David and Katherine Goodwin

intro:
How to compile and install mplayer from source, to install on a Debian Sarge based desktop (probably also applicable to Ubuntu Hoary/Breezy)

subject:
mplayer, sarge, debian, compile

content:
Overview
I generally compile mplayer by hand for my systems, because I haven't yet found a decent packaged version of it.
The Debian Marillat version, was I found :

• Not compiled with support for my Athlon processor (perhaps I can make it more efficient?)
• Not able to do brightness properly (i.e. the whole X session gets dimmer/darker depending on mplayer having focus instead of the window itself, which is clearly not right)

Step 1

apt-get install ffmpeg
apt-get install xlibs-dev
apt-get install libpng-dev libjpeg-dev libavifile-0.7-dev libavifile-0.7c102

Step 2

• Download mplayer 1.0 pre 7 (latest stable release) from http://www.mplayerhq.hu
• Download the "all" codes package from http://mplayerhq.hu

Step 3
I generally install locally compiled stuff to somewhere beneath /usr/local/apps/$progName/$version ; therefore I felt the codecs best lived in /usr/local/apps/mplayer/codecs
Install the codecs to e.g. /usr/local/apps/mplayer/codecs (tar -zxf .... and mv)
Step 4
Compile and install mplayer :

./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apps/mplayer/mplayer-1.0pre7 \
--with-win32libdir=/usr/local/apps/mplayer/codecs \
--with-codecsdir=/usr/local/apps/mplayer/codecs

make
make install
Step 5
Set up mplayer so it's in your $PATH

cd /usr/local/apps/mplayer && ln -s mplayer-1.0pre7 current
cd /usr/local/bin && ln -s ../apps/mplayer/current/bin/mplayer
Step 6
Enjoy - mplayer something.avi.

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