Test2

What good is Linux as a desktop operating system if it can't play DVDs, DivX, or any other movie file properly? Sure Linux can play MPEG files pretty well and some distributions include support for standard AVI files but that's about it. This article will show you how I managed to do three things. The first being the installation of a decent movie player for Linux, the second being configuring the system for DVD playback and the playback of encrypted DVDs, and last but not least is configuring Linux for DivX MPEG4 playback as well. Just as a note you don't have to use the whole tutorial. If you just want DVD then you can leave the DivX stuff out or vice versa, but you must complete the first part of this tutorial to get anywhere.

The first part of the tutorial deals with the installation of a competent media player in the form of Xine. For this tutorial, Xine comes in two versions. The first is the official version which should be used so long as you don't want to watch encrypted DVDs. I recommend you download the official Xine only if you don't want to watch DVDs. DivX and non-encrypted playback is supported by the official Xine. This tutorial will not show you how to compile the official Xine you have to download!

Click Here to download latest official Xine

UPDATE: The Official Xine is included with Mandrake 9.0 so if you are using version 9.0 or later, just install Xine off of CD2.

If you want to view encrypted DVDs or DVDs with menus, as well as other videos that use Windows Media codecs, then you need to download an unofficial version of Xine. I use the unofficial version and it works perfectly fine and this is the version I recommend you to use and is the version the tutorial is based upon.

Click Here to download latest unofficial Xine

You must download the libxine0-0.9.XXcvs-02XXXX.iX86.rpm
You must download the xine-ui-0.9.XX-XXXXXX.iX86.rpm
For encrypted DVD download the libdvdcss-1.X.X-fr1.i386.rpm
For Windows Media codecs download the w32codec-0.50-1.i386.rpm

Note that where above there is an X, it means either the software version is subject to change, or if it is in the iX86 the X is dependent on the CPU you have. If you have a Pentium then get i586 and for any Pentium 2/3/Celeron get i686, and of coarse the K6 is for the AMD K6 and the K7 is for the Athlon/Duron CPUs. Just make sure you match the package correctly with your CPU or it will run slow or not at all!

Installing Xine is pretty simple. Just log in or su to your root account. Then change to the directory to where the Xine rpms reside. Now it is just a matter of following the steps below:

UPDATE: Xine is included with Mandrake 9.0 and if you have the included version installed, you will have to remove it before you can install the unofficial version of Xine.

rpm -ivh libxine0-0.9.XXcvs-02XXXX.iX86.rpm

rpm - ivh xine-ui-0.9.XX-XXXXXX.iX86.rpm

Make sure you replace X with the correct value from the rpm you downloaded! If both rpms installed successfully then Xine is now installed. If rpm complained about dependency issues then you will have to satisfy them before proceeding. My Mandrake 8.0 installation met all the dependencies fine so you shouldn't have too much trouble. To start Xine just type the following at the terminal:

Xine

DVD playback requires a couple more steps. Don't even think about doing this unless you have a DVD-ROM in your computer as it will be a complete waste of time. First you have to set Linux up to allow Xine to detect the presence of a DVD drive. To do this make sure you are in your root account and type the following:

ln -s /dev/cdrom /dev/dvd

You have just created a DVD device entry that links to your CD-ROM device in Linux since your DVD drive is nearly always seen as just a CD-ROM instead of a DVD-ROM.

If you are not interested in watching DVD movies that are encrypted then you can now watch DVDs through Xine in Linux. If you do want to watch DVD movies or have access to the DVD menus the make sure you are in your root account and are in the directory where your Xine rpms are, type the following:

rpm -ivh libdvdcss-1.X.X-fr1.i386.rpm

Same deal as before with the X values that need to be changed! Now your Linux system is properly equipped for DVD playback of any type!

DivX and or Windows Media file formats can also be played under Linux through Xine. Windows Media support is installed via the final rpm you downloaded. Make sure you are in your root account and type the following in the terminal window:

rpm -ivh w32codec-0.50-1.i386.rpm

Windows Media support is complete with only DivX to go. All you have to do for DivX is Click Here. Download the software, log to your root account and go to the directory where the DivX archive is and type the following at the prompt:

tar -zxvf divx4linux501-20020418.tgz

Now just log to the newly created DivX directory, make sure you read the installation instructions as they are subject to change and install it as shown in the instructions. Congratulations as you have now configured Linux for DivX playback through Xine.

Well that is a fair bit of work which took me a couple of hours to figure out for myself. If you followed the tutorial all the way through, now you have a true multimedia Linux system. This process works perfectly fine on Mandrake 8.X and Mandrake 9.0 and should work on Red Hat since the rpms used are actually Red Hat rpms anyway. I can't say whether it will work on newer or older versions of Mandrake or other distributions, but it can be used as a guide. Good Luck as I'm off to cook popcorn and watch a few DVDs on Linux!

UPDATE: The unofficial Xine when used with Mandrake 9.0 may result in choppy playback for DVDs. Other media formats don't seem to be affected. If you have this problem then I suggest you use Ogle for DVD playback. I now use this program and while it isn't as easy to use, it gives flawless DVD playback. I can't remember the official link to the Ogle site so I have linked to a Google search for Ogle.

Google Search For Ogle