The thing is - What's the fun if you can't hear any music or watch videos...ey? Multimedia in Debian GNU/Linux is a snap. As mentioned earlier, Debian supports more hardware out-of-the-box than does your Windows. In about all situations you merely have to install a few packages (easy), run a command or 2 and you're in business...if that. Keep reading...

These tutorials based on the hardware that I have in my home-made box. Let me describe it for you - it's pretty common stuff:

• Abit NF7-M motherboard - Nforce2-MCP
• AMD AthlonXP 2700+ CPU
• 1 GB of Corsair 3200 DDRAM Memory
• big-ass WD IDE Hard drives

My motherboard comes with peripherals installed on the board. Example, my video, sound, LAN are components built right on the board so there is no need for me to install PCI cards. Sure, you can, and sure, they're probably supported. As well, the chipset for my board is nFORCE, and that same chipset is on many other motherboards. There is terrific support for it in the Linux world.

Now that you know what sort of hardware I base these articles on, read on about how easy it is for my Debian box to enjoy multimedia.

It is my intention to help people migrate from Windows to Linux (Debian) so these tutorials are written with a GUI reference and functionality in mind. The command line stuff is faster and just as easy, and I'll include a little of that but let's take it one step at a time.

You already have a movie/music player installed called Totem (Movie Player). It works really well, can read streams, DVD's (with a menu), play your .oggs and .mp3's and a whole lot more. We just want to add some functionality to it. Let's first add another software repository to our

/etc/apt/sources.list

# nano /etc/apt/sources.list

in the file add the following text:

 #multimedia codecs
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org/ etch main  
 #deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org/ sid main 
 #deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org/ etch main 

Remember how to save and close...CTRL + X, Y, enter.

In your terminal, update Apt:

# apt-get update

Now it's as simple as either apt-get install ... from the command line or using Synaptic for a pretty front end. We'll go with Synaptic this time.

Applications-->System Tools-->Synaptic Package Manager

The first thing to do when Synaptic opens is to click the Reload icon in the Menu Bar. Go ahead, I'll wait...OK, finished. Let's search for a few packages. Go ahead and click the Search icon from the menu, or interact with your keyboard and type CTRL + F to get the same search box opened.

The first item we'll need is w32codecs. When that's found right-click on it to mark it for installation.

Let's search for some others, here's the list:

• libdvdcss2
• gstreamer0.8-plugins
• ffmpeg
• libmikmod2
• mozplugger
• alsa-base
• alsa-utils
• easytag
• msttcorefonts
• xmms

There will be dependancies, please choose to install them. Feel free to throw caution to the wind with your first Debian install, you've seen how easy it is to install. Some folks like to say leave well enough alone; Ahh well - if it ain't broke, smash it to pieces, brew the coffee and have at it.

Go ahead and install those packages in Synaptic. If you have a fast internet connection, you're probably finished already. It only takes a minute to download and then install. I love this whole software installation setup. As of right now (following this install) you can: play dvd's, listen to music, stream online music. Speaking of streaming - go ahead and install Streamtuner...or not.

You probably want to rip cd's, ey? Let's install that app, too. In Synaptic find and install Sound-Juicer...or Grip, or RipperX. I like Sound-Juicer.

We're almost finished. If you're like a zillion others you want multimedia functionality in your web browser as well. Since we're using Firefox we installed mozplugger and now we'll set it up. Since we want this RIGHT NOW we'll use the command line. Deep breath, exhale...

We'll be modifying one file and deleting another that will automagically be remade. Open your terminal. Become root. Type, or just copy and paste the following:

# cp /etc/mozpluggerrc mozpluggerrc.old

The GUI part:

#gedit /etc/mozpluggerrc

Look for the following paragraph:

application/x-mplayer2: wmv,asf,mov: Windows Media
video/x-ms-asf: asf,asx,wma,wax,wmv,wvx: Windows Media
video/x-ms-wmv: wmv: Windows Media

Replace the paragraph with the following: code.

Save the file and close gedit. Now type the following command:

# rm ~/.mozilla/pluginreg.dat

# rm ~/.mozilla/firefox/pluginreg.dat

Don't worry if the file isn't in the /.mozilla directory. It'll be in the Firefox directory, though.

# exit, then exit again

Now you can open Firefox and goto Apple Trailers and waste all the time you want looking at movie previews.

If you want to see Flash stuff in your browser it's even easier. Navigate to a site that has flash; games or whatever. The first time you try to view Flash Firefox will prompt you to install the plugin. Go ahead, it only takes a second.

Now you can spend time setting up your new multimedia packages. Open each one and fiddle around in the preferences of each. If there's a problem, send me an email, we'll get you straight.

If you're finding that after installing all this stuff that you have no sound, or video, or your shoelaces came untied, try this 2 part ditty, works a charm:

Open your terminal and become root. Now type the following command:

#alsaconf

Go through the dialog and the program will close itself. I usually just click enter a few times and I'm finished.

Here is info straight from Alsa on the Sound Blaster Live setup.

Now lets open our multimedia properties:

Applications --> Desktop Preferences --> Advanced --> Multimedia Systems Selector

Choose from the drop-down menu which sound driver works for your machine. You can see that I use ALSA. It might be that you need to choose OSS, or ESD. Choose the one that gives you a tone. For the Video part, choose the same options that I have from the drop-down selections.

A PS for those of you adding additional users to your machine: When adding your little sister (d00d!) as a user, click that third tab in the Settings and don't forget to add her to the audio group. In fact, here's the list of groups to add all new users to:

• audio
• cdrom
• dialout
• floppy
• plugdev
• video

If you don't do this your little sister will NAG YOU NO END!!

rock on  machiner 23 may 05

Just an aside; I never understood why people favor Mplayer over Xine. On my Debian system (common hardware) Mplayer is less than adequate. With Xine I never see so much as a glitch. I think it's a case of "popularity contest" just like in high school...one cool kid liked Mplayer better for whatever reason and now it's all anybody talks (or writes) about when referring to multimedia in Linux. That's all - just my $0.02

[UPDATE - FEB 2006]: Please see this quick tutorial on how I can see the Apple Trailers again with Mplayer. Watch me pull the crow feathers from my mouth...

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