what linux distro for media support?

[gobblox]

I've been using FC5, and despite my best efforts for a few weeks cannot get it to play the major video formats (XviD etc).

 

The only thing keeping me from never using windows again, and forcing myself to really sink my teeth into linux is my inability to get videos to play.

 

Is there a distro that comes preloaded with things like Mplayer, (or anything with XviD and DivX support)?

 

apparently FC5 cant compile most programs without some pretty serious custumization, something to do with not supporting X11, or gcc 3.X. , which, curiously, i cant find anywhere for x86_64 systems

 

BTW; I'm a total nooblet, I might need to be spoken too like im a child if your giving any advice

[anyweb]

hi,

 

did you check out this Fedora Core release 5 EXTRAS post ??

 

if not, please try it

 

if that doesnt help, then what videos are you having issues with

 

cheers

anyweb

[gobblox]

I solved my own problem, ill post the solution so anyone can read it, and i can refer to this later if i need to

 

If you find your system doesnt want to compile the code :

 

goto [/url]http://rpm.greysector.net/mplayer/ and find latest/ appropiate rpm

goto [url=http://rpm.greysector.net/greysector-pubkey.txt]http://rpm.greysector.net/greysector-pubkey.txt and save the file

its easiest to put them both in same path

 

in console type

 

su-

(goto path of ...pubkey.txt)

rpm --import ...pubkey.txt

yum install mplayer-gui

 

or if you want onlywant command line version

 

yum install (mplayer package name)

 

there are a few libraries required for Mplayer, which i installed earlier, but i dont remember them all, they were all refered to in links less than 3 deep on the first few results in google with the search "mplayer"

 

Anyweb:

 

No, actually i did not see that, thanks for the great link, and thread though, now my solution looks kind of silly, but ill leave it anyway, i didnt see your post until after i posted.

 

thanks a million anyway anyweb, sorry to bother you again

[anyweb]

good stuff

 

but dont forget that the fedora core release 5 Extras howto, doesnt require you to compile anything, and covers more than just installing mplayer and its windows codecs, if i was you, i'd still check it out

 

in general, unless you have to, it's advisable not to compile on an RPM based distro,

 

the rpm's are out there, usually already made for you (from livna or freshrpms)

 

glad you got it fixed though

 

cheers

anyweb

[gobblox]

Yes, that fedora core 5 extras thread is very nice work anyweb, i completed all of the actions described in it, and am now going back over it to better understand what exactly i just did.

 

I was under the impression that i was better off compiling most of my programs because I am running x86_64, and most of the rpms i see are for i386, which although they usually work, from my limited understanding, it seems like this could cause some problems, even if they dont manifest themselves immediatly.

 

am i mistaken? or does it not matter in the majority of cases?

[znx]

Yes, that fedora core 5 extras thread is very nice work anyweb, i completed all of the actions described in it, and am now going back over it to better understand what exactly i just did. 

I was under the impression that i was better off compiling most of my programs because I am running x86_64, and most of the rpms i see are for i386, which although they usually work, from my limited understanding, it seems like this could cause some problems, even if they dont manifest themselves immediatly.

 

am i mistaken? or does it not matter in the majority of cases?

 

In order ..

• x86_64 RPMs exist, use them
  
  
• i386 RPMs exist and are compatible, use them
  
  
• SRPMs exist, try using these to rebuild RPMs
  
  
• Source build and make an RPM to install ! that why you keep your system consistant.
  
  
• If you cant do RPM builds from source, then make sure you install to /usr/local, that way separating it from your main system.