Mplayer Error

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1

I recently got this error which is preventing mplayer to work

Option ,alsa, needs a parameter at line 86

I’m running opensuse 11.3 64 bit KDE 4.4 on Gstreamer backend
I had upgraded to kde 4.5 but id created some errors and had to downgrade by doing a new install, leaving home folder untouched.

any ideas? It used to work perfectly.

2

Is it the same with smplayer
What if you switch audio output in the player, try different ones (alsa, oss, pulse)…

3

The player does not even start.

4

in smplayer it says that

mplayer has finished unexpectedly. Exit code: 1
5

On 2011-02-21 22:36, cepiolidus wrote:
>
> I recently got this error which is preventing mplayer to work
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> Option ,alsa, needs a parameter at line 86
> --------------------

Look into the mplayer configuration files on your home. One of them will
probably have a line 86 that is wrong.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

6

Worth a try on Robin/Carlos idea
Look in the .mplayer folder and just rename config file with a ~
~config

7

I had tried that already. First thing I did. it seems these is some alsa config file, where the error is. do you know where can I find it?

8

On 2011-02-22 19:06, cepiolidus wrote:
>
> I had tried that already. First thing I did. it seems these is some alsa
> config file, where the error is. do you know where can I find it?

Nope.

Try ls ~/.alsa* ~/alsa* /etc/alsa*

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

9

Hello,

What about the audio in general? If it works fine I do not think it is alsa specific.

What if you switch audio output in the player, try different ones (alsa, oss, pulse)…

You could edit .mplayer/guiconfig and change the audio output driver manually or you could run mplayer from terminal: mplayer -ao <drv> ‘somefile’.avi (set drv to e.g alsa/oss/sdl etc)

olav@localhost:~> mplayer -ao help
MPlayer dev-SVN-r32749-4.4-openSUSE Linux 11.2 (x86_64)-Packman (C) 2000-2010 MPlayer TeamAvailable audio output drivers:
        oss     OSS/ioctl audio output
        alsa    ALSA-0.9.x-1.x audio output
        esd     EsounD audio output
        pulse   PulseAudio audio output
        jack    JACK audio output
        sdl     SDLlib audio output
        mpegpes DVB audio output
        v4l2    V4L2 MPEG Audio Decoder output
        null    Null audio output
        pcm     RAW PCM/WAVE file writer audio output
10

I believe you have to rename/edit the guiconfig file not the config file. The config file is available for user-preference settings but it is left blank if untouched.

11

Ok this is what I got

fcj@linux-fcj:~> mplayer -ao help

Option ,alsa, needs a parameter at line 86
fcj@linux-fcj:~> 
fcj@linux-fcj:~>

I also looked for all config files for mplayer and erased them. That did fix anything.

I found a config for alsa in /usr/share/alsa

and line 86 says

defaults.pcm.surround41.card defaults.pcm.card
12

What about your audio in general does it work?

13

You can try renaming or deleting your .mplayer in your /home/user
Logout and login, when you open mplayer it will rebuild the deleted/renamed folder.
You can do it as well with smplayer. For smplayer it is in your /home/user/.config

14

You could perhaps try one of these and see what happens:

  • mplayer -ao sdl ‘somefile.avi’ (you need sdl installed)
  • mplayer -ao jack ‘somefile.avi’ (jack needs to be running before you try this, otherwise it will disable audio)
  • mplayer -ao pulse ‘somefile.avi’ (pulseaudio needs to be setup to work)

PS
It is perhaps a good idea to try reconfiguring your soundcard: Yast Control Centre > Hardware > Sound

15

I tried everything above and no luck.
Audio works fine, at least as good as possible, since I updated from opensuse 11.1 (due to a bug that has not been resolved). I guess the problem was upgrading and downgrading KDE.
I might have to do a fresh install and erase /home folder.

I’ll do it when I have a few spare hours! sometimes linux feels like windows!:\

16

One last thing you could try is: mplayer -ao null ‘somefile.avi’ ‘Null’ for no audio output.

17

Hello cepiolidus,

to get rid of this error please go to the line 86 in the system wide mplayer.conf file. You will find it in “/etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf”. There please remove the “,alsa,” pattern and put there “ao=alsa” (without the quotation marks :wink: ). The error should be gone.

Best regards,

Roland.

18

Just met same error.
Reinstalling didn’t help BUT i found that evil line 86 in /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf and it was
,alsa,
instead of
ao=alsa

replaced and now it’s living again (=

19

Looks like a bug in the code that writes creates that file which I suppose is mplayer. You should report it to the developers or the packagers at least.

20

Thanks a lot.