[MPlayer-users] rtc question; conf problems solved

[Stephen Stocker]

>Ok, here's what finally worked. I changed the permissions back for
>/usr/local/bin/mplayer. I wasn't going to add my own personal group to
>/dev/rtc; that would only be a stopgap solution because I'd still be in
>the same predicament if for  some reason I added another user. I did try
>doing chgrp and using audio; this time I got a little different error and
>was told to add the echo line to my startup scripts--different than what
>had been in the error report before. So I did two things. first, I left
>/dev/rtc as it was as far as being "root root" but I changed the
>permissions from 660 (that's what they were on my machine) to 664.
>secondly, I added the echo line to /etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh. chuck's
>solution was part of what I needed to do because while you can echo that
>line, it will I believe revert when you reboot if you don't have it in
>your startup scripts. I rebooted and this worked; I did try going back to
>the original 660 permissions for /dev/rtc and as soon as I logged out and
>back in it wouldn't work so this was necessary for me apparently.
>
>Btw, the warning/error about "unable to open /dev/rtc" isn't purely
>diagnostic from what I read in the faq. This message means that rtc is not
>being used and that your system has to fall back to something less
>efficient. so no, it doesn't bring mplayer to a grinding halt, but it
>appears to me that it is still preferable to get rtc usage if possible.
>
>I do appreciate everybody's help and advice with this problem. Stefan's
>warning is also well taken. However, while we can advise each other, it is
>up to each of us to make our own decision as to what we will do on our
>machines; to become all-caps adamant about what a person should or should
>not do isn't really helpful. You can warn me calmly, clearly and
>respectfully  of the risks of taking
>certain actions, and that is appreciated, but ultimately it's my decision
>to make.
>Thanks.
>
>--
>Cheryl
>
>"Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Well, I'm glad it's working OK, whatever it took! :) 

That suid root vulnerability is a potential security risk, *if* you're
running your own ISP or have other users on the machine whom you can't
trust, for whatever reason. Other than that, it seems to have taken on
the scope of another urban legend. Running svgalib as my only graphics
display, anything using it (or anything requiring realtime scheduling)
has to be set uid root, so I ended up doing a lot of reading on it. The
consensus seemed to be that, for a single user machine, it's a
non-issue. Four years with no problems would seem to bear that out.

Oh well, I posted the above for anyone who may get spooked by these
dire warnings, and I hope it's taken in the spirit in which it's
intended.

Steve