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.

2. Install some Programs

• 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

3. 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.

4. 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.