Multimedia and DVDs in Ubuntu

Since downloading some of the following libraries violates some Digital Millenium Copyright laws, this wiki page is for educational purposes only. Anyone who follows these directions for their computer does so at their own risk.

So, you've bought a DVD-ROM from the Thrift Store, and you want to play DVDs on your FreekBox. You'll need to install a few programs and mess around with some files. This page will lead you through it.

Physically Install your DVD-ROM

All media players seem to look for the first optical drive by default so you can avoid the step of configuring the software if you set the DVD drive to master. Some media players don't seem to even have any option of using any drive but the first.

Setup symlinks

Once the drive is installed it is time to setup symlinks, and permissions.

From a root shell cd to the /dev directory.

freekbox3:~#cd /dev

The DVD drive will probably be /dev/hdc verify this by running the eject command.

freekbox3:~#eject /dev/hdc

If you got the right drive the tray will open, and if it isn't the tray of the drive that device node corresponds to should open.

Create a simlink to this drive.

freekbox3:/dev# ln -s /dev/hdc dvd

If the dvd drive is /dev/hdd, or you have another optical drive useing that device node you will probably have to change the permissions for it.

freekbox3:/dev# ls -l hdc hdd
brw-rw----  1 root cdrom 22,  0 2005-02-25 22:38 hdc
brw-rw----  1 root disk  22, 64 2005-02-25 22:38 hdd

Notice how the dvd drive is in the cdrom group, and the cdrom is in the disk group. This means that normal users don't have permission to access this drive. Change the group for this drive to the cdrom group.

freekbox3:/dev# chown root:cdrom /dev/hdd
freekbox3:/dev# ls -l hdc hdd
brw-rw----  1 root cdrom 22,  0 2005-02-25 22:38 hdc
brw-rw----  1 root cdrom 22, 64 2005-02-25 22:38 hdd

If you have a cdrom as well as a dvd drive then the simlink for the cdrom probably points to the dvd drive.

freekbox3:/dev# ls -l cdrom
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root 8 2000-12-31 16:06 cdrom -> /dev/hdc

Check to make sure that the cdrom is /dev/hdd by running eject again

freekbox3:/dev# eject /dev/hdd

The tray on the cdrom will eject if this is the device node for the cdrom. To replace the simlink for the cdrom you have to delete the existing one first.

freekbox3:/dev# rm /dev/cdrom
freekbox3:/dev# ln -s /dev/hdd cdrom

I usually also add simlinks for them by their order in the system too though this is optional.

freekbox3:/dev# ln -s /dev/hdc cdrom0
freekbox3:/dev# ln -s /dev/hdd cdrom1

Create a mountpoint

Some applications need a mountpoint in order to read information off of a dvd drive. This requires both a place to mount the drive in the filesystem, and an entry in /etc/fstab.

freekbox3:/dev# cd /
freekbox3:/# mkdir dvd

Now there is a place in the filesystem to mount disks in the dvd drive. Next setup /etc/fstab. Currently the test system looks like this.

freekbox3:/# cat /etc/fstab
/dev/hda1 /boot ext3 defaults 0 2 #size=100
/dev/hda2 none swap sw 0 0 #size=250
/dev/hda3 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1 #size=remaining
/dev/fd0 /floppy auto defaults,user,noauto 0 0
/dev/cdrom /cdrom iso9660 defaults,ro,user,noauto 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0

Use your favorite editor to make it look more like this.

freekbox3:/# cat /etc/fstab
/dev/hda1 /boot ext3 defaults 0 2 #size=100
/dev/hda2 none swap sw 0 0 #size=250
/dev/hda3 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1 #size=remaining
/dev/fd0 /floppy auto defaults,user,noauto 0 0
/dev/cdrom /cdrom auto defaults,ro,user,noauto 0 0
/dev/dvd /dvd auto defaults,ro,user,noauto 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0

run "man fstab" for more details

Add apt source for essential media playback software

The best place to find non standard debian packages is http://apt-get.org

I always forget the apt source for what I need so I click on "search for a package", and then search for "mplayer". I know from previous experience that the first result has everything I need.

Add these lines to the end of /etc/apt/sources.list

# DVD, and media related packages
deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ sarge main

Install some Programs

--edit in progres--

• Install kaffeine and some DVD navigation tools. Open a terminal and become root, then run a couple of commands:

apt-get update
apt-get install kaffeine libdvdplay0 libdvdnav4 libdvdread3

• Install Mplayer

• Install the libdvdcss2 library.

This one's about as complex as installing mPlayer.

Open a terminal and become root.

Add the following line to /etc/apt/sources.list where <dist> is the version of debian you are running (stable, testing, unstable):

deb http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/debian <dist> main
deb-src http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/debian <dist> main

Then type the following command:

apt-get install libdvdcss2

Make the DVD-ROM Accessible

If you don't have a terminal open already, open one up and become root. Then type:

chmod a+r /dev/hdd

This is assuming that your DVD-ROM is plugged in to the IDE ribbon cable end that would make it hdd.

Configure Kaffeine

Once you've opened Kaffeine, go to the 'Settings' menu and select 'xine Engine Parameters'.

Select 'media' along the left-side menu, and scroll down to the field marked "dvd device: device used for DVD playback".

Type /dev/hdd into that field.

See also

• DVD-ROM testing
• Linux DVD HOWTO
• DVD Playback HOWTO