My system is crashing totally (similar to Windows frozen bsod but without the colour) whenever I attempt to open a file in xmms, xine, or mplayer.

All these apps were working happily a few days ago. Using Slackware 9.0 with a 2.4.20 kernel and XFree 4.3.0.

Now I can open the app without a problem. Xmms opens. Xine opens. The problem starts when I try to load a file into the app. Instant freeze up, and it is complete.

No access to alternate terminals. Ctrl-alt-backspace won't close X. Ctrl-alt-del non-op. Ctrl-C non-op. No mouse movement. Nothing. Its just like being back in Windows again.

The only option is to reset and wait for a check on the hard drive while booting. Very frustrating. Can't find any clues in logs either.

Suggestions as to remedies or routes to finding an answer would be welcomed.

I've found that the best way to get some clue as to what's going on is to open the app in a console, eg:

$ xmms

Then try to open a file and see what error messages are printed out in the console. I would guess it's something with your sound configuration since all three will access the sound system.

Thanks for the input.

The crashes occur so fast that no output reaches the console before the screen freezes up.

Your suggestion on sound configuration sounds promising. I became so frustrated that I reinstalled Slack 9.0 over the top of my previous installation. Since there is no change to the condition it seems pretty certain that some user configured setting somewhere is causing the problem. I'll have to search around some more.

I had same problem with mandrake 9.1
found out that there was no codecs installed to play the file I was trying to open, also You may need to kill any processes that involve the sound server like artsd if you have that, that was causing my problems.

Are you trying to run it in KDE by any chance? I had a similar problem, which was resolved by disabling the arts sound server in the KDE Control Centre.

Sorry for the delay in following up. More serious problems seem to be developing. I no longer have a (dsl) connection to the Internet working on that machine so am now working from another machine. It makes me wonder whether this is all part of some bigger cpu / mobo/ memory problem.

When you say "no codecs installed to play the file" can you be more precise as to what are "codecs". This is a new area for me. No artsd running.

No, not using KDE. I'm a dedicated AfterStep user.

Recovered the dsl connection which was caused by configuration problems following the Slackware re-install. Now I need to get back to resolving the sound problem.

Testing sound as noted in the Sound-HOWTO.

cat ........../crash.au >/dev/dsp results in instant freeze-up of the system
cat ........../crash.au >/dev/audio results in the same thing.

In both case a re-boot is the only available recovery, by means of the reset switch.

Can somebody please suggest what is wrong with my setup?

.............and I should have added that the crash.au sound continues to loop endlessly.

Yea, i am having a similar problem i think, XMMS freezes up when i try to run the program via the shortcut on my desktop, but runs fine when i $ xmms in konsole.


any ideas?

sorry, but i don't recall ever finding the answer.

about that time slackware 9.1 reached me, and after i installed that from scratch, the problem was gone.