Been having a problem trying to install Mplayer on my system. I'm running Slackware 9.0. I continue to get errors stating that I need this and that in order for Mplayer to install. In particular this time around, I'm curious about glibc...it says I need it. I thought glibc 2.3.1 came with Slackware 9?! Am I wrong? Does it install when you set up Slack 9? Or, is this something I have to manualy install afterwards?

I've tried the search, but can't locate a question/answer combo close to my particular problem. So, I've resorting to asking my own question.

Thanks for the help!! I can't wait to get Mplayer .9 working!

i did a full install of slack 9, and i had no problems compiling mplayer. if the error messages are specifying glibc, it would seem that either you need to check your glibc install, or check to make sure mplayer install is being fed the right path/s. ? i am *very* new to slack (and linux), though, so that is the best i can tell you, i.e., that glibc did indeed come with slackware 9.

Well...to be honest, I don't know how to "Check" an install. I viewed installed packages and glibc was listed along with most of the other crap Mplayer says I don't have.

And...not sure how to point Mplayer in the right direction...I'm loving Linux...but I'm HATING Mplayer!!!!

yes, i meant check to see that it's installed.

could you be more specific about the error messages and what they're saying you don't have?

Well...how about this. I finally decided to try the .tar.bz2 file instead of the .rpm crap. Here's the error I got:

Yea, I checked the FAQ...don't tell me crap, at least not that I understand.

Seems MMX is not supported...what is that...how do I fix it?

yikes, that is beyond me, sorry. that stuff about recompiling your kernel looks pretty serious. it looks like it's saying your slack install did not compile some CPU multimedia support into your kernel, but i don't have a clue about the specific remedy. if it were me, based on that info i would probably start looking into how to recompile or update the kernel to fix the mmx support, or else if the install were new enough, i would just redo it. but hopefully someone with more experience will chime in with an easy/known fix.

Yea...I'm seeking some MMX stuff now. Thanks for taking the time and hearing me out. I appreciate it.

OK. The problem at first, now that I see what you were doing, is that you were trying to install an RPM on a non-RPM based system, Slackware. Slackware includes the rpm program, but it does not have an RPM database of installed applications for a new package to check dependencies against since its packages are based on pkgtool rather than rpm. This makes it so that just about any RPM package install would fail unless forced. If you wanted to install an RPM package, my recommendation (other than, 'Don't if you don't have to,') would be to convert it to a Slack package with rpm2tgz.

The problem you are having now is probably because the kernel source is not installed. You should download the kernel source from the Internet and install it (unless you have the boxed set of discs, which has the kernel source included on disc 2, if I remember correctly). You can get the source from any Slackware mirror under the directory slackware-9.0/slackware/k. The package name is kernel-source-2.4.20-noarch-5.tgz. Since my MPlayer compiled with support for MMX, MMX2, and SSE (as well as 3DNow and 3DNowEX since it is an Athlon) against a default Slack 9 bare.i kernel, I would think that your MMX problem is related to the lack of the kernel source (unless you are perhaps using one of the more unusual install kernels). However, even if that is not why MMX is not being recognized, lacking MMX should not cause the configure script to fail or the program not to compile. It should just make it compile with lower potential performance. Get the kernel source, then try it again and check to see if it is configuring support for MMX.

P.S. I also highly recommend that, if you are going to compile software, you install checkinstall and use it (usually as simple as running checkinstall instead of make install) to install your compiled software. It will allow you to manage programs you compile as pkgtool packages. You can find it on any Slackware mirror under the directory slackware-9.0/extra/checkinstall-1.5.3.

Thanks, Rodrin!

I somewhat understand what you are saying, so when I have time tonight, I'll give it a shot and let you know.