After ./configure; make; and make install all ran ERROR FREE...Mplayer won't load!!!

I get this when I run Mplayer:

That is followed by a list of Basic Options and Basic Keys.

A couple things I notice: /usr/local/etc/mplayer does not have a mplayer.conf file...why? It does however have a condecs.conf file. I don't have a /root/.mplayer directory...again, why? Shouldn't this stuff be there after having configured and installed Mplayer?

Man, this program is KILLING me!!!!

Did I do something wrong? Is there more that needs to be tweaked? Any help, greatly appreciated...and yes, I've used search and cannot locate answers that have resolved anything.

Did you specify a media file to play? Cause unless you're using the gui it won't stay running unless you do. That's what looks like is happening since it gives the usage thing.

The directories and files should be there unless you installed as a user. I've never had problems with compiling and installing it so I don't really know what to tell you beyond that.

i'd strongly suggest you actually *read* the messages there.... see the man page and documentation for more information.

I don't see anything wrong here. Those are all normal messages unless you set up special configurations for MPlayer to use. The problem here is that you are trying to start MPlayer from the command line like you could Xine without a file to play. By default, MPlayer's user interface works in command line only mode, which means that if you don't give it a file, it has nothing to put up on the screen. If you do give it a file, then it displays the video of your file, but it does not display a gui. If you want to use a gui, you need to start it with gmplayer. Be warned, though, that you need more things installed and configured for the gui to work than you do for the command line interface. If you don't have a skin and fonts configured correctly for it, it won't work.

OK...so now. I've reconfigured and installed Mplayer with --enable-gui

So, when I try to launch gmplayer...it can't find <default skin>...I've downloaded skins, and from what I've gathered I need to edit gui.conf in order to tell it which skin to load.

Here's my only problem. THE ONLY .CONF file I can find is codecs.conf!! No mplayer.conf and no gui.conf!!!!

I am so starting to hate this friggin' thing so bad.

Any help?

try putting the skins in ~/.mplayer/Skin

gui.conf should be in ~/.mplayer/
when you try to run gmplayer it'll tell you if it's there or not. Create it if it's not there and set
gui_skin = "SkinName"