Watching DVD's in Fedora 7 now Ubuntu 7.10

[bitvector]

Just change: Driver "vesa" to Driver "fglrx"

[just brew it!]

Just the driver.

Edit: Bitvector beat me to it by mere seconds!

[lex-ington]

I did the adjustment last night and what a difference. Xine runs very smoothly now.

Will there be a difference when I finally hook this up to my T.V .? I have it connected to a monitor right now using the d0sub connection. The T.V. connection will be DVI-to-HDMI.

Also, does anyone have experience using NDISwrapper? I have a Trendnet TEW-423PI NIC that apparently works with this package. If madwifi is easier to use, then I will buy the Netgear card I am looking at.

[mattsteg]

The one time I tried ndiswrapper it did not work very well. It's definitely one of those ymmv things that can work well, poorly, or not at all, depending on hardware.

[lex-ington]

The one time I tried ndiswrapper it did not work very well. It's definitely one of those ymmv things that can work well, poorly, or not at all, depending on hardware.

Do you remember if it was a highly reputable brand of card like Linksys or mediocre like trendnet?

[mattsteg]

The one time I tried ndiswrapper it did not work very well. It's definitely one of those ymmv things that can work well, poorly, or not at all, depending on hardware.

Do you remember if it was a highly reputable brand of card like Linksys or mediocre like trendnet?

Repute really doesn't have much to do with it. Plenty of cards from manufacturers of all sorts often share core components. You really need to know what chipset is involved more than anything else.

That said, I believe it was a dlink. It was a usb 802.11g adapter (the usb part is what gave it fits from what I remember.

[bitvector]

Do you remember if it was a highly reputable brand of card like Linksys or mediocre like trendnet?

I can't speak for NICs, but I've observed the exact opposite trend between those two manufacturers with regard to wired network hardware like switches and routers.

[lex-ington]

I think I accomplished unpacking and installing a tarball last night without bothering anyone here (sound drivers for my mobo) . . . .. .. feels really good.

But . . . my mobo has the realtek AL889A soundchip on it, but the system is showing the sound as ALSA-high definition or AL885 and it is actually disturbing me. Is this something I shouldn't worry about cause I am getting sound.

This is my mobos specs

[notfred]

Unless the files are provided by your motherboard vendor explicitly for the version of linux you are running, you really don't want to start messing with the sound drivers. Even for those with a lot of Linux experience, the ALSA stuff is pretty nasty. If you have some sound stuff, just missing some extra bits like surround or one microphone input when another works fine, I wouldn't mess with installing stuff from a tarball, it's likely to end up worse.

The Realtek AL889A appears to be a hi-def codec, so it may be matching a standard register set. As long as the sound works, don't worry about it.

[lex-ington]

Is Ubuntu easier to use than Fedora? Is the support community better? Would MythTV, NDISwrapper, and VLC work better with Ubuntu?

[notfred]

Ease of use is the big strong point in Ubuntu. MythTV and VLC are accessible through the Applications->Add/Remove entry and you may not need NDISWrapper as Ubuntu seems to do pretty well with most wireless cards. If you do need NDISWrapper then just Google for "ubuntu ndiswrapper".

BTW there is a new version of Ubuntu - 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" coming out on the 18th so you may want to wait until then - or you can go and download the Release Candidate for it.

[bitvector]

Is Ubuntu easier to use than Fedora? Is the support community better? Would MythTV, NDISwrapper, and VLC work better with Ubuntu?

That depends on your perspective. Ubuntu and Fedora both have fairly large, newbie-friendly communities. As to which is easier, it really depends partly on which one you are familiar with. I tend to prefer Ubuntu because I'm a Debian bigot and like to dump on Fedora and Red Hat when I get the chance.

But, in general, I'd say they're pretty close. Ubuntu has the slight advantage in having significantly more packages in their official repositories (the only external repo you'll likely need in Ubuntu is Medibuntu). Also, yum is not as good as apt yet. Don't get me wrong, yum is a huge improvement over just using rpm, but yum is slow (and it has little to do with it being written in Python). Fedora has a fast release cycle, and tends to run bleeding edge stuff. It is convenient if you tend to use RHEL systems too, because the layout and tools are the same.

The hard part of MythTV is generally setting it up, independent of distro. ndiswrapper would probably be easier in Ubuntu since it is included directly in the default kernel packages, and VLC would probably be a wash (you'd need an external Ubuntu repo to get libdvdcss).

If you do need NDISWrapper then just Google for "ubuntu ndiswrapper".

Ubuntu actually bundles ndiswrapper directly in the stock kernel packages, so all you need to do is install "ndiswrapper-utils-1.9" tools package.

[lex-ington]

You think I would run into the same video problem as I was experiencing in Fedora with the AMD 690G chipset? Especially since the drivers are not open to the public?

I am assuming that I will still have to modify the xorg.conf file once I find out how to install the drivers for my video?!?!

[notfred]

With Ubuntu 7.10 you get a GUI to setup the X stuff rather than needing to hack around in the xorg.conf file:
http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/710rc#hea ... ed87395a74

[bitvector]

You think I would run into the same video problem as I was experiencing in Fedora with the AMD 690G chipset? Especially since the drivers are not open to the public?

All Linux distros use Xorg, so the driver problem is the same. Neither Ubuntu nor Fedora ship with the fglrx driver available/enabled by default, so you'd have to add it later and enable it somehow.

Both Fedora and Ubuntu both have tools to do that without editing xorg.conf manually: I told you to edit it by hand because it's usually just quicker that way and is distro independent (and it works when the Xorg is broken and won't start). In Fedora, you can use system-config-display to configure X (graphically or by CLI).

The thing you should understand is that all Linux distros basically use the same software and kernels (some with extra patches). There are minor differences, but driver support is basically the realm of the kernel and not the distro (other than external drivers that get bundled in -- that's typically where the potential difference in "out-of-the-box" hardware support lies). Xorg is Xorg no matter what the distro. The versions may differ slightly from distro to distro, but basically the big differences between distros are in how you manage/configure your system and install software. It's mostly a matter of personal preference and what your expected uses are. I don't want to discourage you from trying Ubuntu, as I prefer it strongly to Fedora, but don't switch because you think you won't encounter similar issues: rough edges are pretty common. You may just end up trading one set of issues for another and additionally having to relearn all of the distro-specific system configuration tools. Or maybe, for your specific set of apps, you'll get lucky and hit the jackpot with distro X.

[lex-ington]

I just downloaded and installed the Ubuntu 7.10 RC distro . . . and . . . and . . . it's downloading and installing the ATI driver automatically . . . updating the xorg file for the fgrlx driver too!!!

[lex-ington]

New problem. . . I followed the suggestion on medibuntu on adding them to the repositories, but when I look for the libdvdcss package - I don't see anything. Is there another package manager Ubuntu users use to install packages besides the "add/remove programs" program? Would apt handle this stuff or is this where synaptic comes into play?

Thanks.

[bitvector]

New problem. . . I followed the suggestion on medibuntu on adding them to the repositories, but when I look for the libdvdcss package - I don't see anything.

The package is called libdvdcss2.

Would apt handle this stuff or is this where synaptic comes into play?

apt and synaptic are both able to do the same things, but apt is a command line tool. You should a able to install same packages in both and they should be equivalent in functionality. apt-get install libdvdcss2 would be the apt way.

[Heiwashin]

download a program called easyubuntu, it should take care of your needs.