please help me install VLC player
 

hi, i am brand new linux user - i am running redhat 9. so far i am in love with this os and so glad to be rid of windows, however, installing programs is just not happening.

can someone please help me get the vlc player installed?

i followed the install directions on the site:

# rpm -U *.rpm

and nothing happens. when i try to cd into a directory nothing happens also. can someone please give me some step by step directions for a total n00b1? i have not been successful installing anything yet - but i can hdparm my harddrives!!

m

ps i have read lots of stuff on installing programs unzipping files etc, i just cant do it for some reason. please help - and thanks.

first of all, "just cant do it" is completly useless. We cant help you with that. Most likely, you're missing GCC and the other development tools. You will have to install it via the Add/Remove programs GUI in Redhat.


Try installing the RPM with rpm -Uvh [file].rpm


This will be verbose and output any errors too you.


the RPM may have installed fine, have you tried running "vlc" in a console.

ok i open a terminal and it has:

[root@localhost]#

i type in:

rpm -Uvh wxGTK-2.4.1-frl.1386.rpm (one of the rpms)

terminal says:

error: open of wxGTK-2.4.1-frl.1386.rpm failed: No such file or directory

i tried to cd into the directory, but this is what it says:

[root@localhost root]# cd /appz/media players/vlc player
bash: cd: /appz/media: No such file or directory

this is where i have the files:

/root/appz/media players/vlc player

i have dl all the files from the vlc website that it lists. i have tried to install all of them but can't get any of them to install (i even tried doubl click them).

i hope this is the info that you needed to help me, if not please let me know and i will post it.

thanks,

m

ps i have tried to run the program but it says there is no program. and, i installed everything that came with rh9.

the list of rpms that i dl are here http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-redhat.html

these are all in my vlc player directory. i followed the directions from the vlc site as well as contrasutra's advice and others. i think once i get at least one program installed i should be good for all my installs. thanks

m

You have to be in the directory of the RPM to install it.

Heres your problem:

You tried to go into this directory:

/appz/media players/vlc player

But that doesn't exist, what you want to go to is:

/root/appz/media players/vlc player

And keep in mind that you have spaces between "vlc player", so you'll have to type that in quotes.

If you were in the /root directory and wanted to go into appz/media players/vlc player, you could have done:

cd "./appz/media players/vlc player/"

. = current directory
.. = previous directory

so you should do:

rpm -Uvh "/root/appz/media players/vlc player/wxGTK-2.4.1-frl.1386.rpm"


A few tips:

Dont run as root, it makes Linux as insecure as Windows

Dont add spaces to directories, It makes things harder, generally you want to use underscores.


Programs are generally installed like:

binaries in - /usr/bin/, /bin , /sbin, /usr/local/bin
libraries - /lib, /usr/lib, /usr/local/lib
config files - HOME directory (hidden), /etc/

Usually, you can run programs by typing the program name in a terminal.


One last thing, you dont have to create such a complex file structure (appz/media players), Generally, its fine just to store source tarballs and RPMs in one directory, like "tarballs" or "rpms" or something. Since the programs will install themselves to the appropraite directories.

thanks contrasutra, you have been so helpful. i am about to do exactly as you said for the install and file structure. but, i have a question about this:

"Generally, its fine just to store source tarballs and RPMs in one directory, like "tarballs" or "rpms" or something. Since the programs will install themselves to the appropraite directories."

are you saying that if i dl all the rpm files for the vlc player, for example, i should put these in the same directory as all the rpms for the xine player and everything thing else that i dl rpms for? and if i just type the program name in the terminal it will just run?

if i put all the rpms in the same directory, how do i keep track of what rpm is for what? and furthermore, what will happen if i type a wildcard style command like: # rpm -U *.rpm ? will it try to install every rpm in the directory even if it has already been installed?

thanks again,

m

so i changed the directory names a little for now, and did what would be simple for just about any one else (ie cd into a directory), and here's what i get:

[root@localhost root]# cd ./appz/media/vlc
[root@localhost vlc]# rpm -Uvh *.rpm
warning: a52dec-0.7.4-fr3.i386.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID e42d547b
warning: package faad2 = 1.1-fr2.20030409 was already added, replacing with faad2 <= 2.0-0.1.rc1.fr
warning: package xvidcore = 0.9.1-fr2 was already added, replacing with xvidcore <= 0.9.2-1.fr
Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
file /usr/include/postproc/postprocess.h conflicts between attempted installs of libpostproc-0.90-fr2 and libpostproc-0.90-4.20030808.fr
file /usr/lib/libpostproc.so.0.0.1 conflicts between attempted installs
of libpostproc-0.90-fr2 and libpostproc-0.90-4.20030808.fr


OK so a few files had some problems. i tried to run the program:

[root@localhost root]# vlc
bash: vlc: command not found
[root@localhost root]# "vlc player"
bash: vlc player: command not found

i tried this while in the vlc directory too, no good. i am sure it must be something really stupid that i am doing wrong. I am pretty happy though i am making progress - i will be pro in no time.

m

Well, it looks like one of the RPMs didn't install properly.

RPMs sometimes dont work, then you have to compile from source.


Have you thought about getting APT4RPM? Its a very nice system that will download programs from the net and install its dependancies.

http://apt4rpm.sourceforge.net/

When its installed, you just run:

apt-get update
apt-get install vlc



As for your problem, install the RPMs one by one, so you know which one is giving you trouble.

And for vlc not running when you type it in, be sure you've installed all the right RPMs.

ok, many of the rpms i installed didn't go properly. i checked out the APT4RPM and i didn't install properly either. i then came across Synaptic and tried to instal that as well. but now, when i type a -Uvh the terminal seems to hang - and it won't reset. cd'ing through the directories seems to be the only command that is working. this:

[root@localhost root]# cd ./rpms
[root@localhost rpms]# rpm -Uvh synaptic-0.42-1.fr.i386.rpm

hasn't changed for about an hour now. is it time to uninstall RPMs or reinstall rh9? i am not too discouraged yet.

m

ok starting to get somewhere on my DAY 3 of rh9. got apt-get and the synaptic up and running. now back to my original problem: HOW DO I INSTALL THE VLC PLAYER. here is my current problem:

[root@localhost root]# apt-get install vlc
warning: cannot get exclusive lock on /var/lib/rpm/Packages
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Package vlc has no available version, but exists in the database.
This typically means that the package was mentioned in a dependency and
never uploaded, has been obsoleted or is not available with the contents
of sources.list
E: Package vlc has no installation candidate

any help would truly be appreciated.

m

I don't know of a rh9 apt repository that has vlc (I'm sure there is one somewhere) but using the rpms should work.

Check if vlc is installed with rpm -aq | grep vlc
If it installed something like vlc-0.6.2-2 should be printed to the screen. This is unlikely to happen as you can't run vlc so it sounds like it wasn't installed.

If nothing is printed then try to install vlc-0.6.2-2.i386.rpm with rpm -ivh [package name] this will either install it (great!!) or give a list of failed dependencies. Usually you can tell what packages you're missing by looking at the failed dependency messages. e.g. if there is a message like

error: Failed dependencies:
ffmpeg is needed by vlc-0.6.2-2

then you know you're missing ffmpeg-0.4.7-0.20030701.1.fr.i386.rpm

You may not need to install all of the rpms (prob don't need libpostproc), depending on what other software you've already installed (e.g. mplayer, xine). To run vlc just type vlc.

Post any errors you get, they should be fixable. :)

i got it going after i edited apt-get. one of the other sites had the vlc player. thanks all for your help.

m3rc