sound and music

[Michael Schwendt]

On Fri, 6 Aug 2004 00:47:03 -0700 (PDT), Shiraz Baig wrote:

> Sir,
> I am trying to listen to some video songs (*.dat)
> files. I have installed Redhat Linux 9.0. When I check
> the menu, there are plenty of audio and video
> applications and none of them work with these files,
> which is a very common format of MS Windows.
> 
> So, I read the book and _Red Hat Linux 8 unleashed_ by
> Techmedia, which I think is a good book. I found that
> Balsa is a recommended package.

Impossible. Balsa is a GNOME email client and won't help you with video
files at all. 

For multimedia support for file formats with have patenting or licencing
issues, you may need to install external add-on packages, such as mplayer
plus additional codec packages.

> I located this package
> on the CD and then tried to install the packages. It
> checked dependencies and said that it failed because
> libsmtp cannot be found.

It's in the "libesmtp" package. With the right options, it would have been
installed automatically.

It would also have installed very easily with "update balsa", but
remember that you don't want Balsa. ;)

[The following part in your message was mental junk and inappropriate.]

> I tried cdp  (cdplay) application. The CD was running
> but no sound was produced.

You're missing an audio cable between CD player and sound card.
Alternatively, for digital playback, you don't need a cable, but a CD
playing application which supports digital playback, e.g. xmms-cdread or
the CD playing plugin for XMMS 1.2.8.