How to install H.264 and DTS codecs?

Hi dear members of Qubes community,

This is my first post, and I have been using Qubes OS for a day now. As a high school student, I can say that it is so functional. I used to use Mint, Fedora and recently Debian; Qubes OS feels like that “perfect solution”. Long story short; this project is so valuable.

My question is that how can I install H.264 and DTS codecs in a spesific domain which is meant to not connect to the Internet. I use it offline, but I wanted to try whether or not I can watch a movie for example. Can installing VLC Media Player solve it? If so, how to install it?

I appreciate any help or any tips on any subject. Also, I’d be happy if you, as reading this, can correct my grammar/vocabulary mistakes since English isn’t my native language.

Thanks for helping me,

Finch

Hi, great that you like Qubes!

Depending on what you mean by spesific domain which is meant to not connect to the Internet, there are options:

  1. AppVMs get their root filesystem from another qube (template qube), Fedora or Debian, by default. This is how Qubes OS isolation works. So you can have offline AppVM and install anything you need on its TemplateVM. You can find instructions how to install the codecs in the documentation.
  2. You can always copy and move files between qubes to copy the necessary packages and install them manually if you are talking about StandaloneVM.

Thanks for such a quick reply. I wasn’t aware of interoperability (?) of TemplateVMs.

It is not Standalone VM, but it doesn’t matter as I now understand; a VM that I created, and I disabled its “networking” when creating it.

Hi @haroldfinch! Welcome to Qubes!

The following guide may help:

Then you just have to make the qube offline. This is simply by going to the qube’s settings and and setting the Networking to none.

Good luck!


edit: @fsflover’s response is great advice for actually understanding the workings of Qubes (which I recommend). Spend some afternoons reading the docs is my recommendation :slight_smile: