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Linux DVD Player on a Bootable CD?

Posted by Cliff on from the ultra-convenient-AV-component dept.

Kumar asks: "I'm trying to make a bootable Linux CD with nothing more than XFree86 4 and ogle to play DVDs. I'm trying to make it as simple as possible: boot the system, change the CD, hit 'play'. If anyone has attempted anything like this before I'd like to hear of their successes and/or any tips on achieving this goal." A Linux box set up like this might make a nice alternative to an expensive DVD player. Is anyone working on something like this?

7 of 31 comments (clear)

  1. You have got to be kidding me.. by redhotchil · · Score: 3, Informative

    How could you possibly make a computer for under $99 (the price of DVD players I've seen at real, tangible stores) that would have the capacity to play dvds, in software mode, in linux? Riiiiight.

  2. Why not just use Windows? by Howie · · Score: 3, Informative

    If the PC is already running Linux, then you don't need to go through all that. Obviously that isn't the case, because your question would be silly then :)

    So, why not just get PowerDVD, or WinDVD? No rebooting. It probably even came bundled with your DVDROM drive - I know I have a few copies kicking around.

    The only situation where the requirement makes sense that I can think of is that someone on a corporate network has a new PC with DVDROM, but isn't allowed to have DVD Player software installed, but that person is likely to not have access to the BIOS to allow CD-Booting, either.

    --
    "don't fall into the fallacy of believing that Perl can solve social problems. Maybe Perl 6 can, but that's a ways off"
    1. Re:Why not just use Windows? by Howie · · Score: 2, Informative

      Neither PowerDVD nor WinDVD does anything that can't be gotten around with DVDGenie, for free. The only bit you'd be stuck with is if the drive itself is RPC-2 region-locked, and I think that does screw you regardless of the OS.

      --
      "don't fall into the fallacy of believing that Perl can solve social problems. Maybe Perl 6 can, but that's a ways off"
    2. Re:Why not just use Windows? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      With ogle and vlc, I can play region 1 dvds on my RPC-2 drive set to region 2 (Toshiba) just fine.

  3. Use an embedded linux distribution? by Memetic · · Score: 2, Informative

    Perhaps one of the embedded Linux distributions might help, they often have demo versions already tailored to run stripped down and "headless" etc.

    This review of LynuxWorks' BlueCat Linux discusses some utilities ('mkrootfs' , 'mkkernel' and 'mkboot')that might help.

  4. Starting Point by penguinboy · · Score: 3, Informative

    A good starting point might be the RedHat based SuperRescue ISO. It's got everything: drivers, networking (probably not necessary), XFree86, etc. Adding in a DVD player app and taking out the unnecessary bits probably wouldn't take long.

    And as a side effect of this project, you could get quite a bit more space by using a DVD-R(W) disc, since a DVD drive is guaranteed to be available.

  5. Some pointers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative
    You can divide the question into two parts.

    First, how to make a bootable Linux disk. Check out The BBLCD Toolkit, Bernhard's Bootable Linux CD or Build your own Bootable Linux CD, and of course the CD-Writing HOWTO. Do some searches on your favorite search engines for more information on making bootable Linux CDs.


    Second, how to start X-windows and run a dedicated application on start up. Check out the Kiosk HOWTO for information on which scripts need to be modified (they talk about booting up netscape, but you'll get the idea). You should also become familiar with Linux and X-windows boot up sequence to find out which scripts need to be modified.