my unix

One of the biggest hurdles faced when trying to use OpenSolaris (and other non-proprietary OS’ for that matter) is the availability of decent multimedia playback functionality. This comes down to the fact that most multimedia technologies are either patented or in DMCA grey areas (libdvdcss).

The folk over at Fluendo have done a great job of providing proprietary, fully licensed video codecs for OpenSolaris and apparently have a fully functional DVD Player in the works. The Fluendo approach isn’t for everyone though, some folks are ideologically opposed to payment of patent royalties or just plain strapped for cash.

Approximately 6 months ago an IPS repository called LWS emerged that provided the VLC Media Player in an easily accessible format that even the average joe consumer could get installed. The VLC media player handled just about every media type but is not an “integrated” Gnome application like Totem. Unfortunately due to a possibly nasty letter about the wisdom of providing patent encumbered technologies for free the LWS repository was shut down, leaving OpenSolaris users to fiddle around compiling, troubleshooting and so on just so they can watch their favourite DVD.

To fill that gaping hole in desktop usability we now have Home Unix, a repository that contains all the goodies you require to get your OpenSolaris system all set up for multimedia. The best thing about the homeunix repo is that all of its packages actually integrate with your existing GStreamer installation so that they become available in all of your Gnome media applications and others that use the GStreamer back-end.

To add the homeunix repository follow the instruction listed in the Image Packaging Sytem Guide and add the URL like so:

pfexec pkg set-authority -O  http://ips.homeunix.com:10000/ homeunix

From here you can select all of the GStreamer plugins you require.