Bug 469314

Summary: Elisa no longer starts.
Product: [Applications] Elisa Reporter: Peter <peter>
Component: generalAssignee: Matthieu Gallien <matthieu_gallien>
Status: RESOLVED DOWNSTREAM    
Severity: major CC: jackhill3103, nate
Priority: NOR    
Version: unspecified   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Ubuntu   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Peter 2023-05-03 15:19:50 UTC
SUMMARY
***
NOTE: If you are reporting a crash, please try to attach a backtrace with debug symbols.
See https://community.kde.org/Guidelines_and_HOWTOs/Debugging/How_to_create_useful_crash_reports
***


STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Update Kubuntu to 23.04
2. Log in with Wayland
3. Try to start Elisa

OBSERVED RESULT
Elisa does not start. The bouncy cursor icon does its thing for a couple of seconds then nothing.

EXPECTED RESULT
Elisa starts and joy is unconfined.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Windows: 
macOS: 
Linux/KDE Plasma: Kubuntu 23.04
(available in About System)
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.104.0
Qt Version: 5.15.8

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Elisa was fine under 22.10, including when I started using Wayland. I can't think of anything I did that I don't normally do when I decide to put music on. I had just booted the machine and opened Dolphin and my nextcloud server was mounted. I tried a restart (obvs) and looked for bug reports online.
Comment 1 Jack Hill 2023-05-03 16:03:59 UTC
What is the output when you try to run Elisa from a terminal?
Comment 2 Peter 2023-05-04 06:22:37 UTC
(In reply to Jack Hill from comment #1)
> What is the output when you try to run Elisa from a terminal?

>Hi Jack, 
This is it:

peter@Asus-dtop:~$ elisa
Hspell: can't open /usr/share/hspell/hebrew.wgz.sizes.
kf.sonnet.clients.hspell: HSpellDict::HSpellDict: Init failed
qrc:/qml/ElisaMainWindow.qml:18:1: QML ElisaMainWindow: Accessible must be attached to an Item
file:///usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/qml/org/kde/kirigami.2/Page.qml:359: Error: Cannot assign QObject* to PageRow_QMLTYPE_211*
file:///usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/qml/org/kde/kirigami.2/Page.qml:359: Error: Cannot assign QObject* to PageRow_QMLTYPE_211*
org.kde.elisa.indexers.manager: Local file system indexer is inactive
org.kde.elisa.indexers.manager: Baloo indexer is unavailable
org.kde.elisa.indexers.manager: Baloo indexer is inactive
KCrash: crashing... crashRecursionCounter = 2
KCrash: Application Name = elisa path = /usr/bin pid = 2538
KCrash: Arguments: /usr/bin/elisa 
The Wayland connection experienced a fatal error: Bad file descriptor

I have also got a backtrace file. I followed the instructions in the bugzilla section on reporting a crash and it gave an output file, but I really didn't know what I was doing, so it may be useless. I can attach it if you like. I wasn't sure whether failure to start is the same as a crash.
Comment 3 Peter 2023-05-04 14:26:38 UTC
I've been posting about this on reddit - r/kubuntu - and someone said this:
"It's a Kubuntu thing. I tried it on Fedora 38 KDE a few weeks ago and it worked fine, both rpm and flatpak."

Also, I've looked at the terminal output that you asked for, Jack, and did a search for the hspell Hebrew thing. I don't use a Hebrew dictionary, so wouldn't have installed it, although I may have downloaded a file that included Hebrew text at some point as I went through a bit of a biblical history phase several years back. However, that was long before I installed Kubuntu and probably before I even owned this machine.

This post suggests a solution for a related problem with Kate: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=421451 It seems a bit odd, though. Why would a music player bundle with a dictionary for a language other than the system one?
Comment 4 Peter 2023-05-06 09:53:16 UTC
User Captain150 on the thread "Lovely Elisa isn't playing" (https://www.reddit.com/r/Kubuntu/comments/136oghe/lovely_elisa_isnt_playing/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) on r/kubuntu has posted a workaround: install VLC. It's worked for me. Unfortunately, I don't know how to check which part of VLC was missing from Elisa. If you want me to do any further investigation, I'm happy to do so. Just let me know what I need to try.
Comment 5 Nate Graham 2023-05-15 20:43:47 UTC
If installing VLC fixes the issue, that indicates it's a Kubuntu packaging problem. What would be happening is that Elisa is looking for its VLC backend, but it's not installed, so it dies.

Not having it installed should be impossible. Please report this to the Kubuntu packagers. It's awfully disappointing that we still have to fight issues like this in 2023. :/
Comment 6 Peter 2023-05-16 16:38:02 UTC
Thanks Nate,

I will do that, if I can discover who the packagers are. I'll ask on Reddit.

Thanks to everyone for addressing this.