Dominik hello. Thank you for your time and clarification. Happy New Year! > Assuming you're running OpenSUSE, that's where you went off track. > You should always use the distribution-provided tools for software > installation. Well thanks, I agree, but if the repositories and installation disks are blank for the requested subject then you really are left with doing it manually: Entering mplayer into yast2 results in no results which sent me down the path I outlined. >> So then I try to download the svn source: svn checkout >> svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/mplayer/trunk mplayer >> >> Nothing happens. Yes, I have all the svn modules installed, but it just >> hangs. > > How long have you waited? It works fine here. Your firewall might be blocking > the svn:// protocol. Thanks, google gives me http://svn.haxx.se/users/archive-2007-02/0443.shtml: > the svn:// protocol uses port 3690 Well of course. I should have known that... :-) So based on this tip, I opened TCP port 3690 and tried again here: svn checkout svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/mplayer/trunk mplayer and now it downloads a long list of files to /root/mplayer. Running {{{./configure}}} as root results in a list of loaded and disabled codecs. Then running make goes on for a very long time, like about 15 minutes. {{{make install}}} is instantaneous. Phew. So now it works. Thanks for the clue: The clue is: *** svn is a protocol that requires opening port 3690. As this is well beyond the first 1024 common ports it requires some kind of awareness, not some dude just wanting to play music... :-) >> A work in progress. >> >> We need to do a lot better. > > Perhaps. Any constructive suggestions? Well, it depends on what we are trying to do. IF it is art for arts sake then we proceed on course. If it is to offer free software (with all its philosophical and ethical implications) as an alternative to inferior proprietary offerings then we need to make it a lot easier. I am neither a newbie nor a novice in computers, development, or even Linux administration. But I clearly was ignorant of svn. Never heard of it. I know CVS but had not stumbled across svn, nor its requirement for opening a firewall port. In terms of constructive: I guess my point is that it really needs to be a lot easier than presented by the homepage and download sites. How about adding a paragraph on the download page to the effect of the following, now posted on my blog page (http://genietvanhetleven.blogspot.com/) feel free to copy: =============================== MPLAYER DOWNLOAD AND INSTALLATION FOR DUMMIES 1. Always try to download mplayer using your distribution's software manager: | Distro | Manager| |OpenSuse | YaST | |Fedora | yum | |Debian |apt| |Ubuntu | ~| If these fail then add the "packman" repository to your manager: http://opensuse-community.org/Package_Sources/Packman (see that page). If you are using OpenSuSE 11.1 then issue the following command as root (all one line): zypper addrepo --repo http://packman.mirrors.skynet.be/pub/packman/suse/11.1/Packman.repo and then try again by asking YaST for mplayer. It should give you a host of modules, select them all and click ACCEPT. If that fails then the best answer is to use the ''svn'' repository. ''svn'' is a process ("protocol") for frequently updating the status and files of a software project, such as mplayer. Developers submit daily changes to the component files. The files are accessed by using the program ''svn'', which may already have been installed on your machine by your installation system. Type svn help as root at a terminal to determine whether or not it exists, and if not then install it. Once installed, svn uses a unique internet permissions protocol, called a "port", to access the updated files. Your firewall needs to give permission for the port to be seen and accessed by servers on the internet. Otherwise svn cannot find its target. "Guarddog" from http://www.simonzone.com/ is an excellent tool to configure your firewall. You can add "ports" in the Advanced tab of the program, then tick the boxes in the Protocol tab for Internet, local and your local network. Check your results with https://www.grc.com/ (using the ShieldsUp! option) to ensure you have not exposed yourself by opening this port. Once past all that housekeeping, simply enter the following commands in sequence in a terminal //as root//: svn checkout svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/mplayer/trunk mplayer # This will download the main software and most of its dependencies and associated codecs. It will not get ALL of them... :-( cd /root/mplayer # This moves you to where the files have been downloaded ./configure # This is the normal start of an installation sequence that creates a "makefile" summary of all the files that need to be installed make # This uses the results of ./configure to compile the program make install # This installs the program. Test your result by typing mplayer as either user or root. For the explorers among you, this site seems to say it all: http://linux.justinhartman.com/FFmpeg,_FFmpeg-PHP,_Lame,_Libogg,_Libvorbis,_FLVtool2,_Mplayer,_Mencoder,_AMR_Installation#Download_all_the_files_needed If it works, Enjoy! If it doesn't, then have a nice day. Google is your friend. Consider joining: "MPlayer usage questions, feature requests, bug reports" <mplayer-users@xxxxxxxxxxxx> =============================== How's THAT for constructive? :-) The rest is mooted by these discoveries, thanks, but for the record: In OpenSUSE's case, you should add packman's repository > to your software sources list and install MPlayer via yast or zypper, > either of which should resolve the dependencies and download them all. Um, how do I do that? There is nothing on the homepage about doing this. Googling "packman repository" does show me where to go, and I successfully do so, and yast2 installs ALMOST all the modules ( >> OK, now try for a tar ball. First check the repository: >> http://svn.mplayerhq.hu/mplayer/trunk/ >> nothing visible there. > > MPlayer nightly snapshots are linked from the download page. You must've > missed them. Thanks again, I agree, but what does it take to not miss them. I'm at the homepage http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html If the links are not on the download page then where //are// they? I then go to the repository http://svn.mplayerhq.hu/mplayer/trunk/ and see no entries. I try to add it to yast2 as a http repository, but yast replies Unable to create repository from URL http://svn.mplayerhq.hu I then enter the server and directory as an explicit repository but it gets saved as a "service" rather than a "repository". I then tell yast to search for repositories filtered on (severally) svn and mplayer, but it does not find anything. So there is something afoul in Finland (or Hungary) that this cannot be added as a repository to YaST in the straightforward manner... > >> So then I try a bz2 source archive: All kinds of googling, no joy, but >> FINALLY I find >> http://linux.justinhartman.com/FFmpeg,_FFmpeg-PHP,_Lame,_Libogg,_Libvorbis,_FLVtool2,_Mplayer,_Mencoder,_AMR_Installation#Download_all_the_files_needed >> >> What a joy. >> >> But alas subversion fails again. >> This is an exhaustive (and exhausting) site, again well past my currently available skills and resources (time). So, in summary, I think embedding the above snippet or simply pointing folks to my blog would solve the problem for a lot of people. So again, bottom line, while I have solved MY problem, thanks to your tip, the homepage needs to be more expositional. Perhaps my "constructive" offering above may help. Thank you for YOUR time in replying. Kind regards, Andy _______________________________________________ MPlayer-users mailing list MPlayer-users@xxxxxxxxxxxx https://lists.mplayerhq.hu/mailman/listinfo/mplayer-users
