MPlayer Firefox Plug-in Possible Fix?

[crossed]

Before I get started, I want to make sure everyone knows I am by no means an expert when it comes to Linux. So I have yet to make sure everything still works after doing these steps. The Aps I use the most do work wonderfully. I would LOVE for someone to repeat these steps and verify my findings.

I think I have found a way to make the MPlayer plugin for Firefox work like it should. I use chicagobears.com and comedycentral.com for testing.

As most know, getting MPlayer to work embedded in Firefox is kinda like pulling teeth. This makes the plugin work almost flawlessly.

First install Automatix. Steps for this is here: http://www.getautomatix.com

Then install Firefox:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firefox

Then open Automatix and install MPlayer and its Firefox Plugin.

Now, before we go any further, we need to have the most up-to-date packages.

sudo apt-get upgrade

Reboot

Now here comes the fun part.

We need some packages from Edgy, since those packages seem to work better.
Open your /etc/apt/sources.list using Kate from the run command.

Simply press alt-F1 and type this in the command box:

kdesu kate /etc/apt/sources.list

Click Edit->replace
Find=dapper
Replace=edgy

Replace all dapper entry's with edgy

Save the file and close.

Now open Adept (K->System->Adept)

Update the package lists

Filter the list by typing in mplayer

select upgrade all mplayer and kmplayer related files. This will also upgrade other files as well.

Apply the changes.

Reboot when it finishes.

Now, you should reboot with no problems. If so skip this next part

If it will not logon to KDE, it's possible you didn't have all of you packages upgraded. You will need to do a ctrl-alt-f1 and login. Then do this so you can log back in:

sudo apt-get install kdelibs-bin

That package is removed if it was not updated fully.

OK so now we should be back up, we have to tweak out mplayerplug-in.conf file to work correctly. I'm posting mine as a template that should work out of the box.

This is my /home/user/.mplayer/mplayerplug-in.conf file:

vo=x11
ao=arts,esd,oss
cachesize=1673
cache-percent=25
dload-dir=/home/nick
showtime=1
enable-wmp=1
enable-qt=1
enable-rm=0
enable-gmp=1
enable-dvx=0
enable-mpeg=1
enable-mp3=1
enable-ogg=1
enable-midi=1
enable-pls=1
enable-smil=1
enable-helix=1
nomediacache=0
nopauseonhide=1
rtsp-use-tcp=1
rtsp-use-http=1

After that, I suggest upgrading to Firefox 2.0 as well. I used the source code from mozilla.com. Simply download that and copy the extracted Firefox folder to the /usr/lib/ directory. Make sure to rename the existing Firefox folder before copying so that you save the plugins folder. After doing so, copy the plugins folder from the old Firefox folder to the new one. I use kdesu konqueror in a command box to do all of this since you need to have root privileges.

Now, open Firefox and check out some different sites with media. Does it play?

Also make sure to change your /etc/apt/sources.list back before trying to install anything.

I would like to see some feedback on this. I'm sure some of you are wondering why I didn't just upgrade to Edgy. Well, I have an older notebook and Dapper actually runs much better and recognizes all of my hardware. Edgy does not.

Like I said, I'd love to know if this causes problems or not. As far as I can tell, it does not. In other words, don't try this on a machine you can't live without.

[crossed]

Re: MPlayer Firefox Plug-in Possible Fix?

Anyone else try this? I have done it on 3 other boxes, all successful. I'd love to see some other feedback.

[Gezzer]

Re: MPlayer Firefox Plug-in Possible Fix?

all i did was install the mozilla-mplayer plugin via synaptic and all works well ...

[crossed]

Re: MPlayer Firefox Plug-in Possible Fix?

I have not been able to get it to work on 4 separate computers. That's why I started playing around with different packages. All were a clean install using the newest Dapper packages. All 4 boxes are different, going from a celeron 700 to athlon 64 3200+. They never work for me out of the box, and with these packages, it's worked on all 4.

Glad to know you've had some luck with it, but the standard Dapper packages don't work for me.

Thanks for the feedback though!