Autorun in linux....

[loseyourself]

i make divx dvd rips.......i want to make 2 autorun files on my cd's as my friends use linux and windows....windows uses autorun.inf for its autorun file but what does linux use??? i have never used linux, i want to but i have had numerous troubles in the past installing it as it freezes on my....i must be cursed.....

[shadowcat45]

Nothing

is the answer. Per default, a CD put into the drive is not even accessible, it must be mounted first. Luckily for people not looking deeper, this command (mount) is executed when they click on their CD-Rom Icon on their Desktop. Mandrake e.g. goes behind this with supermount, which copies the Windows behaviour, but i don't know if this includes processing autorun.inf.

Thus, IMHO you should abandon autostart for Linux. It is not the world to click on the movie, where on newer distributions and desktops, the right application for the corresponding mime-type will play it (e.g. mplayer, which plays most videos, also DivX. It can even use some Windows Codecs (DLLs) to play things like Sorenson Quicktime).

What you could do, of course, is adding a README.txt which e.g. points to mplayer, if the people have trouble opening the files (http://www.mplayerhq.hu). A short description, which codec you have used (there are several DivX versions) could also help.
Best would be to test the playability under Linux, but without having it its hard to achieve, thus a readme should be sufficient.

[sterno]

A readme file is definitely the best way to go, but I would suggest including instructions on how to play the disc in Windows too. I think almost all of the Windows users I know disable autorun because it's such a pain in the ass.