I want to install the necessary codecs so I can listen to mp3 files in Firefox (via the html5 audio element). But I cannot add the Packman repo (or any additional repositories), since I don’t have root. I might be able to convince my admin to install additional packages (from the standard SUSE repos), though.
My question is which packages I would need for that - I am willing to self build/compile them. Is this feasible, or how would I go about this task?
Welcome to the openSUSE Forums! If you only need to play mp3 files (no video formats, just to be clear) you only need gstreamer-fluendo-mp3 which is available from the NON-OSS update repository, so no packman repos to add.
If you want to add the most popular audio-video codecs, gstreamer-plugins-libav is a good place to start.
No need to add the packman repo, just download the .rpm file and install locally (assuming you can install files: so you should have “some” superuser power, maybe via sudo).
Have fun.
Thanks for your reply. Yes, I only need mp3 (for now :-)). Although I installed gstreamer-fluendo-mp3 through Zypper (it says it is coming from “Update Repository (Non-Oss)” repo) .mp3 still refuses to play in Firefox. I am running a fresh openSUSE in a virtual machine to test this, do I need additional packages for this to work?
So you don’t have root on the system but you installed a package with zypper?
Interesting.
AK
At the machine where I want to use the mp3 codecs I don’t, but I can ask my admin to install additional packages. Like I said, I am testing in a VM at home (where I obviously have root).
Installation should always require root since many things are installed in root owned directories, unless you can install to you home. But things like codecs need to be in certain directories.
I can install to my home directory and I can change my PATH, I guess that’s what I would do if I build from source. But I don’t know which packages I would need to build or if their source is even available.
Why should you compile anything?
Just ask the admin to enable codec support and let him/her handle it, he/she should know what to do.
However, if the reason for not having root and not having mp3/multimedia support is a company policy or the like, then your question sounds a bit like “how do I get in trouble quickly?”
AK
According to this page https://support.mozilla.org/t5/Customize-controls-options-and/HTML5-audio-and-video-in-Firefox/ta-p/3650 Firefox plays natively some open formats but requires “platform support” to decode and play restricted formats.
In a default Leap install, gstreamer-fluendo-mp3 is enough to play .mp3 files with the default players (Totem-Videos or Amarok depending on the Desktop you chose), but apparently Firefox needs something more.
While I confirm that a full switch to packman enables mp3 and other formats for Firefox, I don’t currently know what is the “minimum” configuration from packman that enables mp3 in Firefox.
you can get mp3 support for apps that use the gstreamer framework (amarok, totem, phonon with phonon-backend-gstreamer etc) by installing fluendo’s package from the non-oss repo
https://software.opensuse.org/package/gstreamer-fluendo-mp3
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/Leap:/42.2:/NonFree/standard/x86_64/gstreamer-fluendo-mp3-21-1.3.x86_64.rpm
you can check to see if it’s installed by running
zypper se -si gstreamer-fluendo-mp3
zypper info gstreamer-fluendo-mp3
your admin should be able to install it without adding any 3rd party repo’s if it’s not installed just do
zypper in gstreamer-fluendo-mp3
building multimedia packages is way too complex with all the cross dependencies and you’d still need root to install them
you could download a static build of ffmpeg (ffplay) from here
https://www.johnvansickle.com/ffmpeg/
that’s not the best of solutions