cannot listen any sounds or see any videos
 

I am using REDHAT 9.0,i cannot play any videos or listen to any sounds i.e.any songs,however my sound and video cards have been detected by linux itself and i can hear the test sound and i can also hear the system sounds(example the sound when i click something , when i open a folder etc.)as well . please help me bcoz i cannot listen to any songs or vidoes ,please answer considering me a newbee as i have just started using linux

by songs do you mean mp3's?
redhat has no mp3 support (for legal reasons) you need to add it yourself
google for "redhat9 mp3 fix" or similar

for videos, i would recommend xine (there is also mplayer, vlc, totem, and others)

http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/apt/packages.php

check out this site (you might find the mp3 patch here too)
edit: http://dag.wieers.com/packages/xmms-mp3/

the rpm's are usually available for rh9 and all three of the fedora's

as a rule WMV and WMA in linux is not gonna work unless you install some software. after all they are microsoft. I have no yet messed with it on my system as i really dont care.
suse had full MP3 support out of the box, only no DVD support.

after i have downloaded the patch for mp3's now please tell me step by step what to do next as i will have to transfer this patch from my windows os to linux using a floppy. please if u can also tell me that how can i mount windows in linux bcoz mplayer cannot come in a floppy bcoz of its size so how will i be able to transfer that... please please help .

ok

open a terminal and issue the "su" command
(No "'s)
Enter the root password.
You are now operating as root.
Type the following command in

gedit /etc/fstab (if this produces an error message try kwrite /etc/fstab)
add the following line to the end of the file

(the following presumes you have 1 harddrive partitioned with windows on fat32 on first)

/dev/hda1 /win vfat umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850 0 0
(that should all be on one line)
save and exit and then issue this cammand
mkdir /win
then issue this command
mount -a

you should now have the windows partition mounted in a folder called /win
it should be readable and writable

NOTE: if you are using the NTFS file system on windows then don't use the above fstab line.

to install rpm's

again, as root in a terminal window

rpm -ivh name.of.rpm

or, if you're in a different dir to the rpm

rpm -ivh /path/to/name.of.rpm

if your pc is set up differently to the way I "presumed" then post back here what the actual setup is

i have a 40 GB hard disk ,in which there are four partitions , three for windows and one for linux as i want to become good in linux before making it my main OS ,the first ,second and the fourth were for the windows and the third for linux


i have a few question regarding your replies:
1. i am unable to write the whole script in one line bcoz if i do so , an error occured ,so i decided to copy and so only
"o"came in the second line .

2. after mounting this how can i unmount it bcoz when i used(umount -a),it gave an error that the device /dev/pts is busy

3. after mounting how can i transfer a WPLAYER which i downloaded in the folder C:temp ,and after transferring what should i do

4. it is a basic question about concepts that what happens when we mount the windows partition , what is the use of it and does it affect my windows .

please please answer my question in order if possible as quickly as possible

". i am unable to write the whole script in one line bcoz if i do so , an error occured"

what error?

you can either, remove the new line from fstab, or you can open the /etc/fstab file again and place a # at the beginning of the line you added, then run mount -a again (# says "this line is a comment only, do not execute it" same as "rem" in windows files.)
the -a flag says mount everything in the fstab file. so if the umount -a had worked it would have unmounted everything!

mplayer - this needs a fair amount of files to be present before it will install. One thing about Linux is that software installation is is no way the same as windows.
With windows you get a setup.exe which you double click on to launch. Usually everything the program needs is included in the setup.exe file or comes with it.
With Linux it is NOTHING like this.
I would recommend you go for xine not mplayer as with xine you only need xine and libxine.
At first, rpm's and file dependencies are very confusing. Persevere, it soon starts making sense.

Mounting a Win partition under linux dosn't cause any problems for windows. I have had xp and 98 mounted under linux and used the spare space on windows to store linux data and I haven't had any problems.

To temporarily mount a win partition, rather than edit /etc/fstab you can mount it from the command line.
mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /win

From the sound of it, if windows was installed to C: first on your harddrive, then windows ( C: ) will be on /dev/hda1.

Okay let me try to help, since I was also very frustrated with these things in the beginning.

I suggest getting Xine ( http://xinehq.de )

Download xinelib and xine-ui from the downloads section, and if I might come with a suggestion, choose the tar.gz files since rpm's can be a real pain and give somewhat unclear instructions as of which packages you need for the dependencies. Now, to install a tarball(this is the source of the program, so you actually compile it yourself, it takes a while longer, but I feel that even for newbs it's better to use this it gives you a better view of how to do things.) you move the tar file to a place where you would like to untar it(tar.gz is gzip if my head isn't completely messed at the moment) and then do the following:

tar -xzvf name-of-tarball.tar.gz (to make this easier you can write the first few letters and then press the tabulator button to make it autocomplete)

then you should read the README and other documents marked out with all-caps, this is something I do with all software I install, even though it contains more or less the same information, there might be a few surprises.

next step is to run "./configure" remember to use the dot and slash. If you have a standard RH9 installed you shouldn't have any problems with the configure part.

now type "make"

almost there ;)

use shift user(the "su" command) and enter your root password before initializing the final step.

the final step is "make install"

now as for the sound problem this might be arts causing some trouble, if you can listen to mp3's with the mp3 plugin installed then this usually isn't the case(push ctrl+esc to see which programs you have running, if there's a program caller artsd running you should be able to listen to any sounds, which as far as I can see you can. So don't think too much about this right now.)

and as to your four questions.

1. *looks at salparadise's post* I concur(What error?)
Or if I understand you correctly... Do _not_ write the _entire_ fstab in one line, only the
"/dev/hda1 /mountpoint/mountpoint vfat defaults 0 0" like it's done in the rest of the fstab.

oh and you might want to chmod the mountpoint "chmod -R 755"(I think, I never really understood that damned chmod function)

2. Well as for mounting, you should make a mountpoint in f.ex. /mnt. Let's say that you make a mountpoint called win in /mnt. Then you can write in your fstab the following:

/dev/hda1 /mnt/win vfat defaults 0 0

make sure you have make a final return at the end of the script, just to avoid the error: no final endline in fstab. And also you have to be root to do any changes to your fstab. then you can choose, mount /dev/hda1 or mount /mnt/win either will work.

3. Don't worry, unless you delete something you shouldn't delete you're fine. Just mv the files you want to move to your Linux partition.

4. I do not completely understand the question, but like I said don't delete anything you shouldn't delete.

now, I believe I made myself pretty clear, and that some people will say that I spoon-fed you a little too much... Anyway, just as a record for later postings, try to use clearer language. Long, descriptive posts are your friend :)

Oh, and I could help you even more if you gave me some more specs.. For example, which chipset you have on your motherboard.

I have been able to mount the windows drive by using
Mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /windows

Now I have downloaded xine-lib-1-rc8.tar.gz and xine-ui-0.99.3.tar.gz.

Now first of all tell me what does “rc” in xine-lib-rc.tar.gz stands for , and secondly I got an error while configuring xine-lib wich read :
configure:2533: error: no acceptable C compiler found in $PATH

now tell me what should I do

2. My second problem is that I have a Intel 537 data fax V.90 modem (Internal 56K PCI modem) , I want to ask that will it work with linux if yes then please tell me from where can I get the driver .

the rc stands for release candidate

You need to install the c compiler, find the Add Software menu entry and add the Development section of software. This will install all the necessary support libraries and compilers.
Alternatively, you could just get the redhat 9 rpm's for xine and install them from the command line.
RPM's are easier to deal with , especially if you get the "compiled for your distro" versions.
But if you're feeling adventurous and don't mind a steep learning curve then go with the source code.

You need to install the c compiler, find the Add Software menu entry and add the Development section of software

i did not understand your reply , where should i look for he add software menu (in the xine folder, in linux or on the website)

and also please reply about my second question (the modem one)

in the red hat menus,
probably (from memory) in the System Tools menu
look for the Add/Remove Software entry.

Modems?
Hmm, I'm not the best person to answer this. I bought myself an external hardware modem before going to broadband. Might be worth reposting the modem question on it's own in a new post.

I have beeen able to install and run XINE thanks for that

Now i would like to ask that after the installation i was asked to run the command "ldconfig", i was wondering what does that mean,can you please explain. and i would also like to ask that as in windows all the new installed softwares are shown in START (PROGRAMS) i would like to know that how can i add xine and the other installed softwares in SOUND AND VIDEO menu.

ldconfig is a tool which checks all the symbolic links system wide

a rough example: you have a file called liblinux.so.0 and it is needed in /usr/lib so that's where the system puts it, but, another app needs it as well so rather than have another copy elsewhere, you just have a link called liblinux.so.0 that points to the /usr/lib/liblinux.so.0
links are created with the ln -s command (ln = link -s = symbolically)

to run ldconfig from the command line, su to root and type
/sbin/ldconfig

for further help on commands open a terminal and type
man xxx
where xxx is the command name
eg: man ldconfig
there's also help available using the info command and the apropos command
info ldconfig

I'm afraid I don't know how to edit the redhat menus, xine always showed up on it's own for me
sometimes logging out and back in again is enough to make the new menu items appear