Bug#700752: modal Privacy... window shown _after_ starting playing; unclear config.

Daniel B. dsb at smart.net
Sat Feb 16 22:44:02 UTC 2013


Package: vlc
Version: 1.1.3-1squeeze6
Severity: normal

When I ran vlc with some audio files as command-line arguments, vlc started 
playing that set of files and then displayed the Privacy and Network Policies 
window/dialog.  Because that dialog is modal, I couldn't  control (not even 
pause!) the playback until I finished with that dialog.  


I couldn't finish with that dialog right away because it wasn't clear what
the check box labeled "Allow fetching media information from Internet" 
really meant.  

The phrase "media information" is uselessly ambiguous:  "Media" files are 
information, so the label might refer to retrieving remote audio/video 
files.  On the other hand, "media information" might have been meant to
mean associated information (CDDB-style title/artist/etc. information?), 
so the label might refer to remote lookups of that information.

Note that the "Privacy and Network Warning" text doesn't help.  It says,
in part:

   VLC ... can get informations from the Internet in order to
   get media informations ...

which is next to useless.)




So:

1. VLC should not start playing anything before popping up that (and
   many any other or some other) modal dialog.  (Alternatively, making 
   that dialog non-modal would also solve the problem here.)

2. The wording of that check-box label (and the warning text) should be 
   clear.


Daniel


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 6.0.6
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages vlc depends on:
ii  libaa1                1.4p5-38           ascii art library
ii  libc6                 2.11.3-4           Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libfreetype6          2.4.2-2.1+squeeze4 FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii  libfribidi0           0.19.2-1           Free Implementation of the Unicode
ii  libgcc1               1:4.4.5-8          GCC support library
ii  libgl1-mesa-glx [libg 7.7.1-5            A free implementation of the OpenG
ii  libqtcore4            4:4.6.3-4+squeeze1 Qt 4 core module
ii  libqtgui4             4:4.6.3-4+squeeze1 Qt 4 GUI module
ii  libsdl-image1.2       1.2.10-2+b2        image loading library for Simple D
ii  libsdl1.2debian       1.2.14-6.1         Simple DirectMedia Layer
ii  libstdc++6            4.4.5-8            The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  libtar                1.2.11-6           C library for manipulating tar arc
ii  libvlccore4           1.1.3-1squeeze6    base library for VLC and its modul
ii  libx11-6              2:1.3.3-4          X11 client-side library
ii  libx11-xcb1           2:1.3.3-4          Xlib/XCB interface library
ii  libxcb-keysyms1       0.3.6-1            utility libraries for X C Binding 
ii  libxcb-randr0         1.6-1              X C Binding, randr extension
ii  libxcb-shm0           1.6-1              X C Binding, shm extension
ii  libxcb-xv0            1.6-1              X C Binding, xv extension
ii  libxcb1               1.6-1              X C Binding
ii  libxext6              2:1.1.2-1          X11 miscellaneous extension librar
ii  ttf-freefont          20090104-7         Freefont Serif, Sans and Mono True
ii  vlc-nox               1.1.3-1squeeze6    multimedia player and streamer (wi
ii  zlib1g                1:1.2.3.4.dfsg-3   compression library - runtime

Versions of packages vlc recommends:
ii  vlc-plugin-notify        1.1.3-1squeeze6 LibNotify plugin for VLC
ii  vlc-plugin-pulse         1.1.3-1squeeze6 PulseAudio plugin for VLC

Versions of packages vlc suggests:
pn  mozilla-plugin-vlc            <none>     (no description available)
pn  videolan-doc                  <none>     (no description available)

Versions of packages vlc-nox depends on:
ii  liba52-0.7.4      0.7.4-14               library for decoding ATSC A/52 str
ii  libasound2        1.0.23-2.1             shared library for ALSA applicatio
ii  libass4           0.9.9-1                library for SSA/ASS subtitles rend
ii  libavahi-client3  0.6.27-2+squeeze1      Avahi client library
ii  libavahi-common3  0.6.27-2+squeeze1      Avahi common library
ii  libavc1394-0      0.5.3-1+b2             control IEEE 1394 audio/video devi
ii  libavcodec52      4:0.5.9-1              ffmpeg codec library
ii  libavformat52     4:0.5.9-1              ffmpeg file format library
ii  libavutil49       4:0.5.9-1              ffmpeg utility library
ii  libc6             2.11.3-4               Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libcaca0          0.99.beta17-1          colour ASCII art library
ii  libcddb2          1.3.2-2                library to access CDDB data - runt
ii  libcdio10         0.81-4                 library to read and control CD-ROM
ii  libdbus-1-3       1.2.24-4+squeeze1      simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libdc1394-22      2.1.2-3                high level programming interface f
ii  libdca0           0.0.5-3                decoding library for DTS Coherent 
ii  libdirac-encoder0 1.0.2-3                open and royalty free high quality
ii  libdvbpsi6        0.1.7-1                library for MPEG TS and DVB PSI ta
ii  libdvdnav4        4.1.3-7                DVD navigation library
ii  libdvdread4       4.1.3-10               library for reading DVDs
ii  libebml0          0.7.7-3.1              access library for the EBML format
ii  libfaad2          2.7-6                  freeware Advanced Audio Decoder - 
ii  libflac8          1.2.1-2+b1             Free Lossless Audio Codec - runtim
ii  libfontconfig1    2.8.0-2.1              generic font configuration library
ii  libfreetype6      2.4.2-2.1+squeeze4     FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii  libfribidi0       0.19.2-1               Free Implementation of the Unicode
ii  libgcc1           1:4.4.5-8              GCC support library
ii  libgcrypt11       1.4.5-2                LGPL Crypto library - runtime libr
ii  libgnutls26       2.8.6-1+squeeze2       the GNU TLS library - runtime libr
ii  libgpg-error0     1.6-1                  library for common error values an
ii  libkate1          0.3.7-3                Kate is a codec for karaoke and te
ii  liblircclient0    0.8.3-5                infra-red remote control support -
ii  liblua5.1-0       5.1.4-5                Simple, extensible, embeddable pro
ii  libmad0           0.15.1b-5              MPEG audio decoder library
ii  libmatroska0      0.8.1-1.1              extensible open standard audio/vid
ii  libmodplug1       1:0.8.8.1-1+squeeze2   shared libraries for mod music bas
ii  libmpcdec6        2:0.1~r459-1           MusePack decoder - library
ii  libmpeg2-4        0.4.1-3                MPEG1 and MPEG2 video decoder libr
ii  libmtp8           1.0.3-1+squeeze2       Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) libr
ii  libncursesw5      5.7+20100313-5         shared libraries for terminal hand
ii  libogg0           1.2.0~dfsg-1           Ogg bitstream library
ii  libpng12-0        1.2.44-1+squeeze4      PNG library - runtime
ii  libpostproc51     4:0.5.9-1              ffmpeg video postprocessing librar
ii  libproxy0         0.3.1-2+squeeze1       automatic proxy configuration mana
ii  libraw1394-11     2.0.5-2                library for direct access to IEEE 
ii  libschroedinger-1 1.0.9-2                library for encoding/decoding of D
ii  libshout3         2.2.2-5+b1             MP3/Ogg Vorbis broadcast streaming
ii  libsmbclient      2:3.5.6~dfsg-3squeeze8 shared library for communication w
ii  libspeex1         1.2~rc1-1              The Speex codec runtime library
ii  libstdc++6        4.4.5-8                The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  libswscale0       4:0.5.9-1              ffmpeg video scaling library
ii  libtag1c2a        1.6.3-1                TagLib Audio Meta-Data Library
ii  libtheora0        1.1.1+dfsg.1-3         The Theora Video Compression Codec
ii  libtwolame0       0.3.12-1               MPEG Audio Layer 2 encoding librar
ii  libudev0          164-3                  libudev shared library
ii  libupnp3          1:1.6.6-5              Portable SDK for UPnP Devices, ver
ii  libv4l-0          0.8.0-1                Collection of video4linux support 
ii  libvcdinfo0       0.7.23-4+b2            library to extract information fro
ii  libvlc5           1.1.3-1squeeze6        multimedia player and streamer lib
ii  libvlccore4       1.1.3-1squeeze6        base library for VLC and its modul
ii  libvorbis0a       1.3.1-1+squeeze1       The Vorbis General Audio Compressi
ii  libvorbisenc2     1.3.1-1+squeeze1       The Vorbis General Audio Compressi
ii  libxml2           2.7.8.dfsg-2+squeeze6  GNOME XML library
ii  zlib1g            1:1.2.3.4.dfsg-3       compression library - runtime

Versions of packages libvlc5 depends on:
ii  libc6                    2.11.3-4        Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libvlccore4              1.1.3-1squeeze6 base library for VLC and its modul

Versions of packages libvlccore4 depends on:
ii  libc6                  2.11.3-4          Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libdbus-1-3            1.2.24-4+squeeze1 simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  vlc-data               1.1.3-1squeeze6   Common data for VLC

Versions of packages vlc is related to:
pn  libavutil50                   <none>     (no description available)
pn  libavutil51                   <none>     (no description available)

-- no debconf information



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