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Which OS
Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 8:01 am
by Lez
Hi all
I am new to the Raspberry pi, just bought a Pi3 a little while back.
I have used Linux before so I am not afraid to do a bit of hacking, but I am no expert.
I have mine connected to a 42" TV.
Raspbian works OK but video playback is awful, I have tried various things but gave up.
I am now using OSMC, which works fine, except I need a browser for it.
This is just a general question. Which OS should I use, I want to mainly use it for playing videos, Youtube, music and some simple browsing. I can't Dropbox working for example as I need to connect to a website to do this.
Any advice would be welcome. I know the simple answer is go and buy a box that does it all. I would prefer to use the Pi as I think it is a great bit of kit.
Thanks in advance
Lez
Re: Which OS
Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 8:19 am
by fruitoftheloom
Re: Which OS
Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 8:58 am
by RaTTuS
raspbain - use omxplayer for videos and make sure they are encoded as H264
you can get mpeg2 support via a codec
Re: Which OS
Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 9:02 am
by gkreidl
Raspbian. If you are not happy with using a command line video player, install one of the GUIs for it or install kodi as media player.
Re: Which OS
Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 2:50 pm
by DavidS
If you do not mind something that may still have a couple of bugs, the new Puppy Linux Quirky for the RPi 2/3 does great with video playback.
Re: Which OS
Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 3:32 pm
by Lez
Hi all
Thanks for the replies, very helpful, just what I was expecting.
I am going to try the OSMC route with x11 and chrome. I like the simple interface of OSMC, plus the wife can use it as well.
I followed the link above from fruitoftheloom.
I got it installed no problem and went into the x11 desktop, but chrome couldn't find the internet, so I rebooted only to find now it hangs when I try to go into x11.
I'll do some hunting around google and see if I can find a solution.
I'll let you know.
Lez
Re: Which OS
Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2016 2:20 am
by rpix86
DavidS wrote:If you do not mind something that may still have a couple of bugs, the new Puppy Linux Quirky for the RPi 2/3 does great with video playback.
Where does one download 'puppy linux quirky'?
Re: Which OS
Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2016 3:35 am
by DavidS
rpix86 wrote:DavidS wrote:If you do not mind something that may still have a couple of bugs, the new Puppy Linux Quirky for the RPi 2/3 does great with video playback.
Where does one download 'puppy linux quirky'?
The current version is at:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/quirky ... leases/rc/
Once you download it use unxz to extract the image, then write the image to the raw SD Card. Not sure what OS you are using to create the SD so can not give more specific instructions on writing the img to the SD. Though it is the same process as used to write any of the full OS's to SD (NOT noobs), so instructions are available on the Raspberry Pi site, just replace the img name with the one you get from extracting the downloaded xz.
Depending on your settings you may need to do some work on getting sound working. Though it is not to much (I had trouble at first, then just went back through it).
Also some people are having trouble getting WiFi working on this version of Puppy on the Raspberry Pi 3B. I am sure this will be sorted quickly though.
A lot more information is available on the Puppy Linux Forum in the anouncement thread for this version. This is the RC version that descusion begins on page 9 of the thread:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=108132
So start with:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 832#928832
And there is some documentation linked by BerryK.
I hope this helps, puppy is a great Linux. I do not know if you have ever used Puppy Linux on other systems (like a PC), though it does have a few small things that take a little getting used to.
Re: Which OS
Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2016 3:54 am
by scruss
DavidS wrote:I hope this helps, puppy is a great Linux. I do not know if you have ever used Puppy Linux on other systems (like a PC), though it does have a few small things that take a little getting used to.
Does Puppy still do everything as root? If so, it's not for general users.
Re: Which OS
Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2016 4:00 am
by DavidS
scruss wrote:DavidS wrote:I hope this helps, puppy is a great Linux. I do not know if you have ever used Puppy Linux on other systems (like a PC), though it does have a few small things that take a little getting used to.
Does Puppy still do everything as root? If so, it's not for general users.
Yes it does. Though it has everything locked down, that is no remote connections are open by default, it is setup for local use only. And yes it is not the Linux for someone that may mess things up, as super user access one has to be careful with.
As with any Linux it is possible to run as a restricted user, if you take the work to manually configure it.
Re: Which OS
Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2016 8:57 am
by Lez
I noticed on the Puppy Linux forum that it only played video locally is that the case, I have all mine on a NAS with music etc.
I don't see a problem running as root either.
Re: Which OS
Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2016 2:54 pm
by DavidS
Lez wrote:I noticed on the Puppy Linux forum that it only played video locally is that the case, I have all mine on a NAS with music etc.
I don't see a problem running as root either.
It will stream video with out any problem. The Simple VLC, which is the best way to play video, does not have an easy UI for streaming video yet.
Though many youtube and other HTML5 videos will play very well in the seamonkey web browser, and Berry is working on improving the UI of Simple VLC to allow easier streaming of video.
There are also other options for streaming video included with this puppy Linux.
As I said it is not 100% yet, though it idoes a great job.
Does that answer the question?
Re: Which OS
Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2016 8:34 pm
by scruss
Lez wrote:I don't see a problem running as root either.
Don't worry … given enough time, you will. Every time you get a
permission denied on a normal Linux system is a time when the system saved you from doing something stupid. Puppy Linux can never stop you doing something stupid: every application is running in thermonuclear chainsaw mode. Can you imagine letting a system like that out onto the internet?
Re: Which OS
Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2016 9:11 pm
by DavidS
scruss wrote:Lez wrote:I don't see a problem running as root either.
Don't worry … given enough time, you will. Every time you get a
permission denied on a normal Linux system is a time when the system saved you from doing something stupid. Puppy Linux can never stop you doing something stupid: every application is running in thermonuclear chainsaw mode. Can you imagine letting a system like that out onto the internet?
Yes I can, so long as the operator manages not to do something stupid, and keeps all incoming ports locked down tight.