hello can someone tell me how run .avi,.dat,.mp3,.wav files on linux does i have to download any codec for it or what should i do thanx in advance bye

Hi, One player that I can recommend that handles all the formats u've mentioned, is mplayer. It's very good software and is available for download from: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/ If u have an rpm based system like redhat or mandrake then u're in luck, u can just download pre-compiled binaries as rpm's and install it directly. If however u have to/ want to compile from source.. then **READ the installation manual carefully** and go ahead. Another good player is xine. U can get it at: http://xine.sourceforge.net/ again, there are pre-compiled binaries that u should consider if u have not too much experience with linux. Good Luck! Kannan