Playing DVD's in
Linux with Xine
Originally submitted by: NetLlama! on 27-June-02.
YES,
you can watch DVDs under Linux, however you will have to build several software
packages to get it working properly. There really is not any special
hardware needed other than a DVD drive for your computer, and a PIII-500
(or faster) CPU.
1) First, you will need to download the following packages:
- libdvdcss: note, this is what allows your computer to decode encrypted DVDs (commerical DVDs). This might
be illegal in some countries. I am not responsible if you break any
laws where you live (get the newest version available).
- xine-lib:
this is the core library that allows you to play the DVDs. Grab the latest released version.
- libdvdread-0.9.4 SRPM OR libdvdread-0.9.4
tgz: this library allows for generic DVD reading (without encryption)
- You need either of these, but not both. These are the GUI's for
Xine. You can certainly build & use both, so feel free to grab
both.
Matt Carpenter has provided RPMs of these packages for Caldera-3.11 here. Please contact him with any questions or problems using
his RPMs.
2) Next, you need to start configuring, compiling & installing each of the parts, in this order (also run '/sbin/ldconfig' after installing each package) :
- libdvdcss
- libdvdread
- xine-lib
- xine-ui and/or gxine
It shouldn't make a difference whether you try to build from the tarball
(tgz) or SRPM. If you're building from the tarball, then its as simple
as doing:
- ./configure
- make
- make install
If you're going to rebuild the SRPM, then all you need to do as root is "rpm --rebuild <file.src.rpm>".
3) Finally, create a symlink from /dev/dvd to the block device of your DVD drive. You can determine which device your DVD uses by looking at the output from 'dmesg'. In my case it is /dev/hdc, so I used this command:
ln -s /dev/hdc /dev/dvd
How to play a DVD:
1) Insert the DVD disk into your DVD player
2) from an X-term: xine
3) click the "DVD" button followed by the "play" button on
xine
4) enjoy your movie!
