skins will not work

[Jmadero]

Hi All,

I've been trying to get skins to work for quite some time with minimal luck. I have the same bug to report in several ways:

1. When you try to just install a skin from your desktop it never works. I ran vlc from prompt using vlc -I skins2

the default skins2 comes up, I right click, go to interface->select skin->open skin

I go to my desktop and select the skin I want (I've tried several all coming from the vlc website). it spits out this error:

[00000001] main libvlc debug: translation test: code is "C"
[00000405] skins2 interface: skin: VLC 0.8.5 Default Skin author: aLtgLasS
[00000477] xml xml error: XML parser error (line 1) : failed to load external entity "skin.dtd"

[00000477] xml xml error: XML parser error (line 2) : Validation failed: no DTD found !
[00000405] skins2 interface error: failed to parse /tmp/vltEE8UtL/theme.xml
[00000405] skins2 interface error: error while parsing /tmp/vltEE8UtL/theme.xml
[00000480] xml xml error: XML parser error (line 1) : Document is empty

[00000405] skins2 interface error: failed to parse /home/uaer/Desktop/dark melody.vlt

I know that the instructions say to put the file in ~/.share/vlc/skins2

I don't have that folder at all, I don't even have a .share folder, I have a .local/share folder which has vlc but does not have skins2 folder within it. I browsed online a bit and someone said put the file in /usr/share/vlc/skins2

I did this, now when I do

vlc -I skins2 I can right click, go to interface, select skin, and the file is right there, I don't need to go to open skin but it spits out this error when I try to run it:

[00000483] xml xml error: XML parser error (line 1) : failed to load external entity "skin.dtd"

[00000483] xml xml error: XML parser error (line 2) : Validation failed: no DTD found !
[00000405] skins2 interface error: failed to parse /tmp/vltKzWNHW/theme.xml
[00000405] skins2 interface error: error while parsing /tmp/vltKzWNHW/theme.xml
[00000486] xml xml error: XML parser error (line 1) : Document is empty

[00000405] skins2 interface error: failed to parse /usr/share/vlc/skins2/Blissta.vlt

Now what I've tried to do to solve the problem:

1. Removed vlc completely, tried reinstalling

2. Remove vlc and all configuration files (/home/user/.local/share/vlc & /home/user/.config/vlc) then reinstalled

3. Removed the /usr/share/vlc and then reinstalled

none of these had any effect. I know a lot of people have problems getting the skins to work properly. It would be nice if we could just download the file to desktop, run the command vlc -I skins2, select the desktop file and it would be copied to the right destination and then work from that point on. I love the player and this is a minor bug but none the less, it would be nice to have a nice looking skin :)

Thanks for the hard work, it's really appreciated

[Hew (hew)]

There have been a large number of bugfixes with the latest VLC release, 1.0.1-1ubuntu1. Can you reproduce your issue with this latest version? You can test this in Ubuntu Karmic, or Ubuntu Jaunty with the MOTU Media PPA at https://launchpad.net/~motumedia/+archive/ppa . Thanks in advance.

[Jmadero (jmadero)]

Is there an easier way for me to install it then to download a lot of packages because of incompatible dependencies?

I went to the PPA and saw 1.0.1 but when I click it it says "for Karmic" on top (I'm running Jaunty). I went ahead and downloaded it but it's telling me that I need vlc-nox (later version), so I downloaded that deb from the PPA, then it said "libass3" (later version), unfortunately the version on the MOTU Media PPA isn't a late enough version (it calls for 0.9.6-1 or higher, the one in the PPA is 0.9.5).

Any ideas? Thanks in advance

[Benjamin Drung (bdrung)]

There is vlc 1.0.0-1ubuntu1~jaunty1~ppa1 for jaunty. For this version you probably only need schroedinger 1.0.7-1~ppa1.

[Jmadero (jmadero)]

Hi,

I did get it installed but unfortunately I had to install about 8 things manually to get to that point.

As for the bug. I can say a few things

Pro: The problem is just about fixed :)

Cons/Suggestions:

a. It no longer automatically copies the .vlt skin into a central directory, I think this is a bad decision from the developers because most people just want to download their skins to their location, "install it" and then be able to delete it from their download spot. I have my stuff downloading to my desktop, I don't really want to have to cut/paste and make a new folder for skins for VLC, it'd be better if I just installed it and then it auto copied to a central location like /usr/shared/vlc/skins2 (I believe that was where it went before).

b. The problem is almost solved but not complete. I installed two skins and after I installed the second one I started getting a couple bugs. I installed the my_PSP-black and the windows 11 skins. I couldn't open my avi file after putting on the Windows 11 skin, I then tried reverting back to the PSP-black one but VLC crashed. I then reopened vlc and it was back to Windows 11 skin, I had to revert it back to a non skinned format and then go back to skins with the my_PSP.

I'll look into this further in the coming week or so as I get time. Thanks for the update, it's definitely an improvement

[Jmadero (jmadero)]

I have more information for you. The problem stated in my last message definitely exists, I changed skins again and now when I try playing my avi I still get the crash. Here is output when I run it from terminal

[0x87c83e8] skins2 interface: skin: ASkin for VLC 0.8.6 author: Anton
[????????] x11 video output error: X11 request 59.0 failed with error code 8:
 BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
X Error of failed request: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
  Major opcode of failed request: 59 (X_SetClipRectangles)
  Serial number of failed request: 9021
  Current serial number in output stream: 9023
Failed to receive messages at scim_bridge_client_read_and_dispatch ()
An IOException occurred at handle_message ()
*** glibc detected *** vlc: double free or corruption (fasttop): 0x0895ef58 ***
======= Backtrace: =========
/lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6[0xb7f04604]
/lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6(cfree+0x96)[0xb7f065b6]
/usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules/im-scim-bridge.so(scim_bridge_free_messenger+0x52)[0xb5666892]
/usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules/im-scim-bridge.so(scim_bridge_client_close_messenger+0x3b)[0xb566892b]
/usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules/im-scim-bridge.so(scim_bridge_client_finalize+0x42)[0xb566b1e2]
/usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules/im-scim-bridge.so(scim_bridge_client_gtk_finalize+0x41)[0xb5662441]
/lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6(exit+0x89)[0xb7ec3bb9]
/usr/lib/libX11.so.6[0xb7347c0e]
/usr/lib/vlc/video_output/libxvideo_plugin.so[0xb19cdb30]
======= Memory map: ========
08048000-0804a000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 5192 /usr/bin/vlc
0804a000-0804b000 r--p 00001000 08:01 5192 /usr/bin/vlc
0804b000-0804c000 rw-p 00002000 08:01 5192 /usr/bin/vlc
08717000-092dd000 rw-p 08717000 00:00 0 [heap]
a9803000-ad804000 rw-s 00000000 00:15 314392 /dev/shm/pulse-shm-971662862
ad804000-ad873000 rw-p ad804000 00:00 0
b166b000-b1681000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 138825 /usr/lib/libmad.so.0.2.1
b1681000-b1682000 r--p 00015000 08:01 138825 /usr/lib/libmad.so.0.2.1
b1682000-b1683000 rw-p 00016000 08:01 138825 /usr/lib/libmad.so.0.2.1
b1683000-b169c000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 149876 /usr/lib/libdca.so.0.0.0
b169c000-b169d000 r--p 00018000 08:01 149876 /usr/lib/libdca.so.0.0.0
b169d000-b16aa000 rw-p 00019000 08:01 149876 /usr/lib/libdca.so.0.0.0
b16bd000-b16c6000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 150043 /usr/lib/liba52-0.7.4.so
b16c6000-b16c7000 rw-p 00008000 08:01 150043 /usr/lib/liba52-0.7.4.so
b16c7000-b16c8000 rw-p b16c7000 00:00 0
b16ca000-b16d0000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 157218 /usr/lib/vlc/audio_filter/libbandlimited_resampler_plugin.so
b16d0000-b16d1000 r--p 00005000 08:01 157218 /usr/lib/vlc/audio_filter/libbandlimited_resampler_plugin.so
b16d1000-b16d2000 rw-p 00006000 08:01 157218 /usr/lib/vlc/audio_filter/libbandlimited_resampler_plugin.so
b16d2000-b16d5000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 157209 /usr/lib/vlc/audio_filter/libmpgatofixed32_plugin.so
b16d5000-b16d6000 r--p 00002000 08:01 157209 /usr/lib/vlc/audio_filter/libmpgatofixed32_plugin.so
b16d6000-b16d7000 rw-p 00003000 08:01 157209 /usr/lib/vlc/audio_filter/libmpgatofixed32_plugin.so
b16d7000-b16d9000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 157204 /usr/lib...

[Jmadero (jmadero)]

One more thing, I just changed back to default unskinned, closed vlc, reopened it as native, set up the new skin, closed vlc again and then played the same avi and now it works no problem. Seems like it is definitely an issue with selecting a different skin while "beginning" with a skin, instead of the default, something isn't resetting correctly.