hacking broken ports

[William O'Higgins]

I was trying to build mplayer tonight, and I ran into a problem with
net/liveMedia.  The port that I've got calls for the build done on
10.24.2003.  This file was unavailable on *any* of the listed mirrors,
with the closest match being one built on 10.30.2003.  I got around this
problem by putting the file into /usr/ports/distfiles, and then
modifying two files in /usr/ports/net/liveMedia; Makefile and distfile.
I found that there was only on reference to the filename in the
Makefile, so I changed it, and then I generated an MD5 on the file that
I had and put it into distfile.  After all of that foolishness mplayer
built just fine.

My question is this; am I on the right track, or am I going to screw
something up if I keep using this slash-and-burn method?  I'm new to
FBSD (and *NIX), but this method seemed like it'd work.  I'd just hate
to do something that's going to bite me in the ass later on.

Also, what do I have to do to the permissions of /dev/dvd so that I can
open a DVD in userspace.  Right now I have to sudo mplayer to watch a
movie, and that seems silly.  Thanks.
-- 

yours,

William