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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I am testing Edubuntu for use in individual
classrooms at our school. We have some older computers tasked for use in
individual classrooms (Cel and P3 500 - 700 w/ 192 - 256 MB) that I think this
would be a perfect solution for. I really like the interface and features
for classroom use; however, I am running into a problem that is beyond my very
limited knowledge of how Linux works. I aim to get smarter about using
Linux this summer (the file system, compiling, etc), but for right now, I just
need to get this working before the end of the week. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>We use Discovery's United Streaming in our
school. United Streaming allows for the viewing of its many videos in
either Windows Media .asf format or Quicktime format. I have used United
Streaming without issue on Windows machines (using IE, Firefox 2, and
Opera). I have also used it on a student's Mac laptop (not sure of the
browser) without issue. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Using edubuntu, I cannot get the videos to
play correctly -- either in Quicktime or Windows Media player advanced streaming
(.asf) format. I have played around with pretty much all of the packages
available in add/remove programs option and the synaptics package manager.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I have tried installing the mplayer and its
associated Mozilla plug-in to no avail.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>If I use the default GStreamer, I can't get any
videos to play. Without using the "ugly" plug-in, I get an error that
Totem can't play the Windows Media 9 files without the proper plug-in. If
I apply the gstreamer "ugly" codec, the movie will appear to play, and I get
audio, but I can't get video. Quicktime files also do not work when using
gstreamer.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>If I install Xine (as well as the Xine media codec
plug-in), my Firefox defaults to using Totem with Xine. If I do this
some.asf videos will play, but they have a ton of corruption in the
playback. Some Quicktime videos will also play, but they too have
corruption (negative colors, embossing, a lot of severe tearing, what
appears to be pretty bad compression errors). </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I have tried this on three separate computers (a
Dell Inspiron laptop w/ a dual core 2.0 GHz CPU and 1 GB of memory, a desktop
with a P4 2 and 512MB of memory, and a P3 700 with 256MB of memory), and I can't
make it work on any of them.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>This is the first time I've dipped my toe in the
Linux waters; it's been a while since something computer-related has left me
feeling this ignorant. I've selected so many different options within the
Add/Remove and Synaptics package managers, that I'm wondering if I've caused
some kind of corruption (although the system prompts me that it
will remove conflicting packages as necessary). If someone can tell
me exactly which packages to install from the get-go to get the video working,
I'd be happy to wipe the partition that I have edubuntu on and start from
scratch to get it working. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I'm also having trouble getting the wireless to
work and changing the Grub so it defaults to booting to Windows instead of linux
if I don't make a choice in time (both on the Dell), but the issue of being able
to seamlessly play the videos in the browser are much more
pressing.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thanks for any help that folks can
provide!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Mike</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Mike Camden<BR>Technology Director<BR>Mount de
Chantal Visitation Academy<BR>304-233-3771<BR><A
href="mailto:mcamden@mountdechantal.org">mcamden@mountdechantal.org</A><BR><A
href="http://www.mountdechantal.org">http://www.mountdechantal.org</A></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>