Banshee's Library Watcher should be disabled by default in Ubuntu 11.04

[Michael Martin-Smucker]

Binary package hint: banshee

The Library Watcher in Banshee is a relatively new feature, and it still lacks a good deal of polish. In its current state, the problems it causes far outweigh the benefit it provides. In fact, I'm fairly certain that in vanilla Banshee, this extension is disabled by default because of some of these issues.[1] I would strongly encourage the Ubuntu folks to disable this extension by default in the version of Banshee that ships with Natty.

An overview of the issues:

- The Library Watcher has been known to cause very high CPU usage and severe memory leaks[2]
- When importing from CDs[3], devices[4], and even regular folders[5], the Library Watcher leads to duplicate imports
- What's worse, when importing with the Library Watcher + the "Copy Files to Folders" option, some files may be missed altogether.[6][5]

In my opinion, having a "watched directory" is a desirable feature, but much less important than the ability to accurately import music from CDs, devices, and folders.

[1] https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=638939
[2] https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=617687
[3] https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=614171
[4] https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=638788
[5] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/banshee/+bug/760565
[6] https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=632956

[Chow Loong Jin (hyperair)]

On Friday 15,April,2011 01:00 AM, Michael Martin-Smucker wrote:
> Public bug reported:
>
> Binary package hint: banshee
>
> The Library Watcher in Banshee is a relatively new feature, and it still
> lacks a good deal of polish. In its current state, the problems it
> causes far outweigh the benefit it provides. In fact, I'm fairly
> certain that in vanilla Banshee, this extension is disabled by default
> because of some of these issues.[1] I would strongly encourage the
> Ubuntu folks to disable this extension by default in the version of
> Banshee that ships with Natty.
>
> An overview of the issues:
>
> - The Library Watcher has been known to cause very high CPU usage and severe memory leaks[3]
> - When importing from CDs[2], devices[3], and even regular folders[4], the Library Watcher leads to duplicate imports
> - What's worse, when importing with the Library Watcher + the "Copy Files to Folders" option, some files may be missed altogether.[5][4]
>
> In my opinion, having a "watched directory" is a desirable feature, but
> much less important than the ability to accurately import music from
> CDs, devices, and folders.
>
>
> [1] https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=638939
> [2] https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=617687
> [3] https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=638788
> [4] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/banshee/+bug/760565
> [5] https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=632956

  status incomplete
  subscribe didrocks

I'm fine with disabling the Library Watcher extension, though it was the UNR
team who enabled it by default, IIRC. Didrocks, are you okay with this?

--
Kind regards,
Loong Jin

[Didier Roche-Tolomelli (didrocks)]

answered on IRC after checking with the ubuntu one team:
as the import from rhythmbox is done by another plugin, I don't really think this plugin is required for us (particularly if it's state is buggy).

However, I think there need to be a FFe to "remove it" from the default, isn't it?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package banshee - 2.0.0-2ubuntu1

---------------
banshee (2.0.0-2ubuntu1) natty; urgency=low

  * [d07fe37] Merge from Debian Unstable, remaining changes:
    + Enable SoundMenu and Disable NotificationArea by default
    + Disable boo and karma extensions
    + Enable and recommnd u1ms and soundmenu extensions
    + Move desktop file for Meego UI to /usr/share/une/applications
    + Change the url for the Amazon store redirector
    + Create the U1MS widget earlier and bump libu1 requirement

banshee (2.0.0-2) unstable; urgency=low

  [ Chow Loong Jin ]
  * [8ee2dd2] Set compression to bz2
  * [0ffc007] Disable dh_makeclilibs
  * [a9bdd15] Update copyright file to dep-5
  * [8c123e8] Don't enable librarywatcher by default (LP: #760902, #622313)
  * [0d952b6] Refresh 08_remove_unrelevant_media.patch

  [ Christopher James Halse Rogers ]
  * [5809dc3] Cherry-pick CPU-usage reduction patches from stable-2.0
  * [920dd3e] Bump GIO# build-depend to ensure we build against the fixed
    package

banshee (2.0.0-1ubuntu3) natty; urgency=low

  * 11_reduce_cpu_usage.patch:
    - Cherry pick two commits from the stable-2.0 branch reducing Banshee's
      CPU use while playing by about 50%.
  * Bump build-depend on GIO# to ensure we pick up the fix for a nasty leak.
 -- Chow Loong Jin <email address hidden> Mon, 18 Apr 2011 11:38:56 +0800

[Victor Vargas (kamus)]

Thank you guys!