Howto watch YouTube with only free software in Debian

[kedaha]

I set up the latest version of minitube, 1.4 on my 64-bit squeeze system:
(The following assumes:

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aptitude install build-essential qt4-dev-tools libphonon-dev

and the dependencies are satisfied):

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aptitude install libqtgui4 libqt4-xml libqt4-network libqt4-dbus phonon-backend-gstreamer gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad

...

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$ wget http://flavio.tordini.org/files/minitube/minitube-1.4.tar.gz
$ tar xvzf minitube-1.4.tar.gz
$ cd minitube
$ qmake && make

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$ ./build/target/minitube

You'll find the executable, minitube in /minitube/build/target wherever you put it.
[Edit] After finding the executable, for example, on my system:
/home/kedaha/Downloads/sources/minitube/build/target/minitube
you can just edit the Gnome menu (by left-clicking on the Debian swirl icon in the top left-hand corner), then click "Sound & Video" and then, in the right column, select "Add entry". name it and cut and paste your path (like the example just given).
Note for new users: if you're not sure what the path to the executable is on your own system, just right-click on the executable, drag it to a terminal, and you'll find out. You don't need the quotation marks.
OK, it's a bit of an amateurish way to do it but it works!

[morean51]

thank you for the suggestions

[kedaha]

thank you for the suggestions

I appreciate the thank you. I'm glad if other forum members find (at least some of them!) my posts useful.

[stevepusser]

thank you for the suggestions

I appreciate the thank you. I'm glad if other forum members find (at least some of them!) my posts useful.

You can also drop this debian folder into the source folder and build a proper debian package that will appear in the menu automatically & stuff (I stole most of it from the Ubuntu PPA. Just add it, install the build-depends as above, and add build tools:

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 aptitude install debhelper dpkg-dev devscripts fakeroot cdbs

and build the deb with

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debuild binary

Steve (damn package won't build on QT 4.7, though.)

[kedaha]

Edited 28 March 2011:
Edited 6 April
Two methods to set up the latest version of Minitube 1.4.1:
One; Download and install, using gdebi, stevepusser's repackaged deb from:
http://main.mepis-deb.org/mepiscr/testrepo/pool/test/m/minitube/

If Minitube does not show up in the Gnome menu under "Sound & Video" add the entry manually:
1. Right-click on Debian swirl in top-left hand corner.
2. Select "Edit Menus"
3. In the main Menu Column on left, select Sound & Video
4. Now select + New Item over on the right.

In the Launcher Properties Box, enter the name, command and comment:
Type: Application
Name: Minitube
Command: /usr/bin/minitube
Comment: Native YouTube Client
5. If necessary, select the appropriate icon (the tv icon).

However, on 64-bit Squeeze system, I couldn't install Minitube 1.4.1 this way because: gdebi notified:
Error: Dependency is not satisfiable: libqtcore4 (>= 4:4.7.0~beta1) Therefore:

Second Method:
It can also be done manually - the example is on 64-bit Squeeze:
(The following assumes:

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aptitude install build-essential qt4-dev-tools libphonon-dev

and the dependencies are satisfied):

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aptitude install libqtgui4 libqt4-xml libqt4-network libqt4-dbus phonon-backend-gstreamer gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad

...

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$ wget http://flavio.tordini.org/files/minitube/minitube-1.4.1.tar.gz
$ tar xvzf minitube-1.4.1.tar.gz
$ cd minitube
$ qmake && make

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$ ./build/target/minitube

You'll find the executable in '/home/youruser/minitube/build/target/minitube'
To add Minitube to Gnome menu:
1. Right-click on Debian swirl in top-left hand corner.
2. Select "Edit Menus"
3. In the main Menu Column on left, select Sound & Video
4. Now select + New Item over on the right.
In the Launcher Properties Box, enter the name, command and comment:
Type: Application
Name: Minitube
Command: '/home/youruser/minitube/build/target/minitube'
(Note for new users: Please substitute your user name for the italicized youruser!)
Comment: Native YouTube Client
5. Finally, select the appropriate icon (the tv icon).

[secipolla]

Just a heads up to the webm option in youtube.
Go to http://youtube.com/html5 and opt in for the html5 trial (if you clear cookies when quitting the browser you should opt in html5 everytime before watching YT).
Now the videos will use the webm format.
Modern browsers can reproduce them well (Firefox4, Google Chrome/Chromium, Midori etc.).
I don't have Flash installed and watch YT videos in Midori like that. I use Chrome too and although it has Flash built-in I opt for the webm version.
I have a very modest Internet connection and a modest hardware and the webm videos look quite better than the same videos in Flash. Besides that they don't leave those infamous cookies.

I just can't give a testimony about fullscreen or HD videos in webm as my equipment wouldn't allow me to try anyway.

[eric1959]

Go to http://youtube.com/html5 and opt in for the html5 trial

I get higher cpu usage with that option....( compared to flash 64 bit )

[kedaha]

Post removed because edited by mistake but was outdated anyway.

[stevepusser]

The mcr8.5 packages of minitube 1.4.3 here: http://main.mepis-deb.org/mepiscr/testr ... /minitube/
were built against a version of QT 4.5.3 and should work just fine in Squeeze, or you can download and build the sources yourself into debs. I found a trick for the build-depends that only will require libqtwebkit-dev if the QT 4 version is >= 4.7. This aids backporting and saves me time when building multiple versions (less manual editing).

Umplayer seems to offer much of the same Youtube functionality; I wonder if the code was reused...They are both QT 4 applications.

[geazzy]

great job bro

[stevepusser]

The latest Youtube API changes have broken minitube 1.43 and UMPlayer, but versions 1.5 and svn 174 for the respective programs do fix the problem. You can use the /debian folder from the previous version to build the new source into deb packages, remembering to increment the /debian/changelog accordingly. I'm building MEPIS packages that should also work on Squeeze, too.

[secipolla]

Good to know, the Totem YT plugin isn't working either then I installed minitube just to evaluate it and it was plain broken too.
I must have mentioned before but xt7-player (in kde-apps.org) works with YT too (mplayer based). I didn't test the latest version though.

[stevepusser]

Umplayer fixed builds here:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1540715/umplayer-svn174.zip

Minitube 1.5: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid= ... j&hl=en_US

Squeeze users need the mcr85 versions, since the mcr110 packages require QT 4.7.

[kedaha]

Another way to install Minitube 1.5 is to download the 32bit binaries from the site and make a minitube_.deb package using checkinstall:
Requires:

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# aptitude install build-essential checkinstall qt4-dev-tools libphonon-dev && aptitude install libqtgui4 libqt4-xml libqt4-network libqt4-dbus phonon-backend-gstreamer gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad

As normal user:

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$ wget http://flavio.tordini.org/files/minitube/minitube-1.5.tar.gz
$ tar xvzf minitube-1.5.tar.gz
$ cd minitube
$ qmake && make

Now do:

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$ su
Password
# checkinstall

Optional: In reply to checkinstall's "Please write a description for the package" just put: Native YouTube Client and press enter twice.
Continue and Minitube 1.5 will be installed system-wide and visible via Synaptic.

[stevepusser]

Another way to install Minitube 1.5 is to download the 32bit binaries from the site and make a minitube_.deb package using checkinstall:
Requires:

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# aptitude install build-essential checkinstall qt4-dev-tools libphonon-dev && aptitude install libqtgui4 libqt4-xml libqt4-network libqt4-dbus phonon-backend-gstreamer gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad

As normal user:

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$ wget http://flavio.tordini.org/files/minitube/minitube-1.5.tar.gz
$ tar xvzf minitube-1.5.tar.gz
$ cd minitube
$ qmake && make

Now do:

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$ su
Password
# checkinstall

Optional: In reply to checkinstall's "Please write a description for the package" just put: Native YouTube Client and press enter twice.
Continue and Minitube 1.5 will be installed system-wide and visible via Synaptic.

That looks like the "qmake && make" step does a complete recompile from the source code. In that case, why not just rebuild proper Debian packages from the source files that I've included? It's probably is a bit easier, since the descriptions, etc are already in there, and the dependencies for the packages get automatically determined and added to the package: https://sites.google.com/site/stevosfil ... kports.txt