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I installed lubuntu 18.04.4LTS 64x alternate recently, fresh install, no partitions, etc. installed the lubuntu restricted extras, and vlc.

mkv files on vlc don't play properly, they basically don't play. No warning signs or error messages, they just stay black, or if I jump forward, display frozen images... sound works though.

I tried every single solution I found on the internet, including reinstalling the operating system twice, to make sure I would start fresh and that my actions where not preventing me from further success...

I downloaded extra packages, codecs, allowed and disabled hardware acceleration.

The fun thing is that, when reinstalling mpv by sudo apt-get install mpv mkv files play way better on it than on vlc, but still play slightly slow, not quite right...

If I go to system profiler and benchmark, I can read

Intel Celeron n2815 1.86GHz

Also, Graphics: 1366x768 (unknown) theX.org foundation

Running sudo lshw -C video I get the following, that I don't know how to interpret:

*-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series Graphics & Display
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 0c
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:92 memory:d0000000-d03fffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff ioport:f080(size=8) memory:c0000-dffff

Any help would be greatly appreciated, figuring out what is failing, if my codecs and drivers are right...

T.J.L.
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pol1
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  • Providing some clues as to your video card (eg. `sudo lshw -C video` which lists hardware of class video) may have been helpful. You didn't give details on which image you installed from (18.04, 18.04.1, 18.04.2...) but `vlc` was replaced with `mpv` for Lubuntu 18.04 LTS so have you tried that? Is your box x86 (32-bit) and amd64 (64-bit; intel & amd) – guiverc Feb 11 '20 at 00:33
  • guiverc, you are the kindest person. – pol1 Feb 11 '20 at 03:35
  • fyi: I just booted the latest Lubuntu 18.04.4 LTS image (i386); click try/start lubuntu, installed `vlc` (as it's not included by default) and can play MKV files located on the old laptop (dell latitude d610 (pentium m, 1.5gb, intel i915)). My prior comment mentioned `mpv` where it's `gnome-mpv` that is included by default. – guiverc Feb 11 '20 at 03:47
  • thanks for taking the time to help guiverc, that is so selfless of you. Do you think it is worth installing the system again? And hope for the best? – pol1 Feb 11 '20 at 19:25
  • Also, running ` sudo lshw -C video` i got `width: 32 bits`. does that mean that i should install the x32 version rather than x64? thanks – pol1 Feb 11 '20 at 19:25
  • You used the alternate installed; intended for systems with 700MB or less of RAM (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu/Alternate_ISO), do you have that limited RAM? I've not used a system with less than 1GB of ram in years. The video card being 32-bit still means you should be using x86_64 (amd64) if you can; though I would take your unstated RAM size into account in my decision (64bit means any non-local address will use twice the ram for addresses when compared to 32bit; a small performance hit usually equal to benefits of x86_64 but will depend on ram size). – guiverc Feb 11 '20 at 21:47
  • If you have 1gb or more of RAM, I would boot a 'live' installer & try it (try/start and not install) to see if it works there (if it does a re-install maybe worth considering). The i915 driver (driver=i915) is intels so I'd expect it to work, a later version maybe available via https://askubuntu.com/questions/1082499/how-to-get-and-install-intel-i915-drivers-on-ubuntu-18-04 however I doubt that would be necessary. – guiverc Feb 11 '20 at 22:08
  • Thanks again guiverc. Now I realize my choice was no the best when downloading the alternate version. Now Im downloading the desktop 64bits version of lubuntu 18.04.3 (http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/18.04/release/lubuntu-18.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso), will try it on disk as suggested, download restricted extras, install vlc and see what happens. – pol1 Feb 12 '20 at 01:16
  • FYI: `lubuntu.me` is the correct site for Lubuntu; if unsure always use ubuntu.com rather than search engines (e.g https://ubuntu.com/download/flavours will send you to the correct site). It'll also highlight our discourse.lubuntu.me, manual.lubuntu.me & other useful sites, and you can get responses from *devs* and not just me. (our new manual concentrates on LXQt or our newer desktop that reached prime-time in 18.10 or the 2018-October release). If you plan on keeping the machine past 2021-April (3 years from 18.04) it maybe worth considering installing Lubuntu 19.10. – guiverc Feb 12 '20 at 01:22
  • Allright, I burnt a disc with the 18.04.3 lubuntu amd64 bits desktop from lubuntu.me, played a heavy .mkv file with the native gnome mpv player, and magic: it worked perfectly. Then i downloaded vlc and the issue continued, no better. Downloaded `sudo apt install libdvdnav4 libdvdread4 gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-....` hoping that would help, but nothing! For now, i will install the amd64 desktop version, maybe will try the 19.10, and call it a day. Still not knowing what is wrong but happy with gnome mvp – pol1 Feb 12 '20 at 08:38
  • In order to provide closure to the topic, these are the bottomlines of the day: 1.guiverc is the best, thanks for support and for referring me to manual.lubuntu.me, since any of my google searches had ever brought me there, and it is such a helpful site. 2.I have never been anle to know what was the deal with lubuntu18.04.4 alternate and vlc, also vlc didnt work properly with lubuntu 18.04.3 desktop 64. But the mvp player (not gnome mvp) worked great on both. just installing lubuntu-restricted-extras. 3.im moving to lubuntu19.10 – pol1 Feb 13 '20 at 01:14

1 Answers1

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The problem is not with VLC or Lubuntu. It lies with your integrated graphics. These atom processor have Integrated graphics which are infamous for lack of driver support. The GMA (SGX) based integrated graphics in these CPU have no driver support at all on ubuntu 12.10 and above.

Your best bet is to downgrade to 12.04.1 or install windows if you want decent playback.

Alternatively, go to vlc -> preferences -> video and set output to X11 or xvideo. See if that makes it work.

GunJack
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