VLC 1.1.0 don't unload when closed under XP

[jackofblades]

For example - if I start playing a video and close the player during playback will be fine. But when the player finishes playing video - properly close the player will not work. He will still be hanging in the processes.
(sorry - rus to eng google translate

Unchecking "Docked Playlist"(View menu) works for me, but Playlist window should be visible when you whant to close player:(

[nataraajc]

Open VLC, do nothing and quit with the X doesn't unload it?

Yes, Its unloading it perfectly if we do nothing or play only Audio files (.mp3) & JPG also works fine.

Only if we play video we are facing the issues.

Thx
Natz

[Reinhart]

Because of the "DLL security problem" (binary planting), there's been a new VLC version 1.1.4 just to workaround this. (See http://www.videolan.org/vlc/releases/1.1.4.htm )

That's nice, but again shows the huge problem for us many Windows XP users who just can not use VLC v1.1.x, but have to use VLC v1.0.5, because of a really bad bug in the 1.1.x code concerning the unloading problem reported in this thread.

So, this is getting critical now...

Please, somebody help us WinXP VLC users !

[rogerdpack]

Has this been filed on trac?

[gian77]

I have the same problem since version 1.1.0 (now I just installed 1.1.4 with no benefits).
I'm using Win Xp SP3.

Thanks

[KryptAngel]

Same problem here (I'm running XP SP2) tho my case seems to be slightly unique in that unlike the vast majority of other posters the "zombie" process doesn't prevent me from starting another VLC instance or running any other program for that matter. My record is about 15-16 tray icons/task manager entries at once which was how I discovered the bug in the first place lol

[Reinhart]

This "not closing" bug very much is a general "VLC 1.1.x won't run on any Windows XP" feature.
It has not being fixed for a long time now.
This is amazing because closing an application shouldn't be that hard on any platform, and well it actually worked for many years in VLC on Windows.

So does this mean VLC 1.1.x is actually dead on Windows XP?
Since Windows XP is still the largest Windows user group, this is very bad.

Furthermore we've now got the fundamental "binary planting" security problem on Windows, and just a few applications care about, including VLC 1.1.x
So if you really mind security issues on Windows XP and hence don't dare to use VLC 1.0.x, you actually can't use VLC at all.

Is this some Samurai method to kill a decent media player on a huge platform like Windows XP ?

[Herzog]

I just rolled back to a previous version.

[rogerdpack]

So does this mean VLC 1.1.x is actually dead on Windows XP?

No, but it does mean that the developers are probably unable to reproduce it locally (which makes it harder for them to fix it...)

Do you have a certain file that does it? Does VLC have to be in the middle of playing it for it to happen, or is the end ok? What graphics cards? Does it exhibit the same behavior with Windows in safe mode? what about audio versus video files?

-r

[BerserkerNord]

Do you have a certain file that does it? Does VLC have to be in the middle of playing it for it to happen, or is the end ok? What graphics cards? Does it exhibit the same behavior with Windows in safe mode? what about audio versus video files?

Some answers from me, since no-one else that has this "VLC doesn't unload when closed with the X" problem has replied yet.

For the "VLC doesn't unload" problem to occur,
- No file is needed
- VLC does not have to be playing anything, no video or audio, not local or streaming, anything, but if you are playing something, it doesn't matter if VLC is in the beginning or middle or at the end of playing it
- Doesn't matter what graphics card, the problem occurs with cheap integrated graphics chip in a new laptop, with a old nVidia geforce 7900 card from 2006 and with a new ATI Radeon HD 5850 from 2010
- All you have to do is turn on your computer, boot Windows, open VLC, and then try to close VLC by using the X mark in the corner of the window: VLC will fail to unload even if it was just opened a second ago and no file was opened in VLC at all, and it will also fail exactly the same way if you play a dozen audio and video files with VLC and then try to close it.

The problem isn't caused by any media file, that seems to be certain.


I tested with VLC 1.1.1. but will test later this week with 1.1.4 and will report if anything is different.

[rogerdpack]

Could you check the stack of its running threads after exit by using process explorer?

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... 96653.aspx
(find VLC, double click on it -> stack on each existing thread).

If you disable the tray icon (Preferences -> Interface -> uncheck "show systray icon") does that make a difference?

And to be clear, it occurs even if you never open a single file?

what about in windows safe mode?

-r

[rogerdpack]

Also what does opening "messages" with verbosity 2 show? Also does it terminate if run from the command line?

[wraythex]

OK, I have answered some of your questions in my post at the end of page 3 of this thread (it is here, i believe: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=78337&start=40#p268254 ) I'll try to answer some of these new questions. I am running XP Pro 64-bit SP2 (seems to be the same problem in both 32 and 64 bit Windows XP) This problem does happen if I never open a file. I can just open vlc, click the X, and the gui will disappear, but a process will still be lingering around. I saw this problem both with and without the tray icon enabled. And, I've seen this problem from 1.1.0 through 1.1.4.

As you can see from my previous post, Starting a blank vlc will show 7 threads in process explorer. After so much time, that number slowly dwindles. I'm not sure what you mean by checking the stack. I see the option in process explorer, but I don't know what you would like to know from inside there? Anything specific we should look for?

Also, I tried "opening 'messages' with verbosity 2", but haven't really figured out how to do that. (can you give instructions?) I normally start vlc from a desktop icon, but I tried to turn on debug logging from the command line (still has the "not-fully-closing" problem even when started from the command line) I tried the following command line options, but nothing useful was ever printed to the vlc-log.txt file. The command lines I tried were:

vlc.exe --help (this created a vlc-help.txt file)
vlc.exe --verbose=2
vlc.exe --verbose=2
vlc.exe --help-verbose (this didn't update the vlc-help.txt file)
vlc.exe -H (this did update the vlc-help.txt file)
vlc.exe --log-verbose=2
vlc.exe --verbose=2 --log-verbose=2
vlc.exe --verbose=2 --log-verbose=2 --verbose-objects=all (vlc didn't even try to start with this command line)
vlc.exe --verbose=2 --log-verbose=2 --verbose-objects=all (vlc didn't even try to start with this command line)
vlc.exe --verbose=2 --log-verbose=2 --verbose-objects="all" (vlc didn't even try to start with this command line)
vlc.exe --verbose=2 --log-verbose=2
vlc.exe --verbose=2 --log-verbose=2 --file-logging

The only thing that ever showed up in the vlc-log.txt file was:
-- logger module started --
-- logger module stopped --

I went to View->Add Interface->Debug Logging
and that brought up a command line looking window that printed out some verbose information (depending on command line options) but all of that info was never printed to the vlc-log.txt file. I can't capture what was shown at the end of the closing since when the phantom vlc.exe finally does close, so does that logging window. Also, just fyi, after opening the Debug Logging interface, when I close vlc with the X, the vlc gui will disappear, and the Debug Logging interface will stay visible until the vlc.exe process finally closes (if left to itself it usually takes about 6.5 minutes).

So, if you'd like more info, please let us know how we can help. Can you provide very specific instructions on how to generate any info you might need? Thank you for your time.

[rogerdpack]

Also, I tried "opening 'messages' with verbosity 2", but haven't really figured out how to do that. (can you give instructions?)

Tools menu -> messages (increase verbosity).

So, if you'd like more info, please let us know how we can help. Can you provide very specific instructions on how to generate any info you might need? Thank you for your time.

The stack trace is by double clicking on a thread, then clicking on "stack" or something like that.

Also does it not close if you have/don't have focus on VLC at that time?

[wraythex]

Tools menu -> messages (increase verbosity).

The stack trace is by double clicking on a thread, then clicking on "stack" or something like that.

Also does it not close if you have/don't have focus on VLC at that time?

OK, here's a summary of the closes properly, doesn't close properly status from the rest of this thread, if I've missed anything people can feel free to add to it: (All of these are after you start vlc)

Does not close properly:
click on X to close vlc
double click upper-left corner of vlc
right-click title bar of vlc and select close (this used to work in 1.1.2)
single-click vlc icon in vlc's title bar and select close (this used to work in 1.1.2)

Does close properly:
press Ctrl-Q
press Alt-F4
select Media->Quit
make vlc lose focus, click vlc's X
right-click vlc in task bar, and select Close
open Tools->Messages window, click vlc's X

Closes improperly, and then closes after:
6 minutes
killed in task manager
a new folder is opened
click on vlc icon in system tray (if that option is enabled in preferences)

Okay, you ask for what is in the stack of its running threads after exit. There is a lot of information to capture there. Of the 7 threads, they each have the following number of entries: 17, 15, 18, 20, 16, 15, 16
Of those 117 entries, here are 8 of them:
ntoskrnl.exe!IoIs32bitProcess+0x15
ntoskrnl.exe!MmFreeContiguousMemory+0x8fd
libqt4_plugin.dll+0x6f7cb6
kernel32.dll+0x1fe37
ntdll.dll+0x30caa
RPCRT4.dll+0x25dd0
ntoskrnl.exe!_snwprintf+0x1c
msvcrt.dll+0x2b3ca
libvlccore.dll+0x9f65f

Some of the 117 entries look like repeats, some of them look unique. The only way to save that info is one at a time. I'd rather not try to save 117 different entries. Is there something specific you're looking for in those thread stacks?

Here's something (that may or may not be) strange.
When I open vlc, then select Tools->Messages, and then give vlc focus back, and click vlc's X, it closes completely.
When I open vlc, then select Tools->Messages, and don't give vlc focus back, and click vlc's X, it closes completely.
When I open vlc, then select Tools->Messages, then close the Messages window, (vlc now has focus), and click vlc's X, it does not close completely.

So, I can set the verbosity in messages higher, and I see that it is getting populated with information when I close vlc, but since vlc actually closes when the messages window is open, I can't see what is being printed in the messages window. Is there any way to have vlc save the info in that messages window so that I can post it here?

Here's what happens if you just open vlc, and then click it's X, and do nothing else on the system:
start blank vlc, shows 7 threads in process explorer
while vlc has focus, click X, still shows 7 threads (start timer here, times are in minutes:seconds)
at 1:30, vlc goes from 7 to 6 threads
at 5:00, vlc goes from 6 to 5 threads
at 6:00, vlc closes

Let us know if there is any other info you'd like.

[johnnysnot]

2 1/2 Months still no fix for Windows XP users.

After each update of 1.1.x you have to again fall back to 1.0.5 to regain functionality under XP sp2 or 3.

Would be interesting to know how this product gets certified. Seems to be questions going back and forth but are any developers actually trying to replicate the issue? I've not heard of any XP users having success with 1.1.x VLC versions.

Unfortunate, especially for a program much loved by many.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

2 1/2 Months still no fix for Windows XP users.

After each update of 1.1.x you have to again fall back to 1.0.5 to regain functionality under XP sp2 or 3.

Would be interesting to know how this product gets certified. Seems to be questions going back and forth but are any developers actually trying to replicate the issue? I've not heard of any XP users having success with 1.1.x VLC versions.

Unfortunate, especially for a program much loved by many.

We still are waiting for your code...

[BerserkerNord]

Could you check the stack of its running threads after exit by using process explorer?

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... 96653.aspx
(find VLC, double click on it -> stack on each existing thread).

If you disable the tray icon (Preferences -> Interface -> uncheck "show systray icon") does that make a difference?

And to be clear, it occurs even if you never open a single file?

what about in windows safe mode?

Using Process Explorer is way beyond my skills but I'll answer the other stuff as best as I can.

- disabling tray icon makes no difference, VLC still doesn't unload properly
- yes, VLC fails to unload properly even if you never open a single file
- don't know about safe mode, but I'll try to remember to try that when I reboot next time


btw other than this bug, VLC works nice for me on XP and I don't see any reason to fall back to older versions, esp. when they have some security bugs that are fixed in newer versions. The closing bug is maybe a little annoying, but I'm already learning to close VLC from the menu instead of using the X button in the window corner.

[ant]

I am still having this problem with v1.1.14 in my updated Windows XP Pro. SP3 machine.

I cannot seem to get its -1 logging to work to a text file in e:\dl\vlc.log. Did I do this wrong?

My Process Explorer 12.04 results on stuck vlc.exe: http://pastie.org/1158041 ... Let me know if I need to go deeper (need instructions though). http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/9176 ... vlcexe.gif for a screen shot of its threads and stacks.

Also, I have not even opened anything. I just launch VLC, click on X on top right corner in VLC, and system tray icon is still there for several seconds to minutes (rarely exits right away though).

[rogerdpack]

How odd. I can't reproduce this *anywhere* Not on my laptop with XP pro, not on my vmware XP instance with XP pro, not on my home computer with XP, not on my current box with Windows 7. Maybe somebody can come up with a private vmware (or virtualbox) image that reproduces it and give me access? With so many complaints I would have imagined I could reproduce it easily. Odd.

Here's an experiment. Try uninstalling VLC and removing your C:\Program Files\VideoLAN directory, then reinstall. Does it still occur? What about on a "fresh" install of XP does it still occur? what about safe mode? What about if you run it "skinned" does it still fail?

The only way somebody can fix this is probably to "bisect" through the 1.1 commits until they find the offending commit. But I'm unable to help, being unable to reproduce it currently...
-r

[ant]

How odd. I can't reproduce this *anywhere* Not on my laptop with XP pro, not on my vmware XP instance with XP pro, not on my home computer with XP, not on my current box with Windows 7. Maybe somebody can come up with a private vmware (or virtualbox) image that reproduces it and give me access? With so many complaints I would have imagined I could reproduce it easily. Odd.

Here's an experiment. Try uninstalling VLC and removing your C:\Program Files\VideoLAN directory, then reinstall. Does it still occur? What about on a "fresh" install of XP does it still occur? what about safe mode? What about if you run it "skinned" does it still fail?

The only way somebody can fix this is probably to "bisect" through the 1.1 commits until they find the offending commit. But I'm unable to help, being unable to reproduce it currently...
-r

OK, let's try this with Process Monitor v2.92. I logged and filtered ONLY to show vlc.exe. I saved the log and posted it on http://beta.zimage.com/~ant/temp/pm292VLC114logfile.zip (495 KB; will delete later when this is fixed; use the latest Process Monitor to read its logs). It seems to hang with "Process Profiling" for a few minutes on my old XP Pro. SP3 machine in this session.

[rogerdpack]

OK, let's try this with Process Monitor v2.92. I logged and filtered ONLY to show vlc.exe. I saved the log and posted it on http://beta.zimage.com/~ant/temp/pm292VLC114logfile.zip (495 KB; will delete later when this is fixed; use the latest Process Monitor to read its logs). It seems to hang with "Process Profiling" for a few minutes on my old XP Pro. SP3 machine in this session.

So it stays resident even after the "Process exit" operation?

[ant]

OK, let's try this with Process Monitor v2.92. I logged and filtered ONLY to show vlc.exe. I saved the log and posted it on http://beta.zimage.com/~ant/temp/pm292VLC114logfile.zip (495 KB; will delete later when this is fixed; use the latest Process Monitor to read its logs). It seems to hang with "Process Profiling" for a few minutes on my old XP Pro. SP3 machine in this session.

So it stays resident even after the "Process exit" operation?

I guess so? VLC.exe finally goes away after a few seconds to minutes. It varies.

[tonecool]

I have exactly the same problem with 1.1.4

[CalvinOZ]

I've just had a look at this problem on my system (XP Pro SP2)

I can confirm the same fault symptoms as previous posters. I can also confirm the thread dump from Process Explorer previously posted (as an image)

I see 7 threads (with the same offsets, function calls etc) as the previous poster reported, BUT WHAT IS INTERESTING is that ALL 7 threads seem to be in "wait" states. It looks like VLC has fallen into some sort of "deadlock loop" where all the threads are "waiting" for other threads to do something ?

Eventually, over a period of several minutes as also previously described, the threads terminate and VLC finally closes. I presume the threads are ultimately "timing out" waiting for something to happen that never will ?

What I see when VLC is "Stuck":

Thread 1 - vlc.exe+0x1110 - State=Wait:UserRequest
Stack:
ntkrnlpa.exe!KiUnexpectedInterrupt+0x121
ntkrnlpa.exe!ZwYieldExecution+0x1c5e
ntkrnlpa.exe!ZwYieldExecution+0x24dd
ntkrnlpa.exe!NtWaitForSingleObject+0x9a
ntkrnlpa.exe!KeReleaseInStackQueuedSpinLockFromDpcLevel+0xb74
ntdll.dll!KiFastSystemCallRet
libvlccore.dll!vlc_join+0x2f
vlc.exe+0x22b9
vlc.exe+0x10b4
vlc.exe+0x1128
kernel32.dll!RegisterWaitForInputIdle+0x49


Thread 2 - msvcrt.dll!endthreadex+0x3a - State=Wait:WrUserRequest
Stack:
ntkrnlpa.exe!KiUnexpectedInterrupt+0x121
ntkrnlpa.exe!ZwYieldExecution+0x1c5e
ntkrnlpa.exe!ZwYieldExecution+0x24dd
win32k.sys+0x2ec4
win32k.sys+0x1aa8
win32k.sys!EngFreeUserMem+0x3d2b
ntkrnlpa.exe!KeReleaseInStackQueuedSpinLockFromDpcLevel+0xb74
ntdll.dll!KiFastSystemCallRet
libvlccore.dll!config_GetLibDir+0x6e0
kernel32.dll!GetModuleFileNameA+0x1b4


Thread 3 - msvcrt.dll!endthreadex+0x3a - State=Wait:WrUserRequest
Stack:
ntkrnlpa.exe!KiUnexpectedInterrupt+0x121
ntkrnlpa.exe!ZwYieldExecution+0x1c5e
ntkrnlpa.exe!ZwYieldExecution+0x24dd
win32k.sys+0x2ec4
win32k.sys+0x1aa8
win32k.sys!EngFreeUserMem+0x3d2b
ntkrnlpa.exe!KeReleaseInStackQueuedSpinLockFromDpcLevel+0xb74
ntdll.dll!KiFastSystemCallRet
libglobalhotkeys_plugin.dll+0x1835


Thread 4 - msvcrt.dll!endthreadex+0x3a - State=Wait:UserRequest
Stack:
ntkrnlpa.exe!KiUnexpectedInterrupt+0x121
ntkrnlpa.exe!ZwYieldExecution+0x1c5e
ntkrnlpa.exe!ZwYieldExecution+0x24dd
ntkrnlpa.exe!NtWaitForSingleObject+0x381
ntkrnlpa.exe!KeReleaseInStackQueuedSpinLockFromDpcLevel+0xb74
ntdll.dll!KiFastSystemCallRet
USER32.dll!SetWindowTextW+0x120
libqt4_plugin.dll+0x7056aa
libqt4_plugin.dll+0x414ae7
libqt4_plugin.dll+0x6f80c6
libqt4_plugin.dll+0x6f826b
libqt4_plugin.dll+0x6698e3
libqt4_plugin.dll+0x3227
kernel32.dll!GetModuleFileNameA+0x1b4


Thread 5 - RPCRT4.dll!I_RpcBCacheFree+0x5b8 - State=WrLPCReceive
(Self Terminates after 355 seconds)
Stack:
ntkrnlpa.exe!KiUnexpectedInterrupt+0x121
ntkrnlpa.exe!ZwYieldExecution+0x1c5e
ntkrnlpa.exe!ZwYieldExecution+0x24dd
ntkrnlpa.exe!NtConnectPort+0x1cc8
ntkrnlpa.exe!KeReleaseInStackQueuedSpinLockFromDpcLevel+0xb74
ntdll.dll!KiFastSystemCallRet
RPCRT4.dll!I_RpcBCacheFree+0x5ea
RPCRT4.dll!I_RpcBCacheFree+0x403
RPCRT4.dll!I_RpcBCacheFree+0x5d2
kernel32.dll!GetModuleFileNameA+0x1b4


Thread 6 - ole32.dll!CoGetMalloc+0x147 - State=Wait:DelayExecution
(Self Terminates after 80 seconds)
Stack:
ntkrnlpa.exe!KiUnexpectedInterrupt+0x121
ntkrnlpa.exe!ZwYieldExecution+0x1c5e
ntkrnlpa.exe!ZwYieldExecution+0x24dd
ntkrnlpa.exe!ProbeForRead+0x605
ntkrnlpa.exe!KeReleaseInStackQueuedSpinLockFromDpcLevel+0xb74
ntdll.dll!KiFastSystemCallRet
kernel32.dll!Sleep+0xf
ole32.dll!StringFromGUID2+0x2d1
kernel32.dll!GetModuleFileNameA+0x1b4


Thread 7 - msvcrt.dll!endthreadex+0x43 - State=Wait:UserRequest
(Self Terminates after 355 seconds)
Stack:
ntkrnlpa.exe!KiUnexpectedInterrupt+0xbc
ntkrnlpa.exe!PsLookupThreadByThreadId+0x4aaa
ntdll.dll!KiFastSystemCallRet
kernel32.dll!WaitForMultipleObjects+0x18
libqt4_plugin.dll+0x71e53b
msvcrt.dll!endthread+0xaf
kernel32.dll!GetModuleFileNameA+0x1b4

After Threads 5 and 7 terminate the entire VLC process ends.

Hope this nfo helps