GStreamer bug affecting Ubuntu 12.04 and other recent Linux distributions

[FlavioKeymaster]

Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise), 12.10 (Quantal) and many other recent distro releases shipped with a rather ugly GStreamer bug that breaks MPEG4 playback for many apps, including Minitube and Musictube. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gstreamer0.10/+bug/973014

Here’s a temporary workaround I found in the bug comments. Let’s hope the bug itself is fixed soon.

32bit system:

sudo mv /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideoparsersbad.so /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideoparsersbad.so.bak

64bit system:

sudo mv /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideoparsersbad.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideoparsersbad.so.bak

In alternative, you can use this PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:diwic/gstreamer-h264-testing
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

[Nicolás Abel Carbone]

The workaround worked for me when playing 360p videos, but it is still failing to play 720p or 1080p videos.

[Cristi]

the workaround works on kubuntu 12.04 3.2.0-24-generic-pae even with 720p movies. thnx :)

[LoPst]

You’re a CRACK!!!!
Your solution worked perfectly!

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jancsika]

Workaround in Debian Wheezy (amd64) is only a partial fix. Some videos which didn’t work before now play, but it is still skipping after playing a few seconds on most videos. (All happened to be mp4s when I tested.)

Also, when I double click a video on the left column using the touchpad on my laptop, the preview image “sticks” underneath the mouse pointer (and follows it when I move the mouse) until I click again.

[Cri]

Just tried the workaround on Debian unstable, but no results.
Also tried upgrading all gstreamer packages to 0.10.36-1: the audio track now plays, but the video is still stuck at the intro screen; and often audio hangs too after some minutes.

BTW, I can confirm the “sticky drag image” bug too, very annoying, and never seen before 1.7.1 (or 1.7)

[jancsika]

Thanks for confirming, Cri. Flavio– any clue on why this “bad” plugin went from bad to worse in Linux? I remember using Minitube flawlessly awhile back and don’t understand why something would have been changed in Gstreamer to remove support for playing mpeg4s.

[jancsika]

I went ahead and filed a bug through the Gstreamer website on Bugzilla. I basically just linked to the discussion at
http://www.mail-archive.com/desktop-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com/msg602954.html
and told them there is a patch there to fix the problem. Hopefully somebody will do something about it soon– just type libgstvideoparsersbad.so in google and look at how many different distros have copied this workaround.

[Alejandro]

Hello.

Thank you. That made the trick using Arch Linux.

As root:
mv /usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideoparsersbad.so /usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideoparsersbad.so.bak

Thanks for the great app!

[eddie]

The workaround did the trick for both musictube and minitube on ubuntu 12.04. Thanks for two great apps! Hope the bug will soon be fixed.

[Alex]

The fix provided by Flavio worked for me under Ubuntu 12.04 32bit. I really hope this nasty bug gets a hotfix or something, even if it’s a LTS. It’s too critical to just leave it the way it is. Anyway, if a bugfix gets release; please let us know, Flavio. Thanks!

[Odie]

No Dice…
libgstvideoparsersbad is not contained in that path (in fact x86_64-linux-gnu contains no data, gstreamer-0.10 is contained in /usr/lib and also does not contain /libgstvideoparsersbad)

odsus1@odsus1-s5-1014:~$ sudo mv /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideoparsersbad.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideoparsersbad.so.bak
[sudo] password for odsus1:
mv: cannot stat `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideoparsersbad.so’: No such file or directory

Xubuntu 11.10

[hfrankjr]

Using Ubuntu 12.04 in Vbox windows 7 on my Dell laptop: VLC, Totem and Youtube work great; Minitube doesn’t. It skips frames. It used to work in earlier ubuntu versions. I’ve tried uninstalling and reinstalling several times, I’ve done “mv /usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideoparsersbad.so /usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideoparsersbad.so.bak,”, but get “mv: cannot stat `/usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideoparsersbad.so’: No such file or directory” Sure enough, there isn’t such a file in /usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10.
Could there possibly be another solution to try?
It sounds like Odie and I are having the same difficulty. Any others?

[FlavioKeymaster]

Maybe you’re using Ubuntu 64bit?

[hfrankjr]

uname -m returns i686 32 bit
Is there any news about Canonical doing anything about gstreamer?

[Federico]

[fed@caos ~]$ cd /usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/
[fed@caos gstreamer-0.10]$ sudo mv libgstvideoparsersbad.so libgstvideoparsersbad.so.bak

Worked a charm. Archlinux 64. gstreamer 0.10.36 @ 30/08/12

Complimenti per l’applicazione da un concittadino ;)

[titus]

this is the line command for openSUSE 12.2, as root: mv /usr/lib64/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideoparsersbad.so /usr/lib64/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideoparsersbad.so.bak

[Denise]

mv: cannot stat `/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideoparsersbad.so’: No such file or directory
linunt mint 13 xfce
Minitube closes when I click on a previous entry.

[Denise]

Linux Mint 13 xfce.
Apologise for the typo.

[Toby]

I am definitely using Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit, and the terminal is telling me;

mv: cannot stat `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideoparsersbad.so’: No such file or directory

I’m an absolute beginner at using the terminal, so I have no idea what is going. Any suggestions?

[FlavioKeymaster]

Maybe you already moved it. Or maybe you don’t have gstreamer-plugins-bad installed.

[HC]

A slightly cleaner fix for Fedora 17:

sudo chmod 700 /usr/lib64/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideoparsersbad.so

[mc4man]

For Ubuntu fixes for the 0.10 bad plugin used in 12.04 & 12.10 are now available thru a testing ppa
https://launchpad.net/~diwic/+archive/gstreamer-h264-testing

[Fabio]

It works!!!! many thanks!!!!

[johnm]

works for openSUSE 12.2 x86_64, thx dood

[Frank]

I’ve tried the first solution. Now the video loads well, start, play a few seconds, stop another seconds and then play the rest of the video with no more complications.
So then I’ve tried the second solution: adding the PPA. And I get the same behavior. May I reverse the first thing I did? I mean, reverse the sudo mk…? In that case, how? I have the 1.9 version and xubuntu 12.04.

By the way, this is a great app! Thanks for your time and effort!

[Thomas]

This is still not working under PowerPc Lubuntu. I did rename /usr/lib/powerpc-linux-gnu/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideoparsersbad.so

[mrojas6996]

I have Lubuntu 12.10 and gstreamer 0.10 (nice, good, bad and ugly), and from the bottom of my soul, I say: TTTTTTTHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKKKKKKSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Really really really THANKS!!!! Flavio you are THE VERY VERY BEST MAN!!

En serio creeme que te daria un beso de agradecimiento, pero no, porque eso seria raro.

Regards from the Venezuelan’s land!

Very Thanks for the solution, Canonical is bad :/

[Lorio]

32 bit work around you posted worked.
sudo mv /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideoparsersbad.so /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideoparsersbad.so.bak

streams play for more than 3 seconds. play completely now. 360p works perfect. and 1080p works perfect too.

my linux:
Linux Mint 13.

Linux a1 3.2.0-34-generic #53-Ubuntu SMP Thu Nov 15 10:49:02 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

Cinnamon Desktop

MiniTube 1.9

i was running 1.6 and thought the problem with minitube was the version, so i upgraded to 1.9 using this:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ferramroberto/minitube
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install minitube

–Steve

[harsszegi]

Thank you HACKER!!Works….

[harsszegi]

Thank you HACKER!!Works….sudo mv /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideoparsersbad.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideoparsersbad.so.bak
on 64 bit linix mint this command solved the error

[Frank Henderson]

I finally solved my Minitube problem. I have a spare old laptop here, installed Ubuntu 11.10 on it and now I can watch Minitube without it acting like I was watching a slide show.

[dino]

Hi flavio.
Thankyou for your apps!

I’m on Chakra linux (arch derivate) and I’m trying with developers to made minitube works, but still problems.
I tried to rename the libgstvideoparsersbad.so lib without luck.
We updated gstreamer-bad to latest version, but allways the same error (sometimes it is possible to play one or two videos, then stop immedialty with any other):
[...]
Found format 18
“http://www.youtube.com/get_video_info?video_id=HvuEFafFhBA&el=embedded&ps=default&eurl=&gl=US&hl=en”
Playing “/tmp/minitube-1421646289-dino”
[xcb] Unknown sequence number while processing queue
[xcb] Most likely this is a multi-threaded client and XInitThreads has not been called
[xcb] Aborting, sorry about that.
minitube: xcb_io.c:273: poll_for_event: asserzione “!xcb_xlib_threads_sequence_lost” non riuscita.
zsh: abort (core dumped) minitube

Since I get the same error with mp4 files in bangarang (but not in dragonplayers that use also phonon) I ask you if there is some problem with xcb library and multithread…

Version of my sotware:
- kernel 3.6.6-1 (tested also with 3.7)
- minitube 1.9-1
- bangarang 2.1-1
- kdemultimedia-dragonplayer 4.9.5-1
- gstreamer0.10-bad 0.10.23-9
- gstreamer0.10-bad-plugins 0.10.23-9
- xf86-video-nouveau 1.0.1-2

Let me know if you need any other info.
thanks

[Frank Henderson]

Finally I’ve solved my problem playing Minitube and it’ll work for everybody. Get an old computer and install Ubuntu 11.10. Minitube works like a charm.

[Author]

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