WinFF - Should detect failure to start terminal properly

[Lonnie Lee Best]

Binary package hint: winff

It doesn't matter what type of file I add, or what type of conversion I try. Clicking the "Convert" button in WinFF, does nothing at all. I wish I could at least get an error message, but it just does nothing.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: winff 1.2.0-1ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-23.41-generic 2.6.35.7
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-23-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Dec 9 00:23:20 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: winff
---
ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu9
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-11-28 (48 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release amd64 (20121017.5)
MarkForUpload: True
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
Package: winff 1.4.2-3ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-21.32-generic 3.5.7.1
Tags: quantal running-unity
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-21-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm cdrom debian-tor dip lpadmin plugdev sambashare sudo

[Paul Gevers (paul-climbing)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make
Ubuntu better.

To confirm that I know the problem of this issue there are a two things
that I need to know:

1) If you go through the menu: Edit -> Preferences -> Linux
What does it say in "Terminal to run FFmpeg"? And what does it say in
"Terminal Options"

2) What is the output of "ls -al /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator" and "ls
-al /etc/alternatives/x-terminal-emulator" in a terminal?

I suspect your setup uses an x-terminal-emulator which is not following
the debian policy and thus winff fails to start the terminal properly.
As a quick test you might try to put "-x" in the "Terminal Options" field.

Paul

[Lonnie Lee Best (launchpad-startport)]

 1) /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator

2a) lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 37 2010-07-28 09:40 /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator -> /etc/alternatives/x-terminal-emulator

2b) lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 19 2010-07-28 09:40 /etc/alternatives/x-terminal-emulator -> /usr/bin/terminator

You are correct that placing "-x", in the "Terminal Options" field, enabled WinFF's ability to launch at terminal. So, thanks for that.

Would you still consider this a bug, in respect to the fact that the installation of WinFF didn't properly detect my environment?

It may also be helpful to mention, that my Ubuntu 10.10 was installed via an upgrade from 10.04. Could something (environmental) have changed between the two versions, that may have caused this inconsistency in configuration? I do recall using WinFF in the past, without having to provide this further configuration.

[Paul Gevers (paul-climbing)]

> You are correct that placing "-x", in the "Terminal Options" field, enabled WinFF's ability to launch at terminal. So, thanks for that.

Great.

> Would you still consider this a bug, in respect to the fact that the
> installation of WinFF didn't properly detect my environment?

Yes, it is a bug, but not with WinFF. The bug is known and is assigned to terminator (and Gnome terminal for that matter): bug 366644 and bug 367954.

> It may also be helpful to mention, that my Ubuntu 10.10 was installed via an upgrade from 10.04. Could something (environmental) have changed between the two versions, that may have caused this inconsistency in configuration? I do recall using WinFF in the past, without having to provide this further configuration.

It might be that the alternative changed from something that works according to policy to terminator. Most likely because that something got removed on update.

I will ask upstream if he can figure out if an error was returned to display.

[Lonnie Lee Best (launchpad-startport)]

FYI, "terminator" is a package that I intentionally installed before my upgrade to 10.10 (because I like its "split vertically" feature, which is absent in the default ubuntu terminal).

I suspect, that after installing Terminator, it makes itself the default terminal to use (for other applications that launch a terminal). However, if that's so, I still believe that it played nice with WinFF in the past, because I always install "terminator" after a fresh installation, and I've used WinFF successfully in the past without having to alter any WinFF preferences.

However, I'm not sure that WinFF launched "terminator" in the past OR Ubuntu's default terminal.
Alternatively, it could be that I may have, at some point, explicitly associated terminator as my default terminal, not realizing the impact that could have on other applications that launch terminals to do work; I can't remember for certain.

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

Thanks for reporting this bug and any supporting documentation. Since this bug has enough information provided for a developer to begin work, I'm going to mark it as confirmed and let them handle it from here. Thanks for taking the time to make Ubuntu better!

[Lonnie Lee Best (launchpad-startport)]

This remains an issue in Ubuntu 12.10.

[Lonnie Lee Best (launchpad-startport)]

apport information

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package winff - 1.5.3-4ubuntu1

---------------
winff (1.5.3-4ubuntu1) utopic; urgency=medium

  * debian/presets.xml: Drop "w=" and "h=" from -vf scale. This doesn't work
    with avconv 9 that we have in utopic atm. Remove this when we have 10
    after checking the tests pass. Fixes test failure.
 -- Iain Lane <email address hidden> Thu, 29 May 2014 11:07:43 +0100