Symptom: VLC freezes (stops responding) in about 1-2 sec, and I have to killall -9. I can get it to where it takes longer to freeze and is possible to prod into unfreezing, but that’s the best I can do. It doesn’t matter what video I play, or even the format. It happens on everything. I had a similar issue with previous versions of Whonix but for the life of me can’t remember what I did to solve them other than it involved building my own VLC.
Edit: Updating Virtualbox to 5.0.3 test (r102467) seemed to solved issue. I’ll update if anything changes. I was using 4.3.30 before
It may be a good idea to add release notes that Virtualbox / Windows 10 use Virtualbox 5.0.3 and up. According to Virtualbox devs, there were some Windows 10 fixes in Virtualbox 5.0.3 test.
[s]
I have Whonix 11.0.0.3.0, having let auto updates run
Host: Windows 10 running Virtualbox 4.3.30 r101610, Intel core i7 4-way with 16GB of ram, x86-64
Per FAQ, change following setting:
VLC → Tools → Preferences → Video → Output → X11 → Save
No change, VLC still freezes on every video play after 1-2 sec
kill vlc in terminal just to be safe killall -9 vlc
Then, change the following setting: Tools → Preferences → Input/Codecs → Hardware Accelerated Decoding → Disable → Save
Now it doesn’t freeze every single time (just most times) and often lasts 3-5 seconds before freezing. I can now unfreeze it by ALT+TAB between Linux apps or by clicking “close” on virtualbox and then hitting cancel.
However, it still freezes every 3-5 seconds (with an occasional longer “lucky” period) and I have to keep ALT+TABing to watch a full video. Eventually, entire video plays through this way, and vlc can play another video. On rare occasions, vlc still freezes and I have to hit close on virtualbox window and run killall. But it’s less often now.
Host is working fine, and no other apps are freezing
Any ideas? Any dmesg or other output I should look for, etc?
I would ask vlc people, but this has happened every release of Whonix, so I think it’s something peculiar to whonix. I don’t have the issue with Tails in Virtualbox but I don’t like Tails for many reasons and prefer Whonix.
Issue described here, but already suggested same thing as in Whonix FAQ: Debian Jessie: vlc and mplayer video not working - Debian User Forums
[/s]