retreat.

Keith

piscikeeper · 05-13-2005, 01:29 PM

odd that it couldn't find x.that is the base for the entire gui,so it is there.could you post what sources you're using?it sounds as if they are pointed towards the wrong location for your distro.

__J · 05-13-2005, 02:33 PM

personally, I'd say screw Yast and just put the codecs in manually. make sure you make a backup of the directory first, just in case suse has put more in that directory:

also, I'm not sure about this so I could be wrong but does suse remove some of the functionality of software before they release it ( to avoid patent infringment)?

piscikeeper · 05-13-2005, 04:18 PM

yes they do........until you configure the sources and "upgrade".dvd playback with xine is actually a downgrade to 0.99 under 9.3,unless you install another way.