Notes for Solaris users
=======================

1. AVI file playback works best on Solaris x86, because you have the
   option to use the win32 codecs on the x86 platform.  On Solaris SPARC,
   you'll find quite a few AVI files with non working video and/or
   audio playback, because the video/audio codecs using the win32 DLLs
   are not available.


2. To build the package you will need GNU make (gmake, /opt/sfw/gmake), 
   native Solaris make will not work.

   Typical error you get when building with solaris' make instead of GNU
   make:

   % /usr/ccs/bin/make
   make: Fatal error in reader: Makefile, line 25: Unexpected end of line seen


3. On Solaris SPARC, you need the GNU C/C++ Compiler; it does not matter
   if GNU C/C++ compiler is configured with or without the GNU assembler.

   On Solaris x86, you need the GNU assembler and the GNU C/C++
   compiler, configured to use the GNU assembler!  The mplayer code on
   the x86 platform makes heavy use of MMX, SSE and 3DNOW!
   instructions that cannot be compiled using Sun's assembler
   /usr/ccs/bin/as.


   The configure script tries to find out, which assembler program is
   used by your "gcc" command (in case the autodetection fails, use
   the "--as=/whereever/you/have/installed/gnu-as" option to tell the
   configure script where it can find GNU "as" on your system).

   Error message from configure on a Solaris x86 system using GCC
   without GNU assembler:

     % configure
     ...
     Checking assembler (/usr/ccs/bin/as) ... , failed
     Please upgrade(downgrade) binutils to 2.10.1...

   (Solution: Install and use a gcc configured with "--with-as=gas")


   Typical error you get when building with a GNU C compiler that does
   not use GNU as:

     % gmake
     ...
     gcc -c -Iloader -Ilibvo -O4 -march=i686 -mcpu=i686 -pipe -ffast-math 
	   -fomit-frame-pointer  -I/usr/local/include   -o mplayer.o mplayer.c
     Assembler: mplayer.c
     "<stdin>", line 3567 : Illegal mnemonic
     "<stdin>", line 3567 : Syntax error
     ... more "Illegal mnemonic" and "Syntax error" errors ...


4. For DVD support you must have the patched libcss installed. Patch:
   http://www.tools.de/solaris/mplayer/


5. Due to two bugs in solaris 8 x86,  you cannot reliably play DVDs using a
   capacity >4GB: 

   - The sd(7D) driver on solaris 8 x86 driver has bug when accessing a
     disk block >4GB on a device using a logical blocksize != DEV_BSIZE
     (i.e. CDROM and DVD media).  Due to a 32bit int overflow, a disk
     address modulo 4GB is accessed.
     (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/solarisonintel/message/22516)

   - The similar bug is present in the hsfs(7FS) filesystem code (aka
     ISO9660), hsfs currently does not support partitions/disks >4GB,
     all data is accessed modulo 4GB
     (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/solarisonintel/message/22592)

--
Jürgen Keil