I am a newbie here. I’ve read a few posts about problems with codecs in the forum, regarding Leap 15.6. I have a completely new, fresh, install. Everything works fine, except for installing codecs and libdvdcss necessary to watch commercial DVD’s protected with encryption.
Previously (15.5 etc.) I’ve installed the necessary packages by so-called one-click installers from opensuse-community.org, but this time it seems not to be possible.
So, if someone could be kind enough to help me, now when I’m going to reinstall 15.6 from scratch again: what actions should I perform - from beginning to end - to make it work to be able to watch commercial DVD’s in 15.6? Remember that I’m not very good at this, and that’s why one-click installers have been so helpful in the past.
If I’m able to understand you, I should install the necessary codecs and libdvdcss from VideoLAN by adding one repository:
https://download.videolan.org/SuSE/15.6/
Is that so? When I install the whole system from scratch I get a whole bunch with (free) codecs from the multimedia repository that is included in the .iso file. Should I avoid to get them installed at all?
I checked other threads in the forum before I posted my first (this will be my second), but I’m still not quite sure exactly what to do.
It seems that it has not been updated to the current version yet. But I think that this guide is usable https://opensuse-guide.org/.
Only change 15.5 with 15.6.
Please be careful with such advice to a newcomer, the suggested repo doesn’t work for 15.6 at the moment.
LT-B:~ # zypper ref dvd
Retrieving repository 'dvd' metadata ........................................................................................................................................................................[error]
Repository 'dvd' is invalid.
[dvd|http://opensuse-guide.org/repo/openSUSE_Leap_15.6/] Valid metadata not found at specified URL
History:
- [dvd|http://opensuse-guide.org/repo/openSUSE_Leap_15.6/] Repository type can't be determined.
Please check if the URIs defined for this repository are pointing to a valid repository.
Skipping repository 'dvd' because of the above error.
Could not refresh the repositories because of errors.
LT-B:~ #
First of all don’t be afraid of asking here, we are here to help. Multimedia is one topic that confuses most newcomers (and not only them )
When you install from scratch you will get most codecs etc. but not those that are affected by licensing issues. If you need one of those you should add one (or more) additional repositories to find what you need. To have a taste of that see the “Multimedia Codecs” and “Third Party Drivers” sections at https://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Tumbleweed
Many users just need the Packman repo, see SDB:Installing codecs from Packman repositories - openSUSE Wiki
One exception is the libdvdcss that for legal reasons apparently can be hosted only in France, and that is the reason for the Videolan repo.
Since adding both the Videolan repo and the Packman repo breaks most systems and it is likely that you need Packman more than you need Videolan, my advice is to just install libdvdcss via the command in my previous post and not add the repository, since libdvdcss has not been updated for years and you are unlikely to need other stuff from that repo.
That said, the system is yours and the choice is yours as well.
Welcome to openSUSE and ask here before breaking your system (it is harder to help recovering a broken system than it is to give advice beforehand )
Actually, I’ve tried it. And it didn’t worked as expected. So the question still remains, I think. Is there only one repository, the one from VideoLAN, that I need to add?
There is one thread is this forum with the title “Codecs can’t be installed” where Skylendar did use a one-click installer and after that were given the advice to clean up among the many repositories that were added, and after that managed to get everything in order. But to do so is the wrong way, right?
OK, thank you for the explaination! If I refrain from adding the VideoLAN’s repository, and only grab libdvdcss from there (rpm files are availible) I’m keen to get to know if I need libdvdcss or libdvdcss2 or both. And by the way, since I use 15.6, not Tumbleweed, is there something more I need to think about?
libdvdcss2-1.4.3%2B3-lp156.10.2.x86_64.rpm is the only one you need as a user (the others are for developers).
I linked the page for Tumbleweed because it is more detailed, of course repositories are different etc. so use that only as a general reference, not to copy/paste commands as is.
Great! Yeah, I think I understand to differentiate between 15.6 and Tumbleweed, but I had to ask to be on the safe side. I was and still is in a kind of unchartered territory here, speaking for myself at least.
I would like to join this conversation as I have a very similar problem. The answers here have been helpful for me to understand better what all of this is about. But they have not helped me solve my problem.
I’m on Tumbleweed - though still relatively new to it. With my previous installation (3 months ago), I used the mentioned one-click installer from www.opensuse-community-org as well and everything was fine. With my fresh install, this installer does not work anymore. I understand by now that one-click installers are discouraged so I have followed the various command line recommendations several times now.
I created a snapshot before all these tries and reverted back to it when things did not work.
My first attempt was to use the packman essentials repo as recommended here. Plus I added additional libav packages I found, as recommended. Most videos played fine on YouTube - however this one had no sound. So I reverted to my snapshot.
My second attempt was to use opi, as recommended here. I don’t remember what the issue was, but there was one. So sudo snapper rollback it was.
My third attempt was to use the VLC repo as explained here. No videos at all worked on YouTube. So back to my snapshot.
My so far final attempt was to add the full packman repo as described here. Now videos stuttered massively. So I added some packages as described here: sudo zypper install --from packman ffmpeg gstreamer-plugins-{good,bad,ugly,libav} libavcodec vlc-codecs. Things still stutter just the same.
Basically, rolling back without trying to understand what doesn’t work.
To play videos you just need the “Packman Essentials” repo (everything OK here with just that. Then if something doesn’t play as expected maybe you just missed a needed package.
What you have now sounds like incompatible packages installed from different and incompatible repos.
I would recommend disabling all repos but the “official” openSUSE ones, doing a “zypper dup --allow-vendor-change”, then enabling packman essentials and switching installed packages to that repo.
Then if something doesn’t work, open a new thread and ask for help there.
Thank you for the quick response. I appreciate it.
The best thing is that your suggestion worked! I’m not sure why, since this is basically a fresh install and there shouldn’t be any conflicting packages. Also, I reverted to the same snapshot I reverted to each time, and only then followed your suggestion. So I don’t know what could have caused this.
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