Rhythmbox frequently fails to compleatly download podcasts

[Prosthetic Head]

Binary package hint: rhythmbox

Rhythmbox 0.11.5 fails to download podcasts fully, they stop part way through.
This is not an issue when the files are downloaded with firefox or wget. There is obviously some error checking or broken download detection and resume built in to firefox / wget, but not rhythmbox. This is extremely frustrating as it leaves me having to manually download podcasts or miss the end of the episodes.
Rhythmbox should download the files as reliably as firefox and should flag any incomplete downloads. It should also have a feature to re-download a file, as this can't currently be done.

This appears to be due to damaged packets, as it is much more frequent when i am using my wireless network (which occasionally looses connection) than when I am on the wired network.

NOTE: This is not a duplicate of the fixed bug as that one relates to specific URLs completely failing to download, where as I am making people aware about the frequent failure to completely download all or a file.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

thanks for your report, may you provide us of an url to test with? can you get a rhythmbox log with: rhythmbox --debug &> rhythmbox-debug.txt and attach that file to the report? thanks.

[Prosthetic Head (propanone)]

Hi,
I will do so this evening.
Thanks

On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 3:06 PM, Pedro Villavicencio <email address hidden>
wrote:

> thanks for your report, may you provide us of an url to test with? can
> you get a rhythmbox log with: rhythmbox --debug &> rhythmbox-debug.txt
> and attach that file to the report? thanks.
>
> ** Changed in: rhythmbox (Ubuntu)
> Importance: Undecided => Low
> Assignee: (unassigned) => Ubuntu Desktop Bugs (desktop-bugs)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
> --
> Rhythmbox frequently fails to compleatly download podcasts
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/244383
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[Prosthetic Head (propanone)]

Hi,
Sorry about the slow response, I've been away on business.

Here are a list of some of the URLs of the podcast feeds I'm using:
http://podcast.seti.org/index.xml
http://www.lugradio.org/episodes.ogg.rss
http://pointofinquiry.libsyn.com/rss
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/series/science/podcast.xml

I think I've had the problem with partial downloads on all or most of these feeds when on my week wireless network.
To say again, I've never had this problem when downloading over a wired network or a strong wireless signal, only when the wlan signal is week (possibly its due to corrupted packets / lost connection?)

The log file I've attached is just of me opening and closing the app so is prob not much use. I'll try to get a log of it failing to get a podcast file properly asap.

Thanks

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

I still don't manage to reproduce this, all those podcast you posted there works fine for me, can you still reproduce the issue?

[Prosthetic Head (propanone)]

Hi,
Thanks for trying it. Unfortunatly I am still having this problem. It only happens when I'm on my weak wireless connection, not when wired or strong signal, so it may be worth trying with some atrificially introduced network problems to replicate this?
If I send a log of next time it happens will that be any use?
Is there any other infomation I can provide or things I can try that will help?
thanks

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

since you get the issue you could perhaps open a bug on bugzilla.gnome.org where people writting the software will read it, you are better placed to reply to comments than some bug triager who doesn't get the issue

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Closing this bug report as no further information has been provided. Please feel free to reopen this bug if you can provide the information asked for. Thanks!.

[Kemel Zaidan aka Legendario (kemelzaidan)]

It's happening to me too. I have Hardy and 0.11.5-0ubuntu8 version of the package.

[Kemel Zaidan aka Legendario (kemelzaidan)]

It's happening to me too. I have Hardy and 0.11.5-0ubuntu8 version of the package. Bug #78524 seems pretty similar to this one.

thanks

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

I'm not seeing this, may you send it upstream to bugzilla.gnome.org since you're having the issue? for forwarding instructions please have a look to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/GNOME ; leaving this as incomplete until that, thanks in advance.

[Prosthetic Head (propanone)]

Hi, Just thought i'd add that I have moved house since and have been unable
to replicate the problem in the new location (I have much stronger network
connection at new place), thats why I haven't posted log of the problem in
action. It definatly only seemed to occur for me when on a weak wireless
network. Is that also the case for you?

2008/10/16 Pedro Villavicencio <email address hidden>

> I'm not seeing this, may you send it upstream to bugzilla.gnome.org
> since you're having the issue? for forwarding instructions please have a
> look to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/GNOME ; leaving this as
> incomplete until that, thanks in advance.
>
> ** Changed in: rhythmbox (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
> --
> Rhythmbox frequently fails to compleatly download podcasts
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/244383
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
Phrase of the [period of time 'till I change it]:
"I would love to change the world, but they won't give me the source code."

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

As said i'm not seeing this behavior, that works fine for me, so the problem was a weak wireless connection, closing the bug then, thanks.

[Prosthetic Head (propanone)]

Yes, the problem is caused by a weak wireless connection, however, rhythmbox
should be tolerant of unreliable networks (if a packet is missing or damaged
it should re-request it) or at a bare minimum flag the download as failed
and allow you to restart it. It should not mark it as downloaded, only have
part of the audio and then refuse to let you redownload it, forcing a manual
download.

For eg, Firefox never part-downloaded a file but marked it as complete when
i was on the poor network, nor wget, aptitude, etc, etc. Rhythmbox is the
only program to show this behaviour, the other all either produce a perfect
download or recognise that it has failed.

So to summarise, the rhythmbox bug is marking failed downloads as
successful.

It may be an issue for upstream not ubuntu (although its a core ubuntu
application), and i'll report upstream if it happens again, but it is a
fault with the way rhythmbox responds to damaged/missing network packets.

PS:
 "As said i'm not seeing this behavior, that works fine for me"
I was inquiring to kemel as to weather this was when he/she saw the issue, i
read above that you have been unable to reproduce the issue.

2008/10/16 Pedro Villavicencio <email address hidden>

> As said i'm not seeing this behavior, that works fine for me, so the
> problem was a weak wireless connection, closing the bug then, thanks.
>
> ** Changed in: rhythmbox (Ubuntu)
> Status: Incomplete => Invalid
>
> --
> Rhythmbox frequently fails to compleatly download podcasts
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/244383
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
Phrase of the [period of time 'till I change it]:
"I would love to change the world, but they won't give me the source code."

[KaiT (kai-teranski)]

It's the same here. I have a weak wireless internet connection. So Rhythmbox begins to download a new podcast, then the connection is getting bad and the download stops. That's o.k., but RB shows status successfull for this download, although it haves only part of the file.

Why isn't it possible to re-download the file? Where is the information about the podcasts stored? Can I "reset" these podcasts and re-download the files?

[Prosthetic Head (propanone)]

Can you please run rhythm box this way:

rhythmbox --debug &> rhythmbox-debug.txt

That will record everything rhythmbox is doing in the txt file. If you get a
file in this way which shows the download failure then please upload it as
it will ve valuable in finding the cause of the problem.

Unfortunately some seemed very keen on closing the bug and blaming the
network, but all network applications must be fault tolerant so i don't
follow their logic.

Thanks

2009/2/27 KaiT <email address hidden>

> It's the same here. I have a weak wireless internet connection. So
> Rhythmbox begins to download a new podcast, then the connection is
> getting bad and the download stops. That's o.k., but RB shows status
> successfull for this download, although it haves only part of the file.
>
> Why isn't it possible to re-download the file? Where is the information
> about the podcasts stored? Can I "reset" these podcasts and re-download
> the files?
>
> --
> Rhythmbox frequently fails to compleatly download podcasts
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/244383
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
Quote of the [period of time 'till I change it]:
"They hung in the air, in the same way that bricks don't" - Douglas Adams

[KaiT (kai-teranski)]

Here it is. I started download of a podcast and then simulated a bad network by resetting the router. The download stopped saying: "Heruntergeladen", what means "downloaded" in german.

But the downloaded file is only 2min 16sec. I agree with you that the bug not the partly downloaded file, but rhythmbox should not mark it as complete. And I should be possible to repeat the download.

Even if I load it down in the background and replace the file, RB still shows 2min 16sec for it in the list with the podcast feeds.

[Prosthetic Head (propanone)]

Someone else has now replicated and recorded this bug, so marking it as confirmed.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

May someone having the same issue forward this to bugzilla.gnome.org? for forwarding instructions please have a look to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/GNOME; leaving an upstream task open, thanks in advance.

[Tim183 (timroff)]

I can also report this bug.

Even the Ubuntu podcast fails to download the complete episodes. also when I look through the episode history I see most episodes listed as 1 minute and 1 second in length, which I know is incorrect.

[Martin Mai (mrkanister-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

Any news about this? Has someone sent this upstream? May you tell us the upstream bugnumber? Thanks.

[eksortso (eksortso)]

I'm not seeing anything upstream re this. It's been a long time since I looked at this bug (I'm not a RB developer). I still experience the same behavior in 0.11.5, and when it does happen, I either go to the podcast website or read the feed directly, then I download the file with Firefox or wget.

I run 0.12.5 on Karmic, but I haven't downloaded any podcasts yet. This weekend, I'll try KaiT's experiment (see #16 above) and report what I find. I can't do it right now, though.

[eksortso (eksortso)]

Okay, finally tried KaiT's experiment. Running 0.12.5 on Karmic. Started a podcast download, reset the router at 33%, and it froze at 33%. I couldn't restart the download, even after canceling the download and restarting it. I closed Rhythmbox, reopened it, and everything worked fine. Not the same bug, but it's recoverable this time.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

May you please try to reproduce the same on Maverick and comment back? otherwise do please file it upstream.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for rhythmbox (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Boyd (boyd-dyob)]

I get this problem with 0.13.3