1.0.4 throws errors instead of human-understandable message in case of missing gst plugins

[Davis Forschen]

Attempting to use a newly installed tuned-audio-waveform 1.0.4 gives the following output when used on any MP3 or WAV files I have handy:

cistern% tuned-audio-waveform --audio-input-file=fadein.wav --waveform-output-file=temp.png --waveform-range-channel=1

(tuned-audio-waveform:6708): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: gst_object_ref_sink: assertion `GST_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
(tuned-audio-waveform:6708): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: gst_object_ref_sink: assertion `GST_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
(tuned-audio-waveform:6708): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_set: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
(tuned-audio-waveform:6708): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_set: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
(tuned-audio-waveform:6708): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: gst_bin_add: assertion `GST_IS_ELEMENT (element)' failed
(tuned-audio-waveform:6708): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: gst_bin_add: assertion `GST_IS_ELEMENT (element)' failed
(tuned-audio-waveform:6708): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: gst_element_link_pads_full: assertion `GST_IS_ELEMENT (dest)' failed
(tuned-audio-waveform:6708): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: gst_element_link_pads_full: assertion `GST_IS_ELEMENT (src)' failed
(tuned-audio-waveform:6708): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: invalid (NULL) pointer instance
(tuned-audio-waveform:6708): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_signal_connect_data: assertion `G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE (instance)' failed
Error: Decoding error from element source: Internal data flow error.

[mspanc (mspanc)]

Could you please attach following information:

- name and version of your distribution,
- list of all installed Gstreamer plugins (you can obtain it by calling gst-inspect-0.10 in the console)
- version of vala used to compile tuned or source od the packages?

[mspanc (mspanc)]

Seems that some plugins are missing.

Required Gstreamer plugins are:
- fdsrc
- filesrc
- decodebin2
- level
- fakesink

Please try to install packages from the following list:

http://www.archlinux.org/packages/?sort=&q=gstreamer0.10&maintainer=&last_update=&flagged=&limit=50

If you don't want to install all of them, you can check here in which package your plugin is located:

http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/documentation/plugins.html

...but in some distros actual location of plugins can vary.

Obviously program should report that in other way. I will fix that in the next release.

[Davis Forschen (hopedagger)]

I was able to run the program without error output by installing via pacman:

extra/gstreamer0.10-base 0.10.36-1
extra/gstreamer0.10-good 0.10.31-1

Generating a waveform from any audio I've tried thus far results in a flat/silent image however. That may necessitate a separate ticket though. Thank you!

[Davis Forschen (hopedagger)]

Does gstreamer not provide a means of querying the installed plugins or testing capabilities beforehand?

[mspanc (mspanc)]

Before you open next ticket, please try to install also other packages. The list mentioned above contain only *minimal* dependencies. GStreamer's decodebin2 element tries to dynamically find decoder suitable to file that you try to open. For example that means wavparse plugin for *.wav files, vorbisdec & oggdemux for Ogg/Vorbis and so on.

AFAIK GStreamer has some capabilities for testing for supported codecs, I can consider adding such feature.

[Davis Forschen (hopedagger)]

I can confirm that I have the 'wavparse' gstreamer plugin and that WAV files do not produce a non-silent output image.

[mspanc (mspanc)]

I've created separated ticket for the querying issue, please see bug #992238. I've subscribed you to that ticket.

[mspanc (mspanc)]

Could you please attach wav file that you use for testing and receive silent output image and output of gst-inspect-0.10 after installing extra/gstreamer0.10-base and extra/gstreamer0.10-good packages?

[mspanc (mspanc)]

I've prepared some test suite, please see attached wav and png file.

The image is generated using 1.0.4 on ubuntu 11.10 with command

tuned-audio-waveform --audio-input-file=sine.wav --waveform-output-file=sine.png --waveform-range-total=300

Please do the same on your computer and in case of different results, upload the output image.

[Davis Forschen (hopedagger)]

I get the same output as you for 'sine.png'. Looks like the software is functioning fine. I think my error here was assuming I'd get output looking like the file I've attached. This is veering pretty off-topic, but can tuned-audio-tools generate these?

[mspanc (mspanc)]

Please use "Answers" section https://answers.launchpad.net/tuned-audio-tools in the future for such questions.

Yes, I think it is possible, try to call it in that way

tuned-audio-waveform --audio-input-file=in.wav --audio-output-file=out.png --waveform-channels-align=stick --waveform-range-total=500 --waveform-pixels-per-second=50 --waveform-background-color=#999999 --waveform-foreground-color=#0000ff