Suse 10.0 prenewbie question;
 

This sounds really stupid but here I go; How can I tell what desktop I am using? I think I am using KDE but the top menu bar has Gnome setting properties. Are additional software installations specific to what desktop you are using? I have Suse 10.0 and am looking for a media player that plays mp3 AND has an equalizer built in. I've read that Suse is a good distro for newbies but I am stuck on how to install/uninstall programs. Can anyone recommend a good media player with an equalizer AND how to install it? I've tried installing a couple of media players and they appear to install fine but won't play anything when I click on a song. I consider myself proficient in an Windows environment but am totally lost in a Linux environment! HELP!!!!

TIA,

Jay

This is gnome on suse 10:
http://www.pcc-services.com/articles...suse_gnome.jpg
This is KDE on Suse 10:
http://radekhulan.cz/img/linux/suse-kde.png

If u have noticed, unless you have made extensive customization, default view and menu items look very distinctive on both environments.

Unless it is a java based application, which would only java installed, all other software packages are created for specific environment. Having said that, you will most likely find all popular programs available in both KDE and GNOME.
As far as media player, you might want to test what is available out there. I, personally, like amaroK which pretty good looking and functional media player.

Installing and uninstalling software is made very easy with a tool called YAST. Configure yast to get applications from certain source, then just run YAST install/remove (or something close to this, run "man yast" first), then you should be good to go..
Hope this helps..

Suse comes with a preinstalled xmms which has an equalizer: howto and screenie.

Getting xmms to play .mp3 (and .flac .ape .mpc)

Along those lines, here an online version of the SuSE v10.0 manuals

A very simple way to check which desktop manager you're using is to right-click on the panel. For Kde you'll see "Help" => "About KDE". Gnome just has "About Panel". This will give you version info, etc. for either kde and gnome as well.

MP3 support doesn't come with SuSE out of the box. If I remember correctly, SuSE stopped shipping with MP3 support since 9.3. Because MP3 is a propriety technology they stopped shipping it for legal reasons. They did the same for DVD playback. Pop an encrypted disc into the drive and you'll get an error message to the effect that DVD playback isn't supported. You didn't mention anything about that so I won't elaborate on that here. Just ask, though, if you need help.

I personally use the mplayer essential codec play. It provides a wide range of audio and visual codecs - I haven't yet encountered a file that I couldn't play back thanks to this pack. You can download it from http://www.mplayerhq.hu. It comes as a tarred bzip package. Open a terminal and untar it with:
# tar jxf essential-<package_date>.tar.bz2 (If you press tab after typing the first few letters of the filename it will autocomplete it for you)

Then copy the contents of the directory it creates (you'll need to be root)
$ su
Enter root password:
# cp essential-<package_date>/* /usr/local/lib/codecs

If /usr/local/lib/codecs doesn't exist you may have to create it first:
# mkdir /usr/local/lib/codecs

And that's it! You should now be set to play mp3's in any app you choose.

You guys are great!!!
 

Thanks for all of the help. I knew that there are tons of extraordinarily smart people out there.

Thanks,

Vodergam

Ok, so I found the Amarok player with the EQ. The problem now is that when I enable the EQ, the speakers have no sound coming out of them. When I disable the EQ, the sound comes back. Help!

Do you get the same problem if you use, for instance, the equaliser in kaffeine or xmms?
(the shortcut for the equaliser in kaffeine is 'e' while a file is playing)