New To Slackware

[grim340]

Ok i'm up and running on Slackware 12.
(complete noob to Slackware)

My question is what and how do i install the packages i need to play DVD/watch videos on the web and soforth

[reed9]

My question is what and how do i install the packages i need to play DVD/watch videos on the web and soforth

Install Linux Mint? Just kidding.

Slackware doesn't include all the necessary software in their official repositories. There are Slackbuilds available for what you need.

You're using Slackware 12.0? (Why so old?)

For DVDs you need at least libdvdread and libdvdcss.
SlackBuilds.org

Depending on whether your media player uses gstreamer, xine, or if you're using mplayer or vlc, will depend on how to go about getting the various codecs you need.

For xine based stuff you need xine-lib, I believe.
Slackware packages

The gstreamer stuff should be available through the Gnome Slackbuilds Project.
Software Included with GSB : GNOME SlackBuild - a GNOME distribution for Slackware Linux

Mplayer
SlackBuilds.org

VLC
VLC media player for Linux Slackware

[grim340]

sorry typo
i'm using Slackware 13

[reed9]

All the same applies, you'll just need to search for the Slackware 13 slackbuilds and packages.

[grim340]

and to install these packages do i just use pkgtool as root ??

[grim340]

by the way i'm going to use mplayer

[grim340]

what do you mean slackbuilds and (packages, soo both tared packages)??

[Freston]

There used to be a very good howto for this, that I pointed people towards. But alas, nothing lasts forever. Maybe this is something you can use:
Slackware 12.2 MultiMedia Installation HOWTO

[reed9]

what do you mean slackbuilds and (packages, soo both tared packages)??

No offense, but if you're going to use Slackware, you'll need to get used to doing a whole lot of reading and learning. It is not geared towards inexperienced users and has a higher learning curve than something like Ubuntu.

If you want something you can install and have things just work, with multimedia support out of the box, consider Linux Mint. (Hence my joking above. )

Slackbuilds are scripts to help you build packages that are not included in the distro. You download the source, run the script, package builds, and then you install.

Slackware's binary (ie, source code that has been compiled to run on your machine) packages are in a simple tar ball format. Source code in usually also distributed in a tar ball, but they are not the same. The tar.gz indicated a compressed archive, similar to a zip file.

How to on Slackbuilds
SlackBuilds.org

Slackware Package Management
Linux package formats - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I believe if you install libdvdread, libdvdnav, libdvdcss, plus the mplayer-codecs package from the slackbuilds site, you should be able to use the mplayer slackware package to play pretty much everything.
SlackBuilds.org

[grim340]

ok i use a proxy for my internet connection(Firefox works great)
the site
gnomeslackbuild.org/download/Download & Install : GNOME SlackBuild - a GNOME distribution for Slackware Linux
wants me to use Slap-get to install the gstreamer packages
how would i configure Slap-get to use my proxy(localhost:8080) ??