[ubuntu] How to activate DBus-interface in the VLC media-player? [Archive]

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moma

February 2nd, 2013, 07:57 PM

EDIT: This issue was solved by updating VLC from a PPA (package archive).
Ref: https://launchpad.net/~videolan/+archive/master-daily
Let's hope Ubuntu will update its final version of VLC from this PPA.
------------------

Hello,
How do I activate DBus-interface in the VLC media-player?
I want VLC to show up in the sound-menu. Also audio-recorder needs messages from the DBus.

Earlier it was easy to set via VLC's menu:
Tools -> Preferences -> Show all -> Interface -> Control Interface and Enable DBus.

But I cannot find this option anymore.

$ cat /etc/issue
Ubuntu Raring Ringtail (development branch) \n \l

$ vlc --version
VLC media player 2.0.5 Twoflower (revision 2.0.5-0-g1661b7d)

Audio-recorder:
https://launchpad.net/audio-recorder

zika

February 2nd, 2013, 08:04 PM

Hello,
How do I activate DBus-interface in the VLC media-player?
I want VLC to show up in the sound-menu. Also audio-recorder needs messages from the DBus.

Earlier it was easy to set via VLC's menu:
Tools -> Preferences -> Show all -> Interface -> Control Interface and Enable DBus.

But I cannot find this option anymore.

$ cat /etc/issue
Ubuntu Raring Ringtail (development branch) \n \l

$ vlc --version
VLC media player 2.0.5 Twoflower (revision 2.0.5-0-g1661b7d)

Audio-recorder:
https://launchpad.net/audio-recorder
Is it:
/usr/bin/vlc -I dummy --control dbus...?
I've just checked and it is open by default in GS...

mc4man

February 2nd, 2013, 08:20 PM

it should be auto-enabled. If not then do so in in dconf (dconf-editor >
com.canonical.indicator.sound interested-media-players

(sometimes in lieu of above just opening vlc > tools > preferences, changing anything & saving that change will add vlc to sound menu next time opened

edit: for reference - http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=107797

moma

February 2nd, 2013, 08:47 PM

Ok, thank you.

This works fine:
$ vlc --control dbus
Sound-menu now shows all controls for VLC. Good.
Audio-recorder also receives correct messages form VLC.

But when I close VLC, the sound-menu still (correctly) displays "VLC media player". If I start VLC from it, the player obviously fires without "--control dbus" option and looses its Dbus-capability (and the controls won't work).

VLC should absolutely have a permanent option for the sound-menu (for the DBus). This is not going to work. Something has gone wrong.

Many applications except to see MPRIS2-messages (like org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc) on the DBus.

@mc4man: Thanks for the link. That explains a lot.
"vlc" is already in the interested-media-players list. I even tried "vlc --control dbus".

mc4man

February 2nd, 2013, 08:47 PM

You could test some of the simple (supported??) with either types -
Ex.'s, add a few tracks to vlc

qdbus org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Play
qdbus org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Pause
ect.

or the variant -

dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Next
dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Previous
ect.

moma

February 2nd, 2013, 08:58 PM

Hello,
The commands of course fail when VLC is started without DBus-interface.
$ vlc

$ qdbus org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Stop

Service 'org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc' does not exist.
etc. many similar error messages.
------------

The commands works well if VLC is started with --control dbus.
$ vlc --control dbus

$ qdbus org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Play

All these work: Play,Stop,Pause,Next,Previous

Also this:
$ qdbus org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Quit
-------------

So the question is: Will Ubuntu 13.04 come with VLC whose DBus-interface is auto-enabled? This is a very important issue. VLC cannot integrate with Unity (and its sound-menu or audio-recorder of all!) without DBus.

mc4man

February 2nd, 2013, 08:59 PM

So VLC should absolutely have a permanent option for the sound-menu (for the DBus). This is not going to work. Something has gone wrong.

Many applications except to see MPRIS2-messages (like org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc) on the DBus.

@mc4man: Thanks for the link. That explains a lot.
"vlc" is already in the interested-media-players list. I even tried "vlc --control dbus".

Vlc is permanent here, only seen as 'vlc', in dconf (screen

have you tried a log out after adding to dconf?

moma

February 2nd, 2013, 09:09 PM

Re-hi,
Yes, I just did re-login. The login-screen has started to speak ;-)

No change. The "vlc" command itself fails to activate DBus. So does the sound-menu.

http://bildr.no/thumb/1382765.jpeg (http://bildr.no/view/1382765)

I have installed various media-players to test the audio-recorder for Raring. Looks good.
EOL.

mc4man

February 2nd, 2013, 09:18 PM

Try a little experiment -
(you could use a hatchet job on your current user, ie. move ~/.config/dconf/user to a .bak, & remove ~/.config/vlc/vlcrc, log out/in, ect. but try instead -

Set up a new user (apologizes for gnome dev's thinking a 9 char password is needed..
Log in to new user, open vlc > tools > pref's, enable something like 'one instance', save, close vlc.
log out/in, is vlc in the sound menu?

zika

February 3rd, 2013, 09:15 AM

So the question is: Will Ubuntu 13.04 come with VLC whose DBus-interface is auto-enabled? This is a very important issue. VLC cannot integrate with Unity (and its sound-menu or audio-recorder of all!) without DBus.
It does on this machine... As I said already...

moma

February 3rd, 2013, 12:15 PM

Olá,
Zika and mc4man: I will keep eye on this issue. I'll come back if I find what's going on with this VLC and Raring installation. Especially porque the DBus was not activated by default.

Just for info and later review. The installed VLC-packages are:
$ dpkg -l | grep -i vlc

ii libvlc5 2.0.5-1 i386 multimedia player and streamer library

ii libvlccore5 2.0.5-1 i386 base library for VLC and its modules

ii vlc 2.0.5-1 i386 multimedia player and streamer

ii vlc-data 2.0.5-1 all Common data for VLC

ii vlc-nox 2.0.5-1 i386 multimedia player and streamer (without X support)

ii vlc-plugin-notify 2.0.5-1 i386 LibNotify plugin for VLC

ii vlc-plugin-pulse 2.0.5-1 i386 PulseAudio plugin for VLC

zika

February 3rd, 2013, 12:27 PM

mc4man

February 3rd, 2013, 06:23 PM

Olá,
I'll come back if I find what's going on with this VLC and Raring installation. Especially porque the DBus was not activated by default.

If you do (come back), it would be of some interest here to know how does AR start a player when it's set as the source ? (either from autostart or from AR window
Seems to run the binary?? vs. the .desktop which the sound menu uses in some manner

(only of interest here because I prefer media players to retain their menus which is done thru an env in their .desktops

Edit: semi confirmed here that AR uses the binary, I have audacious in /opt/bin & AR would always 'lose' it on a restart. If I symlink audacious in /usr/bin then AR keeps aud in it's avail. players list.
No way to have AR use gtk-launch <player> instead??

moma

February 6th, 2013, 10:25 PM

Hello and desculpe for the late reply.

I updated VLC from the PPA and it now behaves correctly within the sound-menu and a.r.
Ref: https://launchpad.net/~videolan/+archive/master-daily

Now the version number is 2.1.0.
$ dpkg -l | grep -i vlc

ii libvlc5 2.1.0~~git20130206+r2423-0~r92~raring1
ii libvlccore5 2.1.0~~git20130206+r2423-0~r92~raring1
ii vlc 2.1.0~~git20130206+r2423-0~r92~raring1
...
ii vlc-plugin-pulse

Obrigado, the updated version of VLC fixed this bug.
---

>>If you do (come back), it would be of some interest here
>>to know how does AR start a player when it's set as the
>>source ?

The very recent version of a.r (in the Launchpad.net) uses the xxx.desktop file to load both the player's name and exec command with possible arguments. So the xxx.desktop file determines everything. This applies to the very latest code that you find in the https://launchpad.net/audio-recorder.

[[You may currently use an older a.r that simply guesses the name of executable from player's service-name.]]

Audio-recorder uses the MPRIS2-standard (DBus-command: "DesktopEntry") to ask the name of player's .desktop file. I am sure the sound-menu does exactly the same thing.

Look for "DesktopEntry" in this file:
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~osmoma/audio-recorder/trunk/view/head:/src/dbus-mpris2.c

Please see also function mpris2_start_app(gpointer player_rec) in the same source. It starts the player when needed. It will finally call the exec_command_async() function. That is defined in the src/utility.c file.

We should improve the function so it also brings the window to the front. Seems like the MediaPlayer2 (MPRIS2 base object) actually defines a Raise() method.
See: http://specifications.freedesktop.org/mpris-spec/latest/Media_Player.html
We could simply call it. Hopefully media-players implement this method too.

>No way to have AR use gtk-launch <player> instead??
An interesting suggestion.
This would need an option in the settings of a.r. Would you support that?

And thanks so far. Very good result.

mc4man

February 7th, 2013, 02:21 AM

Was likely using r294, latest (r303) definitely does use the .desktop.
(however it won't be able to use an Exec= that passes an env, no big deal though, don't think too many users care about such.
In any event solved here by making the Exec= point to a script that exports QT_X11_NO_NATIVE_MENUBAR=1 & starts vlc which AR is fine with in the .desktop.

Ot - The sound-indicator opens listed apps in a different fashion so having an env in the .desktop isn't an issue & it's properly passed.
(maybe in mpris2-interfaces.vala