mplayer in mandrake

[Jay_one]

having probls setting up mplayer with gui
heres the steps i took:

1. decompressed the tar.bz2 file.
2. ./configure
3. make install
4. make

This worked.
But i realised it had no GUI

so i downloaded a skin.
took the following steps with the skin.
1. decompressed the tar.gz
2. ./configure
3. make install
4. make

This semed to work.
But then i realised, when configuring mplayer, i was supposed to add --enable-gui to ./configure to enable the gui for mplayer.

i tried starting again.
i tried ./configure --enable-gui

then it says i need libpng and libpng-dev

so i went to the libpng website, got hold of both, but don't have a clue how to install them, its gone through one ear and out the other. i don't have a clue!

someone said mplayer was one of the simplest media players to install. all i want is to watch dvd's and video files!!!

why is this so complex!!

can someone help me out please.

cheers.

[lakerdonald]

Well for starts, you're doing things in the wrong order:

make

then

make install

[Jay_one]

i did it in the order, but wrote that wrong lol.

but how do i install libpng

[serz]

The steps for compiling are always the same.

./configure
make
make install

Try to install a package for your distro so you don't have to compile everything..

[fingal]

someone said mplayer was one of the simplest media players to install. all i want is to watch dvd's and video files!!!

Just my opinion of course, but I don't think that's true at all! It's a good program when it's running, hell when it's not. Reading the manual is a job in itself.

In my view, you would be better with Xine as a binary (already compiled). Then all you need to do is compile libdvdcss and libdvdread libraries into /usr/lib ... Careful, as by default they install into /usr/local/lib Try here http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/groups/dvd/downloads.shtml Maybe Xine or Kaffeine (a Xine clone) ships with your distro?

Those libraries are quite small and have few dependencies, so not too hard. Mplayer carries the above libraries within its source code (I think) but personally and IMHO, trying to get it running is a waste of your time. Still, trying would be a good exercise for you

[bigtomrodney]

If you're using 10.1 then Kaffeine ships with it. I'd recommend it cos if I remember correctly it's a frontend for both MPlayer and Kaffeine. They should be on your install media, just go to MCC and hte packaging centre.

[Jay_one]

kaffine doesn't seem to play dvd's though.

[jeremy1701]

If Kaffeine won't play DVD's, neither will mplayer. You should install libdvdcss and libdvdread. Setup urpmi to include plf and then you can easily install software via the command line.

http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/

Jeremy

[AkiL Mussá]

Check this MPlayer installation/configuration tutorial:
http://ghaefb.fedorausers.org/howto01.html

Maybe it can help you

[springshades]

Definitely go with what Jeremy said. You need the codecs to play the dvd, it's very likely that mplayer is already installed on your computer. (If not sure, go to /usr/bin and look for a file called mplayer). Setting up the Mandrake package manager is THE way to go for installing software in this distro. I'm sure there are plenty of people who just LOVE compiling programs from scratch and then sifting through the entire internet to find the 3 or 4 packages they need to fulfill dependencies, but if you don't have to, then why? You'll have to add the media in the package manager, but there are direction on how to do that at the link that Jeremy gave. After that, you just find the packages you want, click install, perhaps pop your distro cd into the tray, then sit back as your computer downloads everything it needs and installs everything by itself. Check in the tutorials on this website for a good walk through of how to install things in Mandrake.