[MPlayer-users] "Couldn't open /dev/3dfx"

[Geoff Stanbury]

Hi.  I apologize if this has come up before, either in the mailing list or in documentation.  If it has, however, I haven't been able to find it.

I've got a Voodoo3, and, even after building all of the modules (tdfx.o, tdfxfb.o, 3dfx.o) and other support that I could find references to, I still can't get MPlayer to play anything; MPlayer starts loading the file, and then exits with the message "Couldn't open /dev/3dfx".  It'll then stop displaying anything that I type into the xterm, but it'll respond appropriately.

Initially, my linux system (kernel 2.4.18) didn't have a /dev/3dfx, but after reading snippets of various docs, I created the device file:

geoff:/$ ls -l /dev/3dfx
crw-r--r--    1 root     admin    120,   0 Apr 24 01:21 /dev/3dfx

But that didn't seem to change anything.

Does anybody know what exactly the problem is, and/or what the solution is?  Thanks a lot for your help.  

--Geoff

P.S.  Here's the entire output when I try opening something in MPlayer:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
geoff:~/movies$ mplayer swhigh.mov 


MPlayer 0.90pre1.1-2.95.3 (C) 2000-2002 Arpad Gereoffy (see DOCS!)

CPU vendor name: AuthenticAMD  max cpuid level: 1
CPU: Advanced Micro Devices Athlon TB Thunderbird (Type: 6, Stepping: 4)
extended cpuid-level: 6
CPUflags: Type: 6 MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 0 SSE2: 0
Compiled with RUNTIME CPU Detection - warning, it's not optimal! To get best performance, recompile mplayer from sources with --disable-runtime-cpudetection
vo: X11 running at 1024x768 with depth 16 and 16 bits/pixel (":0.0" => local display)
Reading /home/geoff/.mplayer/codecs.conf: 31 audio & 81 video codecs
font: can't open file: /home/geoff/.mplayer/font/font.desc
font: can't open file: /usr/local/share/mplayer/font/font.desc
Linux RTC init error: Permission denied
Using usleep() timing
Can't open input config file /home/geoff/.mplayer/input.conf : No such file or directory
Falling back on default (hardcoded) config
SKIN dir 1: '/home/geoff/.mplayer/Skin'
SKIN dir 2: '/usr/local/share/mplayer/Skin'
[ws] Display name: :0.0 => local display.
[ws] Screen depth: 16
[ws]  size: 1024x768
[ws]  red mask: 0xf800
[ws]  green mask: 0x7e0
[ws]  blue mask: 0x1f
[ws] XShm version is 1.1
[ws] XShape version is 1.0
[ws] Initialized converter: rgb32 to rgb16
[ws] atomname: _VIDEO_REMOTE
[ws] window is created. ( ViDEO ).
[ws] atomname: _MPLAYER_REMOTE
[ws] window is created. ( MPlayer ).
[ws] atomname: _MPLAYER_MENU_REMOTE
[ws] window is created. ( MPlayer menu ).
Playing swhigh.mov
Can't open IFO file: No such file or directory
Not an URL!
Detected QuickTime/MOV file format!
MOV track: 554 chunks, 2078 samples
pts=84000  scale=600  time=140.000
*** depht = 0x18
Image size: 320 x 240 (24 bpp)
Display size: 320 x 240
Fourcc: cvid  Codec: 'Cinepak Codec by Radius'
--------------
MOV track: 280 chunks, 0 samples
pts=3087000  scale=22050  time=140.000
Audio bits: 16  chans: 1
Audio sample rate: 22050
Fourcc: twos
--------------
Quicktime Clip Info:
[V] filefmt:7  fourcc:0x64697663  size:320x240  fps:15.00  ftime:=0.0667
Detected audio codec: [pcm] drv:2 (Uncompressed PCM)
Selecting Audio Decoder: [pcm] Uncompressed PCM audio decoder
AUDIO: srate=22050  chans=1  bps=2  sfmt=0x10  ratio: 44100->44100
==========================================================================
Opening Video Decoder: [vfw] Win32/VfW video codecs
VDec: vo config request - 320 x 240, Packed YUY2  
[PP] Using codec's postprocessing, max q = 9
Couldn't find matching colorspace - retrying with -vop scale...
SwScale: -1 x -1
Movie-Aspect is undefined - no prescaling applied.
SwScale scaling 320x240 BGR 24-bit to 320x240 Planar YV12  
SwScaler: using unscaled BGR 24-bit -> Planar YV12 special converter
REQ: flags=0x401  req=0x0  
VO: [3dfx] 320x240 => 320x240 Planar YV12 
Couldn't open /dev/3dfx
geoff:~/movies$