VLC 0.9.8 crashing on FP, anyone with similar problem?

I had a look, did not see anything; also nothing on the forum. Asked at the forum for an explanation why this is needed; lets wait.

Just to clarify: you only have this with mp3, and not with other audio files? And does your log also state the JNI warning?

(@Mnementh, @Jens_Gerard: Do you get the same JNI waring? Do you experience different behaviour for audio and video?)

As VLC is still in beta phase, I wouldn’t overrate the crashes. I guess they are mostly aware of the bugs and trying heavily to solve them.

For me VLC also crashes, some Video Streams don’t even work. But as I said it’s still in beta phase… :slight_smile:

My tests were limited: crashes with mp3 from all kinds of sources, not with mp4 videos all downloaded from TED.

Where would I have to look to see the logs (is too late now, but good to know next time)?

When I started using VLC for Android shortly after getting my FP1, I went through all the Videolan test files and some of them crashed as well.

I barely look video on my phone so i can’t tell

And of course, now that i wait the bug screen, VLC don’t want to bug anymore :smiley:

@Stefan: The thing is, it DID work. Quite smoothly, until recently. Since lately, it’s been rendered unusable, while I don’t see many others complaining.

I really like using FOSS software, despite all glitches.

@JanDoggen, in my case it pops up when VLC crashes, giving me the option to send it to the developers. (I installed VLC via the PlayStore, not from F-Droid - maybe, that’s working differently for the version there?) However, the wiki says I should look in the SD root. Going to try that out later.

I did the partition update yesterday. After that I used VLC just very briefly may be 2 mp3-Songs. It didnt crash so far. As soon as it will I will have a look on the JNI warning.
Normally I’m using VLC for mp3s only. So until now the crashes came while playing mp3s.

Here is the message I have when VLC crash

@Mnementh, if you scroll down to the bottom of this logfile, you should see the last things VLC did, i.e., the crash.

By the way, @all, I checked on the location of the log and did NOT find it after the crash. However, I did find a log I dumped manually, which should have been in the root of my SD card - as stated above. It was at another location - which I find rather interesting.

Apparently, the repartitioning still tells apps that there are multiple partitions / SD cards

If I check with a file browser, e.g. OI File Manager (available via F-Droid), then I see under the button/directory link “storage” that there are three directories. The first is /emulated, the second /sdcard0, and the third /sdcard1.

/emulated is created in the moment I power up my device, apparently. In it, there is an emulated SD card, called 0, and a folder /legacy. Both are apparently links to the same content /sdcard0. This is where I found my manually dumped vlc_logcat_$DATE_$TIME.log file

Now, I’ve got three four questions:

  1. Could someone please confirm this?
  2. Could someone who knows something about Android in general, and probably specifically about the FP OS partition unification tell us something about the rationale of this?
  3. Could someone who knows something about Linux and Android (and VLC?) tell us if this is probably a cause of those crashes?
    Most importantly:
  4. If this might be the reason for crashes (and other problems), can we change this?

Seems as if this is a change in Android for permitting multiple user setup on tablets: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/35541/why-did-sdcard-turn-into-sdcard-0-with-4-2

Not sure if it can explain vlc crashing. The folder structure has been out there for some time, even if it didn’t reach FP until now (with the unified partition) so vlc ought to have taken it into account in recent versions. But it might explain that some users have had problems when restoring backup files after the 1.6 update.

Following @kgha 's explanation, I thought “hey, I restored VLC from the backup, perhaps it’s having a problem with the change in the folder structure - let’s delete it an re-install it!”

Did that. Still screwed.

And while I hit the “send log” button, there is no logcat to be found. Nowhere. So I can’t even notify the developers. :frowning:

Maybe its a different issue, but I have the following problem. When I play music and use the “simple sleep timer” app and the FP goes into standby it crashes.
Without sleep timer it does not crash.

I found out, that VLC almost always crashes, when I open an app and then the FP’s screen gets dark. If I am.in the home screen and the screen gets dark, VLC most times does not crash.

Thanks, @Stefan. Interesting observation. I’ll have to test that. (When I have a working FP again. :frowning: )

Do you have an instant screen lock set up when the display turns itself off? I have mine set to 3 min, and it seems the locking (not the display turn off) causes the crashes.

I don’t really know. It says “Standby after 15 seconds”. But I don’t know, if only the screen turns off, or if the screen locks also.

If you can turn on the screen again by pressing the power button and you don’t have to put in your screen lock pin | swipe code | password, then it’s a different thing.

Hm, maybe it is an option I got with GravityBox, then. I remember a menu where I could differentiate between the screen turning off and locking the phone. I used it because I often pick up my phone after several minutes again, and don’t want to have to type in the whole password then - but I still want it locked when I leave it on the table or a coat for a while longer.

(Sorry, I can’t check where to find that menu, because my phone is partly defunct since a week. and I’m waiting for a RMA number to return it. )

Just a follow-up: yip, that seems to be it. Almost every time.
@Stefan, do you have a workaround?

For me the workaround is to use the standard music app again… :stuck_out_tongue: But I still have VLC installed and check with every update if the issue persists. (Current version I have is 0.9.10)

I’m using VLC 1.5.1.1 now, and don’t experience problems. I set this topic on autoclose. If you are still having problems, you have 10 days to respond.

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