1.5.4 / Unable to convert to FLAC from any file type

[Neil Salstrom]

I am using soundconverter-2.0-rc4 but this was also found in rc3 as well as 1.5.4 which ships with Mint 12.

I originally was trying to convert from ALAC to FLAC however I have found that I cannot convert to FLAC from any audio format. I don't believe it is gstreamer related because I can use other gstreamer based programs to rip a audio CD to FLAC.

After pressing "convert" it states the conversion was done in 0 s. A new parent folder and subfolder is made in the target directory however it is empty.

Running with the --debug option fills the terminal window with gibberish (only a small portion of the unreadable part is shown. I can post all if necessary):

SoundConverter 2.0-rc4
  using Gstreamer version: 0.10.35
  using 8 thread(s)
  using gio
Queue start: 1 tasks, 8 thread(s).
launching: 'giosrc location="file:///home/superbeast/Desktop/Celldweller/04%20The%20Last%20Firstborn.m4a" ! typefind name=typefinder ! fakesink'
have_type: audio/x-m4a 04 The Last Firstborn.m4a
found_type 04%20The%20Last%20Firstborn.m4a
Queue done in 0.003s (1 tasks)
launching: 'giosrc location="file:///home/superbeast/Desktop/Celldweller/04%20The%20Last%20Firstborn.m4a" name=src ! decodebin name=decoder ! fakesink'
got file duration: 461
found_tags: 04 The Last Firstborn.m4a
 audio-codec=Apple lossless audio
found_tags: 04 The Last Firstborn.m4a
 datetime=<GstDateTime at 0x297fd30>
 title=The Last Firstborn
 composer=ASCAP)/Klayton (Celldweller Music
 artist=Celldweller
 album=Celldweller
 date=<GstDate: 1/1/2003>
 encoder=iTunes 9.2.1.4
 track-number=4
 track-count=18
 album-disc-number=1
 album-disc-count=1
 genre=Industrial
 preview-image=\89PNG

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 private-qt-tag=[<gst.Buffer 0x7fb8e0052930 of size 25 and data 0x00000019>, <gst.Buffer 0x7fb8e00529b0 of size 25 and data 0x00000019>]
 container-format=ISO MP4/M4A
TagReading done...
Queue start: 0 tasks, 8 thread(s).
Queue done in 0.001s (0 tasks)
Creating folder: 'file:///home/superbeast/Desktop/audio/Celldweller/Celldweller'
closing...

[GautierPortet (kassoulet)]

This is weird...
And only when trying to convert to FLAC, others formats are fine?

There is nothing wrong in the log. Well it just does nothing...

[Neil Salstrom (salstrom)]

Correct.... I just does nothing. It's only FLAC that seems to be
affected. I can convert to other formats. I was thinking it was gstreamer
related but I was able to rip from CD to FLAC using other programs that
rely on gstreamer. I'm somewhat at a loss. I'm wondering if there is
something simply broken in my Mint 12 install that is causing this. I may
try booting from a USB drive with a clean system and seeing if it works.

If you want me to run any tests or install anything please let me know!

Thanks,

Neil

On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 1:43 PM, GautierPortet <email address hidden> wrote:

> This is weird...
> And only when trying to convert to FLAC, others formats are fine?
>
> There is nothing wrong in the log. Well it just does nothing...
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/913204
>
> Title:
> Unable to convert to FLAC from any file type
>
> Status in SoundConverter:
> New
>
> Bug description:
> I am using soundconverter-2.0-rc4 but this was also found in rc3 as
> well as 1.5.4 which ships with Mint 12.
>
> I originally was trying to convert from ALAC to FLAC however I have
> found that I cannot convert to FLAC from any audio format. I don't
> believe it is gstreamer related because I can use other gstreamer
> based programs to rip a audio CD to FLAC.
>
> After pressing "convert" it states the conversion was done in 0 s. A
> new parent folder and subfolder is made in the target directory
> however it is empty.
>
> Running with the --debug option fills the terminal window with
> gibberish (only a small portion of the unreadable part is shown. I
> can post all if necessary):
>
> SoundConverter 2.0-rc4
> using Gstreamer version: 0.10.35
> using 8 thread(s)
> using gio
> Queue start: 1 tasks, 8 thread(s).
> launching: 'giosrc
> location="file:///home/superbeast/Desktop/Celldweller/04%20The%20Last%20Firstborn.m4a"
> ! typefind name=typefinder ! fakesink'
> have_type: audio/x-m4a 04 The Last Firstborn.m4a
> found_type 04%20The%20Last%20Firstborn.m4a
> Queue done in 0.003s (1 tasks)
> launching: 'giosrc
> location="file:///home/superbeast/Desktop/Celldweller/04%20The%20Last%20Firstborn.m4a"
> name=src ! decodebin name=decoder ! fakesink'
> got file duration: 461
> found_tags: 04 The Last Firstborn.m4a
> audio-codec=Apple lossless audio
> found_tags: 04 The Last Firstborn.m4a
> datetime=<GstDateTime at 0x297fd30>
> title=The Last Firstborn
> composer=ASCAP)/Klayton (Celldweller Music
> artist=Celldweller
> album=Celldweller
> date=<GstDate: 1/1/2003>
> encoder=iTunes 9.2.1.4
> track-number=4
> track-count=18
> album-disc-number=1
> album-disc-count=1
> genre=Industrial
> preview-image=\89PNG
>
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> �\�p_���$T�{X�u9-ɍsAˑ� ׿:
>
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> *�D^�DJ� l� ��CYl�})��ד�l�w�~ű`0�z���P�� ��ϸ��떲��_&��Ӎ;� ...

[Neil Salstrom (salstrom)]

Today I tried a live usb drive of Mint 12. I left everything in it
stock but did install gnome-common so I could compile
soundconverter-2.0-rc5. The results were the same and would not convert
to flac from either .mp3 or ALAC (.m4a). Oddly, if I ran it twice in a
row I would get different errors.

The second run (immediately pressing "convert" after trying the first
time) would give a message box saying "GStreamer Error: Could not
initialize supporting library" then "GStreamer Error: Could not open
resource for writing."

The long queue time show below is because I kept the error box open for
a long time before closing it.

Error log below:

$ soundconverter --debug
SoundConverter 2.0-rc5
   using Gstreamer version: 0.10.35
   using 8 thread(s)
   using gio
Queue start: 1 tasks, 8 thread(s).
launching: 'giosrc
location="file:///home/superbeast/Desktop/05%20Under%20My%20Feet.m4a" !
typefind name=typefinder ! fakesink'
have_type: audio/x-m4a 05 Under My Feet.m4a
found_type 05%20Under%20My%20Feet.m4a
Queue done in 0.006s (1 tasks)
launching: 'giosrc
location="file:///home/superbeast/Desktop/05%20Under%20My%20Feet.m4a"
name=src ! decodebin name=decoder ! fakesink'
got file duration: 210
found_tags: 05 Under My Feet.m4a
     audio-codec=Apple lossless audio
found_tags: 05 Under My Feet.m4a
     datetime=<GstDateTime at 0x1459c80>
     title=Under My Feet
     composer=ASCAP)/Klayton (Celldweller Music
     artist=Celldweller
     album=Celldweller
     date=<GstDate: 1/1/2003>
     encoder=iTunes 9.2.1.4
     track-number=5
     track-count=18
     album-disc-number=1
     album-disc-count=1
     genre=Industrial
     private-qt-tag=[<gst.Buffer 0x7fa8e8013120 of size 25 and data
0x00000019>, <gst.Buffer 0x7fa8e80131a0 of size 25 and data 0x00000019>]
     container-format=ISO MP4/M4A
TagReading done...
Queue start: 0 tasks, 8 thread(s).
Queue done in 0.001s (0 tasks)
Creating folder:
'file:///home/superbeast/Desktop/audio/Celldweller/Celldweller'
Queue start: 2 tasks, 8 thread(s).
launching: 'giosrc
location="file:///home/superbeast/Desktop/05%20Under%20My%20Feet.m4a"
name=src ! decodebin name=decoder ! audiorate ! audioresample !
audioconvert ! flacenc mid-side-stereo=true quality=5 ! giosink
location="file:///home/superbeast/Desktop/audio/Celldweller/Celldweller/05%20Under%20My%20Feet.flac"'
launching: 'giosrc
location="file:///home/superbeast/Desktop/05%20Under%20My%20Feet.m4a"
name=src ! decodebin name=decoder ! audiorate ! audioresample !
audioconvert ! flacenc mid-side-stereo=true quality=5 ! giosink
location="file:///home/superbeast/Desktop/audio/Celldweller/Celldweller/05%20Under%20My%20Feet.flac"'

Error: <b>GStreamer Error:</b>
Could not open resource for writing.
<i>(05 Under My Feet.m4a)</i>
found_tags: 05 Under My Feet.m4a
     audio-codec=Apple lossless audio
found_tags: 05 Under My Feet.m4a
     datetime=<GstDateTime at 0x151f420>
     title=Under My Feet
     composer=ASCAP)/Klayton (Celldweller Music
     artist=Celldweller
     album=Celldweller
     date=<GstDate: 1/1/2003>
     encoder=iTunes 9.2.1.4
     track-number=5
     track-count=18
     album-disc-number=1
     album-disc-count=1
     genre=Ind...

[GautierPortet (kassoulet)]

"Could not initialize supporting library." Maybe libflac is missing ?

[Neil Salstrom (salstrom)]

All libflac related files are installed (even -dev). Soundconverter
seems to be the only program affected as I can rip directly from a CD to
FLAC using other gstreamer based software.

On 01/15/2012 11:28 AM, GautierPortet wrote:
> "Could not initialize supporting library." Maybe libflac is missing ?
>

[Michael Schwendt (mschwendt)]

If you use GStreamer on the command-line, what do you get?

$ gst-launch giosrc location="file:///home/superbeast/Desktop/05%20Under%20My%20Feet.m4a" name=src ! decodebin name=decoder ! audiorate ! audioresample ! audioconvert ! flacenc mid-side-stereo=true quality=5 ! giosink location="file:///home/superbeast/Desktop/test.flac"

Note that I've adjusted the target file location URI to "test.flac", which in your SoundConverter log was a directory.

[Andrew Hawkins (akai-kenshi)]

I too am getting an error when I try to convert ALAC to FLAC: "Could not initialize supporting library." I am running Ubuntu 12.04.

Here's the debug log:

SoundConverter 1.5.4
  using Gstreamer version: 0.10.36
  using gio
 'faac' gstreamer element not found, disabling AAC.
  using 2 thread(s)

(soundconverter:7791): libglade-WARNING **: could not convert string to type `GValueArray' for property `authors'

(soundconverter:7791): libglade-WARNING **: could not convert string to type `GValueArray' for property `documenters'
/usr/bin/soundconverter:2859: GtkWarning: GtkSpinButton: setting an adjustment with non-zero page size is deprecated
  glade = gtk.glade.XML(GLADE)
giosrc location="file:///home/andrew/Downloads/Dire%20Straits%20-%20Studio%20Discography%20-%20Apple%20Lossless/Brothers%20In%20Arms/01%20So%20Far%20Away.m4a" ! typefind name=typefinder ! fakesink

Queue done in 0.034s (1 tasks)
giosrc location="file:///home/andrew/Downloads/Dire%20Straits%20-%20Studio%20Discography%20-%20Apple%20Lossless/Brothers%20In%20Arms/01%20So%20Far%20Away.m4a" name=src ! decodebin name=decoder ! fakesink

Queue done in 0.054s (1 tasks)
giosrc location="file:///home/andrew/Downloads/Dire%20Straits%20-%20Studio%20Discography%20-%20Apple%20Lossless/Brothers%20In%20Arms/01%20So%20Far%20Away.m4a" name=src ! decodebin name=decoder ! audioconvert ! flacenc mid-side-stereo=true quality=5 ! giosink location="file:///home/andrew/Desktop/Brothers in Arms/01%20So%20Far%20Away.flac"

(soundconverter:7791): GStreamer-CRITICAL **:
Trying to dispose element flacenc0, but it is in PAUSED instead of the NULL state.
You need to explicitly set elements to the NULL state before
dropping the final reference, to allow them to clean up.
This problem may also be caused by a refcounting bug in the
application or some element.

Segmentation fault (core dumped)

[Ivo Anjo (knuckles)]

So I've been trying to debug this, and this is a gstreamer bug. Happens until at least version 1.0.8 (latest stable), and I've reported it here: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=705018 .

In short: this only happens with *SOME* alac files as input, as the original reporter is using. Many other alac files work, and other files (ogg, etc) also work.

I think there's not much that soundconverter can do, this bug should be closed.

[GautierPortet (kassoulet)]

Thanks Ivo !