Ubuntu – Run VLC via Bumblebee

bumblebeenvidianvidia-optimusvlc

When I try to run VLC through the commands optirun or optirun -b primus using the command line I get the following output:

VLC media player 2.1.6 Rincewind (revision 2.1.6-0-gea01d28)
[0xd35118] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
../../../include/vlc_xlib.h:46:vlc_xlib_init: Xlib not initialized for threads.
This process is probably using LibVLC incorrectly.
Pass "--no-xlib" to libvlc_new() to fix this.
[0x1216418] qt4 interface error: Xlib not initialized for threads
../../../include/vlc_xlib.h:46:vlc_xlib_init: Xlib not initialized for threads.
This process is probably using LibVLC incorrectly.
Pass "--no-xlib" to libvlc_new() to fix this.
[0x1216418] skins2 interface error: Xlib not initialized for threads
[0x1216418] skins2 interface error: initializing xlib for multi-threading failed
[0x1216418] skins2 interface error: cannot initialize OSFactory
[0x1216418] [cli] lua interface: Listening on host "*console".
VLC media player 2.1.6 Rincewind
Command Line Interface initialized. Type `help' for help.

Who knows what the problem is. My system is Xubuntu 14.04.2 64-bit, installed packages: nvidia-331, bumblebee, bumblebee-nvidia, primus, sni-qt:i386 (for Skype), IDE Qt Creator 5.4 x64.

The paradox is that in the old system before reinstalling at the same identical configuration across vlc optirun worked fine, but now does not.
I will be glad to any advice, thanks.

Best Answer

Good news. I found a solution. In order to launch VLC through Bumblebee without errors - VLC must be installed BEFORE Bumblebee.

P.S. I tested it two times on Ubuntu 14.04

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Ubuntu – Run Unity on external monitor with Bumblebee

as I understand, Unity doesn't work with optirun (it seems to be a bug).

That's what I've found here:

HDMI doesn't work with Optimus hybrid graphics chipsets under Linux for most laptops, even if you use Bumblebee, but there is a way to get HDMI to work: by using a separate session.

Using the instructions below, you'll get an LXDE session (you can use XFCE or others, but the instructions below are for LXDE) to show up on the external monitor (which is connected via HDMI), and in this session, all the applications you launch use your laptop's Nvidia graphics card and you can play games, watch movies, etc. The LXDE session runs in the same time as your regular session, so on your laptop's screen you get your regular (main) session. Also, the mouse and keyboard are shared between the two sessions / monitors.

Here's how this looks like:

first pictiure

second picture

The first image above is from my laptop's screen (Dell XPS L702X which comes with Nvidia Optimus) while the second image is the separate LXDE session which is also running on my laptop, but is displayed on a TV connected via HDMI. As you can see, the first one is using the Intel graphics chip while the second one uses Nvidia.

However, there are some things to consider when using this:

the sound won't work (if you know a way to get it to work, please let us know in the comments!) through HDMI so you'll only get sound through your laptop's speakers
you can't move a window from your current desktop to the monitor connected via HDMI. The only way to run applications on the device connected via HDMI is to either run it from its session menu, or by using "export DISPLAY=:8.0" (see the end of the post for more info on this). The mouse is however, shared between the two desktops.
when loading the extra session, you may get double indicators / tray icons on your current (main) session. There is a way around this though (see the "tips" section at the end of the post)

Get HDMI to work with laptops using the Optimus technology under Ubuntu using Bumblebee and Synergy

Install Bumblebee if you haven't already.
Unity doesn't work with Bumblebee (and I'm not sure if you can run two sessions using the same window manager without them interfering anyway), so you'll need to use a different desktop environment / session, like LXDE, XFCE and so on - use whatever you want. I've used LXDE so using the instructions below, you'll get an LXDE session on the monitor connected via HDMI.

To get the mouse and keyboard working on the external monitor connected via HDMI we'll use Synergy, a tool that lets you share the mouse and keyboard between multiple computers.

Let's install the required packages (LXDE and Synergy):

sudo apt-get install synergy lxde lxde-common
To be able to use Synergy, you'll need to create a configuration file. You can download mine from HERE - copy the file to your home folder and rename it to ".synergy.conf" (notice the dot in front of the filename - that makes the file become hidden).

The file I've provided above should be enough, but if you want to change it, you can read about the Synergy configuration file here.
To start LXDE on the external monitor connected via HDMI, you can use a script which you can download from HERE. Extract the archive, copy the "hdmi" script to your home folder and make it executable using the following command:

chmod +x ~/hdmi

Now, to run the script, use the following command:

~/hdmi

LXDE should now start on the external monitor connected via HDMI. Give it some time (around 10 seconds) and moving your mouse to the left of your screen should make it show up on the HDMI device.

Here's what the script does (this is just an explaination, you don't need to run these commands, just use the above script):

exports the display to the one we're going to use for the HDMI monitor (8):

export DISPLAY=:8.0

runs LXDE with optirun (Bumblebee):

optirun startlxde &

runs the Synergy server in the foreground on the main display (on your laptop's main session) with 127.0.0.1 as the address:

synergys -f -a 127.0.0.1 --display :0 -n ubuntu &

runs the Synergy client in the foreground on the HDMI display and it connects it to the 127.0.0.1 server address:

synergyc -f -n hdmi --display :8 127.0.0.1 &

And finally, it exports the display back to your laptop's (main) display:

export DISPLAY=:0.0

The script also uses some "sleep" commands which add a delay to make sure the commands have enough time to get executed before running the next command.

Ubuntu – VLC 3 Won’t Start

Ubuntu 18.04 seems to have a problem (at least on my instance) with shared object files that apt/dpkg believes are installed, but the files are missing.

I solved my problem by running vlc -vvv and looking for lines like the following:

main libvlc warning: cannot load module `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/vlc/plugins/gui/libqt_plugin.so' (libQt5Svg.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)

In this case, it's missing the package libqt5svg, which you must reinstall:

sudo apt install --reinstall libqt5svg

Keep doing this until all the missing shared object files are restored, and vlc will launch.

Unfortunately, this is not just a vlc issue, many of my apps are having the same problem.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Run Unity on external monitor with Bumblebee

Ubuntu – VLC 3 Won’t Start

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