Playing mp3 files causes: Problem occurred without error being set. This is a bug in Rhythmbox or GStreamer.

[Marlin Cremers]

I get the following error in the console when trying to play a mp3 file using Rhythmbox:

(21:23:27) [0x832a60] [rb_shell_player_error] rb-shell-player.c:2443: playback error while playing: Problem occurred without error being set. This is a bug in Rhythmbox or GStreamer.

I don't get the same error while trying to play the same file using 'Video's. I installed the required codec using the 'Video's application as it told me to install a codec.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: libgstreamer1.0-0 1.7.1-1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-2.16-generic 4.4.0
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-2-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_uvm nvidia zfs zunicode zcommon znvpair zavl
ApportVersion: 2.19.4-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Fri Feb 5 21:24:05 2016
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/rhythmbox
SourcePackage: gstreamer1.0
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Marlin Cremers (marlinc)]

There's some more information after enabling debug on GStreamer

(00:37:50) [0x2075060] [rb_audioscrobbler_should_handshake] rb-audioscrobbler.c:839: No username set
(00:37:50) [0x2075060] [rb_audioscrobbler_should_handshake] rb-audioscrobbler.c:839: No username set
(00:37:50) [0x2075060] [rb_uri_could_be_podcast] rb-file-helpers.c:617: 'file:///home/marlinc/Music/file.mp3' can't be a Podcast or OPML file, not the right scheme
(00:37:50) [0x2075060] [load_uri_finish] rb-shell.c:2902: found an entry to play
(00:37:50) [0x2075060] [rb_shell_player_stop] rb-shell-player.c:2119: stopping
(00:37:50) [0x2075060] [start_state_change] rb-player-gst.c:406: changing state to NULL
0:00:46.401768688 18590 0x2075060 DEBUG GST_STATES gstelement.c:2501:gst_element_set_state_func:<playbin0> set_state to NULL
0:00:46.401783562 18590 0x2075060 DEBUG GST_STATES gstelement.c:2539:gst_element_set_state_func:<playbin0> current NULL, old_pending VOID_PENDING, next VOID_PENDING, old return SUCCESS
0:00:46.401792438 18590 0x2075060 DEBUG GST_STATES gstelement.c:2573:gst_element_set_state_func:<playbin0> final: setting state from NULL to NULL
0:00:46.401803101 18590 0x2075060 DEBUG GST_STATES gstbin.c:2664:gst_bin_change_state_func:<playbin0> changing state of children from NULL to NULL
0:00:46.401810243 18590 0x2075060 DEBUG bin gstbin.c:2712:gst_bin_change_state_func:<playbin0> clearing all cached messages
0:00:46.401817445 18590 0x2075060 TRACE GST_REFCOUNTING gstobject.c:254:gst_object_ref:<playbin0> 0x364d330 ref 1->2
0:00:46.401825241 18590 0x2075060 DEBUG bin gstbin.c:2195:gst_bin_sort_iterator_resync:<playbin0> resync
0:00:46.401831097 18590 0x2075060 DEBUG bin gstbin.c:1981:add_to_queue:<playbin0> adding 'playsink' to queue
0:00:46.401836918 18590 0x2075060 TRACE GST_REFCOUNTING gstobject.c:254:gst_object_ref:<playsink> 0x3664210 ref 1->2
0:00:46.401843702 18590 0x2075060 DEBUG bin gstbin.c:2121:update_degree:<playbin0> element playsink not linked on any sinkpads
0:00:46.401851830 18590 0x2075060 TRACE GST_REFCOUNTING gstobject.c:280:gst_object_unref:<playsink> 0x3664210 unref 3->2
0:00:46.401858638 18590 0x2075060 DEBUG bin gstbin.c:2182:gst_bin_sort_iterator_next:<playbin0> queue head gives playsink
0:00:46.401864263 18590 0x2075060 DEBUG bin gstbin.c:2121:update_degree:<playbin0> element playsink not linked on any sinkpads
0:00:46.401869972 18590 0x2075060 INFO GST_STATES gstbin.c:2316:gst_bin_element_set_state:<playsink> current NULL pending VOID_PENDING, desired next NULL
0:00:46.401876988 18590 0x2075060 DEBUG bin gstbin.c:882:find_message:<playbin0> no message found matching types 00100000
0:00:46.401883424 18590 0x2075060 DEBUG bin gstbin.c:889:find_message:<playbin0> async-start
0:00:46.401889333 18590 0x2075060 DEBUG bin gstbin.c:2411:gst_bin_element_set_state:<playbin0> setting element playsink to NULL, base_time 0...

[Marlin Cremers (marlinc)]

I'm not sure why but running

cd ~/Music
find . -exec touch '{}' \;

As suggested by https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1209574#c3 does appear to fix the issue.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue you are reporting is an upstream one and it would be nice if somebody having it could send the bug to the developers of the software by following the instructions at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/GNOME. If you have done so, please tell us the number of the upstream bug (or the link), so we can add a bugwatch that will inform us about its status. Thanks in advance.

[fermulator (fermulator)]

Same issue here on Fedora22. The "touch trick" did not work for me.

 can't play MP3 files via Rhythmbox when the file source is a ZFS pool :( -- it works fine from a non-ZFS storage device. (Fedora 22, 4.4.13-200.fc22.x86_64, zfs = 0.6.5.7-1.fc22, rhythmbox = 3.2.1-1.fc22) -- anyone know of this issue?

 I'm wondering if there's some sort of "setting" which needs to applied to the pool. It's definitely a "rhythmbox integration" issue of some sort ... as playing through standard gnome-player works regardless of storage source.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[fermulator (fermulator)]

(had this tab open in a really old browser session ... doing some clean up ...)

retested on Fedora 26, it works! (bug no longer present)

{{{
$ sudo zfs list | grep music
zstorage/music 7.40G 84.9G 7.40G /zstorage/music
}}}

rhythmbox opens, music library on that pool, music plays

{{{
4.14.14-200.fc26.x86_64, zfs-0.7.5-1.fc26.x86_64, rhythmbox-3.4.1-3.fc26.x86_64
}}}

[crvi (crvi)]

Is this still an issue on latest rhythmbox 3.4.4 ?

[crvi (crvi)]

I think, this was either an issue with zfs / permission issue or glib / gio.

[crvi (crvi)]

This is being addressed as part of upstream issue https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/rhythmbox/-/issues/1451.