Banshee does not start, only shows greyed out window

[Stephen Rees-Carter]

When I try to start Banshee, it just loads up a greyed out window.
The only way to get rid of it is to Force Quit. I haven't found a workaround.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: banshee 2.6.0-3ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-0.2-generic 3.8.0-rc3
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-0-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.8-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Jan 14 08:44:54 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-12-14 (30 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Alpha amd64 (20121214)
MarkForUpload: True
SourcePackage: banshee
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

Please start banshee in the terminal and attach/paste the output. The command is simply:
banshee

[Stephen Rees-Carter (valorin)]

Done. I used Ctrl+C to kill banshee after it'd been frozen for a while.

valorin@gandalf:~$ banshee
[Info 09:56:47.362] Running Banshee 2.6.0: [Ubuntu Raring Ringtail (development branch) (linux-gnu, x86_64) @ 2012-11-30 12:57:47 UTC]

[Chow Loong Jin (hyperair)]

On 14/01/2013 06:57, Stephen Rees-Carter wrote:
> Done. I used Ctrl+C to kill banshee after it'd been frozen for a while.
>
> valorin@gandalf:~$ banshee
> [Info 09:56:47.362] Running Banshee 2.6.0: [Ubuntu Raring Ringtail (development branch) (linux-gnu, x86_64) @ 2012-11-30 12:57:47 UTC]

Could you start it with "banshee --debug" instead, and in a separate terminal
run "killall -SIGQUIT banshee" when it hangs, please?

  status incomplete

--
Kind regards,
Loong Jin

[Jacob Peddicord (jpeddicord)]

Just ran across this today, though haven't used Banshee for a while so I don't know how long this has been going on. Attached is a debug log. I also ran GST_DEBUG=5 banshee --debug for more information, which you can find here (warning, 2MB) http://paste.ubuntu.com/1549355/

[Jacob Peddicord (jpeddicord)]

Just tried launching Banshee in a guest session. It opens successfully and will play audio. I then started to try out extensions, the Karaoke extension will cause Banshee to freeze right there, and will no longer launch. So, I went back to my main session, opened ~/.config/banshee-1/addin-db-001/config.xml, and disabled the Karaoke extension. Sure enough, Banshee now launches and works just fine.

This may not be the exact issue the reporter is experiencing, however, so I'd recommend they try this themselves to see if it works.

[Stephen Rees-Carter (valorin)]

Sorry about the delay with replying, been busy with a 10-month old baby at home...

It's started playing sometimes, but stopping after each track. If I use it enough it gets to the point where it crashes on start.
The log is attached.

I ran 'killall -SIGQUIT banshee' a couple of times before realising it wouldn't actually kill Banshee, so I used Ctrl+C instead.

[Chow Loong Jin (hyperair)]

On 22/01/2013 12:11, Stephen Rees-Carter wrote:
> Sorry about the delay with replying, been busy with a 10-month old baby
> at home...
>
> It's started playing sometimes, but stopping after each track. If I use it enough it gets to the point where it crashes on start.
> The log is attached.
>
> I ran 'killall -SIGQUIT banshee' a couple of times before realising it
> wouldn't actually kill Banshee, so I used Ctrl+C instead.
>
> ** Attachment added: "banshee.log"
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/banshee/+bug/1099218/+attachment/3493539/+files/banshee.log
>
> ** Changed in: banshee (Ubuntu)
> Status: Incomplete => New
>

Could you try uninstalling banshee-extension-streamrecorder and seeing if that
helps things?

--
Kind regards,
Loong Jin

[Stephen Rees-Carter (valorin)]

I've uninstalled it, it doesn't seem to have made a difference. Banshee is still crashing frequently.
I've also tried on a fresh config, but it still crashed.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Steve Potts (potts1)]

Getting same
Banshee starts up then greys outas if some process is running
All 4 cpu's varying up to 100% usage
Have tried uninstalling completely a couple of times but still the same

[Colin S. (cbs228)]

I am also having these difficulties. The Streamrecorder extension kept freezing/crashing Banshee immediately after startup. The workaround given in #6 will help you disable problematic plugins. Edit ~/.config/banshee-1/addin-db-001/config.xml in a text editor, and set every "enabled" attribute to "false". Try re-enabling plugins until it crashes.

This bug should probably affect the banshee-extension-streamrecorder package, but there may be other affected extensions.

[Tomdkat (tomdkat)]

I'm having this same problem with Banshee. I'm running the 64-bit version of Ubuntu 13.04. Thanks to Jacob Peddicord! I followed his suggestion in comment #6 above and was able to get Banshee to start. Apparently, for me the Karaoke plugin caused Banshee not to start properly.