installing a program system wide
 

Hi :)

I need to compile mplayer for my ubuntu gutsy (to apply some patch), and would like to know what is the best way to do things !

First, I would like to install it system wide, but don't know WHERE to install it so it will replace the default mplayer package (I am not sure but wouldn't it be better for compatibility with other programs made to work with the default mplayer package ?)

A second problem is that if I try to remove mplayer via aptitude, it asks me to remove other packages which need it. Will they work if I ignore this warning and make install the sources ? Or should I remove them, and reinstall them after I installed with the sources ?


Thanks :)

don't overwrite, remove the old one and install the new one. the defualt settings won't matter, in reality thing slike the mplayer binary itself will probably go to /usr/local/bin from source, as opposed to /usr/bin from the deb pacakge, but that really doesn't actually matter at all for the way you would use the system. just run "./configure" and "make" as your normal user then "sudo make install" to do the install itself as root. don't pay attention to where things go, it'll be fine.

ok, I thought it would install it locally by default (ie in the same directory as the sources)..

About the other packages' problem, I will ignore it and see if it works afterwards :p If not I hope reinstalling them will work with the customized mplayer ^^"


edit : installed it normally (as you said), but have a problem I feared : I uninstalled mplayer beforehand, and thus had to uninstall mozilla-mplayer too, but now I can't reinstall mozilla-mplayer without reinstalling the mplayer package :P
Is there a way to force aptitude/apt-get to ignore this recommendation ?? (as it's supposed to work with the compilled mplayer)

i don't wear sandals so i'm not that familiar with deb package management, but dpkg has a --force-depends option which would presumably let you install it regardless. that's direct dpkg though, not apt-get.