On feisty or dapper you will still need to install required codecs to be
able to watch dvds, same work finding and installing the packages for
?libdvdcss and friends. Google and ubuntu forums can guide you.
libdvdcss2 and w32codecs for Ubuntu December 4, 2005
Posted by carthik in ubuntu. trackback
You need codecs (decoders) and software to read the contents of DVDs to
be able to see multimedia files of different formats, as well as DVDs.
These software are provided free for use in Ubuntu - however due to
restrictions on distributing these modules in countries like the USA,
they are not always easy to find. This post will tell you how to find
them to install them on your Ubuntu computer. The libdvdcss2 package
helps you play dvds. The w32codecs package is used to play some media
file formats in mplayer, xine etc.
Update: The following instructions have been updated & work perfectly
fine! Some of the old repositories that do not work anymore have been
moved to the very end of this post for archival purposes. Last Updated:
April 08, 2007
Installation instructions for libdvdcss2 and w32codecs in Ubuntu
To add libdvdcss2 and win32codecs to your Ubuntu installation, you have
to add the Medibuntu package repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list file.
To do this, you have to:
1. Edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list using either of the following
commands in a terminal:
$gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list to open it in the GUI text editor
or
$sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list to open it in the Vim command line text
editor
2. Add the following lines to add the Medibuntu repository to the file:
## Medibuntu - Ubuntu 6.10 “edgy eft”
## Please report any bug on https://launchpad.net/products/medibuntu/+bugs
deb http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/ edgy free non-free
deb-src http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/ edgy free non-free
If you are running Feisty or some other release, other than edgy,
replace the word “edgy” in both lines above with the name of the release
you are using.
3. Import the gpg key for the Medibuntu repository to ensure that the
packages are installed without warnings/errors regarding trust:
To do this, run the following command from the terminal:
wget -q http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo
apt-key add -
4. Now update the local list of packages to get the list of packages
from the newly added Medibuntu repository:
In a terminal execute the following command:
sudo apt-get update
5. Now you can install libdvdcss2 and w32codecs using the following command:
sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2 w32codecs
Note: There are installation instructions on the Medibuntu page for
Dapper and newer that are different - only because the instructions help
you create a new sources.list file without mucking around in the old
sources.list file. Feel free to follow them instead. I posted the
old-style instructions that modifies the existing sources.list file to
ensure that the instructions work for everyone - those using Warty(the
first release ever) through those using the latest release of Ubuntu.
There are a lot of wonderful packages provided by Medibuntu. Feel free
to install any other you like, or might want.
Just in case…
In case the medibuntu repositories go down, you can add and use Seveas’
repositories. You will then have to add similar line to the
/etc/apt/sources.list file, with the Seveas repository url etc. Seveas’
repository has a few mirrors as listed below:
* http://free.linux.hp.com/~brett/seveas/freenx (Sponsored by Brett
Johnson)
* http://seveas.imbrandon.com (Sponsored by Brandon Holtsclaw)
* http://mirror.ubuntulinux.nl/ (Sponsored by Niels Roosen)
* http://seveas.theplayboymansion.net/seveas (Sponsored by Henri
Cook (orion-hosting.co.uk)
* http://mirror2.ubuntulinux.nl/ (Sponsored by Peter Lieverdink)
As a quick guide to using Seveas’ repository instead of the Medibuntu
repository, you should change the lines added to the sources.list file
to read like:
deb http://mirror.ubuntulinux.nl edgy-seveas all
deb-src http://mirror.ubuntulinux.nl edgy-seveas all
and the gpg-key add command will now be:
wget http://mirror.ubuntulinux.nl/1135D466.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
The other commands/steps can be modified as neccessary - it is not too
difficult to figure it out, and the exercise is left to the reader for now
Ken
Rufi_Dukes wrote:
i got a new machine a few days ago with ubuntu feisty pre-installed
and i can't watch a video;
I'm not ready for the all the hard work just yet, I want a bit of
straightforward pleasure first...
so...
I was thinking of installing dapper (a copy of which i have);
but would this mean that, after an install, i could immediately use my
dvd drives to burn iso, watch dvds and stuff?
bc frankly, i just haven't got the energy to stuff around trying to
tweak the drives; i just want them to be mounted during the install...
coz otherwise, if i was still stuck with drives i couldn't use, then
i'm no better off
thx,
rufus
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