mplayer: X11 error: BadAlloc (insufficient resources for operation)

[cpghost]

On Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 05:36:40PM +0100, Anton Shterenlikht wrote:
> I've installed port multimedia/mplayer (mplayer-0.99.11_14)
> on 9.0-current ia64.
> 
> Trying to play an mpeg video I get endless stream of 
> 
> X11 error: BadAlloc (insufficient resources for operation)
> X11 error: BadAlloc (insufficient resources for operation)
> V:   7.6 190/190 17% 82%  0.0% 0 0 
> X11 error: BadAlloc (insufficient resources for operation)
> X11 error: BadAlloc (insufficient resources for operation)
> X11 error: BadAlloc (insufficient resources for operation)
> X11 error: BadAlloc (insufficient resources for operation)
> X11 error: BadAlloc (insufficient resources for operation)
> X11 error: BadAlloc (insufficient resources for operation)

This usually happens when X doesn't have enough resources to
allocate to direct viewing with the xv (XView) driver. This
is very often related to DRM/DRI or memory problems.

As a work around, try playing the video with the x11 driver
instead:

$ mplayer -vo x11 somefile.avi

On a very slow machine, x11 isn't as good as xv driver, but it's
better than nothing. On a reasonably fast machine (2 GB or so),
you shouldn't notice any difference.

Also you can't use full screen mode with x11 driver like with xv, but
if your CPU is fast enough, you can use software zooming with the -zoom
option.

BTW, I often experience that mplayer with -vo xv works very well the
first time I start X (directly after booting), but not on subsequent
starts of X. I traced this down to the following data point, but was
unable to investigate further as I have NO experience in drm/dri
debugging:

On a first start of X on my machine, xvinfo yields:

$ xvinfo
X-Video Extension version 2.2
screen #0
  Adaptor #0: "RadeonHD Textured Video"
    number of ports: 16
    port base: 64
    operations supported: PutImage 
    supported visuals:
      depth 24, visualID 0x21
    no port attributes defined
    maximum XvImage size: 8192 x 8192

(...)

and mplayer -vo xv ... and everything else works great;
while on subsequent starts of X, it returns something like

$ xvinfo
X-Video Extension version 2.2
screen #0
no adaptors present

and mplayer -vo xv yields those X11 BadAlloc errors, and scrolling
in tin/rtin, firefox etc... is *painfully* slow.

This is with the following kld modules
 5    1 0xffffffff80e67000 5ab6d    radeon.ko
 6    1 0xffffffff80ec2000 11795    drm.ko
and radeonhd driver:

  drm0: <ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics> on vgapci0
  info: [drm] MSI enabled 1 message(s)
  vgapci0: child drm0 requested pci_enable_busmaster
  info: [drm] Initialized radeon 1.29.0 20080528
  info: [drm] Setting GART location based on new memory map
  info: [drm] Loading RS780/RS880 Microcode
  info: [drm] Resetting GPU
  info: [drm] writeback test succeeded in 1 usecs
  drm0: [ITHREAD]

It may be similar with other Xorg drivers that can't initialize
drm/dri properly, or can't allocate enough memory for DRI to
mplayer. X11 BadAlloc can also happen on large videos only, while
mplayer is able to play smaller videos with xv...

Good luck.

> Exiting... (End of file)
> 
> Please advise
> 
> many thanks
> 
> -- 
> Anton Shterenlikht
> Room 2.6, Queen's Building
> Mech Eng Dept
> Bristol University
> University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TR, UK
> Tel: +44 (0)117 331 5944
> Fax: +44 (0)117 929 4423

-cpghost.

-- 
Cordula's Web. http://www.cordula.ws/