Totem Unable to play youtube videos

[isadora]

Thank you very much ahmad. Have learned something again, and made documentation of it for future use.

[barjac]

Yes thanks Ahmad - very useful info.

I did have other questions but this bloody forum just lost the lot again when I moved away to refer to a previous post which is now on another page - this really is insane - I give up.

[wobo]

Yes thanks Ahmad - very useful info.

I did have other questions but this bloody forum just lost the lot again when I moved away to refer to a previous post which is now on another page - this really is insane - I give up.

How do you do that so that this kind of thing happens to you again?

1. Write a post.
2. While writing it you want to look up a previous post in another thread.
3. Open another tab in your browser with the forum address and go to that other post.
4. After that go back to the tab with your open editor and continue writing.

[ahmad]

(Yes, but still, there's something weird with the page refreshing itself altogether when you go Back... I am not a web developer, so no idea what would cause that (sorry about the off-topic)).

[wobo]

(Yes, but still, there's something weird with the page refreshing itself altogether when you go Back... I am not a web developer, so no idea what would cause that (sorry about the off-topic)).

This has been discussed already, can't find the thread right now. You can't just go back like that in a hpps page - it's a security feature of the ssl encryption.

[Ken-Bergen]

(Yes, but still, there's something weird with the page refreshing itself altogether when you go Back... I am not a web developer, so no idea what would cause that (sorry about the off-topic)).

This was discussed before and the consensus was that it's due to the forum being hosted on https not http so the page refreshes instead of loading from your cache.

[ahmad]

(Yes, but still, there's something weird with the page refreshing itself altogether when you go Back... I am not a web developer, so no idea what would cause that (sorry about the off-topic)).

This was discussed before and the consensus was that it's due to the forum being hosted on https not http so the page refreshes instead of loading from your cache.

Which doesn't make sense as I can start typing a comment on bugzilla, restart firefox with the session saved, refresh the page, close the tab and then reopen it, and the text would still be there in the comment box. Bugzilla is https:// only.

[wobo]

Try to do this:
- open Bugzilla, write a comment
- do not save anything but go to another page in that same tab
- hit the back button of your browser.
Does it work? If it does then you are right, the explanation people found does not make sense. Then there must be another explanation.

Does not alter the fact that it is like it is, though.

[barjac]

Thanks Ken useful to know the reason at least , but is there really no cure?
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=35
This was the thread, (there I almost did it again - looking for that link) and it seemed to suggest a solution, but as always there were people jumping up and down explaining that by jumping through hoops you could avoid it happening - computers are supposed to make life easier.
I know exactly how to avoid this happening to me, but remembering is another thing - especially when concentrating on the task in hand, which at the time was also eating my lunch
And yes - it does not happen in bugzilla - I have jumped around all over while writing bug reports and never lost one AFAIR.
/OT

What I was going to ask Ahmad earlier was why should gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg only be a possible suggests for totem, when it is a require for arista?
They are both similar types of application in many ways.

[ahmad]

[...]
What I was going to ask Ahmad earlier was why should gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg only be a possible suggests for totem, when it is a require for arista?
They are both similar types of application in many ways.

Well, can arista work without gst-ffmpeg? if yes, then it should only be a suggests. I see arista requires:
gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
gstreamer0.10-plugins-base
gstreamer0.10-plugins-good
gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad
gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly

basically, it requires all the gst plugins, the question is does it really require all of them to work? my guess would be no (just a guess, I've never used it before).

Would it be optimal if e.g. task-kde4{,minimal} required all the kde packages? IMHO, no; I could use KDE4 without amarok, kate, digikam, kdegame4... etc. So task-kde4-minimal only requires those bits you must have to get a working KDE4 install, and suggests other packages that a KDE4 desktop can well work without.

The point is, yes, gst-ffmpeg is useful for playing some file types, but it's not essential to have totem work (again, note that totem doesn't require/suggest gst-plugins-bad/ugly; when you think "totem" you think "GNOME" and, then "conservative" comes to mind :)).

[isadora]

Before we nearly have one page full of comments about a topic not relevant to the one the OP intended,
i would ask you kindly replacing the forum-discussion to the appropriate place:
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=35

Thanks for your co-operation!!!

[wobo]

Yes, we already left that OT discussion more than 1 hour ago

[barjac]

I made some quick tests with all the formats I have to hand.
Totem without gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg fails to play:-
.avi .mp4 .flv .mov .mkv

It can play:-
.mpg .vob .webm .ogv

With gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg it plays them all.

File extensions in video indicate the "container" rather than the codec used inside it, so this quick test maybe does not tell the whole story.

However I feel it is conclusive enough to say that totem is pretty well useless without gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg and will just appear broken to most users.

This cannot be good for Mageia.

[wobo]

Did a quick test with Cauldron:
Totem plays AVI and FLV only sound, no video. With gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg it palys the videos ok. So, from the fact that both are pretty popular formats I would agree to make gstreamer0-10-ffmpeg at least a suggest for totem. Moreso because
- totem does not give an error when you play an AVI file, it just plays the sound and shows some graphics like it was a music file. How would a non-experienced user know how to fix the problem?
- gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg is in /core so no problems with the free/non-free issue.

[Ken-Bergen]

Agreed, and I would have no problem with a minimal totem install if it had a pop up telling you what was missing/needed instead of just continuing as if nothing was wrong.

[barjac]

Agreed, and I would have no problem with a minimal totem install if it had a pop up telling you what was missing/needed instead of just continuing as if nothing was wrong.

Err - what's the point of a minimal install of something if it fails to work when it's installed?
I install vlc because it just works "out of the box" with every file I throw at it.
Why would I want to install a broken version of vlc that then has to tell me how to fix it?
I just don't understand the logic.

EDIT
Bear in mind we are only talking about a 2.2MB file here.

[ahmad]

I think Ken is talking about something like Codeina. There's already packagekit integration (look at the output Barry posted a couple of posts back), but it doesn't seem to work that well, which means some work needs to be done to integrate it some more.

For example, look at file-roller:
- Make sure unrar is not installed, and try to open a .rar file with file-roller
- Packagekit will be triggered and will ask you, if the nonfree repo is enabled, if you want to install unrar

This is good, as you can totem with basic requires and Packagekit will take care of installing any needed codecs.

(FWIW, the easiest way to find out what codecs a multimedia file uses is playing the file with mplayer from terminal, the output is usually very informative).

[wobo]

For example, look at file-roller:
- Make sure unrar is not installed, and try to open a .rar file with file-roller
- Packagekit will be triggered and will ask you, if the nonfree repo is enabled, if you want to install unrar

That is the way it should be in the end, yes.

This is good, as you can totem with basic requires and Packagekit will take care of installing any needed codecs.

The problem with this is that totem does not "realize" that it needs a codec to play AVI. Withpout gst-ffmpeg it plays the file (only the sound) and so it "thinks" that everything is ok.

(Sorry about "humanizing" a software package too much)

[doktor5000]

The problem with this is that totem does not "realize" that it needs a codec to play AVI. Withpout gst-ffmpeg it plays the file (only the sound) and so it "thinks" that everything is ok.

No, this is not true. Only totems packagekit integration is lacking, totem itself "knows" it's missing something, as Barry posted for an .flv file:

Code: Select all

** Message: Missing plugin: gstreamer|0.10|totem|Sorenson Spark Video decoder|decoder-video/x-flash-video (Sorenson Spark Video decoder)
** Message: PackageKit: xid = 113246212
** Message: PackageKit: Codec nice name: Sorenson Spark Video decoder
** Message: PackageKit: structure: gstreamer0.10(decoder-video/x-flash-video)()(64bit)
** Message: PackageKit: Did not install codec: The name org.freedesktop.PackageKit was not provided by any .service files
** Message: No installation candidate for missing plugins found.

[ahmad]

For example, look at file-roller:
- Make sure unrar is not installed, and try to open a .rar file with file-roller
- Packagekit will be triggered and will ask you, if the nonfree repo is enabled, if you want to install unrar

That is the way it should be in the end, yes.

This is good, as you can totem with basic requires and Packagekit will take care of installing any needed codecs.

The problem with this is that totem does not "realize" that it needs a codec to play AVI. Withpout gst-ffmpeg it plays the file (only the sound) and so it "thinks" that everything is ok.

(Sorry about "humanizing" a software package too much)

Running it from terminal it should print messages about the missing codec, it doesn't?

[polonius]

Running it from terminal it should print messages about the missing codec, it doesn't?

It does, but
- running it from a terminal is already part of a troubleshooting procedure. We are looking for a way that no troubleshooting is required.
- when running an AVI file totem gives a warning about a missing codec but packagekit does not tell which package you need nor does it offer to install a certain package (all repos activated, internet connection ur and running).

Code: Select all

$ totem

(totem:19531): Gtk-WARNING **: gtk_widget_size_allocate(): attempt to underallocate GtkComboBox's child GtkCellView 0x2a00af0. Allocation is 52x27, but minimum required size is 53x27.
** Message: Missing plugin: gstreamer|0.10|totem|ITU H.264 decoder|decoder-video/x-h264, variant=(string)itu (ITU H.264 decoder)
** Message: PackageKit: xid = 41943051
** Message: PackageKit: Codec nice name: ITU H.264 decoder
** Message: PackageKit: field is: variant, type: gchararray
** Message: PackageKit: structure: gstreamer0.10(decoder-video/x-h264)(variant=itu)()(64bit)
** Message: PackageKit: Did not install codec: Message did not receive a reply (timeout by message bus)
** Message: No installation candidate for missing plugins found.
(totem:19531): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: _gst_util_uint64_scale_int: assertion `denom > 0' failed

** Message: PackageKit: Did not install codec: Message did not receive a reply (timeout by message bus) - this is the problem here.

[ahmad]

Running it from terminal it should print messages about the missing codec, it doesn't?

It does, but
- running it from a terminal is already part of a troubleshooting procedure. We are looking for a way that no troubleshooting is required.
- when running an AVI file totem gives a warning about a missing codec but packagekit does not tell which package you need nor does it offer to install a certain package (all repos activated, internet connection ur and running).

Code: Select all

$ totem

(totem:19531): Gtk-WARNING **: gtk_widget_size_allocate(): attempt to underallocate GtkComboBox's child GtkCellView 0x2a00af0. Allocation is 52x27, but minimum required size is 53x27.
** Message: Missing plugin: gstreamer|0.10|totem|ITU H.264 decoder|decoder-video/x-h264, variant=(string)itu (ITU H.264 decoder)
** Message: PackageKit: xid = 41943051
** Message: PackageKit: Codec nice name: ITU H.264 decoder
** Message: PackageKit: field is: variant, type: gchararray
** Message: PackageKit: structure: gstreamer0.10(decoder-video/x-h264)(variant=itu)()(64bit)
** Message: PackageKit: Did not install codec: Message did not receive a reply (timeout by message bus)
** Message: No installation candidate for missing plugins found.
(totem:19531): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: _gst_util_uint64_scale_int: assertion `denom > 0' failed

** Message: PackageKit: Did not install codec: Message did not receive a reply (timeout by message bus) - this is the problem here.

That's the problem we've been talking about, gst<>packagekit integration needs more work...

[wobo]

That's the problem we've been talking about, gst<>packagekit integration needs more work...

Yes, sure, this is WIP.
WIP is good in cauldron, not in the stable release. The issue is that this problem is present in the stable release. But I don't see what can be done at the moment, may be writing this in the errata page as "to be fixed in Mageia 2". But who reads errata pages anyway?

[doktor5000]

Maybe from the next Mageia 1 totem update it should temporarily get
Suggests: gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
tag until the packagekit integration is really working?

[ssivil]

I originally started this thread to see if anyone was able to watch youtube videos using Totem's plug-in. There is a lot of info posted, put it appears no one got it working. If I'm incorrect, please post otherwise.