Ubuntu
mplayer package

Gnome-Mplayer cannot play commercial videos: Couldn't open DVD device: /dev/dvd (No such file or directory) -- Ubuntu Saucy

Bug #1248194 reported by Pierre
24
This bug affects 4 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
gnome-mplayer (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned
mplayer (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned
mplayer2 (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Gnome-Mplayer & Mplayer fail to open commercial DVD movies (or tv recordings) since Lubuntu Saucy or even perhaps 13.04 (not tested). It seems to look for them in /dev/dvd while the video is mounted in /dev/sr0.

There is no /dev/dvd on my system. This could be partly due to the RESUME which looks for /dev/dvd even when I start with the command:
gnome-mplayer /dev/sr0

Before the RESUME popup, things appear to be normal:
gnome-mplayer /dev/sr0
GMLIB-Message: after init: position=0.000 length=0.000 start_time=0.000 run_time=0.000 volume=0.00 player=dead media=unknown uri=
GMLIB-Message: /dev/sda5 is at /
GMLIB-Message: proc is at /proc
GMLIB-Message: sysfs is at /sys
GMLIB-Message: none is at /sys/fs/cgroup
GMLIB-Message: none is at /sys/fs/fuse/connections
GMLIB-Message: none is at /sys/kernel/debug
GMLIB-Message: none is at /sys/kernel/security
GMLIB-Message: udev is at /dev
GMLIB-Message: devpts is at /dev/pts
GMLIB-Message: tmpfs is at /run
GMLIB-Message: none is at /run/lock
GMLIB-Message: none is at /run/shm
GMLIB-Message: none is at /run/user
GMLIB-Message: none is at /sys/fs/pstore
GMLIB-Message: binfmt_misc is at /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc
GMLIB-Message: systemd is at /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd
GMLIB-Message: gvfsd-fuse is at /run/user/1000/gvfs
GMLIB-Message: /dev/sr0 is at /media/myusername/DVDVIDEO
GMLIB-Message: /dev/sr0 is mounted on /media/myusername/DVDVIDEO

After I answer Yes or No to the popup, I get this and a new popup telling me it cannot find /dev/dvd
GMLIB-Message: in media state change with state = unknown dontplaynext = 0

If run: gnome-mplayer /dev/dvd, I get the following message:

gnome-mplayer /dev/dvd
GMLIB-Message: after init: position=0.000 length=0.000 start_time=0.000 run_time=0.000 volume=0.00 player=dead media=unknown uri=
GMLIB-Message: in media state change with state = unknown dontplaynext = 0

If I run the command that worked in earlier versions: mplayer -mouse-movements dvdnav://
I get this output:
mplayer -mouse-movements dvdnav://
MPlayer svn r34540 (Ubuntu), built with gcc-4.7 (C) 2000-2012 MPlayer Team
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing dvdnav://.
libdvdnav: Using dvdnav version 4.2.0
libdvdread: Using libdvdcss version 1.2.13 for DVD access
libdvdread: Can't stat /dev/dvd
No such file or directory
libdvdread: Could not open /dev/dvd
libdvdnav: vm: failed to open/read the DVD
Couldn't open DVD device: /dev/dvd (No such file or directory)
No stream found to handle url dvdnav://

Exiting... (End of file)

As a TEMPORARY fix, I added to /etc/rc.local:
ln -s /dev/sr0 /dev/dvd
exit 0

This adds a /dev/dvd link to /dev/sr0 each time I reboot partially fixes the problem but does not fix the bug that everyone else will run into. With this Gnome-Mplayer works normally. Mplayer will play the video but the text of the menu stays on screen while the video plays (i.e. does not really works).

FURTHER TESTING WITH VLC (without the ln -s /dev/sr0 /dev/dvd above)
VLC run normally with the following commands:
vlc /dev/sr0
vlc /dev/cdrom

but has the 'cannot find /dev/dvd error with:
vlc /dev/dvd

vlc dvdnav:// does not work either and produces the following output:
VLC media player 2.0.8 Twoflower (revision 2.0.8a-0-g68cf50b)
[0x9c41908] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
libdvdnav: Using dvdnav version 4.2.0
libdvdread: Using libdvdcss version 1.2.13 for DVD access
libdvdread: Can't stat /dev/dvd
No such file or directory
libdvdread: Could not open /dev/dvd
libdvdnav: vm: failed to open/read the DVD
[0xb5200618] main input error: open of `dvdnav://' failed

NOTE: I have had the same problem on a clean install of Lubuntu 13.10 on a separate partition on the same PC.

This is a major issue. Not being able to play DVDs is just not acceptable to most people. It is harming Ubuntu's reputation.
I hope this can be fixed asap and prior to the next version.

Thanks.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10
Package: gnome-mplayer 1.0.8-2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.11.0-13.20-generic 3.11.6
Uname: Linux 3.11.0-13-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.12.5-0ubuntu2.1
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Nov 5 08:46:44 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2011-11-15 (720 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Lubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release i386 (20111012)
MarkForUpload: True
SourcePackage: gnome-mplayer
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to saucy on 2013-10-19 (16 days ago)

See original description
Revision history for this message
Pierre (pierrewinnipeg) wrote :
Pierre (pierrewinnipeg)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Sebastian Ramacher (s-ramacher) wrote :

Is this with mplayer or mplayer2 (this info seems to be missing from Dependencies.txt or I didn't see it)? Could you please attach the output of gnome-mplayer if you run it with --verbose?

Changed in gnome-mplayer (Ubuntu):
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Pierre (pierrewinnipeg) wrote :

This is the mplayer that come as default in Lubuntu 13.10. I ran 2 commands with the results attached:

mplayer -v -mouse-movements dvdnav://

gnome-mplayer -v /dev/dvd

Revision history for this message
Sebastian Ramacher (s-ramacher) wrote :

Let's reassign this to mplayer. Seems like mplayer fails to handle dvdnav:// if no /dev/dvd is present. I think it should try harder to find a DVD drives in this case.

affects: gnome-mplayer (Ubuntu) → mplayer (Ubuntu)
Changed in mplayer (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → New
Revision history for this message
Pierre (pierrewinnipeg) wrote :

BOTH gnome-mplayer & mplayer have a problem.

If anything, gnome-mplayer is worse as even if you tell it to use /dev/sr0, it will still look for /dev/dvd and not work while mplayer will work. Fixing mplayer will probably not resolve the gnome-mplayer problem. Both are default apps in Ubuntu & derivatives. It is important to fix both. Sorry!

Thanks.

Revision history for this message
codeslinger (codeslinger) wrote :

see bug #1255824

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in mplayer (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
John Hupp (john.hupp) wrote :

I find that gnome-mplayer still cannot play commercial DVD's in Lubuntu 14.04, and that seems like a glaring deficiency to me too!

Revision history for this message
Pierre (pierrewinnipeg) wrote :

I agree. MPlayer does not work either in Lubuntu 14.04. This is a core app in Lubuntu and nobody even cares to see if it works, and when people take the time to report the bug, it does not get fixed.

Do not upgrade to Lubuntu 14.04.

Revision history for this message
Dirk F (fieldhouse) wrote :

There are multiple issues underlying this.

First, gnome-mplayer (like many other video players) may look by default at /dev/dvd, but that device is no longer created by default.

You can restore this by (sudo) copying /lib/rules.d/60-cdrom_id.rules to /etc/udev/rules.d/60-cdrom_id.rules and changing the line beginning KERNEL="sr0" as follows:

KERNEL=="sr0", SYMLINK+="cdrom dvd", OPTIONS+="link_priority=-100"

Note that the concept of a /dev/dvd doesn't allow for multiple DVD drives. You have to use /dev/sr0, or make a suitable change to the above line if your preferred DVD drive is /dev/sr2, say.

Then, according to Debian bug report <https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=777268>, the upstream distro on which Lubuntu is based used Mplayer2 in a version compiled without support for DVD menus (able to play dvd://1 for track 1 but not dvdnav://). gnome-mplayer offers 3 ways of opening a DVD with the File>Disc>... menu, but all rely on parsing the DVD menu structure and so fail. You can however add the VOB files from the DVD's VIDEO_TS directory to a playlist and play that.

gnome-mplayer is also unable to play a track as in dvd://1, presumably because it tries to use the menu structure in that case as well, even though the underlying mplayer can do so.

While the discussion of the above Debian bug indicates that this issue may be fixed in an upcoming LTS, you install SMPlayer (don't "Enable DVD menus (experimental)"). Not only does SMPlayer work better than gnome-mplayer, but in my view it's a much better thought-out and realised user interface that should be considered as a replacement for gnome-mplayer in future Lubuntu releases.

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in gnome-mplayer (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Changed in mplayer2 (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Dirk F (fieldhouse) wrote :

Linked to gnome-mplayer and mplayer2, which appear to be the affected packages rather than mplayer itself.

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