nvidia-graphics-drivers break libgl horribly if hardware isn't nvidia

Attached picture is example of how badly things break.

err, how can mplayer possibly responsible for this?

mplayer depends on nvidia-185-libvdpau-dev instead of libvdpau-dev, which is causing this issue. I tried changing the dep, but I got a build error which I could not fix.

while I agree that the mplayer build dep need to be fixed, the actual bug is not in mplayer. Installing a (official) package must not break a running system in such a horrible way

@Reinhard
if you don't have an Nvidia card you should not install the nvidia driver (unless you know what you're doing). In this case the driver was pulled as a dependency by mplayer but this should not happen any more after you fix mplayer (as vdpau is a separate library now).

For example if you want to keep the Nvidia driver installed (e.g. if you plan on adding an Nvidia card) and keep using open drivers you will have to do the following after installing the nvidia driver:
1) sudo update-alternatives --config gl_conf (and select the alternative provided by mesa)
2) sudo ldconfig
3) sudo update-initramfs -u

Usually proprietary drivers are installed through Jockey, which hides these details from users.

For further information you can have a look at the wiki:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/NvidiaDriverSwitching

This bug was fixed in the package mplayer - 2:1.0~rc3+svn20090426-1ubuntu14

---------------
mplayer (2:1.0~rc3+svn20090426-1ubuntu14) lucid; urgency=low

  * cleanup --configure flags
  * drop VDPAU build hacks, Closes: #566868, LP: #530481, #532007
  * enable musepack support
  * enable libaa support, LP: #502767, #455535
  * enable enca support, LP: #115519
  * remove DEB_BUILD_CONFIGURE override hack
  * fix weird permission bits for mplayer.desktop and mplayer.xpm
  * reorganize binary packages to no longer install the gui version by
    default
  * refactor debian/rules to avoid sub makes
  * add patch to allow compilation with newer x264
  * use mp_msg instead of printf in debug help message
  * bump standards version
  * as no longer used, remove dependencies on debconf
  * Fix possible crashes with invalid SDPs, LP: #519579
  * add missing replaces
  * install manpages in the 'mplayer' package. and only there
 -- Reinhard Tartler <email address hidden> Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:45:55 +0100