Mplayer has been giving me a rough time
 

I keep getting "audio_setup: Can't open audio device /dev/dsp: Device or resource busy"

In terminal mode mplayer is able to find another way to play audio somehow.

When in GUI mode it just tells me that audio cannot be played.

I went ahead and checked the device permissions and got:

crw--------- 1 aeka root 14, 3 Jan 30 2:24 /dev/dsp

is this right? If not how do I go about changing permissions. I'm trying to get back in the game of linux and havent used it since 99.

thanks.

you're using kde or gnome which use a full sound server and have permanent use of dsp. you need to output the sound via that server (or stop that server of course) so need arts (kde) or esd (gnome) output for mplayer (-ao esd)

holy crap, thanks! -ao arts worked PERFECTLY!

now for my next question. I remember there being a way to make a link file so I dont have to type in -ao arts all the time. I just forgot how to make one and where to put it.

link? that's not what a link is for. maybe you mean an alias?

alias mparts='mplayer -ao arts'

but you don't want that really.... just set "ao = arts" in /etc/mplayer.conf or ~/.mplayer/config

Speaking of mplayer problems, I got mine running, but it's missing a codec. I downloaded the file with it in, but can't figure out where to put it for mplayer to find. Any ideas? (please use plain english. I'm not that good at this yet...)