Multimedia 8 8 Installing Multimedia Codecs & Video Drivers Cody DeHaan

his article will show you how to install The repository that contains the ATI and video drivers that will take full advan- NVIDIA drivers is called “Livna”. To setup Ttage of your hardware, set up multime- your system to use packages available from dia codecs for common audio and video Livna, the easiest way is to simply use the formats, and enable desktop effects. provided RPM package which will do all of the work for you. We have provided both a graphical and a terminal method for instal- Getting Ready ling the package, so use whichever feels The first thing that you must do is to enable most comfortable to you. It is also worth not- some new repositories. A software ing that both of these methods rely on you repository is a set of software that the pack- having an active internet connection, so en- age manager in Fedora 8 can access to in- sure that your internet connection is work- stall software on your system. By default, ing before you try these steps. Fedora 8 does not include the drivers for non-open source software, and the drivers Terminal Method provided by ATI and NVIDIA are not open source. As a result, Fedora uses open Open a terminal window by clicking Ap- source replacements, which are good for plications –> System Tools –> Terminal. every day usage, but if you plan on using In the terminal, type: su - more demanding graphical applications, in- This command will temporarily grant stalling the 3D-enabled drivers for your sys- you super-user or root permissions. tem will produce better results. You will be prompted for the root pass- word you created during install, so en- ter it when prompted. Please note the '-' after su, this is im- portant. Now you’re going to install the “GPG Key” for Livna. A GPG Key is a sort of digital signature that lets the package manager on your system ensure that all the packages are from where you expect – after all, you don’t want un- verified packages being installed on your system. Type this command in your terminal window:

rpm --import http://rpm.livna.org/↵ RPM-LIVNA-GPG-KEY

Figure 1. The “Installing Packages” window you will see when you Finally you are going to install the ac- are installing the Livna repository tual Livna package. Type this com-

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NVIDIA If your graphics card is an NVIDIA, you have one further piece of infor- mation to determine before you can finish. Older NVIDIA cards re- quire a different driver. To deter- mine which package you need, check the Hardware Compatibility List form NVIDIA at http://www. nvidia.com/object/IO_18897. html. If your card is listed here, use the kmod-nvidia steps. Otherwise, use kmod-nvidia-96xx.

NVIDIA – kmod-nvidia

Open a terminal by clicking Ap- plications –> System Tools –> Terminal. Type the following command in the terminal window:

Figure 2. The “Hardware” tab in the “Display Settings” window will help su - 'yum install kmod-↵ you determine your graphics card nvidia' mand in your terminal win- You will be prompted to enter dow: your root password to enable yum will fetch package infor- the package to be installed. mation from the internet, and rpm -Uvh http://rpm.livna.↵ Enter it and click OK. prompt you to confirm the de- org/livna-release-8.rpm You can now hit Apply in the pendencies (packages that Installing Packages window as kmod-nvidia relies on). If you didn’t see any errors, shown in Figure 1. When in- Hit 'y' to continue, and the you’re done! stallation is complete, you package will be installed. should see a message telling Now you just have to log out Graphical Method you that the software was suc- and log back in again. To log cessfully installed. out, click System –> Log Open a web browser (probably Out. Firefox) window by clicking the Great! You’ve now got all the soft- icon on your top menu bar, or ware repositories setup that you will NVIDIA – kmod-nvidia-96xx clicking Applications –> Inter- need for the next steps. The directions for an earlier card are net –> Firefox Web Browser. the same as above, but the package In the address bar, type: Installing Graphics Card name is different. Drivers http://rpm.livna.org/rlowiki/ If you know what kind of graphics Open a terminal by clicking Ap- and hit [Enter]. card you have in your system, you plications –> System Tools –> can skip right to the appropriate Terminal. On the website, there will be a section. Otherwise, if you are un- Type the following command section titled “Repository RPMs” sure, go to the Determining your in the terminal window: that will have a link “Fedora 8 Graphics Card section. repository RPM.” Click on it. su -c 'yum install kmod-↵ Firefox will ask if you would Determining your Graphics Card nvidia-96xx' like to open the file with Soft- ware Installer or Save to Disk. Click on System –> Adminis- Hit 'y' to continue and the Choose Open with Software tration –> Display. package will be installed. Installer, which should be the You will be prompted for your root Log out and back in again. default choice, and click OK. password. Enter it to continue. A download window will ap- Click on the Hardware tab. ATI pear. When the download Next to Video Card, the brand If you have an ATI graphics card, the completes, click Open next to of your card should be listed, instructions are a little different. livna-release-8.rpm as shown in Figure 2.

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Open a terminal by clicking Ap- Hit 'y' to continue and the plications –> System Tools –> packages will be installed. Terminal. Type the following command DVDs and Other Video – Totem in the terminal window: The default movie player in Fe- dora 8 is called Totem. To enable su -c 'yum install ↵ playback of DVDs, you can replace kmod-fglrx' the default version of Totem to one that uses a backend, and en- Hit 'y' to continue and the able DVD support in xine. Figure 3. The “Desktop Effects” package will be installed. tool helps enable various visual Log out and back in again. Open a terminal by clicking Ap- effects in Fedora 8 plications –> System Tools –> Installing Multimedia Terminal. YouTube, another plugin must be Codecs Type the following commands installed. Because of various legal, philo- in the terminal window, with sophical and licensing issues, Fe- an enter after each line here: Open a terminal by clicking Ap- dora 8 does not include some mul- plications –> System Tools –> timedia codecs by default. The fol- su -c 'yum remove totem' Terminal. lowing sections will show you how su -c 'yum install ↵ Type the following command to install these various codecs, totem-xine totem-xine- ↵ in the terminal window: which are now accessible through plparser libdvdcss ↵ the Livna repository. You should, libdvdnav su -c 'yum install ↵ however, be aware of the legality of xine-lib-extras-nonfree' flash-plugin' using these packages in your loca- tion. You will probably be prompted Hit 'y' to continue and the to confirm the desired packa- packages will be installed. MP3s – Rhythmbox ges. Close and reopen Firefox if it is Following these steps will enable Hit 'y' to continue. open. MP3 playback in Rhythmbox, the default music player in Fedora 8. To play DVDs in Totem, click on Ap- If you are still having issues with plications –> Sound and Video –> Flash, check out this FAQ: http:// Open a terminal by clicking Ap- Movie Player. If you already have macromedia.mplug.org/faq.html plications –> System Tools –> a DVD inserted, you can click Terminal. Movie –> Play Disc to play the cur- Enabling Desktop Type the following command rently inserted disc. Effects (Compiz Fusion) in the terminal window: Fedora 8 includes support for Com- Videos in Firefox piz Fusion through a simple tool. su -c 'yum install ↵ This will enable you to view videos When enabled, menus will fade in gstreamer-plugins-ugly' that are placed on websites, by in- and out, windows show fluid move- stalling an plug-in for Firefox. ment, and moving from one desktop Hit 'y' to continue and the to another is shown with a cube ani- packages will be installed. Open a terminal by clicking Ap- mation. To enable desktop effects, plications –> System Tools –> click System –> Preferences –> You can now use MP3s in Rhythmbox. Terminal. Look and Feel –> Desktop Effects. Type the following command The window shown in Figure 3 will MP3s – KDE Multimedia Players in the terminal window: appear. Clicking Enable Desktop Ef- Following these steps will enable fects will enable these desktop ef- MP3 playback in KDE multimedia su -c 'yum install ↵ fects. players, such as Noatun, if you use mplayerplug-in' the KDE desktop. Note: You will need to have Hit 'y' to continue and the 3D-enabled drivers for your Open a terminal. packages will be installed. video card installed, and Type the following command Close and reopen Firefox if it is this feature may still cause problems in the terminal window: open. on some systems.

su -c 'yum install ↵ Flash in Firefox kdemultimedia- ↵ To view Flash documents in Firefox, extras-nonfree' including videos from sites such as

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