SuSE Tips & Tricks!

[rizzix]

Tip #1: Installing a non-limiting version of Xine.
The SuSE's version of it is limiting for legal reasons. First uninstall everthing that is xine using YaST2 from your system. But make sure you don't uninstall "xinetd" (if it is installed) because that has nothing to do with Xine.

Next, download the xine-lib and xine-ui source tarballs from http://xine.sf.net
Extract these tarballs and cd into the xine-lib directory first. The configure script does a complete autodetect for all options so its not necessary to specify one. So continue and type this in the terminal:

code:

./configure make sudo make install

(keep in mind each line is a seperate command and should be typed in only after the previous one completes)

Now cd into the xine-ui directory. Do the same as above!
Xine is now installed!

Edit: the .desktop copying was not needed at all. so yea.. i deleted that part

Tip #2: Installing MPlayer from source
Installing MPlayer is similar to that of Xine. First download the source tarballs from http://www.mplayerhq.hu Extract them and cd into the corresponding directory. Then type this as follows:

code:

./configure --enable-largefiles --enable-gui --enable-menu make sudo make install

(the --enable-gui option requires glib2 and gtk installed, basically just install the whole of gnome using YaST2 if you have the little space to spare)

MPlayer is installed but to use the cool gmplayer (if you enabled --enable-gui option) you need to do a few extra steps..
Download a a font from the mplayerhq site (above), preferably anything ISO.
Then download a skin from the site to use as your default skin.
Extract the two tarballs and then cp (or mv) all the contents of the front directory to /usr/local/share/mplayer/font/ and mv the entire skin directory to /usr/local/share/mplayer/Skin/default

MPlayer is now installed!


Tip #3: Installing additional missing (proprietary) codecs
These codecs include quictime, windows media, etc.. It will enable both Xine and MPlayer to play media files that require such codecs. To install them download the essential plugins tarball from: http://www1.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design7/codecs.html Make sure it is the "..for Linux x86" one. (no PPC plugins available). Extract the tarball and cd into the corresponding directory. Now cp (or mv) all the contents of this directory to /usr/lib/win32/

It is now possible to play .mov or .wmv file using MPlayer or Xine!


Tip #4: Installing MPlayer's Mozilla plugin
To view media content from the browser itself, it's is a good idea to install the MPlayer Mozilla plugin. Download the mplayerplug-in binary rpm package from: http://mplayerplug-in.sourceforge.net/ SuSE users will download the "..-suse.i586.rpm" package. (it is not a good idea to install from source, since it requires the mozilla source code and this compilation would take a long time). To install type the following:

code:

sudo rpm -i package_name-suse.i586.rpm

where package_name-suse.i586.rpm is the name of the rpm package you downloaded. This will install the plugin by default (asuming you did a complete insall of SuSE) in /opt/mozilla/lib/plugins. If you installed another version of mozilla or FireFox for that matter else where, simply copy the mplayerplug-in.so from the /opt/mozilla/lib/plugins into the respective plugins directory.

To get the MPlayer Pluign to display correctly in the browser, create a file called mplayerplug-in.conf in the .mplayer/ directory and with the following options as follows:

code:

pico .mplayer/mplayerplug-in.conf enable-real=0 enable-wm=1 enable-qt=1 emable-mpeg=1 qt-speed=medium vo=xv use-gui=no [ctrl + x] [y] [enter]

The MPlayer Mozilla Plugin is now installed!


Tip #5: Installing the latest RealPlayer (RealPlayer > ver 8)
SuSE comes with an outdated version of RealPlayer, I think it's version 8 or something. In anycase to install the latest version, first uninstall the one that comes with SuSE using YaST2 and then simply go to http://www.real.com website and download the latest installer. Then in the terminal type:

code:

sudo chmod u+x ./RealPlayer10GOLD.bin sudo ./RealPlayer10GOLD.bin

(the name of the file could differ)

If you installed another version of Mozilla of FireFox, you can enable the realplayer plugin support for those browsers by simply copying the nphelix.so and nphelix.xpt to the respective plugins directory from /opt/mozilla/lib/plugins

RealPlayer is now installed!


PS: Some of the tips assume you start off in your home directory!

[rizzix]

Tip #6: Enabling Hardware Acceleration for nVidia cards
Do this only if you have a nVidia graphics card. First download the Linux IA32 graphics driver from nVidia's website. Extract the contents if its a conpressed archive (i.e .tgz, .bz etc.) Next restart your computer.

At the boot screen type in:

code:

3

and then boot up your OS. This will boot SuSE without X. When prompted login to your account. Now mv the nVidia driver installer to /usr/src/linux. Then in terminal type:

code:

cd /usr/src/linux sudo rmmod nvidia sudo make cloneconfig sudo make prepare-all sudo sh NVIDIA-driver-installler.run --kernel-source-path=/usr/src/linux sudo sax2 -m 0=nvidia

(where 0 is ZERO and NVIDIA-driver-installer.run is the nVidia driver file you moved to the /usr/src/linux directory. Also if rmmod gives an error just ignore it)

nVidia hardware acceleration is now enabled! Things may seem to be a little faster now. But keep this in mind: when ever the kernel is updated, you need to do this setup all over again!

[Dan]

got any tips for enabling hardware acceleration for the ATI 9600 moble? I can not even find any drivers that work right for the moble adtion. There where some on the ATI website but they ether did let u enable hardware aceration easly or whould not even display X right.

Any how thanks for thess tips, it is nice that some one carse about SuSE as well :p

[templest]

Hacker Dan wrote:

got any tips for enabling hardware acceleration for the ATI 9600 moble? I can not even find any drivers that work right for the moble adtion. There where some on the ATI website but they ether did let u enable hardware aceration easly or whould not even display X right.

Any how thanks for thess tips, it is nice that some one carse about SuSE as well :p

AHAH! And here you where trying to tell me that linux was easier to use then Windows!?!@>#!#@P"jk HHAOHAJH:OA!(I&# TE@O *T#WLFY#*)RHF:W)HT)* hP":JH$G"W_(GH E_GUR"EJ"P(JW()GJ"GP(EUERP(J"GEGU (E("UU"GQW$(U"WRQJ#"RFJ "WF J$W)(FHG"

OMGH4X911BBQ!!

awsome.

EDIT: Here's a tip for SuSE (to keep this post from being concidered spam), don't use the "Personal" version of the CD you can download. You'd might as well sit through the FTP install. The Pers' version comes without kernel sources / gcc and thus far I haven't been able to get YaST to aknowledge the availability of these files on the servers. (I'm trying out this distro in VMWare before anything else, to see if it's really worth installing [currently using gentoo]).

[rizzix]

hmm dan did u check out: ATI 9600 series Linux Driver

i dont really have any linux running with ati cards. so i can't really say how it should be done. but did u check out the how-to... u might not have configured it correctly.


another thing.. Sax2 rewrites the XF86Config file u might have to look at the diff between the one u currently have and the one generated by fglrxconfig
add only the necessary changes to the current one (for this u'll need to boot in runlevel 3. look at nVidia tip). but it would be wise to run sax2 to configure it instead.

[Genesis]

Yes, templest is very, very right. DO NOT download the personal version of SUSE. I made this mistake.

BUT, I managed to fix it. (Getting it to work with my absolutley terrible D-Link wireless PCI card so that I could actually access the internet is a whole different story.)

If you happen to have a downloaded copy of SUSE 9.1 Personal, here's the link to their FTP where you can download all the files you're missing.

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.1/suse/i586/

If I can remember correctly I believe I needed:

gcc-3.3.3-41.i586.rpm
make-3.80-184.i586.rpm
glibc-devel-2.3.3-98.i586.rpm

You'll need to install glib-c devel first, so, in the folder that you have the rpm, open the command line and type: "rpm -ivh glibc-devel-2.3.3-98.i586.rpm"
After that, you can install the rpm using YaST. (Be sure you're logged in as root to do this.)

If any of this is unclear let me know, I'm sure I can help clarify it. (Although I am by no means a linux expert, there are others on this site who can provide far more help than me.)

[rizzix]

heh i dont really like using anything that is of some "personal" version. cuz its just plain annoying most of the time.. i did a clean SuSE ftp install from the start

oh guys post some tips will ya?

[Dan]

templest - the graficks card wroks fine right form the install with the dirvers they put in but i whonted to see if there was any way to bosting the profrmecne like how u can overclock it on windows. I did not whont to try that with the wrong drivers.

rixxix - i am not shure if this is a mistake or not in your tip #1 but u tell poleop to copy a file to the same place with it will not even let u do. I think u ment copy that file to your desk top?

Also poleop should know they need libpng and libpng-dev to install mplyaer and xine that way.

Idk if any one eltes has this problem but with xine and mplayer i can not get sound from them and some times they give errors when using a mp3 media player at the same time. i think this has to do with my sound card tho, it is a very odd type and alot of windows apps can not even use it right.

Also if u install suse using the personal verson it is not that hard to fix, u just need to chage the sorce for yast to a full verson mirrio and then dl and install all the crap you are missing using yast. I will try to post some tips and stuff on SuSe soon

[rizzix]

argh i didn't realise i'm blindly copying to the same location. allrite then i fixed Tip #1. thx for pointing that out!