Plugins
21 February 2005

Browser plugins dramatically extend cross-platform compatibility.

Customizing Mozilla

See http://flii.us/myworks/phoenix/pages/chrome.html

Konqueror video plugin
21 February 2005

The KMPlayer KPart plugin for Konqueror mimics QuickTime, MS Media Player  and RealPlayer plugin browser plugins. Available from Marillat.

CrossOver
4 January 2001

Codeweaver's Crossover plugin is an extremely interesting one -- it actually allows you to download native Windows plugins and use them in Liux. It handles Quicktime's Sorensen movie codec, Powerpoint, Excel, and Word plugins, and several others. The plugin works for lots Linux browsers. See their home page and interesting technical details on streaming.

The software works by running the Windows-based versions of Mozilla plug-ins using Wine (www.winehq.com), an open-source implementation of many Win32 APIs on Linux, Unix and the X Window system. Source.

To run a CD, insert it in the CD ROM and type:

mount /dev/hdb cdrom

I installed the Codeweaver plugin in /opt/crossover from root. I didn't install Shockwave, but all the others. I've only seen the Word reader plugin -- it works fine, and is called up when you click on a Word file. Nothing particularly elegant -- I think KWord may be just as good, and StarOffice better -- but fine.

For CrossOver updates, check announcements. (steen@cogweb.net / kousom).

Ogg Vorbis
4 January 2002

The BBC performed Ogg technology infrastructure testing in late December 2001 (I wrote on 4 Jan 02 to encourage a full trial); they list several programs that play Ogg Vorgis here.

Flash
30 December 2001

Flash apparently installed as a plugin in Opera, but Realplayer won't work. Flash is here:

    /opt/netscape/plugins>
        ShockwaveFlash.class cpPack1.jar libflashplayer.so libnullplugin.so raclass.zip
        rpnp.so

Note the .class extension. In contrast,

    /usr/lib/opera/plugins>
      libnpp.so libnpp.so.0 libnpp.so.0.1 libnpp.so.0.1.5 operamotifwrapper

So the question is, how do I link to realplayer? There are lots of files:

    /usr/lib/RealPlayer8
    /usr/share/doc/susehilf/raw_pacs/en/RealPlayer
    /usr/X11R6/share/icons/xpm/hicolor/16x16/apps/realplayer.xpm
    /usr/X11R6/share/icons/xpm/hicolor/32x32/apps/realplayer.xpm
    /usr/X11R6/share/icons/xpm/hicolor/all/mini.realplayer.xpm
    /usr/X11R6/share/icons/xpm/hicolor/all/normal.realplayer.xpm
    /usr/X11R6/share/icons/xpm/locolor/16x16/apps/realplayer.xpm
    /usr/X11R6/share/icons/xpm/locolor/32x32/apps/realplayer.xpm
    /usr/X11R6/share/icons/xpm/locolor/all/mini.realplayer.xpm
    /usr/X11R6/share/icons/xpm/locolor/all/normal.realplayer.xpm
    /usr/X11R6/share/icons/png/hicolor/16x16/apps/realplayer.png
    /usr/X11R6/share/icons/png/hicolor/32x32/apps/realplayer.png
    /usr/X11R6/share/icons/png/hicolor/all/mini.realplayer.png
    /usr/X11R6/share/icons/png/hicolor/all/normal.realplayer.png
    /usr/X11R6/share/icons/png/locolor/16x16/apps/realplayer.png
    /usr/X11R6/share/icons/png/locolor/32x32/apps/realplayer.png
    /usr/X11R6/share/icons/png/locolor/all/mini.realplayer.png
    /usr/X11R6/share/icons/png/locolor/all/normal.realplayer.png
    /opt/gnome/share/gnome/apps/Multimedia/realplayer.desktop
    /opt/kde2/share/applnk/Multimedia/RealPlayer.kdelnk
    /opt/kde2/share/apps/kappfinder/apps/Multimedia/realplayer.desktop
    /opt/kde2/share/icons/hicolor/32x32/apps/realplayer.png
    /opt/kde2/share/icons/hicolor/16x16/apps/realplayer.png

Not sure what to make of these. This looks like the place to go:

    /usr/lib/RealPlayer8>
    Codecs          Mailcap         app.kdelnk      mimeinstall.log raclass.zip
    rp7doc.png      rpnp.so         Common          Mime.types      audiosig.rm
    mimeinstall.sh  realplay        rp7doc.xpm      Help            Plugins
    firstrun.rm     pluginstall.sh  realplay.desktop rp7mini.xpm    LICENSE
    README          mime.kdelnk     postinstall.sh  rp7.xpm         rpminstalled
    Below that are perhaps the needed files: 
    /usr/lib/RealPlayer8/Plugins> ls
    ExtResources     mp3f.so.6.0      pxcpng.so.6.0  pxpr.so.6.0
    rtrender.so.6.0  smplfsys.so.6.0
    audplin.so.6.0   mp3mfpln.so.6.0  pxff.so.6.0    pxrend2.so.6.0
    rvrend.so.6.0    swff.so.6.0
    authmgr.so.6.0   mp3r.so.6.0      pxgf.so.6.0    rarender.so.6.0
    sdpplin.so.6.0   swfrend.so.6.0
    bascauth.so.6.0  pnxres.so.6.0    pxgr.so.6.0    rcadlg.so.6.0
    skinfs.so.6.0    vidplin.so.6.0
    httpfsys.so.6.0  ppffplin.so.6.0  pxjf.so.6.0    rmffplin.so.6.0
    smlffpln.so.6.0  vsrcplin.so.6.0
    memfsys.so.6.0   pxcgif2.so.6.0   pxjr.so.6.0    rn5auth.so.6.0
    smlrendr.so.6.0  xlibsite.so.6.0
    meta.so.6.0      pxcjpeg2.so.6.0  pxpf.so.6.0    rtffplin.so.6.0
    smmrendr.so.6.0

Well, what do you know. Opera wouldn't start the plugin, even though it clearly recognized it (in spite of calling it "no name", it's the realplayer). So you get into the advanced options on file download and select "open with another application". I then picked the file 

usr/lib/RealPlayer8/realplay

which seemed like a plausible candidate for the program executable. And I was right! So now I have realplayer in Opera. I think. We'll have to see if it works every time. Well, it seems to. That would be cool if I actually found a program in a directory -- it sounds silly, but I think it's the first time! It's fun to write from your own pine and know that you won't ever be cut off or killed...

Acroread
30 December 2001

Well, I did the same with Acroread for Opera -- it's located at /usr/X11R6/bin/acroread. The great thing about it is that it prints perfectly! To help the USB system along I tap the printer on before sending a page, so that it's already warmed up a bit and live. I used find / -iname acroread -mount -print | less to find it -- it's clear that -iname has nothing to do with caps and everything to do with finding strings in file names.

 

  

 

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