help with installing software...lost and angry

[JohntheScot]

i'm trying to install any kind of video player, like smpeg-xmms or xine, gmerlin, etc and i have done the ./configure && make && make install, checking for dependencies and all, but still it acts as if i am missing some libs, which i have... It can't find GTK+ or Glib, I've worked into the wee hours of the morning and i am quite vexxed as to why i'm still having so many problems. Any help would be worthy of a round of beers.

[jasonlambert]

Hiya JohntheScot,

Welcome to this_site_does_not_exist!

Ok...

Lets start from the beginning, need some more info please:

1) Which Distro are you using?
2) Lets work on one program at a time, which one?
3) Can you copy the exact error message here, and what you have tried so far.

Cheers,

Jason

[e_dreamer]

It sounds like your using redhat to me. Ive since moved onto a different disto because it go so annoying.

If you are running redhat, and you didn't doa full install, then try upgrading the packages from your installation cds (so you, in effect, have a full installation)

If this doesn't help, try using MPlayer ( http://www.mplayerhq.hu )
I managed to get it to run fine (it didn't have very many dependancies)

[JohntheScot]

thank you for the welcome


1.)Yes i am using Red Hat linux 8.0

2.)taking dreamers advice i tried to install the mplayer rpm. Below was my attempt to install.


[jhagen@localhost jhagen]$ rpm -Uvh mplayer-common-0.90rc5-1.i386.rpm mplayer-gui-0.90rc5-1.i386.rpm mplayer-skin-default-1.6-3.noarch.rpm
warning: only V3 signatures can be verified, skipping V4 signature
warning: only V3 signatures can be verified, skipping V4 signature
warning: only V3 signatures can be verified, skipping V4 signature
error: cannot get exclusive lock on /var/lib/rpm/Packages
error: cannot open Packages index using db3 - Operation not permitted (1)
error: cannot open Packages database in /var/lib/rpm

i love linux but sometimes i just want to set myself on fire...

[ventricle]

Have you tried this install running as root?

[e_dreamer]

[jhagen@localhost jhagen]$

Yeh, try again as root. (just use su) standard users don't have permissons to /var me thinks.

[flw]

After you issue the "su" command if you have a problem with file or command not found errors try "su -" instead. You then have root access and the root profile like path statement to dirs etc...

[JohntheScot]

Well i believe that mplayer is installed, but i'm afraid i can't find it... Also is it possible that some of my installation attempts failed because regular users cannot acces libraries? I wondered about that and tried some other installations as root before, but they still failed, and i would not believe that some basic libraries like C and GTK were not present on my system... I continually run into problems with depenencies. When i was trying to install the smpeg plugin for xmms (smpeg-xmms) I could not configure because I did not have a current version of Glib. So then I tried to configure Glib but then i recieved an error on how pkgconfig was out of date (or rather i needed version >= xx.xx.xx) I know all this can't be right, but my lack of linux knowledge prevents me from solving it. Once again thank you all mighty linux gurus for imparting your knowledge upon so unworthy an acolyte.

[e_dreamer]

just try ruynning mplayer <filename>

Your probably used to programs making an entry into the program menu (like windows put things in the start menu)

If you want things to open with mplayer automaticly, then find a file (an mpg one for instance) right click it and goto edit file types. set the program for that kind of file to run with as 'mplayer'

[JohntheScot]

you are my new best friend, lol. Though... did you have to install any extra libs? Or did your file just play great right off the bat? once a file is loaded, the mplayer interface becomes inoperable. And also dreamer what version of mplayer are you using if you don't mind my asking. And yes my background is in windows, being young and all. Though when I was around 8 my uncle taught me dir and tree commands for dos... lol