K3b incomplete ??

[toastrack]

After a long time away, I've returned to trying to copy a dvd using K3b. As before, it refuses even to read the originating dvd.

On examining K3b it confirms that the dvd read/write hardware is AOK, but under the list of programs it lists several as "not found", including tcdecode, transcode, tcextract, etc. I wonder if this is the root of my problems, and if so how I may access and install the missing programs.

[Zelmo]

Yeah, K3B is just a nice front-end for a bunch of command-line programs. If those command-line programs aren't installed, their functionality is ignored in K3B. What you can do is get into your package manager and look up each of the programs that are missing, and install those. Then you should be all set.

[toastrack]

Thanks for that reply - I suspected something of the sort was the problem. But as a relatively new Linux user I'l need a bit of leading by the hand re how to do all that. I have Suse 10.2, fully updated as updates come.

[Zelmo]

It's been a while since I've used SUSE, but you should be able to open YaST and do a search for packages. Just search for whatever K3B claims is missing and have YaST install it.

[oldcpu]

On examining K3b it confirms that the dvd read/write hardware is AOK, but under the list of programs it lists several as "not found", including tcdecode, transcode, tcextract, etc. I wonder if this is the root of my problems, and if so how I may access and install the missing programs.

I doubt those are the root of your problem.

But, as Zelmo noted, k3b uses a lot of those applications (for various purposes). All of them can be found either on your SuSE installation CD/DVD, or on Packman.
PackMan :: home

You can also add Packman to your YaST or your Smart Package Manager repository list, and install these applications in a semi-automatic manner:
Additional YaST Package Repositories - openSUSE

In fact, I prefer to use the Packman packaged version of k3b.

[toastrack]

Thanks to both of you. I followed Zelmo's advice, iand the missing packages are now all there and recognised, but with the exception of eMovix. Although this is present alongside the other packages, yast steadfastly refuses to find it on the search. All its contents are there to see, so that is a mystery at present.

The bad news is, that K3b still will not copy a dvd - I get the message "error while reading sector 0" with every dvd I try (some home-recorded, some proprietary).

So I still have the K3b original problem, and I suspect oldcpu's comment is correct - I'm not addressing whatever is the root of my problem.

Questions are - (a) where can I go from here, and (b) if I wish to try the packman K3b package will it just install over the existing one or do I need to do a lengthy manual uninstall here (I hope i don't ned to go down that road!).

[toastrack]

Some further info:

Two home-burnt dvds produce the error described before, which I think now is due to them never having been "finalized", as I get the message that there is no MRL (Master Reference List ??).

One proprietary dvd, (made from my own source material), reads 4MB off the dvd and that's all. What it reads is the list of titles with theri icons - I'm guessing it's the MRL ??

So it begins to look like two problems may be. Perhaps there has to be an MRL on any disc I wish to copy? I guess there's be an obvious reason for thsi once it's explained. The other is that even with an MRL present K3b can't seem to read the rest of the disc for some reason.

I don't think it's the drive hardware, as I can play a dvd on the PC OK.