3. MPlayer

Your system might have MPlayer installed already. Type mplayer at a shell prompt. If you get bash: mplayer: not found, read on. If you get lots of text (output from MPlayer), skip to the next chapter.

This is a quick walk-through on getting and installing MPlayer. Some basic knowledge on Linux, the shell prompt, and compiling programs from source is assumed. If you're uncomfortable with this, ask a knowledgeable friend, or consult the many information sources on the internet (don't ask me).

If you get stuck, or the configuration or compilation of MPlayer stops with an error (only warnings may be ok), please be sure to read the MPlayer documentation.

It is assumed that you use the v0.90rc2 version of MPlayer. This is current at the time of writing of this mini-HOWTO. If you use a different version, package names, directory names, etc. may differ from what they're called here.

3.1 Getting MPlayer

Download the latest MPlayer source package here. Use one of the HTTP or FTP mirrors listed for 'MPlayer v0.90rc2 source'.

3.2 Installing MPlayer

• Unpack the source with: tar jxvf MPlayer-0.90rc2.tar.bz2
• Change directory to the just unpacked directory with: cd MPlayer-0.90rc2
• Configure the source with: ./configure --enable-gui
  Watch the output from configure carefully, it might give you hints about missing libraries, etc. If there are any, install them and rerun configure
• Compile the source with: make
• If the make process completes successfully, become root and install MPlayer with: make install

If something doesn't work, please be sure to read the MPlayer documentation.

Also note that the development versions of some required packages will need to be installed too (that's mentioned in the MPlayer documentation, but is repeated here for completeness). For example, besides the XFree86 package, you will need XFree86-devel installed.

3.3 Installing the default MPlayer GUI skin

To be able to use the MPlayer GUI, you must have a skin installed. To install the default skin:

• Download the default skin here
  Look under 'Skins' and download default.tar.bz2
• Become root and change directory to the MPlayer skin directory with: cd /usr/local/share/mplayer/Skin
• Unpack the downloaded skin here with: tar jxvf /path/to/default.tar.bz2

3.4 Installing the Windows codecs pack

• Download the Win32 codecs pack here
  Look under 'MPlayer download' for 'Win32 codecs' and download w32codec.tar.bz2
• Become root and change directory to /usr/lib with: cd /usr/lib
• Unpack the downloaded codecs pack here with: tar jxvf /path/to/w32codec.tar.bz2
• Rename the unpacked directory from w32codec-0.90 to win32 with: mv w32codec-0.90 win32
• Kai Klopper (terrapin2001@hotmail.com ) reports that the codecs at http://avifile.sourceforge.net/Win32_dmo.tgz are also needed for viewing, but I haven't had time to test this myself.

3.5 Testing your installation

Test drive your installation with something like: gmplayer ./MyVideos/MyFavouriteMovie.avi
If you get a window playing the movie: you're on! Press q to quit MPlayer and move on to the next chapter.
If not, re-read this chapter. Re-read the MPlayer documentation. Read it again. Ask a friend. Don't ask me ;-)