Totem no longer plays MP4s, despite correct plugins installed

[Tom Brossman]

Recently I tested several video players, and after uninstalling them I can no longer view MP4 videos. I do have the necessary gstreamer plugins installed, however Totem incorrectly reports "Required plugin could not be found".

I'm on Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS running Totem 3.18.1-1ubuntu4
---
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.15
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-07-21 (219 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20170215.2)
Package: libgstreamer1.0-0 1.8.3-1~ubuntu0.1
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-36.40~16.04.1-generic 4.13.13
Tags: xenial
Uname: Linux 4.13.0-36-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups:

_MarkForUpload: True

(Edit: I've deleted the Ask Ubuntu link and question as this is off-topic there)

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

It sounds like this isn't a bug in the package (which hasn't changed since its release on 2016-03-10).

Here is the list of packages on my 16.04 system you might want to try (re)installing:
gstreamer1.0-alsa
gstreamer1.0-clutter-3.0
gstreamer1.0-fluendo-mp3
gstreamer1.0-libav
gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad
gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad-faad
gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad-videoparsers
gstreamer1.0-plugins-base
gstreamer1.0-plugins-base-apps
gstreamer1.0-plugins-good
gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly
gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly-amr
gstreamer1.0-pulseaudio
gstreamer1.0-tools
gstreamer1.0-x
libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0
libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0
libgstreamer-plugins-good1.0-0
libgstreamer1.0-0

[Tom Brossman (tom.brossman)]

Thanks for responding. Every single one of those packages are already installed. If I drag a video into an empty Firefox tab, Firefox will play it. Same goes for Chromium. The files are definitely playable.

If I open the same file in Totem, it will not play. This is a new problem, before I installed a few other video players to test (mpv, mplayer, vlc) this wasn't happening. Totem played everything I opened before.

I know this is probably user error after installing and removing the other video players, but I cannot get Totem restored to the functionality I had last week, even though the required plugins are definitely installed.

Right now Totem displays the error message "Required plugin could not be found" and "Videos requires to install plugins to play media files of the following type: H.264 (High Profile) decoder". After I close the error message, Totem starts playing the the audio track only.

Put differently, why does Totem not see that the required video plugins are already installed? How does it check for available plugins, and what instructions can I provide to help it locate or rediscover them? Does Totem rely on some underlying function or package in the OS that is responsible for this bug? Any troubleshooting advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Try uninstalling this: gstreamer1.0-vaapi

If it wasn't installed and/or that doesn't solve the problem then please run this command to collect more information for us:

apport-collect 1751578

Sorry I don't know the answer to your questions right now.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Please also run this and provide us with its output:

  dpkg -l | grep gstreamer

[Tom Brossman (tom.brossman)]

apport information

[Tom Brossman (tom.brossman)]

apport information

[Tom Brossman (tom.brossman)]

apport information

[Tom Brossman (tom.brossman)]

apport information

[Tom Brossman (tom.brossman)]

apport information

[Tom Brossman (tom.brossman)]

apport information

[Tom Brossman (tom.brossman)]

apport information

[Tom Brossman (tom.brossman)]

gstreamer1.0-vaapi was not installed, however I've now run the apport-collect command and here is the output of dpkg -l | grep gstreamer:
ii gir1.2-gstreamer-1.0 1.8.3-1~ubuntu0.1 amd64 GObject introspection data for the GStreamer library
ii gstreamer1.0-alsa:amd64 1.8.3-1ubuntu0.2 amd64 GStreamer plugin for ALSA
ii gstreamer1.0-clutter-3.0 3.0.18-1 amd64 Clutter PLugin for GStreamer 1.0
ii gstreamer1.0-fluendo-mp3:amd64 0.10.32.debian-1 amd64 Fluendo mp3 decoder GStreamer 1.0 plugin
ii gstreamer1.0-libav:amd64 1.8.3-1ubuntu0.2 amd64 libav plugin for GStreamer
ii gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad:amd64 1.8.3-1ubuntu0.2 amd64 GStreamer plugins from the "bad" set
ii gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad-faad:amd64 1.8.3-1ubuntu0.2 amd64 GStreamer faad plugin from the "bad" set
ii gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad-videoparsers:amd64 1.8.3-1ubuntu0.2 amd64 GStreamer videoparsers plugin from the "bad" set
ii gstreamer1.0-plugins-base:amd64 1.8.3-1ubuntu0.2 amd64 GStreamer plugins from the "base" set
ii gstreamer1.0-plugins-base-apps 1.8.3-1ubuntu0.2 amd64 GStreamer helper programs from the "base" set
ii gstreamer1.0-plugins-good:amd64 1.8.3-1ubuntu0.4 amd64 GStreamer plugins from the "good" set
ii gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly:amd64 1.8.3-1ubuntu0.1 amd64 GStreamer plugins from the "ugly" set
ii gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly-amr:amd64 1.8.3-1ubuntu0.1 amd64 GStreamer plugins from the "ugly" set
ii gstreamer1.0-pulseaudio:amd64 1.8.3-1ubuntu0.4 amd64 GStreamer plugin for PulseAudio
ii gstreamer1.0-tools 1.8.3-1~ubuntu0.1 amd64 Tools for use with GStreamer
ii gstreamer1.0-x:amd64 1.8.3-1ubuntu0.2 amd64 GStreamer plugins for X11 and Pango
ii libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0:amd64 1.8.3-1ubuntu0.2 amd64 GStreamer development files for libraries from the "bad" set
ii libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0:amd64 1.8.3-1ubuntu0.2 amd64 GStreamer libraries from the "base" set
ii libgstreamer-plugins-good1.0-0:amd64 1.8.3-1ubuntu0.4 amd64 GStreamer development files for libraries from the "good" set
ii libgstreamer1.0-0:amd64 1.8.3-1~ubuntu0.1 amd64 Core GStreamer libraries and elements
ii libreoffice-avmedia-backend-gstreamer 1:6.0.1~rc1-0ubuntu0.16.04.1~lo1 amd64 GStreamer backend for LibreOffice

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Sorry, I can't tell what's missing right now.

Please file a bug directly with the totem developers here:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=totem

They will be able to help you.

[Tom Brossman (tom.brossman)]

No problem and thanks for your help troubleshooting. The bug report on GNOME Bugzilla is here: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=793834

[Tom Brossman (tom.brossman)]

OK the Totem developers at GNOME Bugzilla say this is a packaging problem and that "Some libraries that the gst-libav package relies on are missing." If I try "apt-cache search gst-libav" I see this is "gstreamer1.0-libav", which is already installed.

I have followed their advice and filed a new bug for the gst-libav1.0 package: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gst-libav1.0/+bug/1751769