I don’t listen to music files all that much with the computer. Generally I am just streaming internet radio. But today I responded to the thread about which programs I use all the time and I mentioned that I sometimes use VLC but it is glitchy. I also sometimes use Strawberry. But both of those programs is having issues today and crashing. Says “illegal instruction” followed by a core dump. Parole Media Player is working just fine for playing the same files.
Maybe I can try again later on the other computer. Weird. Pretty sure that I saw updates for both of them go through in the last day or so.
Well I need to post what happened with VLC and Strawberry. My son, as usual figured it out using coredumpctl… It was libheif-freeworld that was the problem. No issues with my newer computer at all but he removed libheif-freeworld on the older computer and that fixed things. Hmmm… I just got done dealing with conflicts with that very same library… Oh well…
My older computer runs a Phenom II X6 CPU and that is why there was an issue with the instruction set. Funny that the library that caused the problem was the same one that was giving an error a week ago while trying to do updates.
I am still having an issue with VLC. When I got to a directory that has all the ripped wav files from a CD, I have to put the mouse cursor over one of the files until I start to hear that track play. Then (I already have all files highlighted) I can right click and choose “Open with VLC” and it goes to VLC. However, then there is just a pop sound and no music plays. If I back up the progess bar with the cursor sound starts playing normally. A real glitch. But after that happens everything generally works just fine.
So in general the easier choice is to use Strawberry, a program which has some better features anyway. Those glitches with VLC are the reason I got Strawberry in the first place.
Well I think I figured out the issue with VLC and having to move the cursor back in order to get sound output. Went into preferences and chose Pipewire and now it seems to be working properly. The weird thing is that when you go to the field which says “Output module” it says nothing there. But if you click on it you get some choices and I selected Pipewire and that seems to have done the trick. Nuts…