I got:
I logged on as root and did the same. I still got the same error. Permission denied? On root?

When I ran it using the previous command you supplied, I forgot to tell you that, after getting that job number, when I pressed Enter I got:

Did you

No, I didn't need to, as these were its permissions:
rwxr-xr-x

I just found an interesting thing-- Open any link on your desktop using a text editor. You will see an option called TERMINAL=false.
That explains why I don't see any terminal and can see only the video while running the script. If you can figure out how KDE executes TERMINAL=false, the problem will be solved. I don't know how KDE executes such commands.

I tried it again on my desktop and it worked.

nohup mplayer -really-quiet <video> &

This also worked in the virtual terminal vt/1:
nohup mplayer -vo fbdev2 -really-quiet <video> &

I tried both your commands jschiwal, but neither of them work. Stupid RH9

But still, do you know how to do the TERMINAL=false thing I mentioned in my previous post.

I will assert that it is better to use a portable solution, but if you want to figure out all sorts of KDE internals, you might do well to start looking at the KDE docs:

http://developer.kde.org/documentati...lo/khello1.htm
http://developer.kde.org/documentati...ion/index.html
http://developer.kde.org/documentati...interface.html
http://developer.kde.org/documentati...als/index.html
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerwork...kdeml01KDEDCOP

You would use the terminal=false entry if you are linking to a gui program and terminal=true if you are linking to a script program, i.e. with menu. You might try looking at the .desktop entry for a program like firefox. Sometimes you are running a wrapper script. If you want to run mplayer in kde, you could simply call gmplayer instead.

Also, which terminal emulator are you running. I ran my test using konsole on two different computers. And on vt/1 using the framebuffer device. Also if you want to start playing something in particular by double clicking on an icon, you can make a copy of an xmms icon and add an argument list after the command in the properties.

Using dcop as the poster above mentioned is the most powerful and flexible approach.

You're right kdcop is indeed an awesome program. I learned many things by reading that link, but I cant seem to figure out how TERMINAL=OFF is acheived by it. Also, isn't there a simpler way to invoke the script without having to view the terminal. I'm fine with using the screen command, but I want to know if there is any other way.

I use konsole too.

While dcop is powerful and flexible, it is not portable.

The "TERMINAL=OFF" thing is a small flag in a special file. If you want to do something like that, you need to poke around in dcop/kde internals/docs to find out what happens from that.

Screen is very useful, but not really the right tool for what I think you want. The right tool is something similar to expect. I know you tried it before and had trouble, but I think it should work if you put a bit more effort into it. If you would like to work on the expect setup, you should start by seeing if you can run a simple expect script. After that, you can get it to run mplayer with almost no output.

Ok, I'll read the man pages of expect. nmh, from where did you learn all this stuff?

In general, from using it to complete tasks (and researching/asking for help when needed). For this specifically, I looked at expect because I had heard of its uses for ssh/passwd/telnet/etc... when normal IO redirection does not work. I looked online for a few examples, read the man page and tried to get a sample to work for me.

I have found that there are many problems that are very easy to figure out simply by poking at them, reading the man/info pages, or reading examples online. I have also found that there are problems that are *very* difficult to solve without asking for help. The real trick is knowing which you are trying to solve.

Good luck with the expect stuff - and feel free to ask more questions if some of it does not make sense.

If i am understanding correctly, the following command gives the effect you want:

mplayer <video_file> < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1 &

So just stick that in your script??


Earlier in the thread, you had the output redirected but the video just didn't play. Someone mentioned that mplayer wants to be connected to a terminal - and this was your problem, it wasn't connected to any input, so it was hanging. " < /dev/null" connects /dev/null as standard input too.

Right, just noticed the dates on the previous postings.