Video codecs for 20.04 LTS?

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Wed, 8 Dec 2021 08:29:23 +0000, Sorin Srbu wrote:
>I can only speak for myself.
>
>After installing Zoom for the first time at the beginning of the
>pandemic in 2020, dpkg -i zoompackage.deb gave me a few errors about
>missing packages.
>
>Running apt install -f after, downloaded and installed a couple of
>video plugins or some such, IIRC. After running dpkg -i
>zoompackage.deb again, I didn't see the errors and the Zoom client
>started nicely after.
>
>Actually, I think it may have been this article I referred to at the
>time. In april 2020 I knew nothing about video meetings, so looked for
>info about it.
>https://kifarunix.com/install-zoom-client-on-ubuntu-20-04/
>
>I guess YMMV.

Hi,

the linked article wasn't written by somebody familiar with apt.


apt install /path/local_package.deb

_does_ resolve dependencies available by repositories.


apt-get install /path/local_package.deb

_does not_ resolve dependencies.


dpkg --install /path/local_package.deb

_does not_ resolve dependencies.


After installing a local package - depending on packages provided by
repositories - with apt-get or dpkg, there is the need to resolve
dependencies, by installing those packages running either apt-get or
apt, with the --fix-broken option.

If you run apt to install such a local package in the first place,
dependencies get resolved. If a dependency doesn't get resolved this
way, then running apt with the --fix-broken option also can't resolve
the missing dependency.

Avoiding the usage of gdebi - from the universe repository - by an
article is ok, since it's not an official package management tool.
However, apt for all supported Ubuntu releases >= 16.04 (and probably
even for 14.04) can install a local package by resolving
dependencies, if those are available by a repository.

The article's usage of commands is comparable to run

  cat .bashrc | grep PS1

instead of

  grep PS1 .bashrc

OTOH first running cat and after that adding a pipe to grep makes
sense, if in the first place the output of cat is wanted and after that
the output of grep is wanted, without the need to type everything again.

I don't see any benefit by the mentioned dpkg + apt --fix-broken option.
However, usage of  dpkg + apt --fix-broken  isn't wrong, it's just more
straight forward to install using apt only, but even more important is
to make clear that if  apt  install  fails, then running
dpkg + apt --fix-broken  can not fix the issue.

Regards,
Ralf