VLC not playing DVD and can't install libdvd-pkg in 20.10

Question

It comes up with message "Are you trying to play dvd without libdvdcss?" I have tried all the command line fixes listed including the one that says it's for Ubuntu 20 but all return variations on "not found". What am i missing? Screen grab was taken from response and cut/pasted directly into terminal

Answer 1

libdvd-pkg is in the multiverse repository; you need to enable that.

:~$apt policy libdvd-pkg
libdvd-pkg:
  Installed: 1.4.2-1-1
  Candidate: 1.4.2-1-1
  Version table:
 *** 1.4.2-1-1 500
        500 [redacted]/us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/multiverse amd64 Packages
        500 [redacted]/us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/multiverse i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

On my system (not 20.10) this can be done on the "Software and Updates" page.

After enabling multiverse, you will have to enter the following two commands one by one.

sudo apt install libdvd-pkg
sudo dpkg-reconfigure libdvd-pkg

Answer 2

Have since found that you must "Open DVD" not an individual file on said DVD. VLC works if you do that doh!

Answer 3

Normally you should be asked what to do when inserting a DVD. If you are not, check the file manager settings.

Otherwise the command vlc dvd:// should run the DVD. You could associate that command with a shortcut, or create a launcher for it. If Gedit is your text editor (if you are in Ubuntu proper - Gnome), do this:

• Create the folder ~/.local./share/applications (CTRL+h to see hidden files and folders)

• Open terminal and run gedit ~/.local./share/applications/start_dvd_vlc (that should open the newly created file ~/.local./share/applications/start_dvd_vlc. If it doesn't then you have another text editor; you can replace gedit with that or install gedit with sudo apt install gedit).

Paste this:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Play DVD in VLC media player
Exec=vlc dvd://
Icon=vlc
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=AudioVideo;Player;Recorder;
Keywords=Player;Capture;DVD;Audio;Video;Server;Broadcast;

If you want a different icon for that, change the Icon line to the path to your icon. Take a look here. This might work:

Or this:

Save the file.

If you are interested in using other players, see this.

Use application launcher (Super key) with "VLC" or "DVD" to find the launcher "Play DVD in VLC media player".

I'm in Xfce, so it looks like this:

In Xfce, the Whisker Menu launcher can add a separate new "search action" that can run any command, including those discussed above: