Rhythmbox podcast reciever fails to download enapsulated data that includes a redirect

[Jim J]

Binary package hint: rhythmbox

This appears like it is related to https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/rhythmbox/+bug/64096 as the problem seems to be that Rhythmbox's podcast feed parser isn't correctly handling redirects that use a question mark (?) in them.

The most recent example that I see is in trying to download the Linux News Log podcast using their MP3 feed (http://linux.quicksurf.com/?feed=rss2&cat=78).

You'll notice that the download links for the individual files look like this:
http://media.techpodcasts.com/linuxnewslog/www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3?http://audio.quicksurf.com/audiocasts/Linux-News-Log-147-2008-01-29.mp3

The redirect.mp3?http:// in that line appears to be the hangup.

Web browsers will download the files fine (though Firefox names the resulting feed redirect.mp3 instead of the actual filename of Linux-News-Log-147-2008-01-29.mp3. That's also a bug that I will be filing.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri Feb 8 11:07:38 2008
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 7.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/rhythmbox
Package: rhythmbox 0.11.2-0ubuntu4
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcCmdline: rhythmbox
ProcCwd: /home/gjjones1
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: rhythmbox
Uname: Linux brachiosaurus 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Fri Feb 1 04:59:50 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

[Matthew Tighe (tighem)]

I can confirm this as well. Any URL with a ? fails to download. Also webbalert (http://feeds.feedburner.com/webbalert) has not been downloading for me but there is no question mark in it. It stop working in Alpha 5.

[Rob Parker (rfdparker)]

Conformation: I'm running the current hardy (as of 17:03 on 06/03/08), with the included Rhythmbox 0.11.4 the problem still persists. For instance out of the podcasts I regularly listen to and have in the podcast module of Rhythmbox (namely LugRadio, hashlugradio, The Linux Link Tech Show and the Linux Action Show), all have worked fine, until I tried to download episode two of LAS' new 8th season, it fails (as does any download from the feed of LAS' associated CastaBlasta, that I've never actually listened to due to this bug). In the comments of this poll on the LAS forum people's experiences on Gutsy with the same problem can be found: http://www.linuxactionshow.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=2253

[Matthew Tighe (tighem)]

Castablasta is just like Linux Action Show, but with focus on sci-fi and stuff. Somehow it's even more nerdy.

[Matthew Dwyer (smegzor)]

Not sure if my issue is due to the question mark but The Linux Action Show and a few other podcasts are difficult to download in Rhythmbox.
I found that if I pull up the feed page in a browser and hit refresh, Rhythmbox will then see the update in the feed and download it. If I miss the update for a day, it downloads automatically the following day.

[mich.peeters (mich-peeters)]

other example:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/Talkingreef --> podcasts with redirect are not downloaded.

[RichUnger (rich-unger)]

Or CBS's 60 minutes podcast: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/podcast_60min_1?format=xml

[maitrechang (fake2)]

Would be good to see Hardy Heron upgrading to rhythmbox to version 0.11.6 (working well on my gentoo box) which is afterall, just a bug-fix release.

Because of this bug I have to use banshee to read my podcasts, and the banshee version in hardy is not very satisfying to me.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

does anybody still get the issue in intrepid? upstream comments suggest the issue is fixed in the gio version and not in the 0.11.6 so updating the hardy version should not makes a difference there

[Don Deakins (don-deakins-epbfi)]

I'm running 0.11.5 and having none of the problems I experienced before.
Rhythmbox now seems rock solid and I'm very happy.

Sebastien Bacher wrote:
> does anybody still get the issue in intrepid? upstream comments suggest
> the issue is fixed in the gio version and not in the 0.11.6 so updating
> the hardy version should not makes a difference there
>
>

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the bug should be fixed in intrepid, closing the bug, you can reopen if you still get the issue though