Is Dragon Player broken?

Hi all,
I’m a new Linux convert as i recently got my Framework 13’ and did not want to use Windows anymore. After allot of searching i decided to go with Fedora Plasma KDE.
So far i’m loving it. IT works so very nice. All the new changes and unification of UI/UX is amazing. It shows the Desktop environment has matured since last time i tried Linux.

Any how i though i ask about Dragon Player and see if this is how its suppose to work. I play video with H264 codec and others and like 90% of them do not play on Dragon Player. Is that normal?
I had to download VLC and ffmpeg in order to play everything. I’m not sure if there is something i should be doing for Dragon Player to be as good as VLC but as a very noob linux user i would say the experience with the player is very poor. If this is how it works normally i would suggest changing to VLC so new users don’t get disappointed right out the gate.

Other things like Spectacle, Boxes work incredibly well and i use them daily. KDE need to have apps by default that just work.


IF there is anything i should have done to make the Dragon Player work as good as VLC please do let me know. Thanks!

Since you’re on Fedora, have you installed extra codecs from the Fedora repositories, as well as adding the RPM Fusion repositories? Fedora doesn’t come with all codecs because of legal issues (copyright et cetera).

I would also recommend Haruna player over Dragon player, Haruna uses libmpv and I just find it an all around better player when you’ve got all the codecs installed.

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Also try Haruna, as that is is an official KDE app and updated often.

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I have several RPM Fusion both free and non-free (think added some when installing VLC codec). Not sure why there are multiple with the same name now that i check …

This is what i did:
(added fusion repo’s) +
sudo dnf remove -y vlc ffmpeg-free
sudo dnf install -y vlc vlc-plugins-freeworld ffmpeg qt5-qtbase-gui --allowerasing

Thanks for the tips. Will try Haruna when i’m home.

Thanks will do, is it better to use flatpak or “from Fedora Linux” ?
My little understanding is that flatpak include all dependency and work like a container but correct me if wrong. Not sure which is “better” still.

FYI, it’s not strictly necessary to install the codecs from rpmfusion. After installation, after you update once, you’ll get the free codecs by default. The automatic installation happens only during the first update.

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Fedora has it’s own flatpak repository that is subject to the same legal wrangles as their other software, so for example, their own Firefox flatpak does not contain the same codecs that would be available from Flathub.

During my own install of Fedora, one of the first things I do is install all the RPM Fusion repositories and then delete Fedora’s own flatpak repository and add Flathub by itself, to avoid any cross contamination of Fedora and Flathub flatpaks.

I don’t use Discover, in fact I delete it as it just gets in the way. I do all my package management via the command line. Below is how I deal with the Flatpak issue.

# SHOW FLATPAK REPOSITORIES.
sudo flatpak remotes --show-details --show-disabled

# DELETE FEDORA FLATPAK REPOSITORIES.
sudo flatpak remote-delete fedora && sudo flatpak remote-delete fedora-testing

# ADD FLATHUB FLATPAK REPOSITORY.
sudo flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

The following is one of the first things I do on a new install for RPM Fusion;

# INSTALL DISTRIBUTION AND GPG KEYS.
sudo dnf install distribution-gpg-keys && \
sudo dnf updateinfo list && sudo dnf upgrade && \
sudo dnf install fedora-gpg-keys && \
sudo dnf updateinfo list && sudo dnf upgrade

# IMPORT RPM FUSION GPG KEYS.
sudo rpmkeys --import /usr/share/distribution-gpg-keys/rpmfusion/RPM-GPG-KEY-rpmfusion-free-fedora-$(rpm -E %fedora) && \
sudo rpmkeys --import /usr/share/distribution-gpg-keys/rpmfusion/RPM-GPG-KEY-rpmfusion-nonfree-fedora-$(rpm -E %fedora)

# INSTALL RPM FUSION REPOSITORIES.
sudo dnf --setopt=localpkg_gpgcheck=1 install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm && \
sudo dnf updateinfo list && sudo dnf upgrade && \
sudo dnf --setopt=localpkg_gpgcheck=1 install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm && \
sudo dnf updateinfo list && sudo dnf upgrade && \
sudo dnf --setopt=localpkg_gpgcheck=1 install rpmfusion-free-release-tainted
sudo dnf updateinfo list && sudo dnf upgrade && \
sudo dnf --setopt=localpkg_gpgcheck=1 install rpmfusion-nonfree-release-tainted
sudo dnf updateinfo list && sudo dnf upgrade

The first block installs GPG keys for a whole bunch of products and packages. The second block imports the GPG keys for RPM Fusion. The third block installs the RPM Fusion repositories, including the “tainted” repositories and carries out a GPG check for them.

Later on in my install process I will add the hardware accelerated codecs from RPM Fusion for my hardware (which is all AMD) doing the following;

# SWAP AMD HARDWARE ACCELERATED CODECS.
sudo dnf swap mesa-va-drivers mesa-va-drivers-freeworld && \
sudo dnf swap mesa-vdpau-drivers mesa-vdpau-drivers-freeworld

If you’re on Intel hardware you can do the following.

sudo dnf install intel-media-driver

The following will add the 32 bit and 64 bit hardware codecs for NVIDIA.

sudo dnf install libva-nvidia-driver.{i686,x86_64}

Then I swap the crippled Fedora ffmpeg packages, for the full fat ffmpeg package from RPM Fusion with;

# SWAP FFMPEG PACKAGES.
sudo dnf swap ffmpeg-free ffmpeg --allowerasing

And then I install ALL THE CODECS! so that there’s pretty much nothing I can’t play.

# INSTALL EXTRA MULTIMEDIA CODECS, LIBRARIES AND TOOLS.
sudo dnf install dvd+rw-tools dvdauthor dvdbackup flac \
ffmpeg ffmpegthumbnailer ffmpegthumbs \
gstreamer-plugin-crystalhd gstreamer-plugins-espeak \
gstreamer1 gstreamer1-plugin-dav1d gstreamer1-plugin-fallbackswitch \
gstreamer1-plugin-fmp4 gstreamer1-plugin-gif gstreamer1-plugin-gtk4 \
gstreamer1-plugin-hsv gstreamer1-plugin-json gstreamer1-plugin-libav \
gstreamer1-plugin-livesync gstreamer1-plugin-mp4 gstreamer1-plugin-openh264 \
gstreamer1-plugin-reqwest gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free \
gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free-extras gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free-fluidsynth \
gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free-libs gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free-lv2 \
gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free-wildmidi gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free-zbar \
gstreamer1-plugins-bad-freeworld gstreamer1-plugins-base \
gstreamer1-plugins-fc gstreamer1-plugins-good gstreamer1-plugins-good-extras \
gstreamer1-plugins-good-gtk gstreamer1-plugins-good-qt \
gstreamer1-plugins-good-qt6 gstreamer1-plugins-ugly \
gstreamer1-plugins-ugly-free gstreamer1-rtsp-server \
gstreamer1-svt-vp9 gstreamer1-vaapi \
libdvdcss libbluray sidplayfp xmp

Do I need all those codecs? No. But I haven’t come across anything I can’t play yet. You can probably skip sidplayfp and xmp as I use them for playback of tracker/chiptune/old computer formats.

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Awesome info. I will make this scrip in my new installation script :smiley:

vampyren@Shadowking:~$ sudo flatpak remotes --show-details --show-disabled
Place your right index finger on the fingerprint reader

Name           Title                     URL                                            Collection ID Subset Filter Priority Options             … … Homepage             Icon
fedora         Fedora Flatpaks           oci+https://registry.fedoraproject.org         -             -      -      1        system,oci          … … -                    -
fedora-testing Fedora Flatpaks (testing) oci+https://registry.fedoraproject.org#testing -             -      -      1        system,disabled,oci … … -                    -
flathub        Flathub                   https://dl.flathub.org/repo/                   -             -      -      1        system              … … https://flathub.org/ https://dl.flathub.org/repo/logo.svg

I did not know there were 2 version of flatpak even :smiley:
I now moved pretty much everything to regular flatpak repo. Meld has newer version on fedora flatpak so i keep it for now :slight_smile:

Name                                  Application ID                            Origin
Discord                               com.discordapp.Discord                    flathub
FileZilla                             org.filezillaproject.Filezilla            flathub
Meld                                  org.gnome.Meld                            fedora
KeePassXC                             org.keepassxc.KeePassXC                   flathub
ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors            org.onlyoffice.desktopeditors             flathub
Telegram                              org.telegram.desktop                      flathub
Insomnia                              rest.insomnia.Insomnia                    flathub

And tried the driver, i have AMD AI 370 on the laptop and nvidia 4090 on pc (which is in the shop but plan to run linux on it so thanks allot for the info on both drivers)

vampyren@Shadowking:~$ rpm -q mesa-va-drivers mesa-va-drivers-freeworld mesa-vdpau-drivers mesa-vdpau-drivers-freeworld
mesa-va-drivers-25.1.4-2.fc42.x86_64
package mesa-va-drivers-freeworld is not installed
package mesa-vdpau-drivers is not installed
package mesa-vdpau-drivers-freeworld is not installed
vampyren@Shadowking:~$

Will install this now and see if i notice any improvement on video playback and other things…
sudo dnf install mesa-vdpau-drivers-freeworld

Again thanks allot for the awesome and comprehensive guided. This info should be pinned for noobs like me :smiley: