Playing CSS-Protected Video DVD in Totem results in error: "An Error Occurred - Could not read from resource"

[bmdavis]

Binary package hint: totem

Upon entering any DVD, I get the message:
"Could not read from resource".

Under playlist I always have "1" and "2", regardless of the DVD.

This happens with CSS-encrypted DVDs, others work right.

WORKAROUND:
* Until Jaunty 9.04:
- install packages libdvdread3 and libdvdnav4
- run 'sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh'

* Jaunty 9.04 and above:
- install packages libdvdread4, libdvdnav4 and gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly
- run 'sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh'

You may want to read the help from System->Help and Support->Music, photos and videos, and from http://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/PlayingDVDs.

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

Same here. This is very bad because in the past we used to have a nice dialog explaining why DVD support could not be installed by default and how to turn it on. Now we just have a poor error.

To fix this, just run sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

don't add the ubuntu version to the title, the information will be outdated quickly and create extra work and confusion

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Not confirming, DVD playing still works correctly on my hardy installation, the dialog which changed is a different issue, could you open a bug and attach a screenshot of the one which was used in gutsy?

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

Sebastien, I don't understand you: it is not possible you were able to read CSS-encrypted DVDs withouth aving installed libdvdcss2. And if you have done so, you cannot experience the bug.

Maybe there are two bugs here: I assumed bmdavis had problems with encrypted DVDs because unencrypted ones are rare so he ma not have been able to test one. bmdavis, could you run the script I told about in my first post? If you still have this error, then I will open another bug for the dialog issue.

For me, the issue is the error dialog, and nothing else. I do not have any screenshot of the Gutsy dialog here but I guess it was something like "For legal reasons, DVD support can not be enabled by default. Please read the instructions in the help", with a link to the help page about that.

[Sorry for the version in the title, I thought it was the recommended way.]

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the bug description states that dvd playing was working for him and stopped working, if it was working libdvdcss2 is likely installed, the description is not clear

[bmdavis (bdafrica)]

"sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh" worked for me - DVDs work fine now! Thanks Milan.

It was interesting that in heron the dvds were working, then after the update they stopped. The above command fixed it though....

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

OK, thanks for this precision.
Sebastien: this can now be considered as a bug occurring when libdvdcss2 is missing. The fact that it worked until an update is really strange though.

[yang83 (yang83)]

the above command worked for me too! Thanks guys!

[SonhadorPR (sonhadorpr)]

very simple to just follow the command above, it works wonders!!
Thank you!!!

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

This bug is tightly linked with bug 137527, about getting libgimme-codec proposing needed packages.

[ecrivain5 (brian11smith)]

Sadly the suggested command line has not worked for me. Are there any other suggestions please.
Brian

[SonhadorPR (sonhadorpr)]

I will check other forums in Spanish, see what I can find, and I'll let you
know!

--
Registered Linux User #457355
Roberto Omar Millán

On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 4:28 PM, ecrivain5 <email address hidden> wrote:

> Sadly the suggested command line has not worked for me. Are there any other
> suggestions please.
> Brian
>
> --
> "Could not read from resource" error when playing encrypted DVD
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/219062
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

ecrivain5: check you have enabled the universe and multiverse repositories (System->Administration->Software sources). But please, this is not a support forum.

[Mike (miguel-bianchi)]

I entered the sudo command I've seen written. sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh

Now it provide me with somewhat the same error message Could not read from resource.

Does anyone know why Totem refuses to read any DVD's I place in the player.

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

Mike: Do you have libdvdcss2, libdvdread3 and libdvdnav4 installed? Did the script report that this worked ?

[wern (jbrwer001)]

I am still experiencing the same problem as Mike is. I've even tried it with Mplayer and no video is displayed nor audio played.

I installed libdvdcss2, libdvdread3, libdvdnav4 and ran the /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh script.

What else could be wrong?

[wern (jbrwer001)]

Another post I read suggested using totem-xine: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=672613

This worked for me. Oddly enough, after playing the dvd with totem-xine totem-gstreamer worked (almost). Totem-gstreamer plays the DVD but does not start with the dvd root menu. Under SMplayer I can now get it work, but still no root menu.

In conclusion: either
 - the install for libdvdcss2, libdvdread3, libdvdnav4 and the install script took a while to be used by the system
or
 - totem-xine scared them into submission.

[Kelly (kgmccaw)]

Thnx

this solved the problem

[Miguelángel León (migueleonm)]

The script install-css.sh intall i386 packages, if you have ubuntu hardy x86_64 you have to modify it.

sudo gedit /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh

In the line available="i386" replace it with available="ia64" then re-run the script.

[David Johnston (davedcj)]

I have intrepid installed and I had the same problem. I filed bug report #317057 but it seems to be not quite a duplicate.

I have tried most of the above, but when I tried to find package libdvdcss2 using synaptic, it doesnt show up.
(only the packages *ubuntu-restricted-extras which I have also now installed)

Is package libdvdcss2 still available for intrepid ?
(I have the other 2 installed - libdvdread3 and libdvdnav4)

See bug report #317057 which relates to both bugs #280780 and #219062

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

Sorry, the package libdvdcss2 is installed by the script /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh. It's not available from official repositories. Does this solve your problem?

[David Johnston (davedcj)]

I reread some of above and realised that libdvdcss2 is not packaged as a separate package, which is implied from some of the comments and instructions.
I ran the script libdvdcss2 from package libdvdread3 and it fixed the problem.
That suggests the bug is actually a packaging problem.

Anyway, thanks for the info - it has led to the first part of my problem in bug #317057 being solved.

[David Johnston (davedcj)]

yep that was brilliant, Milan.
Thanks for your explanation.

I tried playing the dvd No Quarter again after running the libdvdcss2 script and it now plays OK.

since it isnt part of the official package, it would greatly help if the comments attached to the ubuntu-restricted-extras package could be updated to note that it may be necessary to run the script /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh once they are installed.
I think that would save a lot of bug reports being lodged.

Anyway, thanks again, Milan. All my current dvd problems are now solved.

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

This is not actually a packaging problem. libdvdcss2 is only available from medibuntu repositories since it cannot be included due to legal issues about decrypting DVDs. What I'd like to see is a dialog allowing to run the script in one click.

[alenio (maclaurg)]

Ive tried everything in every forum I could find. I installed libdvdcss2 and 3; and run many other lines of code I found in forums addressing this problem. I still get the "could not read from resource" from totem movie player, please help. Im running ubunut 8.04 Hardy. Shouldn't be this hard to watch a DVD from netflix. Is there another program that is easier to run than totem? Much thanks.

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

Have you tried the workaround?
> WORKAROUND:
> - install packages libdvdread3 and libdvdnav4
> - run 'sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh'

Else you may use VLC, or open a new bug: this one addresses a known limitation, yours would rather be a bug in Totem (if it persists).

[David Simpson (davidhoytsimpson)]

I ran the workaround and I'm using Hardy Heron - I'm getting the same error as well

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

Did you get any errors messages? I suspect you may be using 64 bits version, which requires building the package from source or getting it from medibuntu repos.

[David Simpson (davidhoytsimpson)]

I finally got it to work...I rebooted, then I uninstalled everything and
rebooted and then reinstalled and then rebooted a third time...I'm not sure
if the reboots were needed, but hey it works now :)

On Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 5:24 PM, Milan <email address hidden> wrote:

> ** Description changed:
>
> Binary package hint: totem
>
> Upon entering any DVD, I get the message:
> "Could not read from resource".
>
> Under playlist I always have "1" and "2", regardless of the DVD.
>
> This happens with CSS-encrypted DVDs, others work right.
>
>
> WORKAROUND:
> + * Until Jaunty 9.04:
> - install packages libdvdread3 and libdvdnav4
> - run 'sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh'
> +
> + * Jaunty 9.04 and above:
> + - install packages libdvdread4 and libdvdnav4
> + - run 'sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh'
>
> --
> "Could not read from resource" error when playing encrypted DVD
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/219062
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[Eric Link (link-sandlion)]

This is messy, but fixed it for both me and a friend in 9.04 (Jaunty, fresh installs):
sudo apt-get remove vlc
sudo apt-get install libdvdread4
sudo apt-get install libdvdnav4
sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly
sudo apt-get install totem-xine
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get update;sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install vlc

DVDs work now in both totem and vlc, w/ proper DVD menus in vlc and in totem-xine

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

Eric: all those steps should not be needed, and installing totem-xine is not a good advice for most users as it will change the way all movie files are played by Totem. Installing vlc is an option, but reinstalling it should not be needed. Have you tried the workaround from the description before?

[jjt (webmaster-jjtcomputing)]

I've found a solution at http://blog.jjtcomputing.co.uk/2009/08/22/playing-encrypted-dvds-in-ubuntu-the-complete-guide/. It covers adding DVD and Encrypted DVD support to Ubuntu as well as the problems with Totem.

[Shuryon (shuryon)]

Thanks guys to solute this problem!
I happened with me right this days and then I always have to use other players.
Probably it's the same problem here. I will try to to fix as jjt said.

[Kalle Tuulos (kalle-tuulos)]

This error is still valid in 10.04 LTS. If there is an easy workaround, at least the error message should be a bit more descriptive and it should offer user hints to install the workaround.

[Geno R. (geno-1082)]

Sweet, entering sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh in the terminal fixed my problem. (Recently turned my entire HD into a Windows-free Linux-only system and not looking back :-)

[mdmcginn (mcweb)]

Yes, that worked for me too, but the documentation and error messages should be much clearer. It's counter-intuitive for sudo apt-get install not to actually install what's necessary. Is that for legal reasons, the way that Audacity doesn't export to MP3 out of the box? Then Totem should say that clearly - "The DVD you've just inserted, The Time Traveler's Wife, will not play until you run sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh in a terminal." As it is, the implication is, "Oh, do you actually want to play encrypted DVDs? I didn't know."

On the other hand, maybe this is a different kind of bug. This is the first commercial DVD I haven't been able to play. Has the industry come up with a new encryption variant that doesn't work out of the box the way the previous version did?

[Paddy Launch (paddylaunch-deactivatedaccount)]

I'm not sure why this is considered a low priority - having such an obtuse error message is irritating even for the experienced linux user, how much more off-putting for the average desktop user who just wants to play a DVD?

[Alex Korobkin (korobkin)]

I had the same problem, and install-css.sh didn't help until I launched regionset and set my DVD region for the first time. It wasn't obvious that DVD reading doesn't work because the region is not set.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

I believe it would be better if someone could start a thread on the ubuntu-desktop mailing list where people could have a say and maybe point out if its legally no allowed and such.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

(I have marked as duplicates bug 782411, bug 854390, and bug 892731, which report the error message "Could not read DVD. This may be because the DVD is encrypted and a DVD decryption library is not installed." I assume this is the same bug, and that gstreamer slightly improved its error message some time after bug 748449 (another duplicate). If I'm wrong and these are not the same bug, please unmark those three duplicates and mark two of them as duplicates of the other.)

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Having said all that, I see no reason this shouldn't be a duplicate of bug 137527. In case I'm wrong and it needs reversing, the duplicates of this bug report were the aforementioned bug 782411, bug 854390, bug 892731, and bug 748449; and also bug 221832, bug 227896, bug 239710, bug 242591, bug 269928, bug 311341, bug 317057, bug 391278, bug 674707, and bug 684528.