MPEG-4, AAC decoder, H.264 decoder are required

Hi,
I have been using Fedora Desktop for years but have decided to move away from it because the upgrade from Fedora 33 to 34 bricked the OS.
Thank you for making Rocky Linux available!
Given my experience with Fedora I like to think I can move my way around RL but I am having trouble with mp4 files.
When I try to play an mp4 file, Videos reports:
MPEG-4, AAC decoder, H.264 decoder are required
It then says to install via Software but when I go to Software, it reports 2 Gstreamer packages are installed, but I guess they are not providing the required codes.
I have tried the following:
Many dnf and Software searches such as “264”, “mp4” with no results.
dnf search gstream > provides many packages but I am not sure if this would be correct to install or which package to pick.
I tried installing rpmfusion but Software got hung up. (Assuming rpmfusion is a good thing to begin with).
I have also searched the fora here and only found:

Mp4 not playing and how 2 install VLC?

This suggests installing VLC but I would prefer just to get Videos working.
I have also web searched “H264 centos 8” and many other searches.
Help with the following questions is much appreciated:

  1. I think part of me not being able to find the right package is that I do not know which repos are supposed to be used with RL. Can rpmfusion repos work with RL? Centos 8 repos? RHEL 8 repos? Is there a list of repos that are supposed to be used with RL?

  2. How do I get Videos to work?

Thanks ahead of time.

1 Like

Hi,

Thanks Tom.

Thanks for your help Tom

1 Like

Hello @RL1000

yes you can use rpmfusion repo

check this one Configuration - RPM Fusion

for command line you need

dnf install epel-release
to enable the epel repo

and the following from the link i mentioned

dnf install --nogpgcheck https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/el/rpmfusion-free-release-8.noarch.rpm

dnf install --nogpgcheck https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/el/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-8.noarch.rpm

dnf config-manager --enable powertools

dnf groupupdate core

dnf groupupdate multimedia --setop="install_weak_deps=False" --exclude=PackageKit-gstreamer-plugin

dnf groupupdate sound-and-video

hope that help and have a nice day :slight_smile:

3 Likes

Hi @ JustSomeone

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my post and the help.

I wont have a chance to try it for a few days, but just wanted to say thanks.

1 Like

you very welcome and take your time :slight_smile:

That worked like a charm JustSomeone, thanks! I marked it as Solution.

1 Like

For anyone that may have this issue in future, to save them some time, the first response is this issue, which was about:

How to install VLC Player on CentOS 8 / RHEL 8 Linux

Did not work.
Also the repos were already installed (by default I presume).

Also this response did not answer my questions which were about which repos can be used with RL and how to install codecs without installing VLC.

you very welcome @RL1000 :slight_smile:

Curious why two packages from Microsoft are being used? Is this SOP and I just have to deal with a black box, or can somebody shed some light on what these two lines are? Associated with the “dnf groupupdate core” command in the resolution above.

packages.microsoft.com 2.5 kB/s | 983 B 00:00
packages.microsoft.com 2.6 MB/s | 28 MB 00:1

Hello @LinuxFTW

sorry i do not know but try to run
dnf repolist and see if you have this microsoft repo enabled

currently i am using rocky 9 and i do not see Microsoft as repo in my list and i use those encoder also

have a nice day :slight_smile:

1 Like

Yeah, I get it; and I really need to run videos on this machine for now, so I guess I’ll deal with it.

But … that being said, if we are forced to download black box Microsoft software, it seems like … well, let me put it another way: I’m not using Windows for various reasons. One of those various reasons is that MS is notorious for going “above and beyond” in providing help to provide back door type of software services.

Anyway, I’ll take my paranoia and go away now. Thanks for being truthful. :frowning_with_open_mouth:

looks like i did not explain my self as i should be

  1. you mentioned Microsoft repo according to my rocky version which is 9 now i did not have that repo so it did not install anything from it

  2. i suspect that this download related to installing this codec

  3. i think you enabled this repo for something else so i asked

so here all the package get installed by this one

there is none from package.microsoft

that why i asked you to check which repo list you have
by the above command

dnf repolist if you see microsoft then

use this command to list installed package from this repo

dnf list installed | grep @<repoid>

replace repoid with the repo id of the microsofot

you could remove those packages then disable microsoft repo then install this codec again and it will use different repo to install this one

Powertools used to be the name of a CentOS repo, I think, now replaced by crb. On alma at least, you can enable it with
sudo dnf config-manager --enable powertools.
The rpmfusion free and unfree repos have ffmpeg and mpv. Pretty sure those will cover most things you want to play.

Both RHEL 8 and 9 do have CodeReady Linux Builder repository for developers. See Chapter 3. The CodeReady Linux Builder repository Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Red Hat Customer Portal

CentOS Linux 8 named the equivalent repo “powertools” as trademark prevents use of RHEL’s repo name.
Rocky 8 (and Alma 8) does use that name.

By time the 9 was released it was cleared that “crb” can be used as name and hence Rocky 9 (and Alma 9) does use that name.