Multimedia - Streaming Madness
 

Hello.

I'm running Ubuntu 5.10 (Gnome).

I've had a lot of trouble getting streaming to work.

Sometimes something works directly on Firefox...usually not.

I have the following programs installed:

gmplayer
gxine
mplayer
Totem
VLC
xine
XMMS

QUESTION 1.
For a while, VLC could play most any radio stream. It seems to have gone nuts. Now, whatever I ask it to play, it just keeps running up and down the playlist and is unable to do anything. OR, if asked to play a specific stream, it looks for a few seconds like it's trying and then goes blank...and occasionally hangs.

I discovered that XMMS could play all of the streams. I was listening to one, when I tried to save a playlist. From that moment on, it hasn't been able to play anything. If I try to open a stream, it might momentarily show the address it's trying to get (without playing anything), but, more often, it just sits there looking at me. System Monitor says it's sleeping!

Mplayer and xine usually say they can't find a plugin, although I think I've installed every one known to man.

What on earth is the matter with these Linux programs? One minute, everything's fine...and the next, Goodbye!

QUESTION 2.

Right now, I can't play anything unless Firefox feels up to it.

If it's any help, the plugins Firefox says it has are:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


gxine starter plugin

File name: gxineplugin.so
will start external gxine media player for embedded media streams
------------------------------------------
Shockwave Flash

File name: libflashplayer.so
Shockwave Flash 7.0 r25
------------------------------------------
VLC multimedia plugin

File name: libvlcplugin.so
VLC multimedia plugin
------------------------------------------
OpenOffice.org Plug-in

File name: libnpsoplugin.so
------------------------------------------
Totem Mozilla Plugin

File name: libtotem_mozilla.so
------------------------------------------
Google VLC multimedia plugin 1.0

File name: mplayerplug-in-gmp.so
mplayerplug-in 3.05
-------------------------------------------
QuickTime Plug-in 6.0

File name: mplayerplug-in-qt.so
mplayerplug-in 3.05
-------------------------------------------
RealPlayer 9

File name: mplayerplug-in-rm.so
mplayerplug-in 3.05
-------------------------------------------
Windows Media Player Plugin

File name: mplayerplug-in-wmp.so
mplayerplug-in 3.05
-------------------------------------------
mplayerplug-in 3.05

File name: mplayerplug-in.so
mplayerplug-in 3.05
-------------------------------------------
Java(TM) Plug-in 1.5.0_05-b05

File name: libjavaplugin_oji.so
Java(TM) Plug-in 1.5.0_05
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone have any ideas on any of this?

Thanks.

Hi.

Video was working in gzine for streaming TV. Now it can't play it.

Also, as mentioned, none of the programs is working on the system...not counting Firefox problems. I go out of Firefox and open one of the media programs and it won't play anything.

As far as I know, this happened spotaneously. I didn't install any plugins, programs, codecs, etc. UNLESS some install which had nothing to do with multimedia creamed some dependencies or something.

I don't know where to begin to sort this out.

Anybody?

try running them as a different user. do you get the same problems?

Interesting idea!

As a newbie, I first have to figure out how to create another user. Only have one (unless I log into Gnome as root).

just open a root terminal and type xmms then try to play something

Did it. That is, I typed su, entered password and typed xmms.

The program opened and I requested a radio stream. Nothing happened. Asked for another stream and it seemed to connect, but just said "pre-buffering" (whatever that is) and stayed like that.

So, I closed the program and, still in root, typed vlc.

I entered a location and nothing happened. I did get this output in the terminal:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

VLC media player 0.8.4-svn20040920 Janus
[00000260] main playlist: playlist is empty

Gdk-CRITICAL **: file gdkgc.c: line 689 (gdk_gc_set_clip_rectangle): assertion `gc != NULL' failed.

Gdk-CRITICAL **: file gdkdraw.c: line 90 (gdk_draw_rectangle): assertion `gc != NULL' failed.

Gdk-CRITICAL **: file gdkgc.c: line 689 (gdk_gc_set_clip_rectangle): assertion `gc != NULL' failed.

Gdk-CRITICAL **: file gdkgc.c: line 689 (gdk_gc_set_clip_rectangle): assertion `gc != NULL' failed.

Gdk-CRITICAL **: file gdkdraw.c: line 90 (gdk_draw_rectangle): assertion `gc != NULL' failed.

Gdk-CRITICAL **: file gdkgc.c: line 689 (gdk_gc_set_clip_rectangle): assertion `gc != NULL' failed.
[00000260] main playlist: clearing playlist
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now the terminal still says that and seems to be hung. Can't recall how to end the root session.

Does any of this tell you anything?

ctrl+c will stop it and take you back to a prompt

try
whereis tree.xml
and
whereis ini.xml

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
whereis tree.xml
tree: /usr/share/man/man3/tree.3blt.gz

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
root@Abraham:/home/avi# whereis ini.xml
ini:
root@Abraham:/home/avi#
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

nope, I would try reinstalling xmms and see if it gives you problems still, if that fixes it, then try the rest...it's really strange, sounds like something got corrupted

Just tried a radio stream in Firefox. The player loaded and Firefox crashed. Tried again and gxine opened it...it's playing now.

But that seems a bit rare.

Anyway, forgetting about Firefox for the moment....

So, you mean I should go into Synaptic and mark for reinstall...or is it better to do a complete removal and then install again.
At least in Windows, installing something over itself often leaves corrupt files in place because the installation recognizes their
presence but doesn't know they're corrupt.

Does that sort of thing happen in Linux? Or is reinstall usually OK?

usually when something gets corrupted(in my experience) it is only corrupted in ur home dir. For example, /home/ingla/.xmms is where most of the time the corrupt files are. Thats why it was weird it did it for root as well. I wouldn't worry about deleting the main dir(usr/bin/<whatever>/ for good, but renaming ~.xmms, ~.mplayer, etc if you still have probs is an option. The if that fixes it, take any themes, etc out of those dirs and delete them.

Thanks very much.

I think maybe I'll let Synaptic handle it...probably remove them and install from scratch...just takes a few minutes.

However, it's pretty late in my time zone, so I'll try it tomorrow. I'll try to post results and...if it doesn't help...I'll surely be
back.

Thanks again.

good luck, no problem