DIGIT-ARC read-only archive · snapshot: July 23, 2026

Can't play anything in Totem

14 posts · originally from https://geek.digit.in/community/threads/cant-play-anything-in-totem.69695/

pradeepbp
pradeepbp Original post #1
Oct 2, 2007 at 9:10 PM
Even after three weeks of intense troubleshooting with the help of googling the net and in particular this forum, I am still unable to play any media in totem. Somewhere I read about installing totem-xine too. Did it (even though it removed rhythmbox while installation), but no positive results. I have embraced linux now and don't want to go back to windows for playing some media (Oh yes, it plays mp3, but voice quality is poor).

What could be wrong here?
skghosh44
Oct 2, 2007 at 9:16 PM
Connect to net and then try to play music file. If it not play it will search for codes to download, do that will solve problem.
QwertyManiac
Oct 2, 2007 at 9:17 PM
skghosh44 said:
Connect to net and then try to play music file. If it not play it will search for codes to download, do that will solve problem.

That happens only with Feisty Fawn Ubuntu.

(Edited .. doubts :|)
skghosh44
Oct 2, 2007 at 9:24 PM
QwertyManiac said:
That happens only with Feisty Fawn Ubuntu.
Your reply is for me or for pradeep.
infra_red_dude
Oct 2, 2007 at 10:20 PM
totem-xine lead to removal of rhythmbox??? no, theres something wrong in there!!! which guide did you follow to install it? can you recall what you did?
praka123
Oct 2, 2007 at 10:53 PM
which distro?totem-xine is preferable although totem-gstreamer also works well.
make sure you have esd enabled in the gnome menu System>preferences>sound>Devices.
also try installing libesd-alsa0 instead of libesd.restart the system or restart alsa and invoke esd and check whether totem works.
for totem to play major codecs it can do it with xine,else install gstreamer plugins.
pradeepbp
Oct 3, 2007 at 11:57 PM
infra_red_dude said:
totem-xine lead to removal of rhythmbox??? no, theres something wrong in there!!! which guide did you follow to install it? can you recall what you did?

1. The distro is FC7. Initially rhythmbox also was refusing to play mp3 files. Then I installed the gstreamer plugin. At that point of time totem was playing mp3 files, but with poor sound quality.

2. The fundamental problem with totem is missing codecs. When I tried to ply *.dat file it spewed out such an error message. What confused me was that, for different *.dat files the error messages were also different.

3. fedorafaq.org advises installation of totem-xine as a solution

4. When I tried to install totem-xine by typing 'yum install totem-xine' at command line; i got some error messaging saying there is come compatibility issue with totem-plparser.

5. Then I used yum to remove totem and tried to install totem-xine again. The command line displayed rhythmbox as a package to be removed due to some dependency issue. I went ahead.

6. But that did not solve the problem. I reinstalled totem and rhythmbox. BACK TO SQUARE ONE.

7. What is the difference between totem and totem-xine ?

8. In between I tried Mplayer too but it also refuses to play some *.dat files.
QwertyManiac
Oct 4, 2007 at 6:19 AM
Get VLC Player in the meantime as people try solving this issue, it should play anything for the time being :)
praka123
praka123 #10
Oct 4, 2007 at 6:49 AM
@pradeepbp:it is difficult to explain if u use both gnome and kde in fedora.
with Gnome,u shud enable enlightened sound daemon from system>preferences>sound.totem needs this!also install xine-ui,xinelib xine player and mplayer are nice too.no gnome player will play if esd(enlightened sound daemon) is not enabled.this goes to rhythmbox or exaile etc.


also u need to get codecs especially win32codecs.gstreamer plugins for each formats helps gnome by allowing any player to play the files.get these all rpms manually and install via terminal as su,root terminal as rpm -Uvh xx.rpm or configure yum and add repositories of dag.wieers and rpm.livna.org,atrpms.net etc.
It will take few weeks to resolve these things to understand as redhat/fedora's policy to not bundle even mp3 support due to fear of patent or license fee trouble.
there are resources for how to installing yum and external repositories(were the rpms contains).
do search *fedoraproject.org wiki or *fedoraforums.org etc.
also wait for inputs from few fedora users here.
pradeepbp
pradeepbp #11
Oct 4, 2007 at 11:46 PM
QwertyManiac said:
Get VLC Player in the meantime as people try solving this issue, it should play anything for the time being :)


I already did that. But this should sound strange; even there are times when even VLC player refuses to respond.

praka123 said:
@pradeepbp:it is difficult to explain if u use both gnome and kde in fedora.
with Gnome,u shud enable enlightened sound daemon from system>preferences>sound.totem needs this!also install xine-ui,xinelib xine player and mplayer are nice too.no gnome player will play if esd(enlightened sound daemon) is not enabled.this goes to rhythmbox or exaile etc.


also u need to get codecs especially win32codecs.gstreamer plugins for each formats helps gnome by allowing any player to play the files.get these all rpms manually and install via terminal as su,root terminal as rpm -Uvh xx.rpm or configure yum and add repositories of dag.wieers and rpm.livna.org,atrpms.net etc.
It will take few weeks to resolve these things to understand as redhat/fedora's policy to not bundle even mp3 support due to fear of patent or license fee trouble.
there are resources for how to installing yum and external repositories(were the rpms contains).
do search *fedoraproject.org wiki or *fedoraforums.org etc.
also wait for inputs from few fedora users here.

I use gnome in fc7
pradeepbp
pradeepbp #12
Oct 11, 2007 at 7:01 PM
I am still stuck up with issue. Any more suggestions ?
pradeepbp
pradeepbp #13
Oct 12, 2007 at 11:58 PM
praka123 said:
@pradeepbp:it is difficult to explain if u use both gnome and kde in fedora.
with Gnome,u shud enable enlightened sound daemon from system>preferences>sound.totem needs this!also install xine-ui,xinelib xine player and mplayer are nice too.no gnome player will play if esd(enlightened sound daemon) is not enabled.this goes to rhythmbox or exaile etc.


also u need to get codecs especially win32codecs.gstreamer plugins for each formats helps gnome by allowing any player to play the files.get these all rpms manually and install via terminal as su,root terminal as rpm -Uvh xx.rpm or configure yum and add repositories of dag.wieers and rpm.livna.org,atrpms.net etc.
It will take few weeks to resolve these things to understand as redhat/fedora's policy to not bundle even mp3 support due to fear of patent or license fee trouble.
there are resources for how to installing yum and external repositories(were the rpms contains).
do search *fedoraproject.org wiki or *fedoraforums.org etc.
also wait for inputs from few fedora users here.


I use gnome. After enabling the enlightened sound daemon, i clicked on the test button; got the following error:

audiotestsrc wave=sine freq=512 ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! gconfaudiosink profile=music: Internal GStreamer error: state change failed. Please file a bug at *bugzilla.gnome.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=GStreamer.


Got no idea as how to solve this issue
subratabera
Oct 13, 2007 at 6:58 PM
Try this...

*www.gagme.com/greg/linux/f7-tips.php

*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41048

And I think there is a bug somewhere...

*bugs.launchpad.net/gstreamer/+bug/131711