My doubts and quirks after installing LMDE XFCE

[rikhard.fsoss]

hello all,

i used to use #!CB xfce but now i decided to try LMDE the more stable version since i want to keep it that way during my studies for RHCSA, i want to have some VMs running CentOS.

i really like what you guys have done with my precious Debian but i have some quirks....

1. no matter what i do i can't make windows to open on the center of the screen....
is it somewhere locked?

i change it here but i see no effect and on #!CB it used t work
window manager tweaks -> placement

2. i have a .bash_aliases file but it doesn't work when i start LMDE i have to do . .bash_aliases (or source .bash_aliases) do i have to enable something on .bashrc?

3. i have several videos on my HD, using multiple codecs, since i prefer to use umplayer and vlc instead of totem, i tried from thunar (properties of the file) change the app that opens the videos, somehow i can't.....confused?

when i try to change from totem to vlc for example on a mp4 file i simply can't, it always keeps totem

4. regarding an app, handbrake.

#aptitude show handbrake-gtk
Package: handbrake-gtk
New: yes
State: installed
Automatically installed: no
Version: 0.9.6-0.0

#apt-cache policy handbrake-gtk
handbrake-gtk:
Installed: 0.9.6-0.0
Candidate: 0.9.6-0.0

but after install i get this from the about: HandBrake rev4474 (x86_64), is it the same version?
i ask this because i can't find the option for the final size of the file only for CONSTANT QUALITY AND BITRATE, on the version i had installed on #!CB i had the size of the file (700Mb etc), i used to have the SID repos active on mey #!CB

and for now it is just these things

P.S. is there a reason for not use Icedove and Iceweael and instead have firefox and thunderbird?

thanks in advance

[rikhard.fsoss]

regarding point 4. i found what is the problem....

on #!CB i had version 0.9.5.1 and on the new version "Target Size is no longer supported. " https://trac.handbrake.fr/milestone/HandBrake%200.9.6

[rikhard.fsoss]

anther two things that are very annoying!

5. sometimes thunar forgets that i have selected by default to see files and folders by "date modified" and instead show me the files by "name"
weird!!

6. when i try to transcode something using arista it keeps complaining that i don't have installed the right codecs....

it's weird since i have installed several gstreamer plugins

for instance one of the errors i get is the request for: "GStreamer element mpeg2enc"

7. can't get video from Minitube, just sound...

another codec problem?

[GregE]

Just a few thoughts ...
It might be heresy but in any Xfce install I also install Nautilus and make it the default browser. Then things like setting "open with" are simple. It also makes setting up Samba shares an easy task. You do not need to make it the default and just use Thunar for day to day stuff and keep Nautilus for set up stuff.

The other issue is Xfce versions. You are now on 4.8. I have 4.10 installed in Xubuntu on a notebook via 12.04 and a PPA. In 4.10 it took me a few minutes to set up my toolbar as it is a little different again.

You can swap Linuxmint multimedia repo for the Debian one. It has changed it's name to http://www.deb-multimedia.org/ and add in the codecs from there.

[zerozero]

You can swap Linuxmint multimedia repo for the Debian one. It has changed it's name to http://www.deb-multimedia.org/ and add in the codecs from there.

Greg,
lmde already uses debian-multimedia/deb-multimedia to supply all the needed codecs.

rikhard.fsoss,
#2- lmde doesn't have a .bashrc, has a /etc/bash.bashrc
#6- mpeg2enc is included in really-bad and i believe that in the newest isos is not installed by default

[GregE]

lmde already uses debian-multimedia/deb-multimedia to supply all the needed codecs.

ZZ,

My understanding is that new installs of LMDE install this repo deb http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest/multimedia testing main non-free

I have always presumed that it is some sort of mirror to deb http://www.deb-multimedia.org testing main non-free , so my suggestion was if Rikard is having issues then maybe he could try the source.

Either way, all the codecs should be available.

[zerozero]

Greg, i see (now) your point
but latest/multimedia is indeed a mirrored debian-multimedia to preserve the compatibility with the other repos (special the main debian repo), so if rikhard here would pull libs/pkgs from there soon all the sound/multimedia stack would break (it happened by the end of UP2, newer updates from multimedia were breaking apps, that's why with UP3 multimedia and security were included into the mirrored debian.linuxmint)

[wayne128]

7. can't get video from Minitube, just sound...

another codec problem?

You can try apply this workaround from minitube forum.
note 32-bit and 64-bit have different command.

http://flavio.tordini.org/forums/topic/ ... tributions

[MerelyJim]

P.S. is there a reason for not use Icedove and Iceweael and instead have firefox and thunderbird?

Icedove and Iceweasel are both Debian's answer code that Mozilla uses in Firefox and Thunderbird. Both work the same, though, except Firefox gets updated more often. The same situation exists between chromium-browser and Google Chrome...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Co ... an_project