[MPlayer-users] help! mplayer crashes linux

[The Wanderer]

Brian Mueller wrote:

> I am using MPlayer 1.0pre8-Fedora-GS-4.1.1 Fedora Core 5.

This is three releases old, and even the latest release is old enough
that it is unlikely to receive much support from the developers. At the
least, you should install 1.0rc2; if at all possible, you should
download and compile the latest SVN version.

The problem you describe sounds like an instability in some other part
of your system; MPlayer should not be able to cause your system to hang
unless there is a bug somewhere else. A different VO method might help;
then again, it might not.

When the machine is frozen, do e.g. the Num Lock and Caps Lock keys
still toggle their lights, or are those frozen too?

If the former, you would probably be able to connect to your machine via
SSH and kill MPlayer, and it should then become possible to use the
machine again. If the latter, then your machine is severely hung, and
most likely a power-cycle is the only viable method.

One thing you might try, if updating to a more recent version and/or
trying a different VO method does not help, is to dump MPlayer's output
into a file ('mplayer filename &> /path/to/file') and then, after
reboot, see what the text output was. It might also help us diagnose
what the problem is.

-- 
    The Wanderer

    My usual .sig is on vacation while I adjust to my new computer