Arch Linux

slackhack

Member

Registered: 2004-06-30

Posts: 738

gmplayer: works, but says not optimal

when launching gmplayer from the command line i just noticed a message saying it's not compiled with optimal settings. here is the message:

MPlayer 1.0pre7-3.4.3 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team
CPU: Advanced Micro Devices Athlon MP/XP/XP-M Barton (Family: 6, Stepping: 0)
Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes
CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 1 SSE2: 0
Compiled with runtime CPU detection - WARNING - this is not optimal!
To get best performance, recompile MPlayer with --disable-runtime-cpudetection.

i'm also getting an error about /dev/rtc:

vo: X11 running at 1280x1024 with depth 24 and 32 bpp (":0.0" => local display)
xscreensaver_disable: xscreensaver wid=4195716.
Failed to open /dev/rtc: No such file or directory (it should be readable by the user.)

everything works so i'm not complaining. i'm just wondering why the arch package includes cpu runtime detection if supposedly that's not optimal and gives worse performance. shouldn't that be recompiled without that option as suggested by the message? or are there other benefits to having the RT detect?

and what is /dev/rtc, and do i need to worry that i don't have it?

thanks

Snowman

Developer/Forum Fellow

From: Montreal, Canada

Registered: 2004-08-20

Posts: 5,212

Re: gmplayer: works, but says not optimal

The runtime detection is to check what kind of i686 cpu you have in order to load the correct cpuflags, for example the 3DNow flag is for the AMD cpu's only. It is needed because users have different i686 cpu. On my machine, it uses these:

CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1

I've tried recompiling mplayer with --disable-runtime-cpudetection but I didn't see any difference.  Maybe it loaded faster, I don't remember.  You can check it by yourself by recompiling mplayer with abs.

As for rtc, put rtc in the MODULES array of rc.conf.

slackhack

Member

Registered: 2004-06-30

Posts: 738

Re: gmplayer: works, but says not optimal

The runtime detection is to check what kind of i686 cpu you have in order to load the correct cpuflags, for example the 3DNow flag is for the AMD cpu's only. It is needed because users have different i686 cpu. On my machine, it uses these:

CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1

I've tried recompiling mplayer with --disable-runtime-cpudetection but I didn't see any difference.  Maybe it loaded faster, I don't remember.  You can check it by yourself by recompiling mplayer with abs.

As for rtc, put rtc in the MODULES array of rc.conf.

thanks.