playing MMS / .ASX with totem needs manual install of codec package

[Sander Jonkers]

Binary package hint: totem

On Jaunty Beta, Ubuntu will not automatically find the codes for MMS / ASX content: errors will occur and content will not be played.

Workaround: manual install of package "Gstreamer plugins for mms, wavpack, quicktime, ..." via Add/Remove.

Real solution: totem / Ubuntu should install automagically.

Long description

totem can not automatically play the MMS / ASX content "http://www.omroep.nl/live/thema/nos_journaal24-bb.asx".
FWIW: vlc does play this URL.

Ubuntu tries to find a codec, but fails:

"The required software to play this file is not installed. You need to install suitable plugins to play media files. Do you want to search for a plugin that supports the selected file?
The search will also include software which is not officially supported."
After clicking on Search, I get the message:

"No packages with the requested plugins found
The requested plugins are:
Microsoft Media Server (MMS) protocol source"

I have enabled all software sources: main, universe, restricted, multiverse.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ totem http://www.omroep.nl/live/thema/nos_journaal24-bb.asx
** Message: Error: A Microsoft Media Server (MMS) protocol source plugin is required to play this stream, but not installed.
gstplaybasebin.c(1673): gen_source_element (): /GstPlayBin:play:
No URI handler for mms

** Message: Missing plugin: gstreamer|0.10|totem|Microsoft Media Server (MMS) protocol source|urisource-mms (Microsoft Media Server (MMS) protocol source)
** Message: No installation candidate for missing plugins found.
** Message: Error: A Microsoft Media Server (MMS) protocol source plugin is required to play this stream, but not installed.
gstplaybasebin.c(1673): gen_source_element (): /GstPlayBin:play:
No URI handler for mms

** Message: Missing plugin: gstreamer|0.10|totem|Microsoft Media Server (MMS) protocol source|urisource-mms (ignoring)
** Message: All missing plugins are blacklisted, doing nothing
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ apt-cache policy totem
totem:
  Installed: 2.26.0-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 2.26.0-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 2.26.0-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=9.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=jaunty
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu jaunty (development branch)"
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

[Armindo Silva (deathon2legs)]

Same problem here.
Can be solved by installing gstreamer-plugins-ugly

$ sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly

[Tenoch (mignonmexicain)]

gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly did not solve my problem. I still can not play the mms link.

[Neil Woolford (neil-neilwoolford)]

I also had a failure to automatically install when first using the bbc live radio player (streaming iplayer).

Same experience as Tenoch, adding gstreamer ugly plugins via synaptic did not work for me.

However, using Applications=>Add/Remove (set to show "All available applications), selecting the Sound & Video tab and the searching for "mms" led me to the "Gstreamer plugins for mms, wavpak, quicktime, musepack".

Installing this did solve the problem for me. I'm not familiar with the use of Add/Remove Applications, so don't know how it interacts with synaptic or what the actual packages installed are called under synaptic. I was not asked to enable additional repositories, so I assume that the necessary packages were available, just not found automatically.

[Sander Jonkers (jonkers)]

FWIW: with the final release of Jaunty 9.04, the problem is still there. :-(

[Tenoch (mignonmexicain)]

Following Neil Woolford procedure allowed me to play the mms link using TOTEM.

THANKS

[Sander Jonkers (jonkers)]

Well, Neil's procedure is what I myself had written as a workaround in my
original bug report. I quote:

/quote
Workaround: manual install of package "Gstreamer plugins for mms,
wavpack, quicktime, ..." via Add/Remove.
/unquote

But I don't consider that to be the solution: totem / Ubuntu will always
automagically and gracefully find and install needed codecs. So that should
happen too for this codec.

[Michael Gefen (gefenm11)]

Neil's solution worked for me as well

i think that the packages installed in this procedure, should be included in ubuntu-restricted-extras

[Pablo Castellano (pablocastellano)]

I have experienced the same issue in Ubuntu 10.04 beta1.
Web: http://www.cadenaser.com/player_radio.html

Installing manually gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly solved the problem.

[Pablo Castellano (pablocastellano)]

I may be wrong but maybe this is the problem.

the gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly package contains info saying what decoders/encoders it provides but it doesn't mention mms:

Gstreamer-Decoders: application/vnd.rn-realmedia; application/x-pn-realaudio; application/x-rdt, media=(string)application, encoding-name=(string)X-REAL-RDT; application/x-rtp, media=(string){ application, video, audio }, encoding-name=(string)X-ASF-PF; audio/AMR; audio/AMR-WB; audio/ac3; audio/mpeg, mpegversion=(int)1, layer=(int)[ 1, 3 ]; audio/mpeg, mpegversion=(int)1, parsed=(boolean)false; audio/x-ac3; audio/x-lpcm; audio/x-private1-ac3; audio/x-private1-lpcm; audio/x-sid; video/mpeg, mpegversion=(int)[ 1, 2 ], systemstream=(boolean)false; video/mpeg, mpegversion=(int){ 1, 2 }, systemstream=(boolean)true; video/x-ms-asf
Gstreamer-Elements: a52dec, ac3iec958, amrnbdec, amrnbenc, amrwbdec, asfdemux, cdiocddasrc, dvddemux, dvdlpcmdec, dvdreadsrc, dvdsubdec, dvdsubparse, mad, mp3parse, mpeg2dec, mpegdemux, mpegparse, pnmsrc, rademux, rdtdepay, rdtmanager, rmdemux, rtpasfdepay, rtspreal, rtspwms, siddec, twolame, xingmux
Gstreamer-Encoders: audio/AMR; audio/mpeg, mpegversion=(int)1, layer=(int)2; audio/x-iec958; audio/x-raw-int, endianness=(int)4321, signed=(boolean)true
Gstreamer-Uri-Sources: cdda, dvd, pnm
Gstreamer-Version: 0.10

Can someone from the QA team have a look at it?

[Pablo Castellano (pablocastellano)]

Following the steps which Neil says in #3 installed to me the following packages:

Start-Date: 2010-05-09 10:43:40
Install: libwildmidi0 (0.2.2-2), liborc-0.4-0 (0.4.3-5), libflite1 (1.3-release-2build1), libdc1394-22 (2.1.2-2), libsoundtouch1c2 (1.3.1-2), libopenspc0 (0.3.99a-2), libfftw3-3 (3.2.2-1), libgme0 (0.5.5-1), freepats (20060219-1), gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad (0.10.18-1ubuntu1), libkate1 (0.3.7-3), libcdaudio1 (0.99.12p2-9), libmimic0 (1.0.4-2build1), libcelt0-0 (0.7.1-1), libdirac-encoder0 (1.0.2-2), libofa0 (0.9.3-3.1), libmms0 (0.4-2), libiptcdata0 (1.0.3-1ubuntu1)
End-Date: 2010-05-09 10:44:09

[nick ves (vesnikos)]

bah works.. I had installed gstreamer thru cli and i was experiencing the same problem, so it was tagged as installed..

I uninstalled and reinstalled, and now it works.

using 10.04 LTS btw

[.cobnet (mattias-campe)]

Bug #543157 (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-codec-install/+bug/543157) seems related. The solution provided there by 'Sergey K' (post 5) solved my problem (using Ubuntu 10.04).

[amay82 (andimayer82-deactivatedaccount)]

Still valid for Ubuntu 11.04

Had to install gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad manually, then it worked.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Jacopo Moronato (jmoronat)]

Still here in Oneiric.

[Christopher Forster (christopherforster)]

Still here in Precise. I'm using Lubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin).