I tried searching on this topic, but couldn't figure out how to word my request so I'd get any decent hits. So if this has been asked before, I ask for leniency in the flames.

As we all know, many Linux distros include thousands of pieces of software from games to productivity software to development. This is a good thing in some ways, and bad in others. Because I'm never sure what is going to be needed with what, I usually end up installing more than I need. But that's a subject for a different question.

At any rate, I'm wondering if it's best to use the software that comes with the distro or find the latest version and use that? I know the answer seems obvious - find the latest version. But if I try to uninstall what's come with my distro, sometimes I'm told that other pieces will be broken. So how do I make sure I've got the latest versions of software without breaking everything else?

For a specific example, we'll use Xine. I downloaded a bunch of libraries last night to try and get the DVD player working. I did not install the latest Xine libraries because they were already available under my SUSE 9.1 Pro install. I installed the DVD libraries, and the Win32 codecs. But I still couldn't play DVDs or WMV or Quicktime files. I'm wondering if it's because I didn't install the standard Xine libraries as well? And if this is the case, will using the RPMs for the new Xine libraries overwrite the old ones (which is preferable) or will they install to yet other directories, which takes up more space on my hard drive (I'm very hard drive space stingy) and confusing me as to which software is actually being used?

I hope my questions make sense. Any help is appreciated.

You don't have to use the xine that comes with SuSE. I didn't.

You should only need 4 files for DVD playback. libdvdcss, libxine1, w32codec, and xine-ui.

rpm -Uvh the files, then turn on DMA

hdparm -c1 -d1 -k1 /dev/hdc (or whatever your drive is).

That's what worked for me, anyway.

I admit that I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to command line stuff. Does it make a difference to use Yast? I think I have all of those RPM's installed, but I'll have to doublecheck the xine-ui. I didn't check the DMA, though. But I heard that if you don't, you'll just get jumpy playback. My Xine interface is telling me that DVD playback isn't enabled at all. Well, encrypted DVD playback, anyway.

I shall certainly be trying your instructions tonight.

Thanks!

You can use yast.

Oh, and when I didn't turn on DMA, xine actually locked up when I tried to play a DVD. No warning, no nothing. But I turned on DMA and everything worked like a charm.

you don't have to uninstall the software...yast or apt-get will simply upgrade them with the newest packages...for instance, suse comes with gaim 0.68...if you download the latest gaim rpm which is 0.79, you don't have to uninstall the older version...yast will simply update it to the latest...

Cool. I'll play around with it tonight after work, dinner, playing with kids, getting kids to bed, preparing presenations for school, etc, etc, etc....