Bug 327345 - No video devices listed in Phonon KCM module
Summary: No video devices listed in Phonon KCM module
Status: CONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: Phonon
Classification: Frameworks and Libraries
Component: kded module for audio device listing (show other bugs)
Version: 4.7.0
Platform: Mandriva RPMs Linux
: NOR major
Target Milestone: 4.8
Assignee: Harald Sitter
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2013-11-09 03:14 UTC by Pulfer
Modified: 2021-03-09 22:36 UTC (History)
11 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
Missing video devices after update (344.32 KB, image/png)
2013-11-09 03:15 UTC, Pulfer
Details
Hardware tab screenshot (52.14 KB, image/png)
2013-11-09 11:02 UTC, Pulfer
Details
Phonon GST log with no Device Manager module loaded (2.04 KB, text/plain)
2013-11-11 00:35 UTC, Pulfer
Details
Phonon GST log with Device Manager module loaded (6.61 KB, text/plain)
2013-11-11 00:36 UTC, Pulfer
Details

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Description Pulfer 2013-11-09 03:14:44 UTC
After update from 4.6.0 to 4.7.0 there are no video devices listed in Phonon KCM module. 

Also simplecapture demo doesn't capture anything (and I see "Trying to set an invalid MediaSource -> ignoring" in terminal). There's only black box instead of video from WebCam.

Reproducible: Always
Comment 1 Pulfer 2013-11-09 03:15:18 UTC
Created attachment 83442 [details]
Missing video devices after update
Comment 2 Myriam Schweingruber 2013-11-09 08:24:27 UTC
Did you check if there is a profile set in the Hardware tab? I suspect a Pulseaudio problem rather than a Phonon one.
Comment 3 Pulfer 2013-11-09 11:02:57 UTC
Created attachment 83450 [details]
Hardware tab screenshot

(In reply to comment #2)
> Did you check if there is a profile set in the Hardware tab? I suspect a
> Pulseaudio problem rather than a Phonon one.

Profile for webcam is set to analog mono input, see attached screenshot (another available profile there is "Disabled").
Comment 4 Pulfer 2013-11-09 11:17:32 UTC
In case KDE version is important, it's 4.11.3.
Comment 5 Harald Sitter 2013-11-10 23:24:39 UTC
Please get a debug log of `kcmshell4 phonon`

http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Debugging/Phonon#Environment_Variables
Comment 6 Pulfer 2013-11-11 00:35:41 UTC
Created attachment 83481 [details]
Phonon GST log with no Device Manager module loaded
Comment 7 Pulfer 2013-11-11 00:36:15 UTC
Created attachment 83482 [details]
Phonon GST log with Device Manager module loaded
Comment 8 Harald Sitter 2013-11-11 00:41:43 UTC
Is the device listed when running:

QT_NO_GLIB=1 kcmshell4 phonon

and if not... when running

kcmshell4 kded

in the first list, do you see an entry called something like 'sound policy server' and is that thing running?
Comment 9 Pulfer 2013-11-11 01:05:04 UTC
(In reply to comment #8)
> Is the device listed when running:
> 
> QT_NO_GLIB=1 kcmshell4 phonon

No, it's not listed.

> and if not... when running
> 
> kcmshell4 kded
> 
> in the first list, do you see an entry called something like 'sound policy
> server' and is that thing running?

Yes, phononserver is running.
Comment 10 Pulfer 2013-11-12 06:19:02 UTC
BTW, as pulsesupport.cpp doesn't even mention VideoCaptureDevice stuff, can you please advice where to look for video capture devices detection in source code?
Comment 11 Harald Sitter 2013-11-12 10:52:06 UTC
kde-runtime/phonon/kded
Comment 12 Pulfer 2013-11-12 11:53:41 UTC
(In reply to comment #11)
> kde-runtime/phonon/kded

Now I see. The issue was caused not by Phonon 4.7.0 but by this commit: http://quickgit.kde.org/?p=kde-runtime.git&a=commitdiff&h=9c061a16753e8801f157842107cdc19bd06c4533

I reverted it and now WebCam is listed in Video Capture Devices catedory.  And simplecapture demo from Phonon sources works.
Comment 13 Harald Sitter 2013-11-12 12:39:26 UTC
I suspected as much, hence why I moved the bug ;)

The problem is not as straight forward though. Ultimately you should get a device list without the kded module, except you don't which points at problems elsewhere. The module is neither required nor particularly portable (i.e. only supports v4l), so relying on it as we did for a long time is a bad idea.

Without additional pondering on the topic I'd say a fix ought to be in phonon gstreamer really. It should list video devices, and if it listed video devices as expected then it would not be a problem that the kded module is completely deactivated when using PulseAudio.
Comment 14 aldebarab 2013-12-20 19:08:35 UTC
Hello,

same here under debian jessie kde 4.11.3 There is no webcam listed in systemsetting multimedia (kcm_phonon)

kamerka detects the webcam with /dev/vide0
kamoso also is working

Maybe this helps
Comment 15 hhgoten 2014-08-30 15:38:50 UTC
Even under kde 4.13.3 there is no webcam in settings.
Not under phonon nor under input devices , where hardinfo found it.

kamoso works, skype di not until I used guvcview and changed to pulseaudio from portaudio.

its an chicony webcam, works fine after using guvcview . 
Be careful : I was irritated because skype testsound was working fine, testcall didn't work before changes made.
Comment 16 Martin Kho 2014-11-13 10:02:48 UTC
Hi,
FYI:
When using:
* phonon-4.8.1-1.fc21.x86_64 and
* phonon-backend-gstreamer-4.8.0-3.fc21.x86_64
* pulseaudio-5.0-24.20141103gitaec81.fc21.x86_64
my webcam (Logitech C270) is not listed in the Video Recording section(1) of the phonon module, and is NOT working in kamoso. In previous versions of phonon* I have the same behaviour as in the other comments (not listed, but kamoso works).

HTH,

Martin Kho
(1) The webcam is listed in the Audio Recording section.
Comment 17 Kevin Kofler 2014-11-13 14:01:36 UTC
Uh, Kamoso doesn't even use Phonon, it uses QtGStreamer. So I think that either your issues with Kamoso are entirely unrelated to the ones with Phonon, or the issue must be lower in the stack (GStreamer or even kernel).
Comment 18 Orion Poplawski 2014-11-18 03:48:50 UTC
Really?  I see various phonon output when running kamoso with various PHONON_DEBUG variables set, e.g.:

$ kamoso
Object::connect: No such signal org::freedesktop::UPower::DeviceAdded(QString)
Object::connect: No such signal org::freedesktop::UPower::DeviceRemoved(QString)
attempting to load "/usr/lib64/kde4/plugins/phonon_platform/kde.so" 
Phonon::KdePlatformPlugin(0x1ad0770) 
0x1ad0780 
bool Phonon::FactoryPrivate::createBackend() Phonon 4.8.1 trying to create backend... 
kamoso(3617)/kdecore (KSycoca) KSycocaPrivate::openDatabase: Trying to open ksycoca from "/var/tmp/kdecache-orion/ksycoca4"
"PulseSupport(2): Probing for PulseAudio..." 
....
PHONON-GST Using GStreamer 1.4.4 
PHONON-GST AudioOutput using "pulsesink" 
bool Phonon::FactoryPrivate::createBackend() Phonon backend "Gstreamer" version "4.8.0" loaded 
PHONON-GST AudioOutput using "pulsesink" 

Or is it only using phonon for sound output, not video input?
Comment 19 Martin Kho 2014-11-20 11:55:26 UTC
Hi,

Kevin was right, my not working webcam had nothing to do with this issue. With the latest patches applied kamoso is working again, sort  of. Still stands the issue of the non listing of the device in the kcm phonon module.
A funny thing is that in kf5, kde5 or ... the kcm phonon module lists the webcam when the - kf5, kde5 ... only option - 'Show advanced devices' is checked. A webcam is an advanced device? ;-)

Martin Kho
Comment 20 Justin Zobel 2021-03-09 22:36:58 UTC
Thank you for the bug report.

As this report hasn't seen any changes in 5 years or more, we ask if you can please confirm that the issue still persists.

If this bug is no longer persisting or relevant please change the status to resolved.