Rhythmbox Crashes System HARD Reboot Needed

[jtpoole99]

I'm currently having a problem with Rhythmbox.

So far, in every distro of Ubuntu that I have used, I've experienced the same problem with Rhythmbox. The problem is, when Rhythmbox is playing music, after a short period of time, the computer starts making a strange ticking/clicking noise and then the computer freezes up and I have to press the power button to restart the computer. This issue only happens when Rhythmbox is playing music.

Does anyone know what this issue is and how to solve it? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance...

[sikander3786]

Running rhythmbox from terminal and posting the output after it starts causing problems will help.

rhythmbox

[jtpoole99]

I've done the running 'rhythmbox' command from a terminal, but it's hard to get an error report when the computer isn't responding to allow me to do anything. So there is no way to tell what causes the error if I'm not able to actually use the computer to see the report generated by Rhythmbox in the terminal window.

Is there a program that allows the recording of backtraces and such that automatically saves debugging information to the HD while an error is in process?

[steve.t]

I've had the same problem. Rhythmbox would freeze the system completely when playing a playlist on shuffle. Sometimes it would crash when adjusting the volume, sometimes it would crash when opening Firefox, or if Firefox is already open, doing a search on Google. Sometimes it would just freeze for no apparent reason.

I may have found a solution. I read somewhere that some playlist types can only handle 500 tracks.

I deleted my large playlist and closed Rhythmbox, then opened it again. I created a playlist of 408 songs, closed Rhythmbox and re-started the computer (logging out may achieve the same). When I re-started Rhythmbox, it worked fine. I even tried to make it crash, but couldn't. I opened numerous applications to see if I could overtax the CPU and RAM, I opened multiple tabs in Firefox, I played YouTube videos with their sound right over the top of Rhythmbox playback, I changed sound settings while Rhythmbox was playing, and it responded to the changes I made, I unplugged the USB speakers and plugged them back in, etc, etc, etc.

Rhythmbox just kept playing - on shuffle!

Perhaps the answer is to keep playlists under 500 songs. Anyway, why would you want a playlist bigger than that. That's over 24 hrs of music. The idea behind playlists is so that you can select particular types of music for particular occassions and moods. None of my moods last that long!

[sikander3786]

I read somewhere that some playlist types can only handle 500 tracks.

Not true. Mine has 3629 songs in it and plays them randomly without crashing or hanging rhythmbox/system.

[steve.t]

From http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=46045

"PLP playlists had the limitation of no more than 500 songs per playlist..."

I don't know how relevant this is, but hey, limiting my playlist to under 500 solved my problem. Maybe mine was a hardware problem to begin with (SiS chipset), but whatever works.

Anyway... If your kit works with large playlists, power to you, brother.

PS. Just curious; are you talking about the size of your entire library, or a playlist? I have a fairly large library as well, and Rhythmbox doesn't crash when playing directly from the entire library, just a subset of it in the form of a playlist.

[sikander3786]

Sorry I was talking about Library

Not sure about playlist. It might have a limit of 500 tracks.

[steve.t]

Give it a shot. If you can replicate my experience, then maybe my suggestion may have some merit and may help others. If not, then maybe it's a hardware issue.

Drag about 600 songs into a new playlist and see if it plays OK. If not, then delete the playlist, log off, and start again. Create a playlist with about 400 songs and see if this works better. Just quit Rhythmbox and log out or restart after each step.

Cheers,
Steve

[jtpoole99]

Well I have never been the one to use playlists with Rhythmbox. When I used Rhythmbox I always played songs directly from the library on shuffle. I have since then stopped using Rhythmbox and moved over to Banshee. So far no more crashes/freezes in regards to playing music. I know my problem with Rhythmbox isn't resolved, but each way I have tried to capture the reasons why the system would hang/freeze hasn't worked so there was no way of reporting the issue. Maybe someone else out there in the world can determine what causes Rhythmbox to do what it does... Thanks to all assisting with this issue.

[undesigned]

Having the same problem. Haven't tried to figure out why yet.

Banshee looks pretty cool though.