Application Support in Linux

   -o)/ /  (_)__  __ ____  __      Derek Winterstien
   /\\ /__/ / _ \/ // /\ \/ /      r.o.a.c.h.@.r.o.b.o.t.z...c.o.m
  _\_v __/_/_//_/\_,_/ /_/\_\

This text document addresses various application support questions received on the linux resource web site. If you asked the question, the answer may be provided here!

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Submission: My spell checker is not working in Ximian Evolution 1.2.2

Date: Tue Nov 9 19:24:53 CST 2004

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"The Evolution mail composer uses the gnome-spell tool to highlight misspelled words on the fly as you type them, and give you suggestions for possible corrections. To turn on spell checking you need to verify that the required software is installed then configure Evolution. "

Required software:

1. aspell
2. pspell
3. gnome-spell
4. aspell dictionary

Procedure:

Click on Tools- >Settings->Composer

Preferences->Spell Checking. Select the language that you would like the use and click on Enable.

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Submission: Unable to play the .dat files from a VCD using MPlayer 0.9rc5

Date: Sun Dec 12 21:12:15 CST 2004

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"has anyone tried to play vcd .dat files in MPlayer?" was answered on a forum incorrectly, "Yep, it's known it doesn't work. The problem is in the kernel, not MPlayer." It _is_ possible to play VCD's using MPlayer 0.9. This was accomplished using MPlayer on a Redhat 9.0 system. Ok, it's true that there's a logical kernel limitation preventing the read of a vcd .dat file (see below)

For this example a VCD 1 cd is in an IDE cdrom drive on /dev/hdc. This video cd has only one track with the movie as avseq01.dat.

Open xterm/konsole and at the shell prompt type the following:

mplayer vcd://1 -cdrom-device /dev/hdc

(vcd://1 <- play track one of the "-cdrom-device" vcd in your cdrom drive.)

It is not necessary to mount the cdrom device because in this example MPlayer is not accessing a 'file' but rather using raw device access. The default VCD device is /dev/cdrom. If your setup differs, make a symlink or specify the correct device on the command line with the -cdrom-device option.

The .dat file that is visible is actually an "iso gateway" which exists to allow MS Windows access. Direct raw device access is forbidden in Microsoft Windows operating systems. Linux cannot copy or play iso gateway files with the standard iso9660 driver of the Linux kernel. There are alternatives, research the Linux version of PowerDVD or cdfs for more information.

Here are some more useful MPlayer command line operations:

 mplayer filename                                 (open a video or audio file)
 mplayer filename -subfile filename.sub            (video file with subtitles)
 mplayer -vcd <trackno>                                     (open a vcd track)
 mplayer -o vesa -cache 8192 -fs -dvd <trackno>     (play dvd using vesa mode)
 mplayer -framedrop                    (fix slow hardware related video skips)

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Submission: How to play a DVD using MPlayer.

Date: Sun Dec 12 22:02:47 CST 2004

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Using MPlayer to play a DVD:

 mplayer -dvd <track> [-dvd-device <device>]
 mplayer -dvd 1 -dvd-device /dev/hdc

MPlayer uses libdvdread and libdvdcss for DVD decryption, which takes place each time the DVD is played. To improve performance add cracked CSS keys caching support to libdvdcss so the keys do not have to be cracked every time before playing.

Note that DVD usually have an UDF filesystem on a single track, containing files (.IFO .BUK .VOB files). They are real files and can be copied/played from the mounted filesystem of an unencrypted DVD. The .IFO file is needed to interpret the .VOB video content.