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How to Use the Arguably Superior Deb-Multimedia Repository

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timbgo
Posts: 265
Joined: 2013-04-14 12:17

How to Use the Arguably Superior Deb-Multimedia Repository

#1 Post by timbgo »

Prerequisites to fully use this tip: desire to install packages
offline, for better security, along with desire for better multimedia
repo packages in general.

How to get the better multimedia than the ones available from the
official repository?

Most notably, for me as heavy user of video editing programs, how to
get the the best video editor in the world, as I discovered it to be,
the FFmpeg convertor/much-more program?

Back in 2013 when I first installed Debian GNU/Linux, I tried and
installed ffmpeg, and soon discovered that it was "obsolete".

Than I figured out that it was actually just not *the* FFmpeg but its
offshoot, the Avconv...

Pls. find the whole story by searching for those words.

I'll try and relate some aspects of it, the necessary ones for
beginners to understand why use (or not use) Christian Marillat's
Debian Multimedia unofficial repository, the deb-multimedia.org.

I did a few sessions back then with avconv symlinked as ffmpeg (and
declaring the name obsolete, which was a lie, and it's not Debianish
to lie), and it's not a bad program, but it isn't anywhere near the
real ffmpeg.

You are free to try and decide for yourself.

I did try and I decided and I regularly rsync Christian Marillat's
deb-multimedia.org repo so I can use not just FFmpeg, but also Vlc,
MPlayer and other stuff.

I can only offer my strong persuasion, and if you search
duckduckgo.com (hurl some putrid eggs on Google, wherever you see
them, pls., and above all, get the word out that we the honestly GNU
people don't want the Surveillance Engine as first page on our
Iceweasel nor any other browsers, as it is out of the box in the
neither Deborah's nor Ian's Debian of today, as it looks to me!)

I can only offer my strong persuasion, and some of my systems is more
likely to be running FFmpeg than not at any time you were to ask
about, and I have run FFmpeg a myriad of times by now in my life and
on different video materials and doing different converting and
editing ...and if you search duckduckgo.com you certainly will find
that it's not just my opinion, that FFmpeg is far superior than
Avconv.

I can't really speak for the other programs on deb-multimedia.org, how
the comparison goes, but I believe that I can safely assume that those
by Christian Marillat and his few coworkers and helpers are superior
than the official ones that are shipped and installed anywhere where a
new user is attracted to what Deborah and Ian started, and I call all
the readers to help revert Debian to their original spirit!

Because, if we do safely assume (surely I fail if the dispute here
develops, I have no more time than only so much, but I only fail
because I am not such heavy user of other of the programs... oh wait,
I can say that MPlayer from deb-multimedia.org is great as well, but
not really much else do I use so often... )

So, if we do safely assume that Christian's unofficial repo's stuff is
superior than what the official imposes onto all users... Yes, it's an
imposition, because the great majority of users are just intermediate
or less, beginner users, and they are not given the information, they
are not told all the story, even those parts of the story they would
be able to understand, but instead Avconv and associates are imposed
on them...

Why then do the Debian Team Leaders refuse to allow Christian
Marillat's superior packages instead of the official Multimedia
packages?

How come the real FFmpeg is sort of banned like this from Debian
GNU/Linux official repository, a move in effect for long months or
some years by now, and which is most and absolutely certainly against
the Debian GNU/Linux spirit, right after Deborah and Ian started it,
and which is arguably against the Debian Social Contract and maybe
Statute or other Debian written fundaments.

Anyway, I have neither desire not time to delve deeper here.

I wish it changes, the sooner, the better. Help, gentle reader, to
change this! Down with the monopoly and imposition in question! Open
up, give the user the information. Don't be tacit supporter of these
misdeeds, good developers in amongst the many Debian developers, I
can't believe you could be too few and unable to change these matters,
are you?

Anyway, this is for the newbies, and intermediates, who were able to
figure things out and decide for deb-multimedia.org Christian
Marillat's, the Debian developer who I admire, repository.

Go to:

http://deb-multimedia.org/

Familiarize a little with what it is, who runs it and what it
offers. If you are rich, donate. I am poor, I can't, even, in
distance, possibly forclosure looming on me.

This page I design actually as part of my suit of Tips for a more
secure and capable Debian on top of what the official offers. Not much
of my wisdom there, just selecting and applying the best, and not
obvious, because of deliberate disinformation, yes, just selecting and
applying and recommanding and explaining the best, which is not at all
apparent nor obvious to see, but rather hidden by deliberate
desinformation (for instance, what else other than disinformation it
was calling the real FFmpeg "obsolete"?), options that will higly
improve the good stuff that the Debian is anyway still made of.

Find and peruse "Grsecurity/Pax installation for Debian newbies" and
other of my tips, such as on automating jigdo downloads:
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=110503

Once you decide you want to try it out, and you must have already also
figure out that it is the safest way for you installing disconnected
from the internet (a Tip that I have almost ready for publishing, and
which is a prerequisite to this one), go to:

http://deb-multimedia.org/debian-m-rsync

and look up which mirror might suit you best.

Surely, if you are not familiar with rsync, your friend is: $ man
rsync

For people in various parts of the world, they can try, these are
random examples of the command lines to issue, only one of these, the
closest one they should choose:

rsync --delete -aXAHv rsync://debian.ipacct.com/deb-multimedia/ deb-multimedia/

rsync --delete -aXAHv rsync://mirror.hro.nl/debian-multimedia/ debian-multimedia/

rsync --delete -aXAHv rsync://mirror.home-dn.net/debian-multimedia/ debian-multimedia/

rsync --delete -aXAHv rsync://mirrors.ircam.fr/pub/deb-multimedia/ deb-multimedia/

Only the first time around will you be downloading the 8GB, that's the
weight the repo will take you.

Afterwards, it's just the difference, just the newly built
packages. Usually I rsync in some half hour (pls. notice that I'm a
dissident in my country who the ruling "elite" don't like, so while I
pay like anybody else, and should have 5MB/s which is what I pay for,
I get the maximum rate usually of 600KB/s to 640kB/s top, depends
probably on the mood of my censors.

Most of you will be done rsyncing every next time after the first one
(provided that you keep the archive in good condition) in, say, around
five minutes.

The first package to install is deb-multimedia-keyring.

apt-get install deb-multimedia-keyring

I don't remember now, but way time ago, in mid 2013, I think I
downloaded Christian Marillat's PGP key, named it (or maybe that
already was it's name) 'Marillat.asc' and run command: apt-key add
Marillat.asc

Next, you really need to access the repo from, and this is where this
Tips page is part of my suit of Tips pages, you need to access the
repo from:

http://localhost/Debian/

So move it or copy it (clever people always need backups, don't they)
like so:

cp -avi deb-multimedia/ /var/www/Debian/deb-mm/

and insert this line into /etc/apt/sources.list :

deb http://localhost/Debian/deb-mm jessie main

To see if I have the right packages available, I fire up aptitude, and
search for ffmpeg. If I see there that the ffmpeg is from
htto://ffmpeg.org I know all is setup correctly, and then I close
aptitude and run:

apt-get install ffmpeg

and I have the newest ffmpeg installed.

So much from me on this issue.

Miroslav Rovis
Zagreb, Croatia,
http://www.CroatiaFidelis.hr
Miroslav Rovis
Zagreb, Croatia
http://www.CroatiaFidelis.hr
Anyone can dismiss these: kernel hooks for rootkits
linux capabilities for intrusion?

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