totem crashes when attempting to play mp4 files [gst_buffer_get_meta: assertion 'buffer != NULL' failed]

[Paul White]

I can add and display a directory of .mp4 files in totem but when attempting to play any of them totem will crash. An attempt to restart totem fail with the window not appearing at all.

After several further attempts to restart totem I find that I can add an .mp4 file but any attempt to play it results in sometimes the totem window not appearing at all, sometimes totem starts and I can navigate to a local file and sometimes I see the error "The specified move could not be found" as soon as totem's window is displayed.

In other words, the result of attempting to play an .mp4 file is unpredictable after the initial crash.

These reports have appeared on errors.ubuntu.com which relate to the most recent crashes:

https://errors.ubuntu.com/oops/383cc642-c157-11ec-8afa-fa163e993415
https://errors.ubuntu.com/oops/37f3e83a-c157-11ec-a3c9-fa163ef35206

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 22.04
Package: totem 42.0-1ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.15.0-25.25-generic 5.15.30
Uname: Linux 5.15.0-25-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu82
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Thu Apr 21 10:53:17 2022
InstallationDate: Installed on 2022-04-02 (18 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS "Jammy Jellyfish" - Daily amd64 (20220402)
SourcePackage: totem
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
XorgLog: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/var/log/Xorg.0.log'

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

If you launch totem from a Terminal, do you get the same error as bug 1969512?

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

No I don't. The attached file shows the terminal output after successive starts in a terminal.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Richard Dowty (at446zz)]

On my computer when I try to play mp4. I loose horz sync.

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

Uninstalling gstreamer1.0-vaapi as suggested in bug 1969512 allows me to start totem, add local .mp4 files and play them. No crashes noted after starting totem several times and playing .mp4 files from several sources. Reinstalling gstreamer1.0-vaapi made totem crash again. So again removed and no crash.

[Giovanni (aka Vanni) Totaro (vanni-totaro)]

Thanks Paul, your suggested workaround works for me too.

[Batwam (batwam)]

same issue here. removing gstreamer1.0-vaapi solved it for Quicktime MPEG4-AAC files produced by iPhone.

I was getting the same error:
(totem:3619317): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: 22:44:02.296: gst_buffer_get_meta: assertion 'buffer != NULL' failed

[XA Hydra (xa-hydra)]

Looks like the same issue as 1965809, but I've never had gstreamer1.0-vaapi installed and I experience this issue 100% of the time.

Basically, I can't play videos natively in Ubuntu 22.04 / Wayland