Audio but no GUI opens

[JC_B]

Hello,

Today after updates (Debian Stretch) my VLC, when opening a file, I can hear audio, but no GUI opens so I am not able to see the video or see any controls. I need to kill the process to closeout VLC. I have already perform a complete removal and reinstall of VLC, but I get the same results, audio no GUI opens.

Anyone else have this issues, or suggestions to correct the problem so I can get my favorite media player back

Thank you

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Cannot say without logs. Could be configuration issue, or installation problem.

[JC_B]

Hello,

I should have know better, here is some output, when i run VLC. I removed repeats.....

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vlc --file-logging VLCLOG --verbose=2 VLC media player 3.0.2 Vetinari (revision 3.0.2-0-gd7b653cf14) QWidget::setMinimumSize: (/FirstRun) Negative sizes (-491607381,-491607381) are not possible QPainter::begin: Paint device returned engine == 0, type: 2 QPainter::save: Painter not active QPainter::setPen: Painter not active QPainter::setBrush: Painter not active QPainter::setRenderHint: Painter must be active to set rendering hints QPainter::setRenderHint: Painter must be active to set rendering hints QPainter::worldTransform: Painter not active QPainter::setWorldTransform: Painter not active QPainter::brush: Painter not active QPainter::setBrush: Painter not active QPainter::pen: Painter not active QPainter::pen: Painter not active QPainter::setPen: Painter not active QPainter::opacity: Painter not active QPainter::setOpacity: Painter not active QPainter::opacity: Painter not active QPainter::brush: Painter not active QPainter::pen: Painter not active QPainter::setPen: Painter not active QPainter::setOpacity: Painter not active QPainter::drawPath: Painter not active QPainter::setPen: Painter not active QPainter::setOpacity: Painter not active QPainter::setBrush: Painter not active QPainter::drawPath: Painter not active QPainter::setBrush: Painter not active QPainter::setOpacity: Painter not active QPainter::setBrush: Painter not active QPainter::setPen: Painter not active QPainter::setOpacity: Painter not active QPainter::brush: Painter not active QPainter::setBrush: Painter not active QPainter::font: Painter not active QPainter::setFont: Painter not active QPainter::pen: Painter not active QPainter::pen: Painter not active QPainter::setPen: Painter not active QPainter::worldTransform: Painter not active QPainter::setWorldTransform: Painter not active QPainter::brush: Painter not active QPainter::setBrush: Painter not active QPainter::opacity: Painter not active QPainter::brush: Painter not active QPainter::pen: Painter not active QPainter::setPen: Painter not active QPainter::setOpacity: Painter not active QPainter::drawPath: Painter not active QPainter::setPen: Painter not active QPainter::setOpacity: Painter not active QPainter::setBrush: Painter not active QPainter::drawPath: Painter not active QPainter::setBrush: Painter not active QPainter::setOpacity: Painter not active QPainter::setBrush: Painter not active QPainter::setBrush: Painter not active QPainter::setFont: Painter not active QPainter::setPen: Painter not active QPainter::setWorldTransform: Painter not active QPainter::setWorldTransform: Painter not active QPainter::restore: Unbalanced save/restore QPainter::end: Painter not active, aborted QWidget::setMinimumSize: (/QStatusBar) The largest allowed size is (16777215,16777215) QWidget::setMaximumSize: (/QStatusBar) The largest allowed size is (16777215,16777215) QWidget::setMinimumSize: (/MainInterface) The largest allowed size is (16777215,16777215) QWidget::setMinimumSize: (/MainInterface) The largest allowed size is (16777215,16777215) QWidget::setMinimumSize: (/FirstRun) Negative sizes (-491607381,-491607381) are not possible QXcbConnection: XCB error: 2 (BadValue), sequence: 419, resource id: 0, major code: 1 (CreateWindow), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 420, resource id: 39845893, major code: 2 (ChangeWindowAttributes), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 421, resource id: 39845893, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 422, resource id: 39845893, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 423, resource id: 39845893, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 425, resource id: 39845893, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QWidget::setMinimumSize: (/MainInterface) The largest allowed size is (16777215,16777215) QWidget::setMinimumSize: (/ErrorsDialog) Negative sizes (-492131508,-491607381) are not possible QWidget::setMinimumSize: (/MainInterface) The largest allowed size is (16777215,16777215) QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 578, resource id: 39845893, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 2 (BadValue), sequence: 580, resource id: 0, major code: 1 (CreateWindow), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 581, resource id: 39845907, major code: 2 (ChangeWindowAttributes), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 582, resource id: 39845907, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 583, resource id: 39845907, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 584, resource id: 39845907, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 586, resource id: 39845907, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 587, resource id: 39845907, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 588, resource id: 39845907, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 589, resource id: 39845907, major code: 18 (ChangeProperty), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 593, resource id: 39845907, major code: 2 (ChangeWindowAttributes), minor code: 0 QWidget::setMinimumSize: (/ErrorsDialog) Negative sizes (-492131508,-491607381) are not possible QWidget::setMinimumSize: (/FirstRun) Negative sizes (-491607381,-491607381) are not possible QWidget::setMinimumSize: (/MainInterface) The largest allowed size is (16777215,16777215) QWidget::setMinimumSize: (/ErrorsDialog) Negative sizes (-492131508,-491607381) are not possible ^Z [1]+ Stopped vlc --file-logging VLCLOG --verbose=2

I feel that I am missing a dependency, however with some of the online searches, such as installing QT4, this did not correct the issue, and blindly adding packages can be a bit worrisome. Any advise will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

[chubinou]

Hi,
This looks like an issue with your configuration.
Could you try to remove the file ~/.config/vlc/vlc-qt-interface.conf

[JC_B]

Hello,

Thank you for the suggestion, I did remove that and I am still having the same issues. Interesting to note, I am having a similar issue with SMPlayer (the Gui will not lauch, but if I launch via the command line, the SMPlayer will open ). When I launch SMlplayer and tail the logs, I get smplayer.desktop[9689]: This is SMPlayer v. 16.11.0 (revision 8242) running on Linux but no gui, and when I launch VLC I get the same errors that I see in the previous logs.

Seems that I am missing something... suggestions to track down the warning?

Thank you

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Looks like Qt is completely broken on your system. Wrong support venue.

[JC_B]

Hello,

I had restored my system, third time now, and it seems to be breaking after apt-get upgrade when VLC upgrades from 2.2.7 to 3. Have there been any other reports on this?

Thank you

[ReiSch0]

Hello,

I had the same problem on debian stretch, after upgrading from vlc-2.2.7 to vlc-3.0.2, which was requested by the upgrade procedures.
Seems, that the complex dependencies into the system are not completely running, with the symptom, that you can here audio files opened by vlc.
You can also see videos, if you open the video-file directly with a vlc command-line-command.

But you have no GUI.

This cannot be solved by reinstalling, because the new installation always takes the 3.0.2 version, which is obviously not running on debian-9.
The only possibility is, to downgrade to the former version, which is rather complicated, because all related packages and also all configurations needs to be removed.
When installing, it is necessary to prevent the system from secretly installing some version 3.0.2 related packages or libraries.

The following worked for me, but depending on your system additonal steps maybe needed. Make sure that all vlc packages libraries and configurations are removed from your system, before downgrading.

Cleaning up former version:

sudo apt remove vlc
sudo apt clean
sudo apt autoremove
sudo dpkg --list | grep ^rc
sudo dpkg --purge `dpkg --get-selections | awk '/deinstall/ {print $1}'`
cd ~/.config
rm -rf vlc

Installing the former version, 2.2.7 ( I needed a lot of dry-runs to eleminate all wrong versions.)

sudo apt-get install vlc=2.2.7-1~deb9u1 vlc-bin=2.2.7-1~deb9u1 vlc-plugin-base=2.2.7-1~deb9u1 vlc-plugin-qt=2.2.7-1~deb9u1 vlc-plugin-video-output=2.2.7-1~deb9u1 vlc-l10n=2.2.7-1~deb9u1 vlc-plugin-notify=2.2.7-1~deb9u1 vlc-plugin-samba=2.2.7-1~deb9u1 vlc-plugin-skins2=2.2.7-1~deb9u1 vlc-plugin-video-splitter=2.2.7-1~deb9u1 vlc-plugin-visualization=2.2.7-1~deb9u1 libvlc-bin=2.2.7-1~deb9u1 vlc-data=2.2.7-1~deb9u1 libvlc5=2.2.7-1~deb9u1

To be sure I performed a reboot of the system afterwards.
What to do next is to block the vlc upgrade to 3.0.2 on the server.
When doing general upgrades, you must be careful, not to pull something destroying your vlc installation again.

I saw, that the same error occurred on former vlc upgrades too. It would be nice, if the guys putting the new version into the stable branch will be more carefull.

Wish you goo luck,
Reinhold

[JC_B]

Thank you and I would say that you are spot on. I did a restore to a earlier image, and had locked the upgrade. Thank you for putting in the steps that you performed so one can correct the issue if they do not have a backup image of their OS, I cant imagine that we are the only 2 affected.

Best Regards,

[vullick]

Hi,

Thank you ReiSch0 for these commands to downgrade VLC.

I have the same problem with VLC 3.0.2 that didn't work on Debian 9 Stretch after an upgrade.
And other people here have quite similar problems ... :
"vlc broken in debian stable" ; "VLC Does not open after accidental upgrade to 3 from 2.2.7" ; "VLC 3.0.2 hardware acceleration problems on Debian" ; "VLC plays audio but not video"

What the vlc command (or the cvlc command, same result) says when I launch a movie (which worked well before the upgrade, and which works well with other media player on my OS) :

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LC media player 3.0.2 Vetinari (revision 3.0.2-0-gd7b653cf14) [000055e0b35801a0] main libvlc: Lancement de vlc avec l'interface par défaut. Utilisez « cvlc » pour démarrer VLC sans interface. [000055e0b363bea0] main audio output error: too low audio sample frequency (0) [00007f6648cd0010] main decoder error: failed to create audio output [000055e0b363bea0] main audio output error: too low audio sample frequency (0) [00007f6648cfde20] main decoder error: failed to create audio output [h264 @ 0x7f6648c18300] SEI type 5 size 5536 truncated at 5523 [000055e0b363bea0] vlcpulse audio output error: digital pass-through stream connection failure: Non pris en charge [000055e0b363bea0] main audio output error: module not functional [00007f6648cfde20] main decoder error: failed to create audio output [00007f662c0c87a0] main video output error: video output creation failed [00007f6648c0f800] main decoder error: failed to create video output [h264 @ 0x7f6648c18300] get_buffer() failed [h264 @ 0x7f6648c18300] thread_get_buffer() failed [h264 @ 0x7f6648c18300] decode_slice_header error [h264 @ 0x7f6648c18300] no frame! [00007f663008b9f0] main video output error: video output creation failed [00007f6648c0f800] main decoder error: failed to create video output [h264 @ 0x7f6648c6ee80] get_buffer() failed [h264 @ 0x7f6648c6ee80] thread_get_buffer() failed [h264 @ 0x7f6648c6ee80] decode_slice_header error [h264 @ 0x7f6648c6ee80] no frame! [...]

My config :
Debian 9 Stretch
CPU: Intel® Pentium(R) CPU G3460 @ 3.50GHz × 2
GPU : Intel® Haswell Desktop

I will keep the 2.2.7 version until the next VLC update.

[oksage]

I have the same problem... tried to start video from file manager or from terminal and I can hear the audio but no gui. This happened to me on:
Debian 9
CPU: AMD FX-6300 (6) @ 3.500GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

Vlc had been working before. Then at some point I had this problem. Then dual-booted MX-linux (based on Debian stable) to try it out. On the newly installed mx-linux, vlc was working initially. I use vlc in the terminal as well to listen to radio streams. I was listening to something from the terminal and I tried to start a video file from my file manager while I already had the audio stream (radio) playing in the terminal. The video/vlc would attempt to play (the audio stream would stop), the audio for the video would play, but no gui. I think maybe this bug would be reproducible. Here's some of the output in the terminal when playing the video fails:

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QPainter::pen: Painter not active QPainter::setPen: Painter not active QPainter::setOpacity: Painter not active QPainter::drawPath: Painter not active QPainter::setPen: Painter not active QPainter::setOpacity: Painter not active QPainter::setBrush: Painter not active QPainter::drawPath: Painter not active QPainter::setBrush: Painter not active QPainter::setOpacity: Painter not active QPainter::setBrush: Painter not active QPainter::setPen: Painter not active QPainter::setWorldTransform: Painter not active QPainter::restore: Unbalanced save/restore QPainter::end: Painter not active, aborted QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 870, resource id: 113246259, major code: 4 (DestroyWindow), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 871, resource id: 113246240, major code: 4 (DestroyWindow), minor code: 0 QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 873, resource id: 113246237, major code: 78 (CreateColormap), minor code: 0

On mx-linux, vlc --version :
VLC media player 3.0.3 Vetinari (revision 3.0.3-1-0-gc2bb759264)

After the bug initially appears, videos fail (audio but no video/gui) whether or not I'm playing an audio stream in the terminal.

For now I'll just use mpv for video. I can use nvlc/cvlc for playing my audio stream in the terminal.

On a side note: here's a command for listening to and recording an audio stream (where 'stream-url' is the link to the stream and 'user' is your login name):
nvlc --no-color stream-url --sout "#duplicate{dst=display,dst=std{access=file,mux=mp3,dst=/home/user/Desktop/"$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H%M%S).mp3"}}"