Bug#573257: mplayer: font path error

[Celejar]

Package: mplayer
Version: 1.0~rc3+svn20090405-1+b1
Severity: important


On startup, Mplayer pops up a dialog titled "Error!", stating:

New_Face failed. Maybe the font path is wrong. Please supply the text font file
(~/.mplayer/subfont.ttf)

I see other reports of this, which seem to recommend manual configuration.  But
shouldn't this be done be the package installation?

http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/MPlayer#TroubleShooting
http://www.electrictoolbox.com/mplayer-error-new-face-failed/

In previous installs of mplayer, I did not see this problem.  I'm not sure what
has changed.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (600, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.33-lizzie
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages mplayer depends on:
ii  debconf [debconf- 1.5.28                 Debian configuration management sy
ii  libasound2        1.0.22-2               shared library for ALSA applicatio
ii  libatk1.0-0       1.28.0-1               The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libaudio2         1.9.2-3                Network Audio System - shared libr
ii  libavcodec52      4:0.5.1-1              ffmpeg codec library
ii  libavformat52     4:0.5.1-1              ffmpeg file format library
ii  libavutil49       4:0.5.1-1              ffmpeg utility library
ii  libc6             2.10.2-6               Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libcaca0          0.99.beta17-1          colour ASCII art library
ii  libcairo2         1.8.10-2               The Cairo 2D vector graphics libra
ii  libcdparanoia0    3.10.2+debian-9        audio extraction tool for sampling
ii  libdirectfb-1.2-0 1.2.10really1.2.8-1+b1 direct frame buffer graphics - sha
ii  libesd0           0.2.41-7               Enlightened Sound Daemon - Shared 
ii  libfontconfig1    2.8.0-2                generic font configuration library
ii  libfreetype6      2.3.11-1               FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii  libfribidi0       0.19.2-1               Free Implementation of the Unicode
ii  libgcc1           1:4.4.3-3              GCC support library
ii  libgif4           4.1.6-9                library for GIF images (library)
ii  libgl1-mesa-glx [ 7.7-4                  A free implementation of the OpenG
ii  libglib2.0-0      2.22.4-1               The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgtk2.0-0       2.18.7-1               The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libjack0          0.118+svn3796-3        JACK Audio Connection Kit (librari
ii  libjpeg62         6b-16.1                The Independent JPEG Group's JPEG 
ii  liblircclient0    0.8.3-5                infra-red remote control support -
ii  liblzo2-2         2.03-2                 data compression library
ii  libncurses5       5.7+20090803-2         shared libraries for terminal hand
ii  libogg0           1.1.4~dfsg-2           Ogg bitstream library
ii  libopenal1        1:1.11.753-1           Software implementation of the Ope
ii  libpango1.0-0     1.26.2-1               Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libpng12-0        1.2.43-1               PNG library - runtime
ii  libpostproc51     4:0.5.1-1              ffmpeg video postprocessing librar
ii  libpulse0         0.9.21-1               PulseAudio client libraries
ii  libsdl1.2debian   1.2.14-4               Simple DirectMedia Layer
ii  libsmbclient      2:3.4.7~dfsg-1         shared library for communication w
ii  libspeex1         1.2~rc1-1              The Speex codec runtime library
ii  libstdc++6        4.4.3-3                The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  libsvga1          1:1.4.3-29             console SVGA display libraries
ii  libswscale0       4:0.5.1-1              ffmpeg video scaling library
ii  libtheora0        1.1.1+dfsg.1-3         The Theora Video Compression Codec
ii  libx11-6          2:1.3.3-1              X11 client-side library
ii  libxext6          2:1.1.1-2              X11 miscellaneous extension librar
ii  libxinerama1      2:1.1-2                X11 Xinerama extension library
ii  libxt6            1:1.0.7-1              X11 toolkit intrinsics library
ii  libxv1            2:1.0.5-1              X11 Video extension library
ii  libxvmc1          2:1.0.5-1              X11 Video extension library
ii  libxxf86dga1      2:1.1.1-2              X11 Direct Graphics Access extensi
ii  libxxf86vm1       1:1.1.0-2              X11 XFree86 video mode extension l
ii  mplayer-skin-blue 1.6-2                  blue skin for mplayer
ii  zlib1g            1:1.2.3.4.dfsg-3       compression library - runtime

mplayer recommends no packages.

Versions of packages mplayer suggests:
ii  bzip2                         1.0.5-4    high-quality block-sorting file co
ii  fontconfig                    2.8.0-2    generic font configuration library
pn  mplayer-doc                   <none>     (no description available)
pn  netselect | fping             <none>     (no description available)
ii  ttf-freefont                  20090104-5 Freefont Serif, Sans and Mono True

-- no debconf information