Can't establish audio or video calls

[Scott Severance]

Binary package hint: empathy

When I try to place either an audio or a video call to a GTalk user, I get the following error message:

Can't establish audio stream
There was a failure in the call engine
Technical details
Could not create the valve element

When I receive a call from a GTalk user, my webcam lights up for < 0.5 s, then it turns off and I get the same error as above.

Google searches suggested installing gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad, but that made no difference; the error is the same.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: empathy 2.30.2-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-23.37-generic 2.6.32.15+drm33.5
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-23-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed Jul 21 19:40:20 2010
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/empathy
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 LANG=en_US.utf8
SourcePackage: empathy

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

thanks for the bug report. can you please install the required codecs
$ sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

please let us know if that solves the problem.

[Scott Severance (scott.severance)]

Both packages are already installed. So no, it doesn't solve the problem.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

which client the other user is using? is it the web client or the desktop client?

[Scott Severance (scott.severance)]

The other user is using the Gmail (web) interface.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

Do you have ubuntu-restricted-extras installed? if not, install it googling suggests some codecs are missing

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

also delete .gstreamer-0.10 directory in your home dir.

[Scott Severance (scott.severance)]

ubuntu-restricted-extras is already installed. I deleted ~/.gstreamer-0.10 as instructed, but that didn't change anything.

Of possible interest: When I first deleted the dir, trying a video call didn't re-create it. I then fired up Rhythmbox, which re-created it. But regardless, nothing changed.

This seems to be an uncommon error (considering that Google isn't too helpful). I just wish the error message were more informative about the nature of the problem.

[Gregory Dk (desikn)]

Try this http://<email address hidden>/msg441969.html

[Scott Severance (scott.severance)]

@desiKn:

That doesn't explain why:

a) video works if I place a video call to myself (i.e., not going over the network); and
b) audio calls don't work.

Your link points to bug 585151, which appears to be entirely unrelated to this one. I only have a single video device (/dev/video0) and no TV card or second camera or other complicating device.

[Namit Chaturvedi (oceanic)]

Hi,

I have the same problem. I followed this thread and am stuck in the same situation as Scott's.

Will appreciate any help on this matter.

Cheers!

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

the a/v calling situation is much improved for gtalk in Ubuntu 10.10 if the problem exists in Ubuntu 10.10 please open this bug again.

[W. Scott Lockwood III (wsl3)]

I have this same bug, have all the appropriate packages installed, have deleted my ~/.gstreamer-0.10 directory, and still cannot establish either audio or video calls with either Empathy or Pidgin. Cheese works, so the Camera works, but that's about it.

[Scott Severance (scott.severance)]

@Scott Lockwood: Are you using 10.10? This bug is currently marked invalid (see Omer's latest post for details). If you're experiencing this in 10.10, please re-open this bug.

I personally would love to test this, but unrelated issues prevent me from upgrading to 10.10. I think I'll just have to stick with 10.04 for a while. At any rate, if this is still an issue in 10.10, it'd be good to know.

[W. Scott Lockwood III (wsl3)]

Yes, I am using 10.10.
------Original Message------
From: Scott Severance
Sender: <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
ReplyTo: Bug 608515
Subject: [Bug 608515] Re: Can't establish audio or video calls
Sent: Dec 16, 2010 02:20

@Scott Lockwood: Are you using 10.10? This bug is currently marked
invalid (see Omer's latest post for details). If you're experiencing
this in 10.10, please re-open this bug.

I personally would love to test this, but unrelated issues prevent me
from upgrading to 10.10. I think I'll just have to stick with 10.04 for
a while. At any rate, if this is still an issue in 10.10, it'd be good
to know.

--
You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
of the bug.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/608515

Title:
  Can't establish audio or video calls

Status in “empathy” package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: empathy

When I try to place either an audio or a video call to a GTalk user, I get the following error message:

Can't establish audio stream
There was a failure in the call engine
Technical details
Could not create the valve element

When I receive a call from a GTalk user, my webcam lights up for < 0.5 s, then it turns off and I get the same error as above.

Google searches suggested installing gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad, but that made no difference; the error is the same.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: empathy 2.30.2-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-23.37-generic 2.6.32.15+drm33.5
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-23-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed Jul 21 19:40:20 2010
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/empathy
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 LANG=en_US.utf8
SourcePackage: empathy

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--
OOC:
W. Scott Lockwood III / US2009033817 / IL 013-D Chicago
Mage VST / GL aRST Forsaken / Cam Wiki Admin (Awakening)

[Scott Severance (scott.severance)]

Re-opening as this bug is reported to also exist in 10.10.

[أحمد المحمودي (Ahmed El-Mahmoudy) (aelmahmoudy)]

Hello,

  I got the same problem, I am using Ubuntu 10.10 (maverick)

[أحمد المحمودي (Ahmed El-Mahmoudy) (aelmahmoudy)]

Note, I have this problem when attempting to establish a voice call to any jabber account, not just Gmail.

[أحمد المحمودي (Ahmed El-Mahmoudy) (aelmahmoudy)]

I found out the reason of my problem. It is actually gstreamer related. I had built/installed gstreamer0.10-plugins-good 0.10.26-1 from Debian, while I had gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad 0.10.20-1ubuntu1 from Ubuntu (which removed valve plugin as it got moved to -good).

So, I solved my problem by grabbing gstreamer0.10-plugins-good 0.10.26-1ubuntu2 from natty, and that fixed my problem.

[أحمد المحمودي (Ahmed El-Mahmoudy) (aelmahmoudy)]

Please run:
gst-inspect-0.10 valve

If you get this error: No such element or plugin 'valve'
Then please run: apt-cache policy gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-good

That would give you an idea about what is wrong.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue that you reported is one that should be reproducible with the live environment of the Desktop CD of the development release - Oneiric Ocelot. It would help us greatly if you could test with it so we can work on getting it fixed in the next release of Ubuntu. You can find out more about the development release at http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/ . Thanks again and we appreciate your help.

[mdsklaroff (mdsklaroff)]

I can confirm this bug on Oneiric Ocelot. I have the same problem.