I thought it would be great to be able to play DVD’s so I installed an update that would enable this. The multimedia update was 1.3 Mb but the dependencies was about 650 Mb! Among others I had to update the whole Office pack. Is this a “feature” I have to go through on every installation or is multimedia special?
Is this the first update after a fresh install of 11.2 ?
If not, what is the output of:
zypper lr -d
No, I have done a couple of (successful) updates since.
The output of zypper lr -d is:
| Alias | Name | Enabled | Refresh | Priority | Type | URI | Service
–±-------------±----------------------±--------±--------±---------±-------±----------------------------------------------------------------±-------
1 | repo-debug | openSUSE-11.2-Debug | No | Yes | 99 | NONE | Index of /debug/distribution/11.2/repo/oss |
2 | repo-non-oss | openSUSE-11.2-Non-Oss | Yes | Yes | 99 | yast2 | Index of /distribution/11.2/repo/non-oss |
3 | repo-oss | openSUSE-11.2-Oss | Yes | Yes | 99 | yast2 | Index of /distribution/11.2/repo/oss |
4 | repo-source | openSUSE-11.2-Source | No | Yes | 99 | NONE | Index of /source/distribution/11.2/repo/oss |
5 | repo-update | openSUSE-11.2-Update | Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | Index of /update/11.2
Does it tell you anything?
Those repos look nice and conservative.
Frankly, I do not think you are seeing dependencies. Assuming that you did not change your repositories between NOW and the previous update, then if the office pack updated it was likely because there was a security reason. Also note for 11.2 that there was a massive update for KDE, taking it from KDE-4.3.1 to KDE-4.3.5.
Reference your dvd player playing multimedia, you likely need libdvdcss. You can get that from the videolan repository. My recommendation is to VERY BRIEFLY enable the videolan repository, install libdvdcss and then IMMEDIATELY remove videolan. Also, for superior multimedia capabilities, I recommend you KEEP videolan disabled, and enable the Packman repository. The quality of Packman packaged apps is pretty good, and recommend you keep it enabled. You can tell packman packaged applications by the “pm” in the version number. I recommend you replace any Novell/SuSE-GmbH packaged apps with Packman packaged versions where Packman packaged versions exist.
You can always check which applications have been installed by typing in a terminal/konsole:
rpm -qa --last > myrpms.txt
and open myrpms.txt with a text editor.
Would be very useful to know what “update” you tried to install. As libdvdcss is only 19Kb, I doubt it was the file you were talking about 
No other way, than the KDE4 updates and the kernel. I’ve had a lot of phone calls about this, it’s the same everywhere: KDE4 -> 4.3.5 updates from the Update repo.
Since kaffeine was nagging me about missing Mp3-plugin when I tried to run a DVD I installed mjpegtools (and got mjpegtools-devel as well). I also added the dirac video Codec. It was this “update” that brought about the massive update of OpenOffice despite this had been done 2 days ago or so. The KDE update has also taken place in good order as far as I can see.
The result is complaints about missing input plugin for MRL [dvd:/]
Well, I have now installed libdvdcss from videolan and then disabled that repository. (Still same error) After enabeling Packman I got lots of new choices. What player do you recommend for the KDE? I have good experiance from Totem on Ubuntu but it seems only to work with Gnome.
I use smplayer, vlc and xine-ui (for xine). On occasion kaffeine.
Still not able to play DVD’s after installing xine due to “legal reasons”. Well lads, I think I have to put down this SuSe project and head for some more mature desktop system. I’d love to fiddle around with settings but my mother, sob 
expects a working multimedia system on Monday. I feel I’m not really up to it with this distribution. Bye and thanks for trying … Peter
Hey Peter, best wishes where you end up.
OpenSUSE is mature, but its different, and if you do not have the time with the patience needed to learn, then really you are better off with an OS that you are familiar with.
I have good friends who use MacIntosh and even more who use MS Windows, and they are happy with their OS choice, and they are smart people.
Go with what works for you.
I can do all you are trying to do and much much much more within a handful of minutes after a fresh openSUSE install, but I’ve been doing this for years and know how to do it. I suspect you can do this within minutes of your OS of choice and you have also been doing this for some time with that OS.
Best wishes to you.
frusarge wrote:
> my mother, sob expects a working multimedia system on
> Monday. I feel I’m not really up to it with this distribution. Bye and
> thanks for trying … Peter
you hit the nail on the head Peter, openSUSE is not for everyone…
use what works for you and your mom…
stop in again when you grow into some patience…
–
palladium
Peter…it doesn’t take 5 minutes to do this…all he has to do is replace system packages with those from Packman, right?
Follow this carefully
Multi-media and Restricted Format Installation Guide - openSUSE Forums
Yes, I regret I hadn’t more time to spend on SuSE :(, I really liked the distribution.
But since I was looking for a system that even my old mother could handle without using to much harsh language I could not present her with SuSE.
I’v installed Ubuntu 9.04, updated with the restricted packedges and *Bang, all systems go! That is what I would like to call a mature desktop system. Not that Ubuntu is flawless, version 9.10 was not a pleasent experiance.
But thank you for all your advice, I maybe check in later 
when I installing a system for my own, Peter
When you have more time to look at this, you could try again.
I have my 84-year old mother on openSUSE-11.1. She lives in Canada and I live in Europe.
I maintain her PC remotely from here in Europe using ssh, vnc, and nx:
- ssh - I use ssh when I only need a command prompt to do things on her PC;
- vnc - I use vnc when I want her to watch what I am doing, or when I am training her on something on her desktop. She can see me move the mouse, and open stuff on her windows … and we chat on the phone while I am doing this
- nx - I use nx when I want a GUI to help me do some maintenance and there is no need for her to watch
Some tricks - I always use the opensource drivers which will survive a kernel update.
When there is a kernel update I backup her /boot/grub/menu.lst before installing the update. After the update is in place, BEFORE rebooting, I check the modified /boot/grub/menu.lst to ensure it is ok.
Her router is setup to route ssh, vnc, nx access straight to her PC.
I am VERY conservative in any update I do to her PC, so that I do not cripple her PC, as it is basically financially IMPOSSIBLE for me to visit her more than once a year.
I’ve helped her many times with her printer setup/configuration and her digital camera loading of pix to her computer - all remotely from here in Europe. I’ve helped her play videos her friends have sent, … etc … all remotely here from Europe.
The time zone difference (9 hours between Oliver, British Columbia, Canada and Darmstadt Germany) is the biggest difficulty.
But I do this on openSUSE and it works well. My having 12 years Linux experience and 9 years SuSE/openSUSE experience also helps a bit.
Best wishes to you and I hope you succeed in helping your mother. These things are important!
I fixed a typo in the above, where vlc should read vnc.
Hadn’t seen the typo, but it is very, very funny, come to think of it.rotfl!