Help a newb: VLC player doesn't work properly Rocky Linux 9.4

[stevejjd]

Hi all, is there a definitive guide to installing VLC for Rocky Linux?

I installed it somehow. I can only run it by typing vlc into a terminal. The icon doesnt work nor does right clicking and selecting open in VLC. Its extremely annoying as I need to work quite a lot with video files.

Reference

vlc.x86_64                                       1:3.0.21-2.el9                        @epel                  
vlc-cli.x86_64                                   1:3.0.21-2.el9                        @epel                  
vlc-gui-qt.x86_64                                1:3.0.21-2.el9                        @epel                  
vlc-gui-skins2.x86_64                            1:3.0.21-2.el9                        @epel                  
vlc-libs.x86_64                                  1:3.0.21-2.el9                        @epel                  
vlc-plugin-ffmpeg.x86_64                         1:3.0.21-2.el9                        @epel                  
vlc-plugin-gnome.x86_64                          1:3.0.21-2.el9                        @epel                  
vlc-plugin-lua.x86_64                            1:3.0.21-2.el9                        @epel                  
vlc-plugin-notify.x86_64                         1:3.0.21-2.el9                        @epel                  
vlc-plugin-pipewire.x86_64                       3-1.el9                               @epel                  
vlc-plugin-visualization.x86_64                  1:3.0.21-2.el9                        @epel                  
vlc-plugins-base.x86_64                          1:3.0.21-2.el9                        @epel                  
vlc-plugins-freeworld.x86_64                     3.0.20-1.el9                          @rpmfusion-free-updates
vlc-plugins-video-out.x86_64                     1:3.0.21-2.el9                        @epel

Ideally,

• clicking the VLC desktop icon should launch VLC player.
• Right clicking the video and selecting open in VLC should open that video in VLC

Can anyone help out?

[sspencerwire]

Hello @stevejjd and welcome!

In Rocky Linux 9, which you appear to be using, you need to enable the EPEL repository (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) and then you should be able to install VLC and run it. You don’t say how you installed it, but you need to install it as your user with sudo privileges:

sudo dnf -y install epel-release
sudo dnf upgrade
sudo dnf install vlc

When you search the “Activities” menu for “VLC” you will see the launcher, just click it and it should run fine like this:

Note: I did not have VLC installed on my Rocky Linux 9.4 laptop, but installed it to make sure these steps worked.

Sub-note: I see you have the EPEL repository already enabled. Did you perhaps install this as the root user, rather than your user and sudo?

Hope this helps!
(another) Steve

[stevejjd]

This worked perfectly. Thanks so much

[jbkt23]

@sspencerwire

Did you perhaps install this as the root user, rather than your user and sudo?

I don’t see how this should matter. I install software for other users as my special user. The software users don’t have sudo privileges. The logic of the above would imply that I would have to log in as each user and sudo install the software as them.
The OP didn’t say what method they used initially that failed but I’m going to guess that it was the graphical front end to packagekit. I’ve had issues with the graphical installer not completing installs successfully. I never have these issues at the command line either as root directly or as called via sudo.