[ale] playing DVD on 7.3

[Joseph A Knapka]

"ChangingLINKS.com" wrote:
> 
> I guess that is why I was asking for specific directions. I tried:
> 
> [root at change local]# tar xvzf xine-dvdnav-0.9.9.tar.gz
> gzip: stdin: not in gzip format
> tar: Child returned status 1
> tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
> [root at change local]#

It looks like your tar.gz file got corrupted somehow. That
command is exactly right for unpacking a tar.gz or tgz file.
The other possibility is that the file is misnamed - maybe
it was actually compressed using bz2 or something, in which
case you'd need to do:

bzcat <file> | tar xvf -

or

bzcat <file>.tar.gz ; tar xvf file.tar

> You know, I had a distinct feeling that even IF that command worked, (which I
> couldn't find exact directions on the web site you referred) that I would
> have symbolic link problems. How would Xine _know_ that the dvdnav was in my
> usr/local directory.

It might check $PATH for plugins. If it's like most Unix programs,
it would have a standard set of directories it would check (and
I would assume that most plugins would install themselves
in one of the default places), and then it would probably use
some set of environment variables to specify additional
directories.

> How can I use that command to extract it to into the
> /usr/bin/xine/plugins directory (my best guess as to where it would go)?

First, use "tar t" to get a table of contents; that will tell you
the path names in the tar file. So for x.tar, use

tar tvf x.tar

Paths in tar files are always relative, so you'd get something
like:

usr/bin/xbinfile
usr/lib/xlibfile
...

That would tell you that if you unpack the tar file from the
/ directory, things would be installed in the system-default
places: /usr/bin, /usr/lib, etc.. Alternatively, you might see
something like

bin/xbinfile
lib/xlibfile
...

in which case you'd unpack in /usr to have things installed
under /usr, or in /usr/local to have things installed
there.

> I am soooooo lost. Is there anyone that actually HAS 7.3 running that got DVD
> to play using 5 or less commands using 2-5 files?
>
> <rant>
> I am still a newbie. I feel like I know NOTHING after moving to 7.3. Moreover,
> I have yet to find someone who can help me with simple encryption for a
> directory tree in Linux.

You want to make an encrypted archive of a directory tree?
Or you want to just encrypt all the files in a directory
tree as a one-time operation? Or do you want to have the
files in that directory "magically" be encrypted and
decrypted as they're accessed? Those three goals will involve
very different approaches, and the third is much more
complicated. I've never done any of the three, but I
expect I could figure out the first two in half an
hour or so, if you'd like me to do that.

> Today, as I have just a little liquor in my system I
> am reminded of the instability (and yet ease) of Windows. How can Linux be
> more secure (in general) if I have such a TOUGH time finding someone who
> knows (and has the 30 minutes) to help me encrypt valuable data?
> I HATE Windows. The sh*t doesn't _run_ - but it seems like I need help
> relearning Linux everytime there is a .1 upgrade. Is there no happy medium?
> Anyone tried Lindows? I don't mind putting the "L" on my forehead to get some
> easy functionality. Learning and admining Linux is _not_ my career or college
> course - I would rather be fluent in spelling F#13's.
> </rant>

What's an F#13? (Just curious.)

I, too, hate Windows with a passion. However, one thing they
did do right is providing a single, more-or-less standardized
UI for everything. Linux is getting there, slowly, but
there's always some app that you want to run that hasn't
been ported to the UI-du-jour yet. OTOH, all of those
UIs are just variations on X, so you can almost always
get something to run. It can be a challenge, though.

I have been using Linux almost since the day it was
first released. My approach to solving these problems
is virtually always as follows:

(1) Read the man page.

if that doesn't help,

(2) Read the HOWTO - there's almost certain to be one.
And the FAQ, if any.

if that doesn't help,

(3) Ask ALE :-)

One of those three things usually yields an answer within
ten minutes. In the rare cases where they don't, I
either give up or, if I really have my heart set on
making it work, I settle in for a serious bout of
documentation-reading, experimentation, and occasionally
even source-code detectiving. I realize that you won't
want to go that far, but the great thing about Linux
is that we *can* go that far if we want to. And since
you don't (probably) want to go as far as that (which
is perfectly understandable), your best bet is to
put your difficulty out there so that maybe someone
else who's scratching the same itch can tell you
about the solution when one is available (maybe
it already is).

Think about times when, under Windows, you just could
not get something to work. (I know, we tend to
mercilessly suppress those memories, but think
*hard*.) How much investigation
could you do on your own? Chances are, you ended
up either waiting on a helpdesk phone line for
hours, or writing off the product that didn't
work and trying something else (for which you
must fork over additional $$$). (Of course, there
are occasional software firms that provide
stunningly good customer support... none of
them occur to me at the moment, though.) Linux (and
other open-source stuff) certainly can be
frustrating - I sympathize completely with that.
But ultimately, it's worth it, IMO.

Cheers,

-- Joe

> On Saturday 06 July 2002 16:15, Calvin Harrigan wrote:
> > Redhat doesn't ship with the dvdnav plugin, you have to add it manually.
> >
> > http://dvd.sourceforge.net/xine-dvdnav.shtml
> >
> > Calvin...
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sat, 6 Jul 2002 12:21:44 -0400 "ChangingLINKS.com"
> > <x3 at ChangingLINKS.com> wrote:
> >
> > ale,07-06-02 1212
> > I have upgraded to 7.3 which has Xine already installed in it by default.
> > Unfortunately, when I try to play DVDs, Xine says that it cannot play the
> > encrypted DVD. When I try to install Ogle just like I would with RedHat 7.2
> > it does not work. When I try to install Xine like I would with 7.2, it does
> > not work.
> > Can someone give me exact diretions to get DVDs to play with RedHat 7.3.
> 
> --
> Wishing you Happiness, Joy and Laughter,
> Drew Brown
> http://www.ChangingLINKS.com
> 
> ---
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-- 
   "Thanks to Microsoft, I am now blind in both eyes. They have
    rolled back in my head so many times this week that they
    are apparently stuck there now."
      - Jonathan Rickman, regarding M$ anti-open-source PR.

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