Feek's adventures with Linux - Page 6

LeperousDust · 11-02-2008, 21:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark

Indeed, though you have to be careful with Dell systems because some like to have the partition tables 'just right' for the media and restore partitions.

Fortunately my Dell doesn't have the former and doesn't seem to care about the latter (and besides I have an image if it ever breaks anyway), so I partitioned it up with my usual seperate OS and data partitions and 20GB marked unused if I ever want to dual-boot Linux on it.

Yeah thats the thing, i dont actually want the media direct or the restore partition, but i don't want to fart around in case something goes wrong with the mbr somewhere and i'm left with nout! I just cant do with the hassle on top of assignments and deadlines right now!

Mark · 11-02-2008, 22:28

Aye, backup first before you fiddle with stuff like that.

As for the mbr, a Vista install CD is your friend. When I juggled partitions it did make the system unbootable but the recovery tools spotted the problem straight away and fixed it.

LeperousDust · 11-02-2008, 22:51

Thing is i'm scared because i need all the programs on here and dont have the time to start reinstalling if things really do go wrong. It's working as it is, i won;t gain anything apart from geek points by installed ubuntu, which i will do eventually, but for now it stays off

Feek · 14-02-2008, 21:40

Now I managed to get the sound working (and a task and a half that was, taken hours), I can't make it play DVDs.

The Totem Movie Player is complaining that it doesn't have the right codecs, but as far as I can see, I've installed the codecs that it's asking for and VLC simply flashes a window open and then closes it when I tell it to open a DVD.

Locally stored video plays well in both Totem and VLC.

Stan_Lite · 15-02-2008, 05:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Feek

Now I managed to get the sound working (and a task and a half that was, taken hours), I can't make it play DVDs.

The Totem Movie Player is complaining that it doesn't have the right codecs, but as far as I can see, I've installed the codecs that it's asking for and VLC simply flashes a window open and then closes it when I tell it to open a DVD.

Locally stored video plays well in both Totem and VLC.

Hi Feekles. If you can get video files to play, I assume you have installed the extra codecs that are considered to be nawty (bloody DRM).

In order to play DVD, you need to install libdvdcss2 library. You can probably do this in synaptic (don't have an Ubuntu install on my laptop atm to try it). If not, simply type the following into your shell:

Code:

sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2

I'm assuming the repository required is already added. If not, you will need to add the repository thusly:

Add the source:

Code:

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/gutsy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

Get the key required:

Code:

wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O-¦ sudo apt-key add -

Update the source list:

Code:

sudo apt-get update

Then install the library:

Code:

sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2

After that, Robert should very much be your Mother's brother.

Feek · 15-02-2008, 10:50

Already done that, Stan - I've got it to the stage of giving me pictures now but no sound.

Sound has been a bit tricky so far - I managed to get it going yesterday using the analog output of my sound card, then the box wanted to do an update of some of the libraries so I did that and now although I have sound when I do the test in the sound setup box, I've again lost my system sounds. No sound from anything except that sound preferences doofer.

Grrrr!

Frustrating, but satisfying when I get a result.

Daz · 15-02-2008, 11:17

Sound has always been an interesting one in Linux - I made a post somewhere else about it. Nobody's really come up with a way to force anything and everything that wants access to the sound device through a broker or daemon of some sort - because there's nothing stopping an app just going off and grabbing the whole thing itself.

There's a blueprint on Launchpad for Hardy titled 'Fix the Linux audio mess once and for all'. I doubt they fix if once and for all but hey, if they can make it better more power to them.

Stan_Lite · 15-02-2008, 11:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Feek

Frustrating, but satisfying when I get a result.

That's pretty much how I feel about messing with Linux - frustrating as hell but you get that smug feeling when you manage to find a way round a problem.

Feek · 15-02-2008, 20:43

Arsey arse arse. The drive I use for backups appears to be failing so I need to drag the one I've used for Ubuntu back into play on the PC.

But I appear to have an issue and I'm not sure it's one that can be easily fixed. Grub has installed itself on my initial boot device and references the one I installed Ubuntu on. So if I remove the Ubuntu disk, grub starts and the complains that it can't find anything and halts the system.

There's no such thing in Vista as fdisk so I can't recover the MBR that way so I'm a bit stumped here. I'm off to google..

Feek · 15-02-2008, 21:13

bootrec /fixmbr is the new fdisk /mbr

11-02-2008, 22:51	#53
LeperousDust Bananaman Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Liverpool/Edinburgh Posts: 4,817	Thing is i'm scared because i need all the programs on here and dont have the time to start reinstalling if things really do go wrong. It's working as it is, i won;t gain anything apart from geek points by installed ubuntu, which i will do eventually, but for now it stays off __________________

14-02-2008, 21:40	#54
Feek ex SAS Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: JO01ou Posts: 10,062	Now I managed to get the sound working (and a task and a half that was, taken hours), I can't make it play DVDs. The Totem Movie Player is complaining that it doesn't have the right codecs, but as far as I can see, I've installed the codecs that it's asking for and VLC simply flashes a window open and then closes it when I tell it to open a DVD. Locally stored video plays well in both Totem and VLC. __________________

15-02-2008, 10:50	#56
Feek ex SAS Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: JO01ou Posts: 10,062	Already done that, Stan - I've got it to the stage of giving me pictures now but no sound. Sound has been a bit tricky so far - I managed to get it going yesterday using the analog output of my sound card, then the box wanted to do an update of some of the libraries so I did that and now although I have sound when I do the test in the sound setup box, I've again lost my system sounds. No sound from anything except that sound preferences doofer. Grrrr! Frustrating, but satisfying when I get a result. __________________ Last edited by Feek; 15-02-2008 at 11:14.

15-02-2008, 11:17	#57
Daz The Stig Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Swad! Posts: 10,713	Sound has always been an interesting one in Linux - I made a post somewhere else about it. Nobody's really come up with a way to force anything and everything that wants access to the sound device through a broker or daemon of some sort - because there's nothing stopping an app just going off and grabbing the whole thing itself. There's a blueprint on Launchpad for Hardy titled 'Fix the Linux audio mess once and for all'. I doubt they fix if once and for all but hey, if they can make it better more power to them. __________________ apt-get moo

15-02-2008, 20:43	#59
Feek ex SAS Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: JO01ou Posts: 10,062	Arsey arse arse. The drive I use for backups appears to be failing so I need to drag the one I've used for Ubuntu back into play on the PC. But I appear to have an issue and I'm not sure it's one that can be easily fixed. Grub has installed itself on my initial boot device and references the one I installed Ubuntu on. So if I remove the Ubuntu disk, grub starts and the complains that it can't find anything and halts the system. There's no such thing in Vista as fdisk so I can't recover the MBR that way so I'm a bit stumped here. I'm off to google.. __________________

11-02-2008, 22:28	#52
Mark Screaming Orgasm Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Newbury Posts: 15,194	Aye, backup first before you fiddle with stuff like that. As for the mbr, a Vista install CD is your friend. When I juggled partitions it did make the system unbootable but the recovery tools spotted the problem straight away and fixed it.

15-02-2008, 21:13	#60
Feek ex SAS Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: JO01ou Posts: 10,062	bootrec /fixmbr is the new fdisk /mbr __________________