after Aug.11,2017 update, vlc no longer shows video

[Kenneth Carpenter]

After update of 16.04 on Aug.11,2017, which included a new version of vlc and related packages, vlc no longer shows any video but still plays the audio from, e.g., an mp4 file. The error messages sent to the terminal repeatedly, when vlc is started in a terminal, are:

[00007fefb00013e8] vdpau_display vout display error: output surface creation failure: A catch-all error, used when no other error code applies.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: vlc 2.2.2-5ubuntu0.16.04.4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-91.114-generic 4.4.76
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-91-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.10
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Sun Aug 13 11:50:32 2017
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-11-22 (1359 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 12.04.3 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20130820)
SourcePackage: vlc
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Sebastian Ramacher (s-ramacher)]

@khc: Same question to you: So this sound like a driver bug then. What VDPAU driver do you use and which packages were upgraded?

Please also provide the output of vlc -vvv.

[Kenneth Carpenter (khc)]

libvdpau was not updated when this bug started on my system. From
/usr/share/doc/libvdpau1/changelog.Debian.gz the currently installed
version is:
----------------
libvdpau (1.1.1-3ubuntu1) xenial; urgency=medium

   * control: Demote libvdpau-va-gl1 from vdpau-driver-all Depends to
     Suggests.

  -- Timo Aaltonen <email address hidden> Fri, 19 Feb 2016 14:39:25 +0200
----------------

On 08/15/2017 01:59 AM, Sebastian Ramacher wrote:
> *** This bug is a duplicate of bug 1707393 ***
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1707393
>
> @khc: Same question to you: So this sound like a driver bug then. What
> VDPAU driver do you use and which packages were upgraded?
-------------
libvdpau was not updated when this bug started on my system. From
/usr/share/doc/libvdpau1/changelog.Debian.gz the currently installed
version is:
----------------
libvdpau (1.1.1-3ubuntu1) xenial; urgency=medium

   * control: Demote libvdpau-va-gl1 from vdpau-driver-all Depends to
     Suggests.

  -- Timo Aaltonen <email address hidden> Fri, 19 Feb 2016 14:39:25 +0200
----------------

>
> Please also provide the output of vlc -vvv.
>
> ** This bug has been marked a duplicate of bug 1707393
> vlc no longer displays certain streams since update vdpau
>
-----------------
Here is a list of packages that were updated when the bug first
appeared, from ls -lt /usr/share/doc/
(I have no other log of the update which was done by "Software Updater"
on Aug 11. Note I did a second update to vlc on Aug 13 in trying to fix
the problem.)
-----------------
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 240 Aug 13 11:45 vlc-nox/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 152 Aug 13 11:45 vlc/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 152 Aug 13 11:45 libvlc5/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 240 Aug 13 11:45 vlc-data/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 152 Aug 13 11:45 libvlccore8/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Aug 13 11:12 gnome-software-common/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Aug 13 11:12 gnome-software/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 112 Aug 13 11:12 update-manager/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 184 Aug 13 11:12 update-manager-core/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 112 Aug 13 11:12 python3-update-manager/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 304 Aug 11 19:07 ruby2.3/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Aug 11 19:07 libruby2.3/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 192 Aug 11 19:07 x11proto-core-dev/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 112 Aug 11 19:07 xfonts-utils/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 144 Aug 11 19:07 unattended-upgrades/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Aug 11 19:07 python-apport/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 152 Aug 11 19:07 mysql-server/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Aug 11 19:07 python-problem-report/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 168 Aug 11 19:07 libkmod2/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Aug 11 19:07 mesa-vdpau-drivers/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Aug 11 19:07 linux-libc-dev/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 112 Aug 11 19:07 linux-headers-generic/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Aug 11 19:07
linux-headers-4.4.0-91-generic/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Aug 11 19:07 linux-headers-4.4.0-91/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 112 Aug 11 19:07 linux-image-generic/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 112 Aug 11 19:07 linux-generic/
drwxr-x...

[Sebastian Ramacher (s-ramacher)]

So it seems like your VDPAU driver is mesa-vdpau-driver.