ok, i have searched all over to see if anyone has a duplicate problem/solution. i posted this thread at mandrakeclub.com yesterday and am copying it (mostly) here:
I've searched to see if anyone else recognizes this problem, and no luck, but I've noticed it for the last few releases of mandrake.
I've got mplayer (with gui) configured, compiled, and installed, and it runs fine. I even have the mplayerplug-in working great in firefox. However, there is a discrepancy that is driving me mad:
if i start gmplayer from A) console B) a shell script or C) the "run command" menu in KDE, it starts without a problem like i would expect.
BUT
if i make an icon link to 'gmplayer',.. it will still play, but at the bottom where there is usually just the two instance panels (one for the video screen, and one for the controls), there is a third instance of mplayer trying to start. it never starts, just acts like it will and then disappears. i can't get any feedback or error messages b/c if i start it from the console, that annoying third instance doesn't try to start.
any ideas? i had that problem with firefox too, but i just added "sh" into the command section of the icon link and that stopped it. with gmplayer, even if i link to a shell script i made to open gmplayer, it starts this mysterious third instance, but not if i run it directly from the script.
it's not like this is impeding me from using mplayer at all, i just want to know what is trying to run in that third instance panel. i mean, this is linux, and i should be able to figure out what is trying to open!! haha, anyway, thanks for any help
***UPDATE***
I've found this workaround solution: If on the desktop, instead of selecting "create new link to application" i select "create new link to location" instead, it does not produce this evasive third instance. also, with this option (unlike my shell script) i can change the icon w/o changing the icon for all files of this mimetype. The other still annoys me, but i suspect it is a KDE problem, not one with gmplayer.
