How I got MPlayer to work

[tonyabrams]

I've been using Ubuntu 5.04 'Hoary' for the last three weeks. Very pleased except I've never been able to get MPlayer to work in Firefox - until yesterday. (I was using Totem with Firefox). I downloaded the Unofficial Ubuntu Add-On CD and decided to do a 'fresh install' with Ubuntu 5.04 Hoary (with a hard disk format) and then immediately install the Add-On CD. Everything went smoothly (I just typed "Y" and installed all the Add-On CD programs.) I re-booted my system and then went to the "Sound" choice in the "Preferences" menu (sorry, I'm at work using a Windows XP machine - I don't have Ubuntu in front of me). The only modification I made is to "uncheck" 'Start Up Sound Server'. Next I rebooted. So now, MPlayer works properly. The only downside (so far) is that I have to use XMMS to play mp3 music files and I have no 'System Sounds' on login.

Summary: How I got MPlayer to work in Firefox:

1. Fresh install of Ubuntu 5.04 Hoary.
2. Install 'Unofficial Ubuntu Add-On CD' http://ubuntuguide.org/add-on-cd/
* find download links at the end of the page.
3. Reboot.
4. Disable 'Start Sound Server' in Preferences..Sound.
5. Use XMMS to play MP3 music.

[bored2k]

I've been using Ubuntu 5.04 'Hoary' for the last three weeks. Very pleased except I've never been able to get MPlayer to work in Firefox - until yesterday. (I was using Totem with Firefox). I downloaded the Unofficial Ubuntu Add-On CD and decided to do a 'fresh install' with Ubuntu 5.04 Hoary (with a hard disk format) and then immediately install the Add-On CD. Everything went smoothly (I just typed "Y" and installed all the Add-On CD programs.) I re-booted my system and then went to the "Sound" choice in the "Preferences" menu (sorry, I'm at work using a Windows XP machine - I don't have Ubuntu in front of me). The only modification I made is to "uncheck" 'Start Up Sound Server'. Next I rebooted. So now, MPlayer works properly. The only downside (so far) is that I have to use XMMS to play mp3 music files and I have no 'System Sounds' on login.

Summary: How I got MPlayer to work in Firefox:

1. Fresh install of Ubuntu 5.04 Hoary.
2. Install 'Unofficial Ubuntu Add-On CD' http://ubuntuguide.org/add-on-cd/
* find download links at the end of the page.
3. Reboot.
4. Disable 'Start Sound Server' in Preferences..Sound.
5. Use XMMS to play MP3 music.
I'm sorry but this is really not a recommended/good way to do things at all. There are a gazillion guides here, one of them pointing to make mplayer use esd and that is it. I just wanted to tell people that there are other methods of doing this, as doing it this way will disable your ubuntu sounds without the need to.

[tonyabrams]

My point was that I was trying all those "gazillion" ways - this is the only one that worked for me. I went through a couple of weeks of trying to make MPlayer work properly following the suggestions on the Ubuntu forums. I gave up and used Totem. I wonder how many other people had the same problem with MPlayer and Firefox.

[Sniffer]

You need to disable sound server anyway...if you use audacity like me!

[bored2k]

You need to disable sound server anyway...if you use audacity like me!
Have you tried http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=32063&highlight=alsa+esd trick?

[Sniffer]

Have you tried http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=32063&highlight=alsa+esd trick?

Good how to, it solve the problem.

Thks.

[Omarkj]

Uhm..I just installed it from multiverse and it worked (well, I maybe had to fix the config file in order to use ALSA instead of OSS)..