Ubuntu
vlc package

[Feisty] Sound device is locked when playing a movie in VLC

Bug #128151 reported by arun_gopalan
8
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
vlc (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Open a movie (avi file) with VLC with the command

vlc movie.avi

then pause the movie.

Then open another video from a new terminal

vlc movie2.avi

You get an error in the second terminal and the VLC closes automatically

VLC media player 0.8.6 Janus
[00000343] oss audio output error: cannot open audio device (/dev/dsp)
Creating link /home/arun/.kde/socket-arun-laptop.
can't create mcop directory

Revision history for this message
Stéphane Loeuillet (leroutier) wrote :

The first application you use locks the sound device with exclusive access.
You need a sound server (ESound or, even better, PulseAudio) so that multiple apps would be able to play sound simultaneously

Revision history for this message
arun_gopalan (gopalan-arun) wrote :

I tried pulseaudio today, but i had many issues with it (skype not working and virtual box totally hanging gnome front end).

Revision history for this message
Adam Niedling (krychek) wrote :

What version of Ubuntu are you using? Is this problem still occurring in Hardy? Are you running Ubuntu as a guest OS? It's a harder case then..

Revision history for this message
arun_gopalan (gopalan-arun) wrote :

Hi There Adam

I am using Gutsy Gibbon. But now the behavior is a bit different. The second vlc command doesnt crash vlc but just plays the video without the sound.

I am not running ubuntu as guest. It is the main OS. I sometimes run windows has guest, but not while testing/reproducing this bug.

Regards,
Arun

Revision history for this message
Adam Niedling (krychek) wrote :

Hardy uses pulseaudio by default. Maybe it will solve this kind of problems.

Only vlc locks your sound card or every other program?

I don't think much can be done about this but please attach the output of "lspci -vv" just in case. Thanks!

Revision history for this message
themuddler (mike-udall) wrote :

I have the same problem on Hardy with either pulseaudio or alsa selected as the audio output module.

On trying to test the sound system whilst VLC is playing, I get:

"audiotestsrc wave=sine freq=512 ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! gconfaudiosink: Could not open audio device for playback. Device is being used by another application."

Revision history for this message
Daniel T Chen (crimsun) wrote :

This should be addressed for vlc, at least, in intrepid. Please verify.

Revision history for this message
Melroy van den Berg (webmaster-web-share) wrote :

My sound is still locked. For example I want to listen to music, youtube & Skype, that is no go :( I can only run 1 program for using sound

Revision history for this message
rusivi2 (rusivi2-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

In Maverick, I have no problem simultaneously playing & hearing video from two different sites:

http://www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-software
http://www.youtube.com/

Anyone still having this problem?

lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu maverick (development branch)
Release: 10.10

Revision history for this message
Thomas Hotz (thotz-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Anyone still having this problem? In comment #9 one person confirmed it should work now. Thank you for telling us!

summary: - [Fiesty] Sound device is locked when playing a movie in VLC
+ [Feisty] Sound device is locked when playing a movie in VLC
affects: ubuntu → vlc (Ubuntu)
Changed in vlc (Ubuntu):
assignee: Ubuntu Audio Team (ubuntu-audio) → nobody
Revision history for this message
Rémi Denis-Courmont (rdenis) wrote :

Should be fixed with PulseAudio plugin.

Changed in vlc (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Fix Released
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