Core is all that is offered, it is a build your own style of distro.

castalla2007, arch linux is a base installation iso. After installation
you can download the rest of the applications. You will need to download and install xorg, alsa and a desktop i.e kde,gnome,xfce or other as a minimum. Once the downloads complete, it installs very fast.

Arch linux is aim at more experience linux users, you will see why when you look at the installatuon guide, but if you follow the guide below
you can install it. On the same page, read the xorg setup, alsa and Desktop. Also if you have nvidia or ATI read the installation guide as well.

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Main_Page

Good luck

Spent some time reading up on Arch - think I'm nowhere near able to get this installed and configured for VMware. The available VMware application Arch is taking so long to dload - latest estimate was 29 hrs (the server it's on is notoriously slow!). So, maybe I'll see you guys again in a few days!

Thanks again for the advice and help.

Well. Arch was taking too long to dload. Soooo, I went for the latest vmware Mandriva with mplayer already installed. Mmmmh? The BBC video clip loads with lots of connecting urls - this activity continues ad infinitum. If I choose play in standalone mode then the urls load and finally the player just reads stopped. No video plays in either mode.

If I go to streamick.com which has an embedded WMA video on the front page, this plays without any problems.

I am very confused. Seems there's something about the BBC stream which is causing problems. BUT then you guys say it works with Arch.

Any thoughts?

I tried firefox and mplayer again at BBC. I chose one of the standard clips - which played after a long period of buffering.

The One minute news clip just loads the urls ad infinitum.

Updating Mandriva at the moment to see if that makes any difference.

I'm not sure why it is not working for you after trying several distros.
The mplayer and mplayer plugin as worked for me and elliott678. When I visited the BBC website, it took only a few seconds to connect and play the videos. If the mplayer/mplayer-plugin are the same across all distros, it should have downloaded the same dependencies and codecs I have. This is a very unusual situation.

Check if you have ffmpeg, faad and liba52 installed. Mplayer uses these apps and codecs as well. Some distros may have these installed already, but check anyway. Also from your package manager do a search for codecs and read the description for it. If you feel you need it, install it. If you see win32 codecs or something like that install it. Also, upgrade both mplayer and mplayer-plugin if available.

- later

Thanks for the feedback. Mandriva is on package 48 of 124 updates at the moment, so I'm reluctant to mess about with anything until it finishes! I'll follow your tips when it's finished.

So far (apart from the BBC problem) I'm very impressed with Mandriva - if I can crack that problem I'm considering seriously about installing it permanently (rather than as vmware).

Now, how's that for a change of heart!

Let's cross our fingers and hope it works.

Looks like we need to cross more than our fingers!

Updated Mandriva. Installed ffmpeg. Can't find any reference to faad in PM. Liba52 already installed.

Can you check the video clip again. It is definitely the One Minute World News that fails. Other clips seem to play okay (the other ones I've tried, that is). Do you see an advert? I assume you are connecting from outside the UK.

Now, this news clip sometimes is preceded by an advert, sometimes not (I know this from windows). The mplayer starts listing a whole slew of servers it is connecting to - as far as I can see, it just seems to go into an infinite loop, connecting to the servers.

Also, I think it's something to do with high speed broadband or standard speed. The clips play okay (but small and slow) if I choose the standard speed. Is there some buffering setting I might need to adjust in mplayer?

I scrolled down midway down the page, I clicked on the One-Minute World News, a new window opens, mplayer starts contacting the server and then the words playing some url and finally the word Connected. Then the video starts. Video playback is flawless with no skips or audio dropouts. The video starts with a red glode in a spiral. Then an old gentleman, in a brown suit and red tie starts to talk. The video is one minute three seconds.

It is working for my distro, I don't know why is is not working with the distros you tried. Like I said, it is puzzling.

If you selected realone as the default player on BBC, it will use that format until you change it.

Have you tried the other format ie windows media? if you are not sure, on the top right of the mplayer window, click on preferences and select windows media and then OK.

If this does not resolved it, then I'm afraid you have to use your windows to view the BBC website i.e One-Minute World News link until someone who had a similar experience you have has fixed it.

Why it works in arch linux and not the others you try, who knows....

Perhaps, someone out there will have the answer for you.

-later



PS: If anything comes to mind, I'll post it. Until then, I ran out of ideas.

Maybe we are able to get the non-free codecs and Mandriva can't supply them due to licenses.

Thanks for that idea elliott678. What if castalla2007 downloads the codecs form the mplayer website.

castalla2007, download the codecs for the mplayer program. Here is the link

http://www1.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/rel...071007.tar.bz2

to untar type tar -xjvf all-20071007.tar.bz2

As root, do this

Next, verify if the codecs directory is in /usr/local/lib
The latest version of mplayer by default stores or locates the codecs
in /usr/local/lib/codecs. Depending on how your distro compiled the mplayer program, the codecs directory could be elsewhere. But this is a good place to start. Create and/or change to the codecs directory and move or copy the contents from the all-20071007 directory to the codecs directory.

Next run ldconfig

This will update the link libraries for the system.

Let us know if this works!

Followed your instructions ... no effect on playing clip as WMP high speed option. Same symptoms - loading stream urls ad infinitum. In standalone option, urls load then player just says stopped - screen is completely greyed.

Frustrated!

Sorry, it didn't work. My arms are in the air. So far it's been me and elliott678 offering ideas to get this working.

elliott678 and I are using arch linux and have no problems playing the videos from the BBC website. Also, I tested the One-Minute World News link as you requested -- twice . I played both windows media and realone formats. No problem there either.

All I given you were suggestions. What you need is someone who's been where you are now and they had fixed the problem. They can tell you why mplayer can't connect to the server or stops unexpectedly.They can then tell you how they fixed it. Unfortunately, that someone has not pass by this neck of the woods.

Maybe you have done it already, but make a new post where there is alot of viewers. Also, some distros have there own forums. Search them and post your problem with mplayer.

Until then, you have to use windows to view the BBC website


- Peace