Comment 2 for bug 390398

On Karmic, with latest updates.

# apt-cache policy mplayer
mplayer:
  Installed: 2:1.0~rc3+svn20090426-1ubuntu7
  Candidate: 2:1.0~rc3+svn20090426-1ubuntu7
  Version table:
 *** 2:1.0~rc3+svn20090426-1ubuntu7 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com karmic/multiverse Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

When clicking "MPlayer Media Player" (gmplayer) from the menu, CPU works for a bit, but no gmplayer opens..

When launching gmplayer with no arguments from shell:
$ gmplayer
MPlayer SVN-r29237-4.4.1 (C) 2000-2009 MPlayer Team
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.
[skin] file ( /usr/share/mplayer/skins/default/skin ) not found.
Skin not found (default).

$ ls /usr/share/mplayer/skins/
blue/

$ grep skin /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf
# Specify your preferred skin here (skins are searched for in
# /usr/local/share/mplayer/skins/<name> and ~/.mplayer/skins/<name>).
#skin = Abyss

# aptitude why mplayer-skin-blue
i mplayer Depends mplayer-skin
i A mplayer-skin-blue Provides mplayer-skin

After adding the following line to "/etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf":
skin = blue

gmplayer opens, but it's control panel is all black (no controls are visible)

and the following output is shown:
$ gmplayer
MPlayer SVN-r29237-4.4.1 (C) 2000-2009 MPlayer Team
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

That is "gmplayer" from "mplayer" package.

However, "gnome-mplayer" from package gnome-mplayer, works fine...