If you have already looked into this then I apologise but I don't see and mention of looking in VLC's menus to stop it minimising to system tray when closed. VLC is usually a good bet for playing media but sometimes an errant setting will leave you wondering why things aren't working.

Installing is kind of a pain. Linux is a lot easier to install, at least the major distros, than Windows though so if you had ever done that you would probably feel a bit different about it.

Most installers have the same type of auto install options that you used for Ubuntu. One difference is that they also make it easier to do a more manual installl, actually a better option, than Ubuntu does because you have trouble finding the "real" menu on Ubuntu family install disks but it is what comes up to begin with.

The Debian installer is easy to use, as installers go, and should give you no trouble. Most are similar.

What I would do is, on your current install, add another DE (desktop environment). There should be several in the Ubuntu repos. Ubuntu has meta packages for them that will install the entire thing as it would in a default install of one of the Ubuntu family members (Xfce with Xubuntu, KDE with Kubuntu and so forth). These should, I think, be named something like xubuntu-desktop if they are still using the same package name protocol as they used to.

There should also be packages for the same DEs that is more the way the project producing the DE puts it out and they should be named something like kde-desktop. I am not sure which would install the least amount of stuff on your system but probably this type rather than the Ubuntu family member DE packages.

If you are actually a person that like Unity you may also like another rather complex DE like KDE. If you like a simpler DE there is Xfce (Xubuntu) and Lxde (Lubuntu).

I would not go with Gnome. Gnome 3 is what Ubuntu is actually based on and there seems to still be some conflict between Unity and Gnome Shell which are the things that control what you see on the desktop.

After installing a new DE you can boot to which ever you wish by selecting it at the log in page. There will be, somewhere on there, a button for something like session. Click on it and select the one you want.

Try the new DE and see how VLC acts under it.

I would suggest a different distro as a reformed Ubuntu user but it is your box and your choice. If you want to stick with the Ubuntu base but with one of the many Ubuntu respins try Linux Mint. Comes with a different Gnome based DE by default but should be other wise pretty familiar. Has a simple installer as do most Debian based (Ubuntu is a Debian respin) distros.

As someone that simply ditched Windows and installed Linux with no experience with it at all I can tell you that there is not much you can do with Windows you can't with Linux, with some learning curve for sure, but that there is an awful lot you can do with Linux that you can't with Windows. And it is less expensive in cash and time once you learn to use it.

Windows is just as hard to learn to use if you have never used it.

Hi widget,

I wasn't ignoring your post, sometimes life just gets in the way of things!

I don't mind trying another DE as long as it doesn't put another version of grub in the default location, My bootloader for ubuntu is on same partition as the OS. It doesn't control the other 2 windows OS's booting. That is handled by EasyBCD and the default mbr for windows. That way if grub fails I can still boot windows or if windows fails I can still use linux. I had to make that change manually when I installed ubuntu so I am being careful when I ask about another DE installing another version of grub where I don't want it.

It seems oddd that I am the only one out of the millions of ubuntu users who also use vlc to find there is a bug in it.But then again it doesn't surprise me all that much, a lot has happened to me that never happened to my friends lol.

Let me sniff around a bit and see what I can come up with RE: another DE. I do have Lubuntu on my wifes machine to replace XP and it works fine for what she does, which is next to nothing. She hates computers and thinks they are the end of western civilization lol!

I can't do it right now but I'd like to get this sorted and move on to more things that I can try One thing I won't be doing in Linux is using my VR program Dragon!

I'm assuming that the DE is nothing more than a different way to access the OS and has no loaded with it, it's not an OS so to speak just a different way to access the OS?

Thanks again!

You only get grub installed with a new install of the OS. Simply adding another DE to your existing OS doesn't involve any thing with grub. It is just adding a package.

I am not using Ubuntu anymore and am not even going to look at their packages (I hold a grudge) so you will need to check the package name for your self but here is a sample of getting an other DE;
since you are somewhat familiar with it I used lubuntu. Would install quite a few packages and then you could just reboot or even logout and back in. When you go through the login page you simply select the DE you want with the "sessions" button which is somewhere on that screen.

You have to remember a couple of things.

You may have a bug. Bugs are usually hardware specific. Some narrowly and some pretty general but still hardware is usually key.

VLC is not used by a lot of people. They may be using xbmc which has a much flashier gui thus, like Ubuntu, attracting magpies. They may be using mplayer.

You are using 14.04. It may be more stable and reliable in about 6 weeks. Ubuntu has a low bar to get over for quality assurance when releasing. Sometimes they take a long time to work out bugs. If the bugs are not urgent and they can fob it off on upstream they will never work on a bug.

It is never Ubuntus fault. You need, if you are going to be a good Ubuntu user, to learn that. It is all those other people in the Linux community that just want to pick on Ubuntu.

Upstream (VLC) is probably doing it on purpose.

Does it work on your wifes box? If so I would say Unity is to blame. Doubt that would be a priority to have work in a DE meant for a phone.

widget,

To be honest I never tried it there since her old Dell only has a cd player not a dvd. But it should be the same regardless, if it plays a cd time after time, and not only once after a reboot then I agree Unity is to blame.

I surely am not confident enough to report something as a bug, I don't have familiarity with Linux that you do. With all the endeless possibilities of hardware combos out there, it's bound not to work on some machines, that goes without saying.

I should have time today to fiddle with this and I'll install vlc on her machine first and try it out, then go from there!

Thanks for thinking of it, I doubt that I would until after the fact

Regards

That went off the rails somewhere <sigh>

widget,

I wanted to install the kde desktop so I used the command sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop, it took forever for it to load. Then on a reboot it booted to kubuntu and the desktop looks the same as it did in unity. Looks to me like it put in the whole OS not just a desktop,. If another desktop is there I never got a chance to choose it on a reboot, I only had the choise of ubuntu with an * in front of it.

Where did I go wrong with this one? Maybe it's fine and I am too lame to know how to change the desktop to kde.

What's on screen doesn't look anything like the example on this site: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-alter...u-users-linux/

Thanks!

This has gone off the rails somewhat. For the original problem I wonder what happens if you run VLC, play a DVD, close VLC as you have been and run the command "ps -A|grep vlc" in a terminal window? Probably you will see nothing but if VLC is still running that might be an issue.
As to choosing KDE -- you don't choose it from the first menu that lists Ubuntu and something like "Ubuntu extra". You would choose it from the screen you use to log into your desktop. If you don't have a screen asking you to log in then google something like "disable auto login ubuntu" to get it back. On that screen you should find a menu for something like "session type" and it is from there you select KDE or the Ubuntu defaults.

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This has gone off the rails somewhat. For the original problem I wonder what happens if you run VLC, play a DVD, close VLC as you have been and run the command "ps -A|grep vlc" in a terminal window? Probably you will see nothing but if VLC is still running that might be an issue.
As to choosing KDE -- you don't choose it from the first menu that lists Ubuntu and something like "Ubuntu extra". You would choose it from the screen you use to log into your desktop. If you don't have a screen asking you to log in then google something like "disable auto login ubuntu" to get it back. On that screen you should find a menu for something like "session type" and it is from there you select KDE or the Ubuntu defaults.

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi 273,

Thanks for your input in this post and your previous one I wasn't ignoring your thoughts. I just removed vlc, I may as well put a zipper on it, it's been in and out so many times.

I removed it because I didn't see any change when I ran it under allegedly KDE. if I click on settings it still shows ubuntu 14.04 so I guess it's still here even though it shows kbuntu when it boots up, makes no sense to me. I never got a screen asking me to "log into my desktop" as you suggest.

All my few programs etc. are all there as they were before but now the systray says "ubuntu desktop" I didn't see that before that I remember.

Let me chisel way at this and I'll get back to you both again.

Cheers and beers from this side of the pond!

Every program that you installed is still installed -- DEs (Desktop Environments) are a swish way of packaging things which tend to make them a little easier to use but the programs can be used outside of those DEs.
As I mentioned you may need to tell Ubuntu to not log you in automatically, in order for you to choose the DE.

OK here's where I am now. I can find the kde desktop in the screen once it loads up but the trouble is the only way, I can enable it is to use it from a guest account. I cannot log in using my p/w there is no cursor in the log-in box for me to use to log in. Typing it blindly doesn't work. I am in the kde destop now but only as a guest I can't make any changes that will stay put as you know. Your thoughts on this one? I can choose the kde desktop yes, but can't log in using my p/w.If I log in using my p/w I end up back in the Unity not kde.

Tried to use vlc in the kde desktop and got the same messsage, Playback failure:

DVDRead could not open the disc "/dev/sr0".
Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'dvd:///dev/sr0'. Check the log for details.

Using the 'open disc option" yields this:

Playback failure:
DVDRead could not open the disc "/dev/sr0".
Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'dvd:///dev/sr0'. Check the log for details.
Playback failure:
DVDRead could not open the disc "/dev/sr0".
Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'dvd:///dev/sr0'. Check the log for details.


I assume it would behave the same way if I was logged in and not guest user.

Maybe this proves it's not Unity at all but vlc as widget suggested?

I am taking too much valuable time from you all, trying to get this sorted. I can use another DVD player and give up vlc, it's not attached to my hip!


Thanks

The first image on the page you linked;
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...99#post5180799

is, I assume from the color, a portion of the Ubuntu login page. That gear icon is what needs to be clicked to get the displayed menu.

If you have no mouse cursor function on the login page you have a problem with your lightdm (which gives you the login page).

You could try your user name and password and then see if the tab key will navigate around the login page.

You could also try booting to recovery and waiting for the end of it where you will get a root prompt (#). Do not try this command at the root prompt. Instead try this command at that prompt;
hit enter and you wil then be asked for that users password. The su command is a shortened version of Switch User.

This should give you a user prompt ($). At that prompt try this;
I am not sure this will work. I don't use KDE and am not sure that is the correct command for the kde session. I do know that "startopenboxsession works if you have OpenBox installed.

Another way to get the user prompt and the oportunity to use the tty log in is to type, when the login screen comes up but before you do anything on it, Ctrl + Alt + F2. This should just have a prompt for login (user name) and then password and then the user prompt where that command could be tried.

Installing KDE is going to be large on any existing system. Most DEs are GTK (a development tool box). KDE is QT based (another tool box) and so any KDE application, even, installed on a GTK environment hauls in a lot of depends. The same is true if you install GTK applications on a KDE environment.

All of your Ubuntu core applications are already installed and have all needed depends. KDE has associated packages, you installed a meta package, and they will need their own depends.

While I dislike KDE many people love it. You may turn out to be one of them.

As for the lightdm problem you could try running;
It would be wise to check that those are the actual names used in Ubuntu for those packages. I am guessing. This command should attempt to run the install script from the .deb packages for those packages and if they are not correct then it should straighten out.

If using that command makes no difference in the behavior of lightdm I would then try;
once again guessing at the package names. This command will reinstall the packages without removing them or their config files.

If that makes no difference then try;
which will remove the packages and their config files.

Then;
If you had the mouse functionality before installing KDE I would guess that the problem is caused by kdm being installed with KDE. The configuration of which has caused the problem.

The above steps, and you should check between them, should straighten it out. If not run the purge command again and then the dpkg command using the package name of kdm. That should set up kdm to present your login page.

I am sure it is more reliable than lightdm anyway.

If you are told that the package could not be found, kdm is not installed. Install it.

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi widget,
I didn't want to quote all you so kindly posted above, but it is great admiration I read what you've sent.

Personally as it stands right now my main concern is getting rid of that kde DE, without hosing the Unity or Ubuntu.

I found a huge command string that supposedly takes out the DE without effecting the OS, I have yet to try it. I did make an Acronis backup of the partitions but at this point to lose them won't hurt me as I haven't done anything remarkable with ubuntu.

Can this possibly be a joke or is it for real? It took so long for kde to install that I makes me think it's a legit command line. Came from a bing search and the ubuntuforms:

sudo apt-get remove akregator amarok amarok-common apport-qt ark cdrdao dolphin dontzap dragonplayer exiv2 foomatic-db-gutenprint gdebi-kde gnupg-agent gtk2-engines-qtcurve gwenview hpijs-ppds ijsgutenprint install-package jockey-kde k3b k3b-data kaddressbook kamera kate kde-icons-oxygen kde-printer-applet kde-style-qtcurve kde-window-manager kde-zeroconf kdebase-bin kdebase-data kdebase-plasma kdebase-runtime kdebase-runtime-bin-kde4 kdebase-runtime-data kdebase-runtime-data-common kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdebase-workspace-libs4+5 kdebluetooth kdegraphics-strigi-plugins kdelibs-bin kdelibs-data kdelibs4c2a kdelibs5 kdelibs5-data kdemultimedia-kio-plugins kdepasswd kdepim-kresources kdepim-strigi-plugins kdepim-wizards kdepimlibs-data kdepimlibs5 kdeplasma-addons kdeplasma-addons-data kdesudo kdm kfind khelpcenter4 klipper kmag kmail kmix kmousetool knotes konqueror konqueror-nsplugins konqueror-plugin-searchbar konsole kontact kopete korganizer kpackagekit krdc krfb ksnapshot ksysguard ksysguardd ksystemlog ktimetracker ktorrent ktorrent-data kubuntu-artwork-usplash kubuntu-default-settings kubuntu-desktop kubuntu-docs kubuntu-konqueror-shortcuts kuser kvkbd kwalletmanager language-selector-qt libakonadiprivate1 libao2 libaudio2 libavahi-qt3-1 libboost-program-options1.35.0 libclucene0ldbl libdbus-qt-1-1c2 libeet1 libexiv2-5 libflac++6 libgeoip1 libk3b3 libk3b3-extracodecs libkcddb4 libkdecorations4 libkdepim4 libkexiv2-7 libkholidays4 libkipi6 libkleo4 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libkpgp4 libksieve4 libkwineffects1 libloudmouth1-0 liblua50 liblualib50 libmad0 libmimelib4 libmodplug0c2 libmpcdec3 libmsn0.1 libmysqlclient15off libokularcore1 libpackagekit-glib11 libpackagekit-qt11 libphonon4 libplasma3 libpoppler-qt4-3 libpq5 libqca2 libqca2-plugin-ossl libqedje0 libqimageblitz4 libqt3-mt libqt4-assistant libqt4-core libqt4-dbus libqt4-designer libqt4-help libqt4-network libqt4-opengl libqt4-qt3support libqt4-script libqt4-sql libqt4-sql-mysql libqt4-sql-sqlite libqt4-svg libqt4-test libqt4-webkit libqt4-xml libqt4-xmlpatterns libqtcore4 libqtgui4 libqzion0 libraptor1 librasqal1 librdf0 libsearchclient0 libsoprano4 libstreamanalyzer0 libstreams0 libstrigihtmlgui0 libstrigiqtdbusclient0 libvncserver0 libxcb-shape0 libxcb-shm0 libxcb-xv0 libxine1 libxine1-bin libxine1-console libxine1-misc-plugins libxine1-x libzip1 mysql-common okular okular-extra-backends openoffice.org-kde openoffice.org-style-crystal oxygen-cursor-theme packagekit packagekit-backend-apt phonon phonon-backend-xine pinentry-gtk2 pinentry-qt4 plasma-widget-network-manager plasma-widget-quickaccess python-dev python-kde4 python-packagekit python-plasma python-qt4 python-qt4-common python-qt4-dbus python-sip4 python2.6-dev qt4-qtconfig quassel quassel-data raptor-utils redland-utils software-properties-kde soprano-daemon speedcrunch strigi-client strigi-daemon system-config-printer-kde systemsettings ttf-dejavu ttf-dejavu-extra update-manager-kde update-notifier-kde && sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

I may play with kde and see what it's like, sure is a bit different than unity that's for sure.

Again regards and many thanks for what you've done, you are a patient soul is all I can say

Cheers

I have good news.

I've found a work-around to the original issue. (tested after a fresh install of Ubuntu 14.04 and installing vlc etc.)

First, click on system settings. (the gear icon on the left of Unity desktop)

Then, click on 'details' at the bottom of the system settings window.

click on 'removable media' and tick the box where it says, 'never prompt or start programs in media insertion'


Now, when you insert a disk you can launch vlc manually and use the open media option to play a dvd. When you're finished, eject the dvd and insert the next one and it will play as normal.

It seems that the daemon that scans removable media locks up the optical drive after the first dvd is inserted and won't let anything else access it. Disabling this daemon leaves the drive free to be accessed normally.

(I vaguely recall that this issue was around as far back as Jaunty. Strange it hasn't been fixed yet)

I've attached some screenshots to show what needs to be done.

Attached Thumbnails

     

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi glue,
Thanks so much for continuing to work on a problem that isn't effecting you.

I took widgets advice and tried another DE, I chose KDE but I can't get logged on except as a guest.

He posted a lengthy description as to how to do it.

The only way it works for me is to use the ctrl+alt+F2 that gets me where I can log in and use my p/w but I can't start the kde desktop. I may as well try it a bit even though YOU have the vlc thing sorted, which is great news! Clearly using kde as a guest and running vlc it still does what it did in Unity. I'd just like to log in as user and try it out.

The darned Unity screen comes up and if I click on the place to put put the p/w it immediately dumps me to Unity I can't type anything in the box. The mouse does work however.
If I chose the kde option I immediately get taken with guest status to the kde desktop but I can't load or save anything! Grrr!

I've tried searching for a howto to start the kde session but didn't find anything. I have tried the "startkdesession" but that didn't work neither did "startkde" I am doing this on a black screen that looks like a dos window..
Once I get logged in I will change that vlc setting and see how we go!!

Many thanks glue, can't wait to try it out! Note the attachment is NOT what I get when I try to log on!

Attached Thumbnails

 

glue,

I followed all your instructions and unfortunately they don't work for me see the attached screenshot. This is what I get after using your setting(s) and trying to load the disc manually.

Thought we had it licked

Thank you for your efforts!

Attached Thumbnails