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1 <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
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2 <HTML>
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3
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4 <HEAD>
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5 <TITLE>Bug reporting - MPlayer - The Movie Player for Linux</TITLE>
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6 <LINK REL="stylesheet" TYPE="text/css" HREF="default.css">
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7 <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
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8 </HEAD>
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9
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10 <BODY>
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11
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12
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13 <H1><A NAME="B">Appendix B - How to report bugs</A></H1>
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14
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15 <P>Good bug reports are a very valuable contribution to the development of any
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16 software project. But just like writing good software, good problem reports
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17 involve some work. Please realize that most developers are extremely busy and
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18 receive obscene amounts of email. So while your feedback is crucial in
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19 improving MPlayer and very much appreciated, please understand that you
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20 have to provide <B>all</B> of the information we request and follow the
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21 instructions in this document closely.</P>
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22
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23
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24 <H2>How to fix bugs</H2>
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25
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26 <P>If you feel have the necessary skills you are invited to have a go at fixing
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27 the bug yourself. Or maybe you already did that? Please read
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28 <A HREF="tech/patches.txt">this short document</A> to find out how to get
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29 your code included in MPlayer. The people on the
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30 <A HREF="http://mplayerhq.hu/mailman/listinfo/mplayer-dev-eng">mplayer-dev-eng</A>
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31 mailing list will assist you if you have questions.</P>
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32
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33
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34 <H2>How to report bugs</H2>
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35
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36 <P>First of all please try the latest CVS version of MPlayer as your bug
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37 might already be fixed there. Development moves extremely fast, most problems
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38 in official releases are reported within days or even hours, so please use
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39 <B>only CVS</B> to report bugs. CVS instructions can be found at the bottom of
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40 <A HREF="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/dload.html">this page</A> or in the
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41 README. If this did not help please refer to
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42 <A HREF="documentation.html#known_bugs">the list of known bugs</A> and the
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43 rest of the documentation. If your problem is not known or not solvable by our
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44 instructions, then please report the bug.</P>
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45
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46 <P>Please do not send bug reports privately to individual developers. This is
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47 community work and thus there might be several people interested in it.
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48 Sometimes other users already experienced your troubles and know how to
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49 circumvent a problem even if it is a bug in MPlayer code.</P>
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50
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51 <P>Please describe your problem in as much detail as possible. Do a little
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52 detective work to narrow down the circumstances under which the problem
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53 occurs. Does the bug only show up in certain situations? Is it specific to
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54 certain files or file types? Does it occur with only one codec or is it codec
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55 independent? Can you reproduce it with all output drivers? The more
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56 information you provide the better are our chances at fixing your problem.
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57 Please do not forget to also include the valuable information requested below,
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58 we will be unable to properly diagnose your problem otherwise.</P>
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59
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60 <P>An excellent and well written guide to asking questions in public forums is
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61 <A HREF="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html">How To Ask
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62 Questions The Smart Way</A> by Eric S. Raymond. If you follow these guidelines
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63 you should be safe. But please understand that we all follow the mailing lists
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64 voluntarily in our free time. We are very busy and cannot guarantee that you
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65 will get a solution for your problem or even an answer.</P>
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66
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67
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68 <H3>Where to report bugs?</H3>
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69
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70 <P>Subscribe to the mplayer-users mailing list:<BR>
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71 <A HREF="http://mplayerhq.hu/mailman/listinfo/mplayer-users">http://mplayerhq.hu/mailman/listinfo/mplayer-users</A><BR>
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72 and send your bug report to:<BR>
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73 <A HREF="mailto:mplayer-users@mplayerhq.hu">mplayer-users@mplayerhq.hu</A></P>
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74
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75 <P>The language of this list is <B>English</B>. Please follow the standard
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76 <A HREF="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt">Netiquette Guidelines</A> and
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77 <B>do not send HTML mail</B> to any of our mailing lists. You will only get
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78 ignored or banned. If you do not know what HTML mail is or why it is evil,
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79 read this <A HREF="http://expita.com/nomime.html">fine document</A>. It
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80 explains all the details and has instructions for turning HTML off. Also note
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81 that we will not individually CC (carbon-copy) people so it is a good idea to
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82 subscribe to actually receive your answer.</P>
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83
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84
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85 <H3>What to report?</H3>
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86
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87 <H4>System Information:</H4>
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88
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89 <UL>
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90 <LI>Your Linux distribution or operating system e.g.:
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91 <UL>
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92 <LI>Red Hat 7.1</LI>
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93 <LI>Slackware 7.0 + devel packs from 7.1 ...</LI>
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94 </UL>
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95 </LI>
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96 <LI>kernel version:<BR>
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97 <CODE>uname -a</CODE></LI>
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98 <LI>libc version:<BR>
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99 <CODE>ls -l /lib/libc[.-]*</CODE></LI>
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100 <LI>X version:<BR>
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101 <CODE>X -version</CODE></LI>
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102 <LI>gcc and ld versions:<BR>
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103 <CODE>gcc -v<BR>
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104 ld -v</CODE></LI>
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105 <LI>binutils version:<BR>
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106 <CODE>as --version</CODE></LI>
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107 <LI>If you have problems with fullscreen mode:
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108 <UL>
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109 <LI>Window manager type and version</LI>
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110 </UL>
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111 </LI>
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112 <LI>If only the GUI is buggy:
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113 <UL>
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114 <LI>GTK version</LI>
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115 <LI>GLIB version</LI>
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116 <LI>libpng version</LI>
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117 <LI>GUI situation in which the bug occurs</LI>
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118 </UL>
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119 </LI>
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120 </UL>
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121
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122
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123 <H4>Hardware & drivers:</H4>
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124
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125 <UL>
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126 <LI>CPU info (this works on Linux only):<BR>
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127 <CODE>cat /proc/cpuinfo</CODE></LI>
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128 <LI>Video card manufacturer and model, e.g.:
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129 <UL>
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130 <LI>ASUS V3800U chip: nVidia TNT2 Ultra pro 32MB SDRAM</LI>
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131 <LI>Matrox G400 DH 32MB SGRAM</LI>
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132 </UL>
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133 </LI>
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134 <LI>Video driver type & version, e.g.:
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135 <UL>
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136 <LI>X built-in driver</LI>
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137 <LI>nVidia 0.9.623</LI>
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138 <LI>Utah-GLX CVS 2001-02-17</LI>
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139 <LI>DRI from X 4.0.3</LI>
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140 </UL>
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141 </LI>
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142 <LI>Sound card type & driver, e.g.:
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143 <UL>
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144 <LI>Creative SBLive! Gold with OSS driver from oss.creative.com</LI>
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145 <LI>Creative SB16 with kernel OSS drivers</LI>
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146 <LI>GUS PnP with ALSA OSS emulation</LI>
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147 </UL>
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148 </LI>
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149 <LI>If in doubt include <CODE>lspci -vv</CODE> output on Linux systems.</LI>
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150 </UL>
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151
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152
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153 <H4>For compilation problems/errors</H4>
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154
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155 Please include these files:
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156
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157 <UL>
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158 <LI>configure.log</LI>
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159 <LI>config.h</LI>
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160 <LI>config.mak</LI>
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161 <LI>libvo/config.mak</LI>
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162 </UL>
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163
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164
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165 <H4>For playback problems</H4>
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166
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167 <P>Please include the output of MPlayer at verbosity level 1, but
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168 remember to <B>not truncate the output</B> when you paste it into your mail.
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169 The developers need all of the messages to properly diagnose a problem. You
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170 can direct the output into a file like this:</P>
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171
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172 <P><CODE> mplayer -v [options] [filename] &> mplayer.log</CODE></P>
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173
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174 <P>If your problem is specific to one or more files, then please upload the
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175 offender(s) to:</P>
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176
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177 <P> <A HREF="ftp://mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/incoming/">ftp://mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/incoming/</A></P>
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178
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179 <P>Also upload a small text file having the same base name as your file
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180 with a .txt extension. Describe the problem you are having with the
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181 particular file there and include your email address as well as the output
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182 of MPlayer at verbosity level 1. Usually the first 1-5 MB of a file are
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183 enough to reproduce the problem, but to be sure we ask you to:</P>
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184
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185 <P><CODE> dd if=yourfile of=smallfile bs=1024k count=5</CODE></P>
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186
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187 <P>It will take the first five megabytes of <STRONG>'your-file'</STRONG> and
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188 write it to <STRONG>'small-file'</STRONG>. Then try again on this small file
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189 and if the bug still shows up your sample is sufficient for us. Please
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190 <STRONG>do not ever</STRONG> send such files via mail! Upload it, and send
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191 only the path/filename of the file on the FTP-server. If the file is
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192 accessible on the net, then sending the <STRONG>exact</STRONG> URL is
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193 sufficient.</P>
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194
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195
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196 <H4>For crashes</H4>
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197
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198 <P>If you have a core dump of the crash continue reading the next paragraph,
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199 otherwise skip it.</P>
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200
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201
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202 <H4>How to extract meaningful information from a core dump</H4>
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203
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204 <P>Please create the following command file:</P>
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205
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206 <P><CODE>disass $pc-32 $pc+32<BR>
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207 info all-registers</CODE></P>
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208
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209 <P>Then simply execute the following on your command line:</P>
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210
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211 <P> <CODE>gdb mplayer --core=core -batch --command=command_file > mplayer.bug</CODE></P>
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212
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213
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214 <H4>How to conserve information about a reproducible crash</H4>
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215
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216 Recompile MPlayer with debugging code enabled:
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217
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218 <P><CODE> ./configure --enable-debug=3<BR>
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219 make</CODE></P>
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220
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221 and then run MPlayer within gdb using:
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222
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223 <P><CODE> gdb ./mplayer</CODE></P>
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224
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225 You are now within gdb. Type:
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226
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227 <P><CODE> run -v [options-to-mplayer] filename</code></P>
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228
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229 and reproduce your crash. As soon as you did it, gdb will
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230 return you to the command line prompt where you have to enter
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231
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232 <P><CODE> bt<BR>
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233 disass $pc-32 $pc+32</CODE></P>
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234
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235 and send the complete output to us.
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236
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237
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238 <H3>General note</H3>
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239
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240 <P>If something is quite big (logs for instance) then it is better to upload
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241 it to the FTP server in a compressed format (gzip and bzip2 preferred) and
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242 include only the path and filename in your bug report. Our mailing lists
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243 have a message size limit of 80k, if you have something bigger you have to
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244 compress or upload it.</P>
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245
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246
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247 <H2>I know what I am doing...</H2>
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248
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249 <P>If you created a proper bug report following the steps above and you are
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250 confident it is a bug in MPlayer, not a compiler problem or broken
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251 file, you have already read the documentation and you could not find a
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252 solution, your sound drivers are OK, then you might want to subscribe to the
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253 mplayer-advusers list and send your bug report there to get a better and
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254 faster answer.<BR><BR>
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255 Please be advised that if you post newbie questions or questions answered
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256 in the manual there, you will be ignored or flamed instead of getting an
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257 appropriate answer.<BR>
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258 So do not flame us and subscribe to -advusers only if you really know
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259 what you are doing and feel like being an advanced MPlayer user or
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260 developer. If you meet these criteria it should not be difficult to find
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261 out how to subscribe...</P>
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262
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263 </BODY>
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264 </HTML>
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