Unable to open /dev/mem: Additional info

Hello,

maybe I should provide additional information about the problem I
encountered.
Being a normal user, I always get the above error message on SDL_Init().
That seems to be some kind of hardened kernel problem or something
similar but has nothing to do with SDL (I suppose).
But when I run the program as root, I can get past the SDL_Init(), but
the program just hangs on SDL_SetVideoMode(). I used a standard
resolution and color depth (640x480x24).
Any clues what is going on?
I can send the strace output if it helps.

Cheers,
Daniel