Mplayer on 2006 maemo ?? and n770

[mihalis veletas]

OK.

I'm a newbee to the n770, so pardon me if I ask silly questions.
I recently bought a cheap 770. The "about product" window says version 1.2006.26-8.

Not sure which maemo version this is.

Frantkly, I'm a litlte confused about maemo versions, but after a bit of frustration, I've decided to only use 'mistral' as the repository from which to draw my new apps.

I'm trying to turn the 770 into a cheap portable video player. So I installed mplayer in it, and tried to dump a big .avi onto it (I'll talk about this in the end).

I installed mplayer from

http://repository.maemo.org/extras
mistral
free non-free

mplayer installed alright, but when I asked it to view an .avi, it crapped out. The .avi itself was at a resolution of 400x240 and had been treated with MediaConverter to something the n770 could work with. But mplayer crapped out anyway.

Anybody have any ideas on how to fix it?

ps - The problem might lie in the fact that I tried to install a bunch of other apps from the 'bora' repository, so I think there is a chance I may have overwritten something in the n770's baseline OS.

Thanks in advance

PS - the files: I do not yet have an RS-MMC reader to hook up to my PC, so I tried to move the file in two ways:

1. by connecting via USB
2. by connecting via nfs

Both USB and NFS seem to be extremely slow, and also crap out after 30megs or sooner. IE, if I'm trying to copy a 200Mb file, like a movie that I want to watch, the process craps out before prior to, but not after 30Mb or so.

[mihalis veletas]

Also, I know that there have been several posts in the past where mplayer was credited with playing large compressed movies (with MediaConverter) of the 100-200Mb rate.

Can anyone confirm that mplayer is still working in this capacity?

Thanks

[Serge]

But mplayer crapped out anyway.
That's not a very detailed report, and I have no idea what problem you could have there based on it. Please try to describe the details and post mplayer output here (run it from xterm or ssh to play that video). If 'crapped out' means that your tablet did not crash, reboot or deadlock, you should be able to press 'Report' button after video playback attempt to get a window with this log information without the need to run xterm or open ssh session.

As a general advice, I would recommend upgrading to the latest version of OS2006 firmware and install wlan bugfix (http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11824&highlight=wlan). Unless you install wlan bugfix, a lot of software will be 'crapping out' on active wlan connection (browser, application manager, mplayer or anything else).

[mihalis veletas]

That's not a very detailed report, and I have no idea what problem you could have there based on it. Please try to describe the details and post mplayer output here (run it from xterm or ssh to play that video).

Fair enough - I suppose I should apologizing for sounding rude, and thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts.

After having played with mplayer/n770 a bit more, here's a better description of the problem. There are two scenaria to think of:

1. When I launch mplayer manually from an xterm window, it plays the .avi. I have been unable to test this on large .avis (100-200M), because my network connections are not happy. (I will look into your suggestion a little later), and I don't have an RSMMC reader to xfer data that way.

2. When I launch mplayer from the menu, I get the rotating hexagon on the top right corner of the screen, along with a notice that mplayer is launching, and then ... nothing. mplayer does not launch. I don't know how to collect a report on this behaviour. But then, when I try to launch mplayer from the command line *after* I tried to launch it graphically, I get a complete system freeze. The crash is so bad, that the 'reboot' button wont work sometimes - I had to take the battery out on a couple of occasions to bring the system back up.

To get an idea of the error log, I sshe'd into the pad, and re-directed mplayer's output to a temporary file when I launched it from the xterm (and after I tried and failed to launch it graphically). The output, as far as I could collect before I lost the system looks like this:

------------------------------------------------- START -------------------

MPlayer 1.0rc1-maemo.18.n770 (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team
CPU: ARM
Menu inited: /etc/mplayer/menu.conf

Playing xaa.nokia770.avi.
^MCache fill: 0.00% (0 bytes)
Mem: 60616K used, 1616K free, 0K shrd, 11716K buff, 11620K cached
Load average: 1.70, 0.81, 0.42 (State: S=sleeping R=running, W=waiting)

MPlayer 1.0rc1-maemo.18.n770 (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team
MPlayer 1.0rc1-maemo.18.n770 (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team
Connection to 192.168.1.103 closed by remote host. Team
Connection to 192.168.1.103 closed.
mihalis@suse:~> c/mplayer/menu.conf

Playing xaa.nokia770.avi.
^MCache fill: 0.00% (0 bytes)
AVI file format detected.
VIDEO: [DIVX] 400x240 24bpp 23.980 fps 478.9 kbps (58.5 kbyte/s)
Clip info:
Software: MEncoder 1.0rc1-SUSE Linux 10.1 (i686)-Packman-4.1.0
[nokia770] Nokia 770 hardware detected
================================================== ========================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffodivx] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg MPEG-4)
================================================== ========================
================================================== ========================
Trying to force audio codec driver family dspmp3...
Opening audio decoder: [dspmp3] MP3 audio pass-through for Nokia 770/N800 (fake decoder)
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, ??, 32.0 kbit/2.08% (ratio: 4000->192000)
Selected audio codec: [dspmp3] afm: dspmp3 (MP3 audio pass-through for Nokia 770)
================================================== ========================
AO: [gst] 48000Hz 2ch ?? (1 bytes per sample)
Starting playback...
VDec: vo config request - 400 x 240 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.67:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [nokia770] 400x240 => 400x240 Planar YV12 [fs] [zoom]
A: 0.0 V: 0.0 A-V: 0.000 ct: 0.000 1/ 1 ??% ??% ??,?% 0 0 94% ^M

---------------------------------------------------- END ------------------

Without being an expert, I don't think there is anything menacing there.

I guess what I got out of this, though, is that mplayer dies when launched graphically, and arms a trigger of sorts, so that any subsequent attempts to launch it locks the system.

Hope this helps.

I appreciate your response, and thank you for your time.

PS- mplayer actually launched graphically once - the first time I tried to run it after install. Any subsequent attempts led to the behaviour described above. Uninstalling and re-installing might give you a one-off launch as well.

[Serge]

This all looks very much like a system broken by wlan memory corruption bug. Try to backup everything that is important for you, flash the latest OS2006 firmware and install wlan bugfix (a link is mentioned in my first reply).

[mihalis veletas]

OK, thanks. I will try this tomorrow between the Turkey bits.

Gotta sleep now.

Goodnight, and thanks again.

Cheers

[mihalis veletas]

OK, I downloaded and installed the .deb package (cx3110x-hotfix-bug2006_0.2_armel.deb), and I got an error message at some point in the install that the version of 2006 firmware does not support the update, and that I should flash the latest version of 2006 firmware. But then the package installation process continues, and I get a message that it installed properly. (!).

It probably did not - when I did the 'dmesg' command, I could not find the confirmation text that the patch was installed

(Unloaded CX3110x driver, version 0.8
CX3110x chip variant: STLC4370
CX3110x: firmware version: 2.13.0.0.a.13.14
Loaded CX3110x driver, version 0.8.1-bug2006-fix1)

Should I flash latest 2006 package, or go for the 2007 HE?

thanks again

[mihalis veletas]

Update: Flashed the 2006-49 version of the OS
Mplayer seems to be more stable now (will pop up after I launch it a bunch of times).
Still unable to copy large files via USB
Still unable to copy large files via nfs

For the records, I've tired to access my mmc-mobile cards from an SD reader, and I had no luck. Cards were either write-protected, or invisible... I've fired up a new thread on this topic here : http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12235

Thanks

[mihalis veletas]

Update 2: Have tried several avi files so far, and all seem to working fine.
Great work, for Nokia and many thanks to the list members.

Cheers