[nmglug] Getting DVDs to play in Debian/Knoppix install

[Sam Noble]

On Mon, 2004-07-26 at 00:51, WA7BSZ wrote:
> I  am new enough I hardly have use apt-get.  How do I get a listing of
> what packages are available for apt-get?  Is mplayer available using
> apt-get?

The list of packages available in the standard Debian repositories is
_huge_ It's usually not useful to see them all at once.

The command that will make your life easier though is 'apt-cache'
specifically 'apt-cache search <string>' and 'apt-cache show <pkg>'
the first will show you all the packages matching <string> (in the name
or short description of the packge) ANd the second will show you a brief
description and some dependency/version info for the available versions.

So to find out if mplayer is available with your current sources:
'apt-cache search mplayer' (this will return nothing since normally
mplayer is not available)

If you want mplayer though it's no big deal, you  just need to add a
repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list file that has it. One popular
repository for multi-media stuff that has mplayer is

deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ unstable main
 (just add that line to your sources.list and then run 'apt-get update'
and a host of new -mostly multimedia- packages will be available.)
[please be advised there are licensing issues with many packages in the
marillat repo, -generally if the licensing issues were squared away, the
packages would be in the real Debian repos.]


> Last week I tried Mandrake 10, and from the beginning that played DVDs
> with sound just fine.  Knoppix-installed Debian doesn't seem to ahve
> that functionality.  SuSE 9.0 said they don't know of a legal player
> (that is from a year ago anyway).  But free-download Mandrake has one
> that works.  So I wonder what the story is here.

Both mplayer and xine (which is in standard debian repos) make great DVD
players, the problem is that there are legal issues with the little
piece that decodes CSS (content scrambling system?) Because CSS is a
form of encryption and has been labeled 'copy protection' (though it is
not any significant hindrance to copying) It is in theory protected by
the onerous DMCA. So it can conceivably be considered 'illegal' to use
any form of DeCSS that is not being licensed from the MPAA . So this
functionality is not provided in the core versions of these utilities.
However for the convenience of those who are not in the US or are
otherwise not subject to this absurdity of a law, there is a simple
script included in the libdvdread packages that enables this. So if
you're certain that this is legal where you live (nudge, nudge, wink,
wink) you can enable viewing (the primary and exceptionally legal use)
of your expensive and legally purchased DVDs, by connecting to the
internet and running
'/usr/share/doc/libdvdread<version>/examples/install-css.sh'
:)


> Also, that Mandrake made it so that partition magic just reported an
> error filled partition.  It took a little doing to delete that install
> and put Mandrake 9.2 on it, then upgrade it, and then partition magic
> thought it was OK.  But I ended up erasing that, because in the upgrade
> it lost my sound card.  I put debian on using the knoppix install to
> hard disk.  That is a very fast install, and it picked up all the
> hardware and looks nice.   But it doesn't play DVDs from the first like
> Mdk 10.0 did.  It might be a good one for an install fest.  One
> compressed CD has a lot on it.

The impressive capibilities of the Knoppix disc are agreed on by most,
and definately me ;)

> Is there a good place for info on apt-get.  I have read some of the
> online documentation, but nothing that tells me the basic stuff, like
> how to find a listing of what is available and what its name is so I
> can use it  in the apt-get command.

I think you'll get a long way now that you know about apt-cache. The apt
how-to is 
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/index.en.html 
great for more advanced topics.

hth,
sam
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