prob in ubuntu "hoary"

[geekgod]

Ubuntu provides only totem movie player and i'm not being able to play vcd's or .dat files with that.i've correctly configured apt for downloading from the repository but i dont know which software to use for playing vcd and dvd.
wat do i have to do to be able to watch vcd's nd .dat files in ubuntu?

[ujjwal]

Mplayer and Xine are two very popular media players. Try them out :)

If you install xine, get the GTK+2 gui for it, called gxine, as well.

[niranjan_mcarenyold]

hi

you can get mplayer at www.mplayerhq.hu

[geekgod]

thnx for ur replies guys.
i installed gxine using apt-get,and as rhythmbox was not playing mp3, i also installed xmms
now i am facing the problem that when i play any movie with gxine,it plays, properly, but there is no sound.also when i play mp3 with xmms,it stops responding.device manager says my soundcard has been correctly detected, and i get all the system sounds.
i tried to reconfigure my sndcard with alsa, but when i type alsaconf + enter in terminal,it says command not found, though i have alsa base, utilities, and source installed.
please tell me how i can play mp3 and movies properly.i've correctly configured everything else,including my reliance fwp as modem,and if i get this working, i plan to switch to linux completely.
i had also tried installing mplayer,but iy is not available via apt-get and when i tried to install from the source package with gui enabled, it returned an error that X11 support is needed for GUI compilation :shock:

[GNUrag]

From Ubuntu's Synaptic, select Xine and also install the native Win32 codecs from MPlayer's website. Just installing xine will do little help.
After downloading the Win32 libraries from this site:
http://www4.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/windows-all-20050412.zip
Extract and copy the files to /usr/lib/win32/

[ujjwal]

Well gxine by default mutes the volume I think, there is a volume slider below the video screen, try sliding it to get the volume up.

To run alsaconf, you have to be the superuser. With ubuntu disabling the root account, you should try "sudo alsaconf" and then give the root password.

[GNUrag]

... you should try "sudo alsaconf" and then give the root password.
Root's account has no passwd. He has to give his own passwd on sudo prompt.

[ujjwal]

Ah ok ... thanks for clarifying :) , I am not too familiar with ubuntu, or even sudo for that matter...

[geekgod]

there is no directory called win32 in /usr/lib.do i have to create it?
also,how do i copy all the contents of a folder to another location in one go?i cant use the gui as administrator in ubuntu,and have to do all such jobs thru terminal.
i used thefollowing command but it didnt work
cp /root/MyDownloads/windows-all-20050412 /home/apollo
cp: omitting directory `/root/MyDownloads/windows-all-20050412'

[GNUrag]

$ sudo mkdir /usr/lib/win32
$ sudo cp -r /path/to/windows-all-20050412/* /usr/lib/win32/


keep entering your password when it prompts:

[ujjwal]

Just remember to use the "-r" switch to copy or delete directories.

[geekgod]

it's not working :(
i downloaded gxine,copeid the codecs,but still there is the same problem,no sound while playing vcd or dat file in gxine and xmms crashes when told to play mp3..
what else can i do for soln?