[BUG] VLC-0.8.6-RC1-win32

[xxcv]

hi all,

there's a terrible bug in playlist-gui-wxwidgets it can be reproduced by opening playlist under wxwidgets interface.
just add a few files to play and keep clicking next button normally or let it play the list it might crash by random chance.

http://paste.videolan.org/992
http://paste.videolan.org/991

these are debug info for those interested.

thanks for crashing vlc


PS. [16:23] <xxcv> even with crash fixed ..there's another problem with clicking next very fast eventually it will dead lock

[DJ]

I tried your experiment using both the embedded and non embedded wxWidgets mode for 0.8.5 and 0.8.6 (build dated Nov 25, 06) and no issues were encountered.

[xxcv]

ok i think i have found the bug and fixed it.

[xxcv]

can somebody someone confirm this bug and post reply here thank you, instead of DJ been unable to reproduce.

it will even crash with only one file in playlist, just make sure your playlist is open under wxwidgets interface on win32.

it is also described here
viewtopic.php?t=29322

[DJ]

Well, this has come up three or four times now and someone gave me a group of files that did recreate the problem in 0.8.6 but not in 0.8.5. So I wrote the ticket.

Ticket #890

http://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/890

[xxcv]

unfortunately this bug has been around for a long time now, i can even reproduce this simple bug using VLC-0.8.5

this bug is definitely a wxwidgets problem, however due to vlc wx-playlist implementation it makes this bug more easily visible and simple to fix.

[DJ]

Excuse ME!! I tried my damnedest to reproduce the issue and listened to everything everyone had to say in each post (not only this one). In each case I tried to reproduce the problem (confirm the issue) so that I could write the trouble ticket. Never could I reproduce the issue under 0.8.5 (wxWidgets in embedded, non-embedded and skins2 mode) and even though I finally did reproduce the issue under 0.8.6 it was with some very nasty WMV files with lots of errors leaving the question of the files. Perhaps just looping one of these over time would eventually cause the problem. But I gave the benefit of the doubt and wrote the ticket in the belief it was reproducible in 0.8.6 and 0.8.6 only.

There ARE other things that can cause looping or playlist problems. Like having CLONE mode turned on for your video card or in some cases the video overlay option in VLC need to be turned off, but this one points to video drivers not being fully compatible with DirectX 9c. Yet another issue is audio card drivers that don't control the video properly or accept proper control in which case there need be no video present for the issue to occur. In most cases newer audio drivers will resolve the issue, but there are a few cases of just CHEEP audio cards that will not work right.

[xxcv]

Like i've said this bug is very easy to fix. i've commented here

http://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/890#comment:1

This bug was with us ever since VLC-0.8.4a for a total of one year.

As i have done extensive Debugging and code review work on this problem, which has been bugging my VLC playlist for a long time now.

Due to lack of response or reply or bug reporting developers may not have been aware of this problem.

As for clueless users they often ignored problem crash since they have not realized how it might have happened.

This is a simple bug to reproduce, i have no idea why you've been not able to reproduce. all you need is a MP3 file you don't need crappy WMV or anything to reproduce this problem.

[md]

If you found the fix for this bug, would you mind to share it with us?

Thanks.

[DJ]

I will admit I didn't try this in 0.8.4a, but I did try your experiment in 0.8.5 and I don't care what the files are or how fast you press the buttons, it DOESN'T fail for me.

[md]

Despite of unreproducibility, I'd definitely like to see the patch which solved the issue for xxcv.

For example, bugs which are triggered by memory corruption might not be reproducible when you have just a bit different config settings.

xxcv: could you please share your fix with us?

Thanks.

[SaintSinner]

Looks like XXCV is too into claiming to be an uber user to post his "simple" fix.

I can report that wxwidgets is crashing for me as well (win MCE, VLC 0.8.6a) when the playlist is randomized (~130 or so networked mp3s) and of course it crashes, well, randomly There's also some problem editing the playlist, deleting one song is fine, but deleting two or three (without saving the playlist between deletes) instantly crashes VLC (ModName: comctl32.dll, offset 000048c6), Hopefully this will go away with the next version. So far haven't had vlc crash during video queing. And all in all, vlc quite frankly ROCKS. this is just a bit annoying, but a fair trade for decent h264 support (still have a few h264s that won't work, but most work, so I'm a happy bloke )

[djeyli]

Hi there

I am running VLC media player 0.8.6b (wxWidgets interface) on an AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual core 4000+ machine with 2GB RAM and running Win XP.

I have the same problem here. I have a playlist of about 100 videos. Every so often VLC crashes (wxwidgets error window). This is entirely random. Sometimes it is stable for hours at a time and sometimes crashes at the start of every video. I must mention that this is the only time it crashes - when changing from one video to the next. If I play the same playlist in the same order a second time, it doesn't necessarily crash at the same changeover.

This only happens on this machine and has never happened on my second machine.

I really hope you guys can find a fix / workaround for it. I really love VLC but this is a little irritating!

Regards

[DJ]

Try shutting off the playlist preparse option.

[djeyli]

Hi there

Thanks I will try that. I am going to be playing the vids tonight again, so will let you know what happens.
I have also upgraded to 0.8.6c - who knows it may help too ...

Regards

[DJ]

0.8.6c is a maintenance update for Vista.

[djeyli]

Hi DJ

Thanks for the advice.

Everything seems to be working well. No crashes over the last week! The preparse thing seems to have done the trick.

Thanks

[Cubitus]

Hi DJ,

sorry for coming back to this nasty issue

I switched off the playlist preparse option some minutes ago - and now my VLC crashed again.

What Idid?
- Started VLC 0.86c on Windows XP
- Opened an audio CD
- Opened the playlist
- Switched on the whole repeat function
- Closed the playlist
- Adjusted the volume (lowered)
- Minimized the VLC player window

What happened then?
- VLC played the music very fine
- After a while Windows reported "VLC media player caused a problem and must be closed" (something like that - I've tried a translation of my German error message). Further information given from Windows:
AppName: vlc.exe
AppVer: 0.8.6.0
ModName: libwxwidgets_plugin.dll
ModVer: 0.0.0.0
Offset: 00167c6c
- Music is playing regardless of the error message - until I click Close of course

I hope this information may help to detect and fix the bug.

Regards
Cubitus

[amplificar]

AppName: vlc.exe AppVer: 0.8.6.0 ModName: libwxwidgets_plugin.dll
ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: 00171183

This random pain has been afflicting my past two computers, as well. It's not a crippling problem, but it's been affecting me for a really long time. (further back than I can remember - years)
I'm currently using 0.8.6d now, and the problem happens with any format, whether it's audio and video, or either by themself.
I've done the suggestions from this thread (I tried disabled preparsing, float32 output, overlay...), and others suggestions from way back when it originally started happening. (up until this month I believed it was something wrong with my hardware)
Though, honestly I've never used VLC from the command line, so I there are still some stones unturned.

The system I have now is an AMD Athlon 64 X2, running WinXP SP1 with the codec pack CCCP and FFDShow alpha 2004 Oct 12. The previous system had a 3GHz Pentium 4, with pretty much the same software but I also tried SP2 on it. The only hardware these systems have in common now is the power supply, case and a SATA harddrive - the pagefile is not on that SATA drive, nor is the OS or audio/video being played, and the power supply is an Ultra ULT-600P (600Watt). I'll probably switch cases in the next couple months, to see if somehow it's a noise issue or bad grounding.

What both systems have had in common is Realtek AC'97 audio and an Nvidia graphics card chipset. I've tried a SoundBlaster 16 & Audigy on the previous system, to no effect. These aren't the same devices in the new system, just the same brands. Currently installed drivers for the AC'97 are by Realtek Semiconductor Corp. with the version 5.10.0.6160 from 8/18/2006.

I added -vvvv to VLC, launched it and played an mp3 repeatedly until it crashed. Occasionally when it crashed, I was still able to interact with the messages dialog. (when it didn't just crash/quit, without showing any message)
This is the final part of the messages dialog:

Code: Select all

... main debug: thread times: real 0m0.609375s, kernel 0m0.000000s, user 0m0.000000s main debug: thread 4256 joined (directx.c:598) main debug: removing module "aout_directx" main debug: removing module "float32tos16" main debug: removing module "float32_mixer" main debug: thread times: real 0m0.656250s, kernel 0m0.015625s, user 0m0.000000s main debug: thread 3972 joined (input/input.c:412) main debug: creating new input thread main debug: waiting for thread completion main debug: thread 3972 (input) created at priority 1 (input/input.c:265) main debug: drive letter D: found in source main debug: `D:\Ladytron - 3 Albums\Ladytron - Witching Hour\Ladytron - 07 - Witching Hour - Sugar.mp3' gives access `' demux `' path `D:\Ladytron - 3 Albums\Ladytron - Witching Hour\Ladytron - 07 - Witching Hour - Sugar.mp3' main debug: creating demux: access='' demux='' path='D:\Ladytron - 3 Albums\Ladytron - Witching Hour\Ladytron - 07 - Witching Hour - Sugar.mp3' main debug: looking for access_demux module: 1 candidate main debug: creating access '' path='D:\Ladytron - 3 Albums\Ladytron - Witching Hour\Ladytron - 07 - Witching Hour - Sugar.mp3' main debug: looking for access2 module: 5 candidates vcd debug: trying .cue file: D:\Ladytron - 3 Albums\Ladytron - Witching Hour\Ladytron - 07 - Witching Hour - Sugar.cue vcd debug: could not find .cue file access_file debug: opening file `D:\Ladytron - 3 Albums\Ladytron - Witching Hour\Ladytron - 07 - Witching Hour - Sugar.mp3' main debug: using access2 module "access_file" main debug: pre-buffering... main debug: received first data for our buffer main debug: pre-buffering done 1408981 bytes in 0s - 91724 kbytes/s main debug: creating demux: access='' demux='' path='D:\Ladytron - 3 Albums\Ladytron - Witching Hour\Ladytron - 07 - Witching Hour - Sugar.mp3' main debug: ID3v2.3 revision 0 tag found, skipping 40960 bytes main debug: looking for demux2 module: 45 candidates main debug: looking for packetizer module: 17 candidates main debug: using packetizer module "mpeg_audio" mpga debug: xing vbr value present (78) mpga debug: xing frames&bytes value present (5520760 bytes, 6541 frames, 1152 samples/frame) mpeg_audio debug: MPGA channels:2 samplerate:44100 bitrate:128 main debug: selecting program id=0 main debug: looking for id3 module: 1 candidate id3tag debug: checking for ID3 tag id3tag debug: found ID3v1 tag id3tag debug: found ID3v2 tag main debug: using id3 module "id3tag" main debug: removing module "id3tag" main debug: using demux2 module "mpga" main debug: looking for a subtitle file in D:\Ladytron - 3 Albums\Ladytron - Witching Hour\

The next lines that would appear (if it hadn't crashed)

Code: Select all

main debug: looking for decoder module: 28 candidates main debug: using decoder module "mpeg_audio" main debug: thread 4020 (decoder) created at priority 2 (input/decoder.c:159) main debug: meta information: ...(I left out the remainder)

The line "looking for a subtitle..." was consistently the last thing reported before the crash dialog appeared and the GUI became unresponsive.
Printing the debug messages before or after that process begins might mean it's something to do with the decoder modules though.

I'd swear this problem was also noticable in other players, where winamp would also crash and WMP "stuttered" at random times (but didn't crash). However, that was something I haven't tested on this new system - and it may have been RAM related back then... I'll check that out soon, but then that'd kinda excuse VLC and pass the buck to MS ...and ultimately it'd be resolved by the same place the crate ended up in raiders of the lost arc.
Other programs don't crash randomly, and I've seen firsthand what bad motherboard capacitors, faulty/overclocked ram and a lot of other hardware problems do - and this problem has been very specific and reproducible.

On top of everything, I'm also a lazy programmer, but I mean >very< lazy. So I'd have to snap before I'd try digging through source and recompiling with changes. Computer AV isn't my area of expertise, I'm an embedded systems developer with C, ASM and VHDL. (I could build a talking clock or ... I don't know, a sighing clock)
If nobody has any thoughts, I might do more than just report the issue. But it'd be a miracle if I could find a software cause, myself.