linuxgeek: Re: [LINUX_Newbies] LINUX_Newbies] Re: VLC in Mint 17

On Sun, Feb 22, 2015 at 01:48:37PM -0500, Gene Henley mhenley2@verizon.net [LINUX_Newbies] wrote:
> Duly noted. However, I am carefully counting the words and my perception of meanings.
> I quote," I`d say that if SOMEONE knew, you`d have received an answer already."
> I duly note your,"As I have already said( I think),I don`t know."
> Perhaps I have not made myself clear,as I admit my imperfect usage of English.

Or my imperfect understanding. As I've said, I haven't followed this
thread that closely, and shucks, my short term memory is bad.

I`ll
> try again. There are problems as I have perceived,in VLC and Youtube,in various computers
> using various distros. You have my leave to make this a given or not. If you do not,then we are
> at full stop in dialogue.

Nope, definitely conceded.

Additionally,I have read that some that responded to my thread,have
> stated that they do not know,because they "have not seen it". Please forgive me for my
> possible misunderstanding,but are we restricted to answers for problems "not seen"?

Well, in a case like this, and many others--sometimes, there is what I
call a Just Me (TM) problem, meaning it's some oddity that I see but works
for everyone else. Therefore, I would say, if someone has given you that
answer, it's shorthand in a way, saying, I haven't experienced that
problem. The fact that it works for me means that it's quite possible that
normally, it works.

Now, that can, (whether it is or not here), be very useful information.
If I'm having a problem and someone else says, I can't duplicate that
issue, it means that therefore, it is probably something with my setup.

> Is there a conclusion to be made that problems do not exist? I also am in the "I do not know place".

No.

> Engrave that in stone. I you have seen it,is it this forum`s policy to avoid
> any interest in problems "not seen",because( I hope I`m wrong) that this forum ,"Newbies",
> excludes any interest in problems not seen?

No, and there are some experienced people, including at least one developer
or tester for Canonical (the folks who make Ubuntu) on this list. I'm not
sure what was said that made you think that, but I would guess that the
meaning of any such comment would ONLY be, that the poster hasn't run
into it themselves, so they're fairly certain that under most
circumstances, it works.

My view,should there be any interest at all,is
> that there a closed door labelled," I don`t know. I haven`t seen it,and
I`m not interested."o

That might be one person's, (or more) opinion, but from what I've seen of
this list, I wouldn't say it's the case. However, as it is a list of
volunteers, it may just be that those who have see it think (this is merely
hypothesis, I don't presume to speak for anyone else) well, I haven't seen
it, can't help, time for me (the person posting) to move along.

> Is there nothing to be gained by checking beneath the surface of" what I have seen".

Sure there is, if: A) It affects me.
B) I'm someone with an interest in promoting this particular type of Linux
and want to make sure that no one else has the problem.

However, speaking only for myself, I'm neither of those. You mention
others have had the problem. Back in the old days, when mailing lists were
much nastier, you'd have probably been asked, OK, how did they solve it,
and have you tried any of the solutions. If not, try them, then come back.
Again, you've said that it works on 3 out of 4 machines if I remember
correctly and that at least one of the working ones has an identical
system. So, I would start there. However, it can be very tedious

For example, I had two installs--on one, ibus, a Japanese input tool worked
and on the other it didn't. So, as this was very important to me,
to check, I installed two virtual machines, then compared what was missing,
Eventually I found that some library wasn't included automatically on the
second machine, and by installing it, I fixed that.

So, if you want to do something like dpkg -l (which should list every
installed package on both machines, then run diff listone and listtwo, in
other words, go through every package on the machine where it works and the
machine where it doesn't, you might find a difference.

However, your problem seems one of those oddball ones, especially as it's
not completely reproducible, (as you have it working on other machines) and
therefore, it's really a less important problem than say, if you couldn't
connect with your browser, especially when there are several other
multimedia players.

Again, not following the thread, so I don't know if someone told you, Oh,
it's your fault, or Linux is perfect, but as an IT professional, I can say,
sometimes stuff works or doesn't work for no obvious reason, and sometimes,
it's just easier to find a workaround.

> If this is so, any suggestion that I`m in the wrong forum,wasting bandwidth and time,will
> respectfully have my deference. There another possibility, I hope considered.
> There just might be an interest in problems that some Newbie,your truly, encounters
> which have not been seen in this group.Otherwise,I fear i waste your time and others.

Well, this particular issue, I don't know--again, not following thread but
I've offered you suggestions. Speaking, only for myself, i can't really
help, I don't make much use of Mint, Ubuntu, or VLC, but if you use
FreeBSD, I know that mplayer works on it.

> I`ll stay with Linux. Never did I expect out of box no-problem. Perfection is not obtained
> in our real world. In case I did not mention it, VLC and Youtube have given me problems.
> My google searches have shown my many references of these problems that "have not been
> seen." I `m not looking for a comfort zone. I`ll look elsewhere. Am I in the right forum for
> this endeavour, Simple yes or no,please.

As you've gotten no useful help yet, for this particular problem, maybe no.
Not trying to be rude or push you out--it's quite possible the next issue
you run into will be a common, well-known one, and you'll get loads of
answers.

However, this isn't a really active forum anymore--this, and another one,
simply called Linux, had their heyday in the early double-oughts.

> commands apps,etc...........,please let me know,or let me know I`m off topic and in violation of
> forum rules. I`m too interested in finding these answers to be offended.

As far as I know, this forum is pretty open minded, and the moderator just
doesn't people cursing each other out, threatening, advertising, and that
sort of thing. In other words, common sense, and if, for example, you took
the most similar machine to the one that's not working, and posted the
package list, it might be useful for someone more familiar with Mint and
Ubuntu than myself.

--
Scott Robbins
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