Dear friends:
First, my sincere thanks to all of you who wrote in or commented on the
Mplayer rpm to deb issue. I did "succeed" in both installing it and playing
it, but I've decided to take the advice of senior, more experienced members
of both Xandros and Debian and stay strictly within the confines of Xandros
and Debian sources, file types, etc. etc. I have therefore done a clean,
fresh install of Xandros 2/Debian, deleting all partitions, reformatting,
writing new partitions and starting from scratch. So far, the new
installation looks great.
To install Mplayer, I want to use only authentic Debian testing components.
So, I went to Mplayer's home page and studied the documentation as best I
could. Their URL is at:
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/install.html#softreq
Here are the highlights;
BEGIN
1.2.5. Features
*
Decide if you need GUI. If you do, see the GUI section before compiling.
*
If you want to install MEncoder (our great all-purpose encoder), see the
MEncoder section.
*
If you have a V4L compatible TV tuner card, and wish to watch/grab and
encode movies with MPlayer, read the TV input section.
*
There is a neat OSD Menu support ready to be used. Check the OSD menu
section.
Then build MPlayer:
./configure
make
make install
At this point, MPlayer is ready to use. The directory $PREFIX/share/mplayer
contains the codecs.conf file, which is used to tell the program all the
codecs and their capabilities. This file is needed only when you want to
change its properties, as the main binary contains an internal copy of it.
Check if you have codecs.conf in your home directory (~/.mplayer/codecs.conf)
left from old MPlayer versions, and remove it.
Note that if you have a codecs.conf in ~/.mplayer/, the builtin and system
codecs.conf will be ignored completely. Do not do this unless you want to
fiddle with MPlayer internals as this can can cause many problems. If you
want to change the codecs search order, use the -vc, -ac, -vfm, or -afm
options either on the command line or in your config file (see the manual
page).
Debian users can build a .deb package for themselves, it's very simple. Just
exec
END
Using this information and the latest Mplayer 1.0pre3 sources, I tried and
have partially succeeded in recompiling it. I installed all of the necessary
libraries, etc. from my two default Xandros/Debian sources.
I succeeded in the all-important configuration part. I configured it:
./configure --enable-gui
Configuration was a total success (I was told at the end of the configuration
that it was a success). However, When I try to move to the next "make" stage,
I get a strange error message:
sher@Dell:~/L-Files/Downloads/Mplayer/MPlayer-1.0pre3$ make
make: Nothing to be done for `all'.
sher@Dell:~/L-Files/Downloads/Mplayer/MPlayer-1.0pre3$
What does this "Nothing to be done for 'all' mean, please". What's missing and
what should I do?
The most intriguing line of all from the Mplayer Documentation above is the
following:
"Debian users can build a .deb package for themselves, it's very simple. Just
exec"
The author says "it's very simple. just exec. What does he mean, please. Would
appreciate an explanation
Below you will find my Mplayer-1.0pre3 directory:
sher@Dell:~/L-Files/Downloads/Mplayer/MPlayer-1.0pre3$ ls
asxparser.c debian-build libmpeg2 mplayer.rc README
asxparser.h divx4_vbr.c libmpflac mplayer_wine.spec spudec.c
asxparser.o divx4_vbr.h libvo mplayer_wine.spec.c spudec.h
AUTHORS divx4_vbr.o LICENSE mp_msg.c spudec.o
bswap.h DOCS loader mp_msg.h sub_cc.c
cfg-common.h drivers Makefile mp_msg-mencoder.c sub_cc.h
cfg-mencoder.h edl.h mangle.h mp_msg-mencoder.o sub_cc.o
cfg-mplayer-def.h etc m_config.c mp_msg.o subreader.c
cfg-mplayer.h fifo.c m_config.h m_struct.c subreader.h
ChangeLog find_sub.c m_config.o m_struct.h subreader.o
codec-cfg find_sub.o mencoder m_struct.o TOOLS
codec-cfg.c get_path.c mencoder.c osdep TVout
codec-cfg.h Gui mencoder.o parser-cfg.c unrarlib.c
codec-cfg.o help mixer.c parser-cfg.o unrarlib.h
codecs.conf.h help_mp.h mixer.h parser-mecmd.c unrarlib.o
config.h input mixer.o parser-mecmd.h version.h
config.mak liba52 mmx_defs.h parser-mecmd.o version.sh
configure libaf mmx.h parser-mpcmd.c vidix
configure.log libao2 m_option.c parser-mpcmd.o vobsub.c
Copyright libavcodec m_option.h playtree.c vobsub.h
cpudetect.c libdha m_option.o playtree.h vobsub.o
cpudetect.h libfaad2 mp3lib playtree.o xvid_vbr.c
cpudetect.o libmenu mplayer playtreeparser.c xvid_vbr.h
cputable.h libmpcodecs mplayer.c playtreeparser.h xvid_vbr.o
darwinfixlib.sh libmpdemux mplayer.h playtreeparser.o
xvmc_render.h
debian libmpdvdkit2 mplayer.o postproc
sher@Dell:~/L-Files/Downloads/Mplayer/MPlayer-1.0pre3$ make
make: Nothing to be done for `all'.
sher@Dell:~/L-Files/Downloads/Mplayer/MPlayer-1.0pre3$
Thank you all so much in advance. Hope to do it right this time and never have
to do it again.
Benjamin