[NTLUG:Discuss] Freespire, bad start, good ending.

[william jones]

Downloaded Freespire (freespire.org) for the price.  Available as able to use proprietary plug-ins or as only using free software.  Opted for plug-ins.  Installed it.  Created root user, against their advice.  Downloaded Xine plug-in.  Tried again, finding DVD player on second page of Xine blurb.  This was not for free, costing $49.+.  Bought it.  Followed all instructions and tried it on a movie DVD.  It did not work.

Time to go to work.  Xine came up with a message,"DVD Player: There is no mrl."
  
DVD button on the xine control panel gives,"-xine engine error- There is no input plugin available to handle 'dvd:/'.  Maybe MRL syntax is wrong or file /stream source doesn't exist."

Punched More... button. Get two bad lines in seven.
"xine: cannot find input plugin for MRL [dvd:/]"
"xine: input plugin cannot open MRL [dvd:/]

Punched plugin.  Last line was bad.
load_plugins: skipping unreadable plugin directory /home/bjones/.xine/plugins.

Sent a trouble message to Linspire, per their procedure.  They sent back instructions on how to send aa automated trouble readout.  The readout was a status report and (apparently) a memory dump.  They also mentioned an eighty hour time limit.

Went to work again.  The ~/.xine/plugins directory did not exist.  They were setting up everything for the Administrator to use, so maybe I should try as root.  My movie worked (at least after I reseated the DVD player audio cable).  Found the missing .dvdcss file in /root.

Received a message from Linspire, distributors of Freespire, that my trouble request had timed out, and would be closed.  I answered that I had solved the problem.  Fine lot of help they provided.

In spite of all this, I enjoy Freespire.  I will write to their user forum about this incident.

William L. Jones