Mercurial > mplayer.hg
annotate DOCS/bugreports.html @ 6866:1a5858256659
The endless quest to force people into writing good bug reports part 2342:
Moved patch section up front, that's what we want most after all.
Reworded parts of the howto section and added a link to ESR's excellent
RTFM FAQ.
| author | diego |
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| date | Fri, 02 Aug 2002 00:59:35 +0000 |
| parents | 798e404931fe |
| children | f3f87f6bf5cf |
| rev | line source |
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1 <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> |
| 1612 | 2 <HTML> |
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3 |
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4 <HEAD> |
| 6391 | 5 <LINK REL="stylesheet" TYPE="text/css" HREF="default.css"> |
| 6409 | 6 <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> |
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7 </HEAD> |
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8 |
| 6409 | 9 <BODY> |
| 1704 | 10 |
| 1612 | 11 |
| 1682 | 12 <P><B><A NAME=C>Appendix C - How to report bugs</A></B></P> |
| 1612 | 13 |
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14 <P><B>How to fix bugs</B></P> |
| 1612 | 15 |
| 6445 | 16 <P>If you feel have the necessary skills you are invited to have a go at fixing |
| 17 the bug yourself. Or maybe you already did that? Please read | |
| 18 <A HREF="tech/patches.txt">this short document</A> to find out how to get your | |
| 6470 | 19 code included in <B>MPlayer</B>. The people on the |
| 6445 | 20 <A HREF="http://mplayerhq.hu/mailman/listinfo/mplayer-dev-eng">mplayer-dev-eng</A> |
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21 mailing list will assist you if you have questions.</P> |
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22 |
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23 <P><B>How to report bugs</B></P> |
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24 |
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25 <P>First of all please try the latest CVS version of <B>MPlayer</B> as your bug |
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26 might already be fixed there. CVS instructions can be found at the bottom of |
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27 <A HREF="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/dload.html">this page</A> or in the |
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28 README. If this did not help please refer to |
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29 <A HREF="documentation.html#D">the list of known bugs</A> and the rest of the |
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30 documentation. If your problem is not known or not solvable by our instructions, |
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31 then please report the bug.</P> |
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32 |
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33 <P>Please do not send bug reports privately to individual developers. This is |
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34 community work and thus there might be several people interested in it. |
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35 Sometimes other users already experienced your troubles and know how to |
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36 circumvent a problem even if it is a bug in <B>MPlayer</B> code.</P> |
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37 |
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38 <P>Please describe your problem in as much detail as possible. Do a little |
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39 detective work to narrow down the circumstances under which the problem occurs. |
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40 Does the bug only show up in certain situations? Is it specific to certain files |
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41 or file types? Does it occur with only one codec or is it codec independent? |
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42 Can you reproduce it with all output drivers? The more information you provide |
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43 the better are our chances at fixing your problem. Please do not forget to |
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44 also include the valuable information requested below, we will be unable to |
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45 properly diagnose your problem otherwise.</P> |
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46 |
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47 <P>An excellent and well written guide to asking questions in public forums is |
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48 <A HREF="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html">How To Ask |
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49 Questions The Smart Way</A> by Eric S. Raymond. If you follow these guidelines |
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50 you should be safe. But please understand that we all follow the mailing lists |
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51 voluntarily in our free time. We are very busy and cannot guarantee that you |
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52 will get a solution for your problem or even an answer. </P> |
| 6445 | 53 |
| 5237 | 54 <P><B>Where to report bugs?</B></P> |
| 1612 | 55 |
| 1682 | 56 <P>Subscribe to the mplayer-users mailing list:<BR> |
| 2130 | 57 <A HREF="http://mplayerhq.hu/mailman/listinfo/mplayer-users">http://mplayerhq.hu/mailman/listinfo/mplayer-users</A><BR> |
| 5237 | 58 and send your bug report to:<BR> |
| 6470 | 59 <A HREF="mailto:mplayer-users@mplayerhq.hu">mplayer-users@mplayerhq.hu</A></P> |
| 60 | |
| 61 <P>The language of this list is <B>English</B>. Please follow the standard | |
| 62 <A HREF="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt">Netiquette Guidelines</A> and | |
| 6472 | 63 <B>do not send HTML mail</B> to any of our mailing lists. You will only get |
| 6470 | 64 ignored or banned. Also note that we will not individually CC (carbon-copy) |
| 65 people so it is a good idea to subscribe to actually receive your answer.</P> | |
| 1682 | 66 |
| 5237 | 67 <P><B>What to report?</B></P> |
| 1682 | 68 |
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69 <P><B>System Information</B></P> |
| 1612 | 70 |
| 1682 | 71 <UL> |
| 5237 | 72 <LI>Your Linux distribution or operating system e.g.: |
| 73 <UL> | |
| 6055 | 74 <LI>Red Hat 7.1</LI> |
| 75 <LI>Slackware 7.0 + devel packs from 7.1 ...</LI> | |
| 5237 | 76 </UL> |
| 6055 | 77 </LI> |
| 1682 | 78 <LI>kernel version:<BR> |
| 6055 | 79 <CODE>uname -a</CODE></LI> |
| 1682 | 80 <LI>libc version:<BR> |
| 6055 | 81 <CODE>ls -l /lib/libc[.-]*</CODE></LI> |
| 1682 | 82 <LI>X version:<BR> |
| 6055 | 83 <CODE>X -version</CODE></LI> |
| 5237 | 84 <LI>gcc and ld versions:<BR> |
| 1682 | 85 <CODE>gcc -v<BR> |
| 6055 | 86 ld -v</CODE></LI> |
| 1682 | 87 <LI>binutils version:<BR> |
| 6055 | 88 <CODE>as --version</CODE></LI> |
| 89 <LI>If you have problems with fullscreen mode: | |
| 90 <UL> | |
| 91 <LI>Window manager type and version</LI> | |
| 92 </UL> | |
| 93 </LI> | |
| 94 <LI>If only the GUI is buggy: | |
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95 <UL> |
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96 <LI>GTK version</LI> |
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97 <LI>GLIB version</LI> |
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98 <LI>libpng version</LI> |
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99 <LI>GUI situation in which the bug occurs</LI> |
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100 </UL> |
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101 </LI> |
| 1682 | 102 </UL> |
| 103 | |
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104 <P><B>Hardware & drivers</B></P> |
| 1612 | 105 |
| 1682 | 106 <UL> |
| 5237 | 107 <LI>CPU info (this works on Linux only):<BR> |
| 6055 | 108 <CODE>cat /proc/cpuinfo</CODE></LI> |
| 109 <LI>Video card manufacturer and model, e.g.: | |
| 5237 | 110 <UL> |
| 6055 | 111 <LI>ASUS V3800U chip: nVidia TNT2 Ultra pro 32MB SDRAM</LI> |
| 112 <LI>Matrox G400 DH 32MB SGRAM</LI> | |
| 5237 | 113 </UL> |
| 6055 | 114 </LI> |
| 115 <LI>Video driver type & version, e.g.: | |
| 5237 | 116 <UL> |
| 6055 | 117 <LI>X built-in driver</LI> |
| 118 <LI>nVidia 0.9.623</LI> | |
| 119 <LI>Utah-GLX CVS 2001-02-17</LI> | |
| 120 <LI>DRI from X 4.0.3</LI> | |
| 5237 | 121 </UL> |
| 6055 | 122 </LI> |
| 123 <LI>Sound card type & driver, e.g.: | |
| 5237 | 124 <UL> |
| 6055 | 125 <LI>Creative SBLive! Gold with OSS driver from oss.creative.com</LI> |
| 126 <LI>Creative SB16 with kernel OSS drivers</LI> | |
| 127 <LI>GUS PnP with ALSA OSS emulation</LI> | |
| 5237 | 128 </UL> |
| 6055 | 129 </LI> |
| 130 <LI>If in doubt include <CODE>lspci -vv</CODE> output on Linux systems.</LI> | |
| 1682 | 131 </UL> |
| 1612 | 132 |
| 5237 | 133 <P><B>For compilation problems/errors</B></P> |
| 1682 | 134 |
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135 <P><B>Please include these files:</B></P> |
| 6055 | 136 <UL> |
| 137 <LI>configure.log</LI> | |
| 138 <LI>config.h</LI> | |
| 139 <LI>config.mak</LI> | |
| 140 <LI>libvo/config.mak</LI> | |
| 1682 | 141 </UL> |
| 142 | |
| 5237 | 143 <P><B>For playback problems</B></P> |
| 1682 | 144 |
| 6470 | 145 <P>Please include the output of <B>MPlayer</B> at verbosity level 1, but |
| 146 remember to <B>not truncate the output</B> when you paste it into your mail. The | |
| 147 developers need all of the messages to properly diagnose a problem. You can | |
| 148 direct the output into a file like this:</P> | |
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149 |
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150 <P><CODE> mplayer -v [options] [filename] &> mplayer.log</CODE></P> |
| 5237 | 151 |
| 152 <P>If your problem is specific to one or more files, then please upload the | |
| 153 offender(s) to:</P> | |
| 154 | |
| 155 <P> <A HREF="ftp://mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/incoming/">ftp://mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/incoming/</A></P> | |
| 156 | |
| 157 <P>Also upload a small text file having the same base name as your file | |
| 158 with a .txt extension. Describe the problem you are having with the | |
| 159 particular file there and include your email address as well as the output | |
| 6470 | 160 of <B>MPlayer</B> at verbosity level 1.<BR> |
| 5237 | 161 Usually the first 1-5 MB of a file are enough to reproduce the problem, |
| 162 but to be sure we ask you to: | |
| 163 <P><CODE> dd if=yourfile of=smallfile bs=1024k count=5</CODE></P> | |
| 1612 | 164 |
| 5237 | 165 <P>It will take the first five megabytes of <STRONG>'your-file'</STRONG> and |
| 166 write it to <STRONG>'small-file'</STRONG>.<BR> | |
| 167 Then try again on this small file and if the bug still shows up | |
| 168 your sample is sufficient for us.<BR> | |
| 169 Please <STRONG>do not ever</STRONG> send such files via mail! Upload it, | |
| 170 and send only the path/filename of the file on the FTP-server.<BR> | |
| 171 If the file is accessible on the net, then sending the | |
| 172 <STRONG>exact</STRONG> URL is sufficient.</P> | |
| 1612 | 173 |
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174 <P><B>For crashes</B></P> |
| 5237 | 175 |
| 6470 | 176 <P>If you have a core dump of the crash continue reading the next paragraph, |
| 177 otherwise skip it.</P> | |
| 1682 | 178 |
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179 <P><B>How to extract meaningful information from a core dump</B></P> |
| 5237 | 180 |
| 181 <P>Please create following command file:</P> | |
| 1612 | 182 |
| 1682 | 183 <P><CODE>disass $eip-32 $eip+32<BR> |
| 184 printf "eax=%08lX\n",$eax<BR> | |
| 185 printf "ebx=%08lX\n",$ebx<BR> | |
| 186 printf "ecx=%08lX\n",$ecx<BR> | |
| 187 printf "edx=%08lX\n",$edx<BR> | |
| 188 printf "esp=%08lX\n",$esp<BR> | |
| 189 printf "ebp=%08lX\n",$ebp<BR> | |
| 190 printf "edi=%08lX\n",$edi<BR> | |
| 191 printf "esi=%08lX\n",$esi<BR> | |
| 192 </CODE></P> | |
| 1612 | 193 |
| 5237 | 194 <P>Then simply execute the following on your command line:</P> |
| 195 <P> <CODE>gdb mplayer --core=core -batch --command=command_file > mplayer.bug</CODE></P> | |
| 196 | |
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197 <P><B>How to conserve information about a reproducible crash</B></P> |
| 6470 | 198 <P>Recompile <B>MPlayer</B> with debugging code enabled:</P> |
| 5347 | 199 <P><CODE> ./configure --enable-debug=3<BR> |
| 5237 | 200 make</CODE></P> |
| 6470 | 201 and then run <B>MPlayer</B> within gdb using: |
| 5237 | 202 <P><CODE> gdb mplayer</CODE></P> |
| 1612 | 203 |
| 5237 | 204 <P>You are now within gdb. Type:</P> |
| 205 <P><CODE> run -v [options-to-mplayer] filename</code></P> | |
| 206 and reproduce your crash. As soon as you did it, gdb will | |
| 207 return you to the command line prompt where you have to enter | |
| 208 <P><CODE> bt<BR> | |
| 209 disass $eip-32 $eip+32</CODE></P> | |
| 210 and send the complete output to us. | |
| 211 | |
| 212 <P><B>General note</B></P> | |
| 1612 | 213 |
| 5237 | 214 <P>If something is quite big (logs for instance) then it is better to upload |
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215 it to the FTP server in a compressed format (gzip and bzip preferred) and |
| 5237 | 216 include only the path and filename in your bug report.</P> |
| 1612 | 217 |
| 5237 | 218 <P><B>I know what I am doing...</B></P> |
| 3228 | 219 |
| 5237 | 220 <P>If you created a proper bug report following the steps above and you are |
| 6470 | 221 confident it is a bug in <B>MPlayer</B>, not a compiler problem or broken file, |
| 5237 | 222 you have already read the documentation and you could not find a solution, |
| 223 your sound drivers are OK, then you might want to subscribe to the | |
| 224 mplayer-advusers list and send your bug report there to get a better and | |
| 225 faster answer.<BR><BR> | |
| 226 Please be advised that if you post newbie questions or questions answered | |
| 227 in the manual there, you will be ignored or flamed instead of getting an | |
| 228 appropriate answer.<BR> | |
| 229 So do not flame us and subscribe to -advusers only if you really know | |
| 6470 | 230 what you are doing and feel like being an advanced <B>MPlayer</B> user or |
| 5237 | 231 developer. If you meet these criteria it should not be difficult to find |
| 232 out how to subscribe... | |
| 3228 | 233 </P> |
| 234 | |
| 1612 | 235 </BODY> |
| 236 </HTML> |