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delgado

Member

Registered: 2022-07-14

Posts: 291  

Someone using the deb-multimedia repository?

I understand that it is my problem to include deb-multimedia and that's fine. Maybe it's impossible.

Just wondering, if someone has experience in doing so (e.g. pinning some specific packages to get most of the remaining).

Example:
I wanted to install deadbeef, but that needs ffmpeg and lib*whatever* from deb-multimedia too. Installing it may or may not wreck the system through recusive upgrades.

rolfie

Member

Registered: 2017-11-25

Posts: 1,443  

Re: Someone using the deb-multimedia repository?

Well, in the long years I have watched Debian and Devuan forums, I have seen several threads where the use of deb-multimedia packages have broken a system.

Myself I did install Acrobat Reader from deb-multimedia in the beginning of my Debian existance. That was an isolated package, the repo was enabled for the installation, and immediately afterwards it was disabled again. That starategy worked for me. Until I decided that the on board PDF tools were fine for me.

If you can, make a test installation in a disposable VM.

PedigreeCat

Member

From: Warsaw

Registered: 2026-05-08

Posts: 7  

Re: Someone using the deb-multimedia repository?

There are distributions (MX Linux, Q4OS) that use the deb-multimedia repository to install additional, non-free, or up-to-date codecs. When testing these distributions, I installed those codecs without any issues for the system. However, this operation was intentionally designed by the developers of these distributions, and the system has been appropriately adapted.

Devuan does not have this feature, and one must be careful when installing anything from the deb-multimedia repository. I add this repository to the list, install a couple of additional codecs (libdvdcss2), and then disable it.

In my humble opinion, installing larger applications from there, which entail many dependency packages (not only codecs), is asking for trouble. Installing applications is, of course, entirely possible, and I did just that when I was testing Devuan on a virtual machine.
In the long run, however, a dilemma remains: should I disable this repository and leave the packages installed from it as local/obsolete, or should I keep it enabled and update all these packages?
Especially in the latter case, you never know when the installed applications or their dependencies might need, for example, systemd or libraries/versions not present in the Devuan repository. Deb-multimedia is, after all, a multimedia repository for Debian, not Devuan.

---

Murphy was an optimist...

fanderal

Member

Registered: 2017-01-14

Posts: 135  

Re: Someone using the deb-multimedia repository?

I do much the same: enable the multimedia repo, install the pkg/s, disable the repo and put the pkg/s on hold. Used the repo a while back for a newer mpv. Took some time to get the req'd libs straight, but ~3 months later an upgrade caused glitches.

For the few times a year I play a DVD movie, the only multimedia pkg now installed is libdvdcss2. When it causes a problem and an upgrade doesn't fix it, I'll install the Devuan repo pkg (+ the 240MB of additional pkgs req'd to compile).

Using the multimedia repo for deadbeef may/may not work. If it does, it will need attention at every update.

Possible alternatives:
DeaDBeeF 1.10.2 universal deb package amd64
https://deadbeef.sourceforge.io/download.html

Alien pkg in Devuan repo: "Alien allows you to convert LSB, Red Hat, Stampede and Slackware Packages into Debian packages, which can be installed with dpkg."