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Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: british columbia
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Originally Posted by Grum 
In the past few weeks I've essentially bricked my laptop. XP won't boot any more and in an attempt to sort it i've stuffed the hard drive. I won't go into detail mainly cos i can't be bothered. Anyways, I'm away to go reformat the hard drive but I can't find my disk of xp anywhere so I'm going to have no OS. I'm not away to go buy myself another copy of XP (and of course getting a cracked version would be wrong lol), so I've started considering using linux as my OS (A - because its free, B - I like the idea of having control over my OS, C - XP annoys the hell out of me and D - it would please my inner-nerd). I've read up about linux a fair bit and i'm finding it more and more intriging. My only issues about it are im slightly concerned about using the command line etc (as i've NEVER actually used/seen a linux run machine) and the general difference's compared to XP or OS X in which i have a little experience. I'd like to think of myself as being better than the average XP user but not an expert by any means ie. when something goes wrong on any of my families computers i'm the one who always has to fix it, but i still get very concerned when im made to go into the regstry to do something. Do you think it would be a good idea for me to have a bash with linux and is there any particular distro you'd recommend?
Command lines are your best friend. Don't fear the command line. Just open a konsole or terminal and type in what you want. Here is a link to some command lines that work with mepis and should work with other linux too.
http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/Bash_commands
Copy the tips of others into konsole or terminal.
You do not need to understand the text in order to be able to cut n' paste it into the box - so long as the person who is telling you what to type understands what they are doing.
Most new Linux users are reluctant to use the command line at first; it is actually very easy and experienced users will often refer to it as your best friend.
http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/Start
I recommend mepis first then pclinuxos, then antiX which is an amazingly fast sub-version of mepis and is like mepislite 'cept it is based on SimplyMEPIS 6.5. After that there is ubuntu, slax,sled and many others to the tune of between 200-400 linux operating systems and versions of systems. More coming all the time too. Try as many live linux cds as you can .
Distrowatch is a good place to see some the more popular linux versions.
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Florida
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mplayer is kind of dumb, last time i used it, i couldn't get it to play dvd's.
Florida Rocks!
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Dundee, Scotland
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you use SuSE dont you TheNSS?
Novell deliberately crippledd most of the media players in thier repos so that they dont work with LibDvdCSS so they dont get sued.
Novell deliberately crippledd most of the media players in thier repos so that they dont work with LibDvdCSS so they dont get sued.
Last edited by jbennet : Jun 16th, 2007 at 9:19 am.
TRY MY SUGGESTIONS AT YOUR OWN RISK
Master of puppets Im pulling your strings, blinded by me, you cant see a thing. Master! Master!
Master of puppets Im pulling your strings, blinded by me, you cant see a thing. Master! Master!
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yeah, i use sled, and LibDvdCSS doesn't work with any player. Even at their site, novell says you can listen to mp3's, watch dvd's,
"if you can think it, you can make it with suse linux"
it's kind of lame.
"if you can think it, you can make it with suse linux"
it's kind of lame.
Florida Rocks!
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: South East England
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PowerDVD (pre-installed) and WMp11 do me fine for all my media needs 
The Great Lord, Serunson.
Epic Hedgehog power all the way!
Quote from scru :: "If you were a file I'd hit delete."
Epic Hedgehog power all the way!
Quote from scru :: "If you were a file I'd hit delete."
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Join Date: Jul 2005
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Originally Posted by TheNNS
yeah, i use sled, and LibDvdCSS doesn't work with any player. Even at their site, novell says you can listen to mp3's, watch dvd's,
"if you can think it, you can make it with suse linux"
it's kind of lame.
That's one of the main reasons I use mepis. All the players will work with libdvdcss2. Mepis plays dvds smoothly when you use the right vid driver and have all the extra needed packages. One of the first things that I do when I install mepis is to get these packages from synaptic package manager. This is for mepis but should work for some other linux too.
To use a graphical method, follow these steps:
1. Open Synaptic by clicking Menu --> System --> Package Manager, and supply the root password.
2. On the menu bar, click Settings --> Repository. Scroll down to the bottom of the list, and check http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/ to add that repository. Click OK.
3. Using the Search box, find and mark for install libdvdcss2 package.
4. Install and exit. Now DVDs should play just fine using KMPlayer or another player.
Also grab these.
Dvdauthor, dvdbackup, dvdrip, dvdrtools, dvd+rw-tools, k9copy, K3b,lame, lame-extras, libavifile-0.7c2, libdvdnav4, libdvdplay0, libdvdread3, libmad0, libxine-extracodecs, mencoder, qdvdauthor, transcode ,vlc and vamps.
With these packages you should be able to watch encrypted dvds and more.
Dvd play and back up is one of the main reasons that I prefer mepis. No trouble ripping or burning or backing up dvds. When my 5 year old is watching treehouse channel and the wife is watching a soap or something then I like to watch a dvd on the computer.
If you use kaffeine then sometimes the xv driver in kaffeines settings will play smoother than some other drivers.
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Join Date: Aug 2005
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Originally Posted by TheNNS
yeah, i use sled, and LibDvdCSS doesn't work with any player. Even at their site, novell says you can listen to mp3's, watch dvd's,
"if you can think it, you can make it with suse linux"
it's kind of lame.
I have opensuse 10.2 with VLC player and it has never been a problem
click_me
... the hat of 'is this a cat in a hat?'
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Join Date: Mar 2007
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nice background!
The Great Lord, Serunson.
Epic Hedgehog power all the way!
Quote from scru :: "If you were a file I'd hit delete."
Epic Hedgehog power all the way!
Quote from scru :: "If you were a file I'd hit delete."
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Join Date: Aug 2005
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Thanx, 
You can get a better pic here if you like...
http://www.indigorenderer.com/joomla...pic.php?t=1975
You can get a better pic here if you like...
http://www.indigorenderer.com/joomla...pic.php?t=1975
... the hat of 'is this a cat in a hat?'
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Dundee, Scotland
Posts: 12,883
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Originally Posted by TheNNS
yeah, i use sled, and LibDvdCSS doesn't work with any player. Even at their site, novell says you can listen to mp3's, watch dvd's,
"if you can think it, you can make it with suse linux"
it's kind of lame.
Google for the site "Hacking Opensuse! (works with SLED too). They have thier own repo where you can download un-novellised media players which work with libdvdcss etc... there is atutorial there.
TRY MY SUGGESTIONS AT YOUR OWN RISK
Master of puppets Im pulling your strings, blinded by me, you cant see a thing. Master! Master!
Master of puppets Im pulling your strings, blinded by me, you cant see a thing. Master! Master!
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