32bit multimedia software on 64bit Linux?

[Art Edwards]

I'm still running edgy on a 64-bit amd laptop (waiting for upgrade
issues to be truly resolved!). However, I use a 32-bit chroot. This is a
separate directory that sits under one of the 64-bit file systems where
a complete, though small, set of 32-bit applications runs. There are
some nice directions for setting up 32-bit chroots on the ubuntu forums.
Google 32-bit chroot ubuntu. Using the 32-bit firefox I get flash9
operability. I have not tried installing Xine there yet.

Art Edwards

Florin Andrei wrote:
> One thing that kept me from using 64 bit Linux was multimedia.
> 
> In order to play certain proprietary media formats, one method was to 
> use Xine or Mplayer and drop a collection of Windows DLLs (codecs) in 
> /usr/lib/win32 which Xine/Mplayer were able to use to decode those formats.
> Obviously, that won't work on a 64 bit Linux OS - in that case, one 
> technique that I've seen was to install the 32 bit versions of Xine or 
> Mplayer, along with all the 32 bit libraries needed by those 
> applications, then use the 32 bit versions of the players, along with 
> the Win32 codecs, to play the proprietary formats.
> 
> Also, 64 bit Flash is still not available. I've seen the same technique 
> used to work around this problem: install 32 bit Firefox along with all 
> the necessary 32 bit libraries, then install the 32 bit Flash.
> 
> I just tested 32 bit Ubuntu 7.04 on an AMD64 system and it works fine, 
> including multimedia. If I install the 64 bit version instead of the 
> current one, what do I have to do to make sure I'll be able to play all 
> the multimedia content that the current 32 bit OS is able to play? It's 
> mostly 3 types of content that I'm worried about:
> 
> 1. Proprietary media files such as WMV, QuickTime, Real Video
> 2. Flash
> 3. Java applets (OK, this is not strictly "multimedia" but it matters to 
> me and it's in the same 32-vs-64 bit conundrum)
> 
> I think there is a 64 bit version of Java that might work fine (although 
> I never tried it until now), but I'm not sure about #1 and #2.
>