Totem / Mplayer crashes on all media files.

[boothruwindow]

I'm getting to the point that I can do almost everything which I could ever do on in Windows (without spending a month trying to make it all work, ARRRRRGH, but at least I don't worry about security), but tonight was the first time I ever tried to launch a video from my own machine in Linux. This may be the most confusing thing I've dealt with yet.

Ubuntu has in it's default menu Applications > Sound & Video > Movie Player, which opens a window labeled Totem. Inside of the view window of Totem is a graphic for what seems to be another program, Mplayer. These both were on my computer before I did a clean install (folder delete and Synaptic reinstall, and since the current Mplayer folder contains nothing but graphical files and fonts, my best guess is that this is just a GUI. I did not notice this before I got the idea to remove the original MPlayer folder, do a Synaptic removal, and then do a clean install of MPlayer. I never touched Totem, here is the list for that folder:
/usr/share/totem$ ls
filmholes-big-left.png fullscreen.ui plugins.ui totem.ui
filmholes-big-right.png mozilla-viewer.ui properties.ui uri.ui
filmholes.png playlist.ui totem_logo.png video-list.ui

I observe now that I can launch from Sound & Video the Mplayer by itself, (with the real cool buttons), or Totem (from the Movie Player link), which displays Mplayer inside of it. Neither plays anything, but when I try to play something without the Totem window (not using the Movie Player link), Mplayer presents this error message, intead of crashing:
No stream found to handle url dvd://1
Looks like it won't even connect to my DVD player. Does any of this make sense at all?

Before and after I changed anything, I got the same in the Totem window. No matter what I try to play, be it streaming YouTube video, or MPEG and AVI from CDs, it did the same time each time I tried to launch any such file - it crashed, window disappeared, and that was it.

By the way, Synaptic may not have downloaded everything which it decided was needed when I did that reinstall - I got a negative message concerning that!

Heeeeeeeeellllllllllllp!!!!

Thanks.

Edit: Actually, attempts at playing YouTube don't cause a crash, at least now - I get the prompt to download codecs, which brings me to the same download page which I saw before I changed my original installation - the only choice was for "bad" codecs. With nothing else apparently available without charge, and totally disbelieving that Ubuntu would offer codecs that really don't work, an no idea where to look otherwise, I did install them - but I didn't do that this time around, because they didn't help me the first time.

[dijetlo]

Boo, that

No stream found to handle url dvd://1

is Mplayer complaining it can't find the stream, totem probably was supposed to que it and feed it to mplayer but your havig trouble with totem.
You can call mplayer from the cli, just "mplayer file/path/ and it noramally does the rest. (make sure you mount the dvd before you start)
One of the smart guys will be by shortly to tell you how to get totem back up, until then...enjoy a movie.

[reed9]

I think you're making this way more complicated than it is. First, you should really not have to do much of anything with the /usr/share/<application> files. The so called "bad" plugins are a collection of gstreamer plugins. (There is also the "ugly" set.) They are perfectly fine to install and add support for a variety of audio/video formats. For commercial DVD playback, you need the libdvdcss2 package, which is available in the medibuntu repository. This program may not be legal in your region. (Part of why it isn't in the Ubuntu repos.) https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu

[boothruwindow]

I think you're making this way more complicated than it is.

Ok, I'll try and simplify it. First, after I went and reinstalled Totem through Synaptic (some think that's the problem), I installed those "bad" codecs. Now I have a clean install of Mplayer, Totem, and the codecs which were asked for at YouTube. Second, now I have Totem, which opens with the Mplayer graphic in the window, nuking itself at the first attempt of playing AVI / MPEG files. At YouTube, it waits for me to go to the trouble of installing those missing codecs first (again!) before nuking itself. Yes, I did a reboot before trying it again. Sorry, but this is no longer fun, in fact it's where those with any vested interest in promoting Ubuntu need to worry, 'cause I'm about mad enough to join Microsoft in selling their products now. There's quite simply nothing more simple than "doesn't work"!

First, you should really not have to do much of anything with the /usr/share/<application> files.

You couldn't be more right there - should not have to!

Well, guess the culprit must be somewhere else.

[pikachoo]

Need Help !!! I have just installed ubuntu 6.06 dapper drake .

With a little effort i got the network connected but don't know how the sound appears in the system .
The volume control shows HDA Intel (Alsa Mixer) and Sigmatel STAC9221 A2(OSS Mixer) as the two devices.

I installed updates using the repository thing and installed gstreamer plugins,kaffeine,Totem updates but to no effect.

I also installed firefox update but it still shows the previous version 1.5.0.

need reply

[reed9]

Sorry, but this is no longer fun, in fact it's where those with any vested interest in promoting Ubuntu need to worry, 'cause I'm about mad enough to join Microsoft in selling their products now. There's quite simply nothing more simple than "doesn't work"!

Well, I do think Ubuntu shouldn't advertise itself as a complete desktop solution out of the box, because you do need to add some programs to get all the multimedia working. Reinstalling Totem through synaptic shouldn't have anything to do with it, though.

What should work to get DVDs playing and pretty much all multimeida formats is to:

1. Enable the medibuntu repo.
2. Install libdvdcss2
3. Install the metapackage ubuntu-restricted-extras

At that point, you should be able to open up totem or mplayer or whatever, and watch a video, or watch flash video on youtube.

This is why I recommend Linux Mint to newcomers. It's based on Ubuntu, but all the stuff for multimedia and flash preinstalled. Plus some other added extras.

Last thing, I'm unclear why you ever were in /usr/share/totem at all?

To pikachoo: Please don't hijack threads. You should start a new thread for your question.

[boothruwindow]

Well, I do think Ubuntu shouldn't advertise itself as a complete desktop solution out of the box, because you do need to add some programs to get all the multimedia working. Reinstalling Totem through synaptic shouldn't have anything to do with it, though.

What should work to get DVDs playing and pretty much all multimeida formats is to:

1. Enable the medibuntu repo.

I used the menu system to call up Software Sources, and didn't see Medibuntu there. There were 5 checkbox items, and all were checked except the one for Source Code. Went to Synaptic next, scrolled down the left pane, and did a search in the right pane, didn't see it there either. Where is it located?

2. Install libdvdcss2

Couldn't find this through the usual way either.

3. Install the metapackage ubuntu-restricted-extras.

I found this when I did the search for libdvdcss2, with an abstract which stated the exclusion of that file, good luck!

This is why I recommend Linux Mint to newcomers. It's based on Ubuntu, but all the stuff for multimedia and flash preinstalled. Plus some other added extras.

I did some research last week and found that one, as well as DreamLinux. I burned what was supposed to be a live CD for each of them, and neither would boot on my computer! I wonder now if the fact that it was CD-RW for these systems (Ubuntu was burned on an old CD-R). The top speed at which NTSI would burn these other two systems (on CD-RW if that matters) was 4x, while the same software burned Ubuntu at 48x as default speed on an old CD-R . I finally got Ubuntu working when I burned it again at 16x - but at least it worked. Could it have simply been the choice of media?

Last thing, I'm unclear why you ever were in /usr/share/totem at all?

I was just investigating Totem, because whatever has kept me thrashing my head in my cave for the last two nights had Totem in the title bar. It also happened to be on the same tree branch as Mplayer, which somebody dealing with a problem like this elsewhere thought should be removed for a clean install. That's what I did, which didn't help, and I now have the notion may have done harm.

Is there a really good book for idiots like me somewhere? I never thought I'd have to buy one, thinking I'd find one online, but everything so far is either a huge list of command options which I'll never use, or it presumes you know everything which is referenced for the purpose which it addresses. I thought I'd see links to some sort of non-commercial "Linux for Dummies" book from the distro Setup instructions, but they only deal with the disk-partitioning issues.

To pikachoo: Please don't hijack threads. You should start a new thread for your question.

[reed9]

Medibuntu is a third party repository, not officially affiliated with Ubuntu, so it won't show up when you edit sources. You have to add it yourself. It's the link I posted before: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu

There is a free ubuntu guide available: About the book - Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference

This guide can be helpful: The Perfect Desktop - Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) | HowtoForge - Linux Howtos and Tutorials

There's a lot of "the perfect desktop" guides for different distros, as well, which is nice. I think they're a bit overkill, myself, I don't see a need for both k3b and brasero for burning, or Amarok and Banshee and Rhythmbox for music, and I don't prefer to download a bunch of kde dependencies in GNOME or vice versa, but it's a good starting place for learning how to install a lot of these extras.

[dijetlo]

Pikachoo, you have to start a thread for your problem, this thread is for boothruwindows issue.

[boothruwindow]

[QUOTE=reed9;678181]Medibuntu is a third party repository, not officially affiliated with Ubuntu, so it won't show up when you edit sources. You have to add it yourself. It's the link I posted before: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu

Ok, I've done it - gone to that website, and enabled Medibuntu for Ibex. Then I went for the libdvd, and the results were mixed:

desktop:~$ sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/intrepid.list --output- document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
password:
wget: option '--output-' is ambiguous
Usage: wget [OPTION]... [URL]...

Try `wget --help' for more options.

desktop:~$ sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/intrepid.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
--2009-03-17 18:05:07-- http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/intrepid.list
Resolving www.medibuntu.org... 87.98.242.110
Connecting to www.medibuntu.org|87.98.242.110|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 230 [text/plain]
Saving to: `/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list'

100%[======================================>] 230 --.-K/s in 0s

2009-03-17 18:05:07 (13.6 MB/s) - `/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list' saved [230/230]

desktop:~$ sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package libdvdcss2 is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package libdvdcss2 has no installation candidate
desktop:~$
desktop:~$ wget -c http://packages.medibuntu.org/pool/free/libd/libdvdcss/libdvdcss2_1.2.9-2medibuntu4_amd64.deb
--2009-03-17 18:14:22-- http://packages.medibuntu.org/pool/free/libd/libdvdcss/libdvdcss2_1.2.9-2medibuntu4_amd64.deb
Resolving packages.medibuntu.org... 88.191.79.39, 88.191.82.11, 91.121.62.209
Connecting to packages.medibuntu.org|88.191.79.39|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 36916 (36K) [application/x-debian-package]
Saving to: `libdvdcss2_1.2.9-2medibuntu4_amd64.deb'

100%[======================================>] 36,916 30.2K/s in 1.2s

2009-03-17 18:14:23 (30.2 KB/s) - `libdvdcss2_1.2.9-2medibuntu4_amd64.deb' saved [36916/36916]

sudo apt-get install w64codecs
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package w64codecs

It looks like some things went successfully, but not with the libdvd. Is there another source, or did I do something wrong?

There is a free ubuntu guide available: About the book - Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference

This guide can be helpful: The Perfect Desktop - Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) | HowtoForge - Linux Howtos and Tutorials

There's a lot of "the perfect desktop" guides for different distros, as well, which is nice. I think they're a bit overkill, myself, I don't see a need for both k3b and brasero for burning, or Amarok and Banshee and Rhythmbox for music, and I don't prefer to download a bunch of kde dependencies in GNOME or vice versa, but it's a good starting place for learning how to install a lot of these extras.

Thank you, many!