Ubuntu
mplayer package

[mplayer] major annoyances with pop-up error messages

Bug #198695 reported by martin
30
This bug affects 6 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
mplayer (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Wishlist
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: mplayer

I would like to request the removal of the graphical error messages from MPlayer that are apparently enabled by default in Ubuntu. It seems that everything that normally would go to the console is presented via a pop-up GUI-window instead when using the Ubuntu .deb package provided in Hardy.

Example of these error messages are incomplete avi/sync errors, random codec messages (file plays fine, but displays "j-type picture is not supported" during given intervals)
The most common are "header damaged" pop-ups which would be displayed a gazillion times for incomplete files that do play, but obviously this causes them to slow down.

The problem is that all these errors all have to be acknowledged individually by clicking/dismissing them in order to continue watching the file. Since I've unsuccessfully scoured the MPlayer options and the web for ways to disable these, I can only conclude that they are enabled at compile-time. I've not seen this behaviour on other distros such as Gentoo, Fedora or RedHat.

apt-cache policy mplayer:

mplayer:
  Installed: 2:1.0~rc2-0ubuntu8
  Candidate: 2:1.0~rc2-0ubuntu8
  Version table:
 *** 2:1.0~rc2-0ubuntu8 0
        500 http://no.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/multiverse Packages
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/multiverse Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2:1.0~rc2-0ubuntu1~gutsy1 0
        500 http://no.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy-backports/multiverse Packages

/etc/lsb-release:

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=8.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=hardy
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu hardy (development branch)"

Murat Gunes (mgunes)
Changed in mplayer:
importance: Undecided → Wishlist
Revision history for this message
Adna rim (adnarim) wrote :

I can confirm this on hardy! Together with this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24/+bug/192382 mplayer is quite unsuable because you get 1000000 error windows per second.

Revision history for this message
Adna rim (adnarim) wrote :

I found a little workaround. Simply supressing all errormessage with "gmplayer -msglevel:all 0" . This doesn't seem like a compile-option for me at least I couldn't find any compile option for activating or deactivating gui-error messages.

Revision history for this message
Harri (harald-dunkel) wrote :

I would be interested in getting rid of the annoying popups, too. Setting "-msglevel:all 0" is not an option, since it affects stderr as well.

Revision history for this message
Denis Rut'kov (dendron2000) wrote :

I'd really like to see this fixed, too. And I don't think this is "Wishlist".

When mplayer creates an error message box (and it does it with almost ALL videos) its main window looses focus, preventing the user from controlling playback. This is NOT a normal behavior, this is a bug which hamper program usage.

Please fix it ASAP.

Revision history for this message
IgnorantGuru (ignorantguru) wrote :

As this "wish" has been ignored for over a year, I have submitted it here as a bug to be ignored...
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mplayer/+bug/412669

Meanwhile, does anyone have any suggestions for an alternate and fairly easy means of installing a *functional* gmplayer in (K)ubuntu? Thanks.

Revision history for this message
Martin von Wittich (martin.von.wittich) wrote :

I believe this bug could be eligible for the One Hundred Paper Cuts project as it should be trivially fixable. OTOH I just noticed that mplayer is in multiverse and ubuntu-desktop doesn't depend on it, so I could of course be wrong about this... if so, I apologize and someone please remove it from the project.

Revision history for this message
Vish (vish) wrote :

Thank you for bringing this bug to our attention. However, a paper cut should be a small usability issue, in the default Ubuntu 9.10 install, that affects many people and is quick and easy to fix. So this bug can't be addressed as part of this project.

-mplayer is not part of the default install , hence not a papertcut
For further information about papercuts criteria, please read https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PaperCut.

Don't worry though, this bug has been marked as "Invalid" only in the papercuts project.

Changed in hundredpapercuts:
status: New → Invalid
affects: hundredpapercuts → null
Revision history for this message
Rocky Czaplewski (theholyspirit777-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Adding the flag "-really-quiet" will turn off GUI error messages, as stated in the man page. I just started to use mplayer and this jumps out right away as a huge annoyance.

Timmy Shih Jun Yee (shijun)
Changed in mplayer (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Curtis Hovey (sinzui)
no longer affects: null
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