gnome-sound-recorder unable to playback

Bug #92879 reported by adieb
126
This bug affects 8 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
GNOME media utilities
Fix Released
High
gnome-media (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Medium
Ubuntu Desktop Bugs

Bug Description

Binary package hint: gnome-media

gnome-sound-recorder:

when i record something
-> the progressbar seems to be grey like something unclickable. this certain shade of grey. while the time-counter progresses

-> after stopping to record, i cannot playback the recorded stuff

-> clicking "save" gives an error-message, but "save as" works fine an produces a correct file of the recorded sound. (playable in all sound-progs...)

first i thought, ok you´re using the development (feisty) version, so maybe with next update there will be a fix. but doesn´t seem so.

maybe there is somebody who knows a workaround. or maybe just a cause...

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri Mar 16 19:50:46 2007
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 7.04
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/gnome-sound-recorder
Package: gnome-media 2.18.0-0ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcCmdline: gnome-sound-recorder --enable-sound
ProcCwd: /home/martin
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
SourcePackage: gnome-media
Uname: Linux adieb 2.6.20-11-generic #2 SMP Thu Mar 15 08:03:07 UTC 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

Related branches

Revision history for this message
adieb (adieb) wrote :
Revision history for this message
oreste villa (ore-villa-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

I confirm the problem reported on the post with the same pathology.

I can save the file only using "save as" , "save" doesn't work as well as the playback button.

I suggest to have an high priority for this bug if further confirmed. Generally who wants to test a microphone uses a sound recorded program (gnome-sound-recorded).
Without been able to playback the sound he could assume a problem on the driver or on hardware.

Changed in gnome-media:
status: Unconfirmed → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
oreste villa (ore-villa-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

I confirm the problem reported on the post with the same pathology.

I can save the file only using "save as" , "save" doesn't work as well as the playback button.

I suggest to have an high priority for this bug if further confirmed. Generally who wants to test a microphone uses a sound recorded program (gnome-sound-recorded).
Without been able to playback the sound he could assume a problem either with the driver or the hardware.

Revision history for this message
Markus (markus-schmaus) wrote :

Same here.

This functionality is highly exposed. Anyone who wants to test a microphone will use the audio-recorder. So any bugs here make Ubuntu look bad.

Revision history for this message
John Smith (jsprojects) wrote :

I confirm this problem. Neither the play button nor the save button work, but save as does.

Revision history for this message
eppy 1 (choppy121212) wrote :

Same here.

Only 'save as' works...so it makes it look like microphone is broken.

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

Thank you for your bug, looks like an upstream one

Changed in gnome-media:
assignee: nobody → desktop-bugs
importance: Undecided → Medium
Revision history for this message
Diego Foglino (biker84) wrote :

It's the same for me.
I can't play sound record.
when I search to save file, I read this in console:

(gnome-sound-recorder:6487): libgnomevfs-CRITICAL **: gnome_vfs_uri_unref: assertion `uri != NULL' failed

~$ uname -a
Linux diego-desktop 2.6.20-15-generic #2 SMP Sat Apr 14 00:54:01 UTC 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

Revision history for this message
Boris Dušek (dusek) wrote :

Sorry if I am blind, but how do I find the # of associated upstream bug in gnome bugzilla? The "Remote Bug #" field is empty.

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

The bug is indicated as being an upstream one, it has not been sent to their bug tracker though, you are welcome to open it there

Revision history for this message
Boris Dušek (dusek) wrote :

I just reported it to upstream and updated the remote bug #.

Changed in gnome-media:
status: Unconfirmed → Unknown
Changed in gnome-media:
status: Unknown → Unconfirmed
Revision history for this message
Neil Simmonds (nas123) wrote :

I can confirm this bug with 7.04 upgraded. Everything was working fine before, ie sound-recorder was playing back fine in Edgy.

Further, Audacity is broken by not recording anything. It's recording `time' but nothing's getting picked up from the mic. This when the behaviour in sound-recorder is as specified.

Revision history for this message
kripken (kripkenstein) wrote :

I am suffering from this bug as well. Exact same symptoms.

Note that recording *does* work using e.g. arecord on the command line (then aplay to listen).

This is indeed a high-profile bug, and I was sure my microphone was broken and/or Feisty's recording capabilities were broken, until I thought to try arecord (which I happened to have heard of sometime).

Revision history for this message
Chris Mostert (cvmostert) wrote :

Yep, same here.. I also confirm the same symptoms, Glad i found this bug... hope it gets a higher priority, as one said... it is the preferred mic testing program...

Take Care

Revision history for this message
Messelink (messelink) wrote :

I confirm the same symptoms and I'm wondering whether the problem lies deeper: I have been trying the setup an icecast2 server all evening to stream audio from the line-in of my soundcard and although no errors were reported no sound was heard from windows' winamp. The icecast2 daemon itself runs fine as well as the two programs (darkice and ices2) I have used to capture from the line-in and send to the icecast2 server.

Also, can use arecord and aplay just fine and as suggested above a file saved using save as... plays normal. And when I un-mute the line-in in the Volume Control the incoming audio is comming out of my speakers just fine.

Revision history for this message
Boris Dušek (dusek) wrote :

Maybe you someone could add his/her comment not only in Launchpad, but also in the Gnome bugzilla (bug number430101, or use the link at the top right), where the real solution will get place, so that the problem might get more attention there.

Revision history for this message
Pablo Castellano (pablocastellano) wrote :

Same problem still here. I can't playback what I have recorded

Revision history for this message
Srivatsa Kanchi R (srivatsak) wrote :

same exact problem as described. I could never think of such a basic problem in this simple program.

Revision history for this message
Alexander Menk (alex-menk) wrote :

I confirm it to. start it, press record, press play, doesn't work (but play button is enabled!), save as ..., play, does work.

Revision history for this message
João Olavo Vasconcelos (joaoolavo) wrote :

This bug is known since March (almos 5 months)!
And still in Gusty!

Why? Seems a simple thing to be fixed... Or am I wrong?

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

you are welcome to send a a fix if you think it's trivial

Revision history for this message
João Olavo Vasconcelos (joaoolavo) wrote : Re: [Bug 92879] Re: gnome-sound-recorder unable to playback

Yeah, I was waiting this kind of advice. =)
That's why I asked if am I wrong. But for now I can only help doing the easy
part: finding bugs. =)

Revision history for this message
VLK (valentyn) wrote :

Everyone is welcome to report bugs, Sebastian, don't forget it! João Olavo Vasconcelos doesn't have to be a programmer to report some. I also think this bug isn't that difficult. There are a lot of more complicated problems up there in Launchpad. So we don't have to be sarcastic, we all improve one big UBUNTU!

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

You are welcome to report bugs, comments suggesting that the desktop team is slacking because the bug is easy and open for months now are not really constructive though, we get hundred of bugs a week and there is lot to do

Revision history for this message
Markus (markus-schmaus) wrote :

This program is virtually defunct. If there is no easy fix, you might consider removing it from the Menu. Maybe there's an alternative which could replace it until the bug is fixed.

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

removing the software instead of fixing bugs is not the way to go and recording works correctly

Revision history for this message
Jérôme Guelfucci (jerome-guelfucci-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

A patch has been submitted to the gnome bug but it doesn't seem to have been reviewed yet. In fact every person who has this bug in the gnome bug report seems to be running Ubuntu.

Revision history for this message
Jan Niklas Hasse (jhasse) wrote :

I've created a deb package for testing the patch.

Revision history for this message
Balaji (balaji-ramasubramanian) wrote :

I too have the same problem.

System type: Ubuntu Feisty
Architecture: 2.6.20-16-386
Processor: AMD Turion(tm) 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-50

I tried running to program from the shell to be able to see the logs. Upon clicking "Play", no message is generated. However upon clicking "Save" the following is generated:

(gnome-sound-recorder:29771): libgnomevfs-CRITICAL **: gnome_vfs_get_file_info_uri_cancellable: assertion `uri != NULL' failed

(gnome-sound-recorder:29771): libgnomevfs-CRITICAL **: gnome_vfs_uri_unref: assertion `uri != NULL' failed

One might want to check the libgnomevfs modules for errors.

Additionally, 'dmesg | tail' gives the following output. Don't know if everyone is getting the same, but I'm trying to provide as much info as possible:

[616631.980000] hda: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01). Trying to recover by ending request.

No recording is being done on the CD.

Incidentally, recording works fine. Upon quitting, the sound-recording prompts to save the file. Upon saving the playback works fine. Additionally, the 'Save As' option also works fine. I think the playback doesn't work because of bad codec integration with the gnome-sound-recorder. Please check and fix this bug ASAP.

Revision history for this message
Gaetano Pepe (gape) wrote :

Same problem.
I've installed Ubuntu 7.04 in three different PC and can confim that the sound-recorder does not work.

The progress bar is grey, when I try to record it does't move.

The problem is also with Audacity that works with audio file but can't record. The Mixer Toolbar is absent.
With Ubunto Dapper Audacity worked fine.

Revision history for this message
msiner (msiner) wrote :

@jhasse
Did you take the patch from the upstream bug entry? I submitted that patch a while back, but nobody with GNOME has replied or contacted me. It is a bit frustrating because I am willing to fix bugs, but I have no idea how to contribute the code other than posting a patch. If that is my patch, thank you for rolling up a deb with it. I hope it works as well as it did for me. This really is a show stopper bug that seems to indicate nobody is actively maintaining gnome-media.

Revision history for this message
Jan Niklas Hasse (jhasse) wrote :

@msiner
Yes, I took your patch.
It's the same with gutsy. After installing the patched deb it works.

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

Thank you for your work on the bug, I'll upload a patched package after testing

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

gnome-media (2.18.0-2ubuntu3) gutsy; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/80_from_bugzilla_fix_recorder_playback.patch:
    - patch from bugzilla, fix playback in gnome-sound-recorded (LP: #92879)

 -- Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> Thu, 26 Jul 2007 16:00:06 +0200

Changed in gnome-media:
status: Confirmed → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Balaji (balaji-ramasubramanian) wrote :

Hi Sebastian,
Will this be available as an update for feisty and fixed in gutsy?

On 7/26/07, Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> wrote:
> Thank you for your work on the bug, I'll upload a patched package after
> testing
>
> --
> gnome-sound-recorder unable to playback
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/92879
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
Balaji

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

It has been fixed in gutsy today. If we get positive feedback on the gusty version we will consider a backport to feisty then

Revision history for this message
Balaji (balaji-ramasubramanian) wrote :

When are you likely to recieve this feedback? I am not running Gutsy here.
So I don't know who will give you this feedback.

I am excited about the fix and hope that this really works. Waiting for the
backport to Feisty.

Thanks a lot. A big pain has been solved.

Balaji

On 7/26/07, Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> It has been fixed in gutsy today. If we get positive feedback on the
> gusty version we will consider a backport to feisty then
>
> --
> gnome-sound-recorder unable to playback
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/92879
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
Balaji

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

Usually some users run the unstable version and report new bugs if there is a regression and can confirm that the bug is fixed, that's going to take a few days though

Revision history for this message
Balaji (balaji-ramasubramanian) wrote :

Thanks... :)

Balaji

On 7/26/07, Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> Usually some users run the unstable version and report new bugs if there
> is a regression and can confirm that the bug is fixed, that's going to
> take a few days though
>
> --
> gnome-sound-recorder unable to playback
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/92879
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
Balaji

Revision history for this message
Boris Dušek (dusek) wrote :

Hi, I tested with tribe 3 + all updates until as of today, Jul 28. See upstream bug report for details.

The bug is solved, but (I don't know if it's new, probably yes) a new one is created - hitting on record, then stop, and then hitting on record again without saving the previous record makes gnome-sound-recorder crash everytime.

The problem I have with Ubuntu itself is that for gnome-media, there are no debug packages available in repositories, so my backtrace that I sent upstream probably was not very useful - could you please create the debugging packages? (or point me to instructions about how to do it?) I will build gnome-media from svn by hand for now to have the debug info, but having it in repository would be cool for others.

Revision history for this message
Boris Dušek (dusek) wrote :

OK, see my last comment in upstream bugzilla - gnome-media from SVN, both with and without the proposed patch applied, exhibit the same buggy behavior. So it's not this patch that introduces the new regression, but either some other changes in grecord (which seems very inactive though), or other libraries.

In other words, testing on Gutsy can't indicate whether it fixes things for Feisty, so could please someone make a testing .deb for Feisty? (or point me to some instructions on how to do it? :-)

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

You can install the dbgsym version for any package by following the instructions on http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProgramCrash

Revision history for this message
Jan Niklas Hasse (jhasse) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Boris Dušek (dusek) wrote :

@Sebastian: thanks, I will now know for the future

@jhasse: :-) I guess I will have to visit my eye doctor ;-)

I tested the patched version on Feisty with the deb provided at comment #28 (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-media/+bug/92879/comments/28). The new regression that is in SVN is not present, so I recommend it the new package for inclusion in feisty-backports (maybe in feisty updates after some more testing?).

On another note, this application still has "interesting" behavior, like when you save the file, and then record again without saving, and play back, then not the new recording, but the old saved version is played back. But this is there no matter whether the patch in question is applied or not, the reason is simply that this application is not being developed.

Revision history for this message
Balaji (balaji-ramasubramanian) wrote :

Thanks Boris,

So you mean this is fine on Feisty.

About the "interasting" behavior, I would expect it to behave that way for
one reason at least - if I were recording and saved a sample, I should not
overwrite that file, till I explicitly save it back on that file. It would
be nice, if the application could automatically call 'Save As' for all
future saves. But I know that it can get quite annoying when not intended.
Perhaps we could have an option to fix that?

I don't know, but looks like the problem I was having with saving this audio
file is now solved.

Hoping that this patch will be uploaded and backported to Feisty.

Thanking Sebastian a lot for his efforts,
Balaji

On 7/30/07, Boris Dušek <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> @Sebastian: thanks, I will now know for the future
>
> @jhasse: :-) I guess I will have to visit my eye doctor ;-)
>
> I tested the patched version on Feisty with the deb provided at comment
> #28 (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-
> media/+bug/92879/comments/28). The new regression that is in SVN is not
> present, so I recommend it the new package for inclusion in feisty-
> backports (maybe in feisty updates after some more testing?).
>
> On another note, this application still has "interesting" behavior, like
> when you save the file, and then record again without saving, and play
> back, then not the new recording, but the old saved version is played
> back. But this is there no matter whether the patch in question is
> applied or not, the reason is simply that this application is not being
> developed.
>
> --
> gnome-sound-recorder unable to playback
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/92879
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
Balaji

Revision history for this message
Boris Dušek (dusek) wrote :

I created a patch that handles the crash bug on Gutsy, could someone please build a .deb for Gutsy with this patch so that others can test it? (it works for me)

the patch is in Gnome bugzilla - http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=329922, it's the last one (named "Do not update input list when "Record" button hit)

I don't know whether to open a new launchpad entry for this one, but I don't think so since without this new patch, the previous one is not quite usable on Gutsy. (however, the new patch is not needed for Feisty, i.e. as I said above, the .deb provided by jhasse at comment #28 works fine on Feisty as it is.

Revision history for this message
Boris Dušek (dusek) wrote :

@Balaji:

I agree it should not overwrite your saved file. But, e.g. if you want to improve the old (saved) version, you should be able to record a new record (without overwriting the old record), be able to play it back to decide whether it's better than the saved one, and then, if you want, save it, if not, you could record another "temporary" one, and so on until you are satisfied enough that you want to overwrite the saved one with the temporary one (i.e. hit "Save").

But I see that you should be able to play back the saved one as well, even if you have recorded a new one.

To do this with two separate windows is a solution available with current version of the program, but seems to me more like a workaround than a real solution.

So an ideal solution, without adding a much of new GUI, would be to have 2 play buttons: "Play saved", and "Play recorded".

The "Play saved" would play the saved version.
The "Play recorded" would play the newest recorded version (not necesarily saved).

So only one button would be added.
And I don't think it would need much new coding logic (although saying that something should be easy is always easy :-) at least easier than it finally turns out ;-)

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

gnome-media (2.18.0-2ubuntu4) gutsy; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/81_from_bugzilla_no_crash_on_new_record.patch:
    - patch from bugzilla, don't crash when using record several times
      (LP: #92879)

 -- Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> Fri, 17 Aug 2007 17:46:08 +0200

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

Thank you for the patch Boris, I've uploaded a new package revision using it to gutsy

Revision history for this message
Boris Dušek (dusek) wrote :

@Sebastian:

the second patch you applied is obsoleted by another more correct patch in the same bugzilla entry. And this first better patch just got commited to Gnome SVN.
The first patch from msiner also just got commited to Gnome SVN, so what's needed for the package is to remove both patches that got added to it in this launchpad entry.

In other words, the recorder should now work with plain upstream version. I tested it with current SVN. At least for sure both patches applied to ubuntu version in this launchpad entry are no longer needed, since they are in upstream already.

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

Thank you for the update, upstream will likely roll a new tarball for GNOME 2.20 that we will use

Changed in gnome-media:
status: New → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
ledlincoln (ldietrich) wrote :

It generally worked until I upgraded to Hardy/Ubuntu 8.04. Now, first time I press Record button, the button "pops" back out; press it a second time and the application hangs - window blanks if moved, must force quit.

Revision history for this message
msiner (msiner) wrote :

@ledlincoln
This bug has already been closed and the behavior you describe does not seem to match with the original symptoms of this bug. Therefore I suggest you see if a newer bug has already been posted here or in gnome's bugzilla, and if one has not, submit a new bug report with a detailed description of the symptoms. It might turn out to be useful to mention and link to this bug, but reviving a more than year old bug that has been listed as fixed is not the right course of action in this case. I no longer use Ubuntu, but I can only think that this relates to the move to Gvfs from gnome-vfs which is used heavily in gnome-sound-recorder, but it could even be as low as a bug in Xorg or GTK+. If you do find that your problems are directly related to this bug, post again and also post to the gnome bugzilla entry to provide the proper visibility.

Revision history for this message
tanjam65 (tanjam65) wrote :

I have the same problem, when I try to playback, the message is: Could not open audio device for playback. And I don`t have any sound at all at my laptop on ubuntu 9.04.

Revision history for this message
Yige (yigeyinfu-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Open up the Synaptic Package Manager and install ubuntustudio-audio and ubuntustudio-audio plaugins.

Next, open up QAMix, go to Capture TAB and set it to MIC.

Changed in gnome-media:
importance: Unknown → High
To post a comment you must log in.
This report contains Public information  
Everyone can see this information.

Other bug subscribers

Remote bug watches

Bug watches keep track of this bug in other bug trackers.