Interactive codec installer should not require restart of Totem

[era]

Binary package hint: totem

I am revisiting this bug after several months, and want to add a high-level summary.

The overall process was: when trying to play a video clip, for which the required codecs are not available, get an error message dialog, suggesting the installation of a codec package. Do what the program guides me through doing in order to resolve the problem, assume things would be fixed now; be miffed they were not. Restarting Totem eventually worked, but this is not obvious; either, the program should tell you that you must quit Totem and try again, or (better) no restart should be necessary.

---- Original description follows ----

Not sure if this is a problem with totem, the easy codec install thing (gnome-app-installer?) or some part of the gstreamer can of worms which I'm not even pretending to have any beginning understanding of. Sorry.

I started Totem on a couple of MP4 files and it said I have to install all kinds of scary codecs. I did, and expected it to then be able to play the video, but playback was still incomplete -- sound but no pictures.

Restarting Totem allowed me to view those videos, but isn't this supposed to work without requiring a restart?

This is a "persistent" live USB installation of Ubuntu 7.10.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ totem *.mp4
** Message: don't know how to handle audio/mpeg, mpegversion=(int)4, framed=(boolean)true, codec_data=(buffer)1190, rate=(int)48000, channels=(int)2
** Message: Missing plugin: gstreamer|0.10|totem|MPEG-4 AAC decoder|decoder-audio/mpeg, mpegversion=(int)4, framed=(boolean)true (MPEG-4 AAC decoder)

** (gnome-codec-install:13965): WARNING **: return value of custom widget handler was not a GtkWidget
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/AppInstall/AppInstall.py:1261: GtkWarning: gtk_tree_model_sort_sort: assertion `tree_model_sort->default_sort_func != NULL' failed
  item.applications.set_default_sort_func(None)
** Message: Missing plugins installed. Updating plugin registry ...
** Message: Plugin registry updated, trying again.
** Message: don't know how to handle video/x-h264, codec_data=(buffer)0142000dffe100156742000d92540a0f908000003200000bb5478a155001000468ce3c80, width=(int)320, height=(int)240, framerate=(fraction)29969/1000
** Message: Missing plugin: gstreamer|0.10|totem|H.264 decoder|decoder-video/x-h264 (H.264 decoder)

** (gnome-codec-install:14236): WARNING **: return value of custom widget handler was not a GtkWidget
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/AppInstall/AppInstall.py:1261: GtkWarning: gtk_tree_model_sort_sort: assertion `tree_model_sort->default_sort_func != NULL' failed
  item.applications.set_default_sort_func(None)
** Message: Missing plugins installed. Updating plugin registry ...
** Message: Plugin registry updated, trying again.
** Message: don't know how to handle video/x-h264, codec_data=(buffer)0142000dffe100156742000d92540a0f908000003200000bb5478a155001000468ce3c80, width=(int)320, height=(int)240, framerate=(fraction)29969/1000
sh: jackd: not found
** Message: Missing plugin: gstreamer|0.10|totem|H.264 decoder|decoder-video/x-h264 (ignoring)
** Message: All missing plugins are blacklisted, doing nothing

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ totem *.mp4
sh: jackd: not found
sh: jackd: not found

On the second try, things were dandy (apart from the jackd warning message).

These files were downloaded from the Intarweb, not sure if copyright would allow me to upload them here. The original site is apparently thepartyparty.com but I don't think MP4 format is available directly from there.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ file *.mp4
GeorgeBushsingingSun.mp4: ISO Media, MPEG v4 system, version 1
Imagine Rx2008.mp4: ISO Media, MPEG v4 system, version 2

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ md5sum *.mp4
f4d52be731cd080dd3bc09a85acdcd4d GeorgeBushsingingSun.mp4
c82be52e0e8a4063d2d5dbbf8cacd7a8 Imagine Rx2008.mp4

I added empty lines before the prompts just for legibility.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

There should be no need to restart, could you attach an example to the bug?

[era (era)]

I reinstalled Gutsy from scratch, which gave me a good opportunity to try to repro this.

I hope the following notes are reasonably complete.

1. Setting up

Fresh Gutsy install.

Basic Apt configuration:
    System - Administration - Software Sources
    - Ubuntu Software tab: uncheck Gutsy CD-ROM
    - Third-Party Software tab: enable "partner" repo
    - Updates tab: enable "proposed" and "backports"

Perform routine upgrade

2. Obtaining a test set

vnix$ mkdir /tmp/codectest
vnix$ cd /tmp/codectest
vnix$ wget http://www.codectest.com/codectest/streamingcodectest.zip # see also bug #175078
vnix$ unzip streamingcodectest.zip
vnix$ mkdir not
vnix$ mv wheeliesparkpro.swf not # don't intend to test Flash at this point

3. Repro steps

Overview: I had to restart Totem twice before all the codecs where actually correctly taken into use.
I installed them piecemeal as I was prompted for them.

In order to take good notes, I started "script" in a terminal, then ran "totem wheelie*", and jotted comments into the transcript as I progressed through the dialogs. I'm afraid the program was quicker than me on a few occasions, and also my typing sucks because this is a tiny laptop with a puny keyboard and, well, I suck.

There are three different transcripts; I will upload each with a summary.

I have done some very light editing to the transcripts for legibility etc; the raw transcripts are still available if you should need them.

[era (era)]

Attaching first transcript.

First round out of three. Summary: Installed "bad", "ffmpeg", "ugly", and "fluendo" plugins, but only MPEG2 displays. Many errors and confusing messages and false starts.

(The test set consists of 9 video files, 8 of which I managed to eventually get to play. There's also a SWF file which I removed from the test; see the transcript for more details.)

[era (era)]

Second round out of three; summary: Installed multiverse "bad" codecs. Like before, only MPEG2 displays OK, others still not; in effect, no visible progress. Some clips play audio only; many still abort with errors.

[era (era)]

Third round out of three. Removed .RM file from set; all others now display fine. But it took two restarts to get here.

Incidentally, I don't believe the presence of an RM file in the playlist is significant, since I originally reported this for a set of just two .MP4 files.

[era (era)]

In case it's not immediately obvious, the lines starting with "#" are my annotations into the typescript. Everything else is output from Totem and its subprocesses.

[era (era)]

The user interface wasn't very candid about the actual package names it installed for me, so here is dpkg.log for your amusement. Here's how I interpreted it:

    gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad
      (libcdaudio1 libgsm1 libfreebob0 libjack0 libmms0 libmpcdec3 libopenspc0 libsoundtouch1c2
    gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
    gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mpegdemux
    gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly
      (liba52-0.7.4 libdvdread3 libid3tag0 libmad0 libmpeg2-4 libsidplay1)
    gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse
      (libmp4v2-0 libfaac0 libfaad2-0 libavutil1d libavcodec1d libquicktime1 libmjpegtools0c2a libx264-54 libxvidcore4)

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue that you reported is one that should be reproducible with the live environment of the Desktop CD of the development release - Hardy Heron. It would help us greatly if you could test with it so we can work on getting it fixed in the next release of Ubuntu. You can find out more about the development release at http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/ . Thanks again and we appreciate your help.

[era (era)]

I don't personally expect to have the time for this in the nearest future, but anybody who is reading this bug is certainly welcome to try it out -- I hope the repro steps are clear enough.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

it's working pretty fine for me, can someone else confirm it with hardy? thanks.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Closing this report, feel free to re open it if you can reproduce it with Hardy Heron, thanks in advance.

[era (era)]

Reproduced on Hardy; see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/totem/+bug/175078/comments/11

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

could you describe easy steps to trigger the bug on hardy?

[era (era)]

If the repro steps I posted before are not adequate, I'm frankly at loss here. Freshly installed system, download the codec test package, unzip, run totem on the extracted files. Expect totem to be able to play the first movie without requiring a restart. Experience that it will not work until you restart.

[era (era)]

Clarification: the codec is missing, but it would be nice if either (a) Totem, or the codec installer thing, would tell me that I need to restart Totem in order for things to work; or (b) even better, if no restart was required.

I will update the bug description a little bit more.

[era (era)]

Also, things were overall a lot better on Hardy than with Gutsy. Most of the clips played fine with just one restart. All of the ones I was able to play had both video and audio.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Hi,

I just tried to reproduce this problem (thanks for the instructions and the codectest package) but it worked for me. I started with "wheelie.mov" and that asked me for codecs, but started playing right after they were installed. Then I clicked on the other ones and it seem to be working too. The next that required codecs was the .mpg one, but after installing them (the codecs) it worked right away too.

If you still have a VM with hardy (maybe with a snapshot) could you please check if the order of the files is important for the failure or something like this? Maybe it only fails if the first file is a specific one?

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

It's working also for me with Hardy and Intrepid, can you confirm it's working for you also? thanks.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to New. Thanks again!.