Hi Folks,
I'm experiencing what I can only describe as buggy behavior on BL5.1.
When starting BL from the grub menu and then selecting Manager, an accounting program that I use, everything behaves normally. However if I go into an invoice or a quote and try to change anything using the edit button, a black screen appears and the only way that I can get back to the program screen is to repeatedly hit the tab key and press the screen resize button.
VLC also has a problem, when opening it and selecting a file to play, it opens the file, then freezes the whole system, I can't even select the kill window option and the only way is a hard shutdown.
A workaround I've found is to boot to menu and select the repair packages option,let it do it's thing and then select Manager and/or VLC and both work perfectly.
Both programs work perfectly on my netbook using BL 4.5 without having to resort to package repair.
Is there something that I can download or adjust so as to avoid having to use the repair option on boot.
All other software appears to be working normally on a normal boot.
Any help would be appreciated.

Hello

I am not sure I fully understand your issue. Video could be fine to see. Anyway what I can suggest at first is updating and upgrading the system...

Stefan

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Hello Stefan

Thanks so much for your reply. I did as you suggested and did a system update and upgrade, although the system was pretty much up to date. Only a few files were updated.I did this from the terminal.
The problem still persists on a normal boot. VLC fetches the video file but doesn't play it. The screen is blank and everything freezes. I can't select tools, files, help. I can't even kill the window.
The only way out is to hard shutdown.
Manager also still goes to a blank screen when selecting the edit button within the accounting program.
When I boot and select advanced options from grub and then recovery mode and allow it to do it's thing and log in, everything works perfectly.
Manager allows me to edit invoices etc. and VLC gets and play's video's. But only after recovery mode has run. Not on a normal boot.
So at this point, the only way for me to get these problem children to work is on the advanced options menu.

I hope this makes sense to you.

Vince

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OK

Let's try running VLC from terminal and let us know what output is given if possible to see.

Stefan

EDIT: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2391321

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Hi Stefan,

Here's the output.
Libva info: VA_API Version 1.1.0
Libva info: VA_getDriverName () Returns 0
Libva info: Tryingtoopen /usr/Lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/nouveau_drv_video.so
Libva info: Found init Function --VaDriverInit_1_1
Libva info: Va OpenDriver() Returns 0

and then it freezes and have to re-boot.

Vince

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Try to change video output to something different than vaapi.

S

Hi Stefan,
My apologies for the delay in replying but I've been at work all day and away from my computer.

How would I go about changing video output? I've googled the question and can't seem to find how it's done.
I've done a vainfo with results below.
vincent@vincent:~$ vainfo
libva info: VA-API version 1.1.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/nouveau_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_1
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.1 (libva 2.1.0)
vainfo: Driver version: Mesa Gallium driver 19.0.8 for NV49
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
VAProfileNone : VAEntrypointVideoProc
I don't know if this is helpful or not?

Vince

i had never thought of or seen that suggested as a way of viewing error messages. very interesting and informative. thanks for pointing that out

Hi Stefan,
Further to running VLC through a terminal here are the results after booting in recovery mode for comparison:
NORMAL BOOT
VLC media player 3.0.8 Vetinari (revision 3.0.8-0-gf350b6b5a7)
[0000556fded79570] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
QApplication: invalid style override passed, ignoring it.
[0000556fded7d4e0] main playlist: playlist is empty
libva info: VA-API version 1.1.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/nouveau_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_1
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0

RECOVERY MODE
VLC media player 3.0.8 Vetinari (revision 3.0.8-0-gf350b6b5a7)
[0000556fded79570] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
QApplication: invalid style override passed, ignoring it.
[0000556fded7d4e0] main playlist: playlist is empty
libEGL warning: DRI2: failed to authenticate
Failed to open VDPAU backend libvdpau_nvidia.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
libEGL warning: DRI2: failed to authenticate

I hope you can make sense of this because it's beyond me.

Vince

ctrl + p opens the preferences menu (or tools -> preferences). output options are about a third of the way down the window on the video tab.

Setting the XVideo should be a good start...

https://i.imgur.com/Y6NM05o.jpg

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Hi Folks,

Great! as per your (Stefan & cordx"s) suggestions I've changed the video output on VLC and it's working perfectly.

Now I still need to fix the accounting program from my first post. Perhaps what I should have done was created two separate threads but I assumed(always dangerous) that both were caused by the same system problem, which obviously isn't the case.
Should I create another thread for Manager and mark this as solved for VLC?
Many thanks for your collective help.

Vince

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I ve just downloaded Manager program but not sure how to reproduce your issue. Send a mathod with screenshot of the program layout to see that button.

Stefan

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Hi Stefan,
I'm not sure if this has been done right, but here is the attachment of the manager program layout.
When selecting the date box in order to change the date, the screen goes black. What should happen is a calander drop down box should appear where one can select a date or even a year to change.



Vince

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OK, I found that date item and I can see the calendar now. Hmmm, hard to say why you have the black screen. I do not know any detail about this project. I mean which toolkit has been used. I tried changing GTK themes but it is not related. Is it QT? Who knows. Is a calendar widget missing?
Are you possible to see something in terminal as you could see in vlc case?

Stefan

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