vlc sound-menu entry broken 14.04

[Andreas Angerer]

I can observe some weird behaviour (see also http://askubuntu.com/questions/481713/vlc-sound-menu-integration-broken-14-04 )
where the sound-menu entry is insensitive to anything, only when vlc is running; when closing vlc one can use the entry to open it again, but as soon as it is running the entry becomes insensitive (which means, that the back/forward/play buttons do not work) again;

Moreover the multimedia-keys do not work for vlc.

All other players spotify, gmusicbrowser, gnome-mplayer work flawlessly...

I'm Running ubuntu 14.04 and vlc 2.1.4

[Lars Karlitski (larsu)]

Thanks for reporting this bug.

The sound menu shows vlc as inactive because vlc reports that it cannot raise its main window:

    $ gdbus call --session --dest org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc --object-path /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2
      --method org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get 'org.mpris.MediaPlayer2' 'CanRaise'
    (<false>,)

Also, the sound menu doesn't handle multimedia keys. That's up to the application.

[abdullahc (sneetsher)]

@Lars even mine is `false` it does work perfectly. So it should be some thing else.

I'm using Ubuntu 14.04 , VLC media player 2.1.4 Rincewind (revision 2.1.4-0-g2a072be)

$ gdbus call --session --dest org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc --object-path /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 --method org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get 'org.mpris.MediaPlayer2' 'CanRaise'
(<false>,)

$ gdbus call --session --dest org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc.instance6539 --object-path /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 --method org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get 'org.mpris.MediaPlayer2' 'CanRaise'
(<false>,)

[Lars Karlitski (larsu)]

> @Lars even mine is `false` it does work perfectly. So it should be some thing else.

What do you mean by "work perfectly"? Does the sound menu display the VLC menu item as senstive and when you click it, VLC's main window is raised? If so, that would be a bug in the sound menu, because it shouldn't allow that when 'CanRaise' is false.

Can you give more detail on how to reproduce this state? I always get an insensitive menu item, no matter whether VLC is playing something or not.

Please note that starting VLC from the sound menu when it is not running works fine, as does controlling playback through the menu.

[Andreas Angerer (andreas-angerer89)]

Ok, so there's a difference:

my menu-item is sensitive if vlc is not running but turns insensitive if vlc is started, furthermore the control buttons through the menu do not work when vlc is running

[Lars Karlitski (larsu)]

Thanks for the clarification. It looks like this is indeed an issue with VLC then.

[abdullahc (sneetsher)]

So, mine have a cool bug that let me work with VLC?

- VLC not running: its sound menu is sensitive both "VLC media player" label and controls REW/PLAY/FF.
- Either start VLC from Desktop/or Sound menu: "VLC media player" label become grey non sensitive BUT controls REW/PLAY/FF are not grey and sensitive and they work I can use them.

Here attached screenshot, notice the hover glue.