RealPlayer (was: Re: [Gllug] BBCi)

[Doug Winter]

On Thu 20 Mar Dylan wrote:
> Well, I'm on SuSE8.1, and no - RP doesn't do anything which leaves the system 
> requiring a reboot, but... I find that it will (either or all of) (a) refuse 
> to connect (even to a local file); (b) spontaneously abend; or (c) play a 
> stream (or local file) for a few seconds before freezing - requiring a kill. 
> The only way to get RP working again in this situation is a reboot.

This means that when it dies it'll be leaving something lying around.
I'd check for processes owned by you that look like they might be
realplayer, especially if their ppid is 1.

I don't think it uses them, but another possibility is unix domain
sockets left lying around (also known as named pipes).

It'll be some resource it's not cleaning up anyhow.  Much better to find
out what it is than reboot - you learn nothing about how to fix the
problem in the future if you reboot.

Realplayer is a pretty terrible piece of software.  The good news is
that Real are planning to release the code under some form of Open
Source license - so far their proposed licenses aren't really free, but
they seem to be quite committed.

cheers,

doug.

-- 
http://www.britishsteal.com                        doug at pigeonhold.com
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"The United States is like the guy at the party who gives 
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