Missing Rhythmbox ID3 tag demuxer plugin

**Rowan Berkeley** · July 19th, 2009

Apparently this problem came up with previous versions of Rhythmbox, and a fix was supposedly found and applied, but I have Ubuntu 9.04 and the latest Rhythmbox release, and I still get the problem. What it is is that on every startup of Rhythmbox it asks to search for a missing ID3 tag demuxer plugin and then fails to find one. Previous discussions have stated that there is one inside one of the "good", "bad" or "ugly" gstreamer plugins accessible via Synaptic, and I have installed pretty well all of them (obtained using the keyword "gstreamer" in the Synaptic search box), and still the problem recurs.

The previous discussion to which I refer is here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ox/+bug/343707
and there is some mention of "good", "bad" and "ugly" plugins here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-333690.html
but it is two years old and rather inconclusive.

**vinutux** · July 19th, 2009

Try banshee instead of Rhythmbox.....

Code:

sudo apt-get install banshee

**Rowan Berkeley** · July 19th, 2009

I have tried Banshee (which incidentally is markedly inferior to Rhythmbox in its ability to read tags), but Rhythmbox is the default music player for all versions of Ubuntu, and this is a long-running bug. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a fix for it.

**Stochastic** · July 20th, 2009

Thread moved to Multimedia & Video.

It should be noted that Rhythmbox development is in the process of shutting down (if it hasn't fully died already); the core developer cited the inflexible backend as the main reason to stop. So due to lack of upstream development there's a major likelihood that the bugs you experience now will continue to be experienced for years to come. Future Ubuntu versions will no doubt have a different default music player.

However, the beauty of the GPL license allows you or the community at large to do whatever you like with the Rhythmbox codebase, so if you feel like coding up a solution to that bug, you're welcome to it.... ...just be aware that the previous developers of that codebase got sick of dealing with the headaches inherent in it.

**Rowan Berkeley** · July 20th, 2009

I shall not regard that as a thread-closing comment. Rhythmbox is still being used on new distributions of Ubuntu -- I bought my current computer brand new, two weeks ago, with Jaunty ready installed, and this is what I got. I expect a constructive reply.