How to stop the VLC media player from playing

You cannot hit the "Stop" button? Like in a usual CD player?

If you really cannot stop it, the die-hard method would be to go to the main menu, go to "System-->Administration-->System Monitor" and search for vlc, right-click on it and "kill" it. It is sometimes necessary to kill apps if they crash or are in other ways unresponsive.

 Status: Open => Answered

Bernhard proposed the following answer:
You cannot hit the "Stop" button? Like in a usual CD player?

If you really cannot stop it, the die-hard method would be to go to the
main menu, go to "System-->Administration-->System Monitor" and search
for vlc, right-click on it and "kill" it. It is sometimes necessary to
kill apps if they crash or are in other ways unresponsive.

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Yes and no. I can 2hit" the stop button = a small black square- i.e the third button from the left in the menu. But it does not respond; hence the desired consequence is not achieved!
I now intend to try your method.
Thanks for your time.
M. Bjornbak

I put a "kill" button on my taskbar by right-clicking on the taskbar and selecting "Add to Panel" then scrolled down to the icon that looks like a broken window.

It sounds like your vlc might be a little bit broken though and worth repairing through the "Recovery Mode" in the boot-up menu. Just try the "Repair broken packages" option and see if that helps. Most of the things in Recovery Mode are worth running once a month or so.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Thanks Tom
I have now tried the following steps:
Reparing all the Ubuntu supporting VLC packages in the repository
Your fast "kill it" approach.
Alas. I am stll back to square one.
My next step will probably to uninstall completly and the reinstall again.
M Bjornbak

Reinstalling the whole system would be an overkill, I guess. Please describe more exactly what happens when you try to kill the application with the System Monitor "kill" command.

If you really feel the need to reinstall try doing it over the top of what you already have to retain working settings, updates and data (hopefully).

Try using the Ubuntu Cd as a "Live Cd" (means without installing anything for the moment). From the desktop click on
System - Administration - Partition Editor
and make sure that the Ubuntu partition (should be ext3) and the linux-swap partition are not on "Logical Partitions" inside an "Extended Partition". The OS and the swap work much better on proper Primary Partitions. Of course drives can only have 4 proper partitions so an "Extended Partition" is useful if you need extra partitions for data and stuff.

The LiveCd session has an installer on the desktop. About halfway through, when you get to "Partitioning" try the "Manual Partitioning" and make sure that all the partitions are UNticked for "Format Partition?" also set the "Mount Point" of the Ubuntu partition to "/" because that tells it where to put Ubuntu. I would back up all the "/home" folder just in case it did reformat anything. While you're using this route it might be worth making sure your "linux-swap" partition is about 2xRam size.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Thank you for coming back to me.
It would probably be better if I were to start form the beginning. I am very
new to Ububtu. In other word a 100 pct. novice.
Irrespective of this fact I have purchased an USB turntable [LENCO] in order
to transfer my old jazz LP´s from vinyl to my hard disk on my PC which runs
on Ubuntu.

The software used in this exercise was Audacity. I have succeeded in
recording one side of an old Billy Holiday LP. Thus far, I could not verify
the recording by playing it on Audacity. And Yes, I used the export facility
in Audacity to save it in ogg vorbis format. Audacity generates .aup files
which apparently other programs are unable to read

In desperation I managed to import the file and several other files into VLC
from in order to compare the sound quality between VLC and Rhytmbox.
After hitting the play button in VLC I was able to verify that the recording
(stemming from Audacity) was successful. When I wanted to stop, I was unable
to do so.

Now, responding to your question.

When using Tom´s suggestion, the VLC window disappeared but the sound
persisted. However, I noticed one strange phenomenon. When I started the
play exercise in VLC, I could see the playlist in the window. When I applied
the kill- it- method, the list was no longer visible in the window! Perhaps
I killed the "wrong" window?

Please excuse my longwinded- but contextual- explanation.

M Bjornbak

-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: <email address hidden> [mailto:<email address hidden>] På vegne af
Bernhard
Sendt: 10. marts 2009 14:46
Til: <email address hidden>
Emne: Re: [Question #63701]: How to stop the VLC media player from playing

Your question #63701 on vlc in ubuntu changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/vlc/+question/63701

    Status: Open => Needs information

Bernhard requested for more information:
Reinstalling the whole system would be an overkill, I guess. Please
describe more exactly what happens when you try to kill the application
with the System Monitor "kill" command.

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Fantastic though. A good choice in music! Ogg vorbis is probably the best format and a number of linux programs can probably make it playable in Windows too. Windows tends to prefer fairly rubbish formats for things but doing it right and being able to produce translations seems much the best route. Now i think about it i seem to remember some Windows programs starting to read Ogg Vorbis but i really can't remember Windows too well now ;)

I'm curious how large the files are in Mb or Kb? If you have the window/console open that lists all the files and single click on one of the files it should show you the size in the grey bar at the bottom of the console. Also i'm curious if you can make a music dvd/cd using

Applications - Sound&Video - Brasero

and just drag and drop the Ogg Vorbis files into the right-hand pane? Brasero would call it an "Audio Project" It's probably best to test it with a few cheap "write once" cd's.

I don't think that vlc is the best thing to play music with but it's good to test these things out every so often to see how things change. Is Totem any good for playing music? Again it's mainly meant as a movie player so perhaps not best for music.

It sounds like there is something very wrong with your vlc at the moment. it might be worth trying playing a movie with it and see what results you get for that. Also it might be good to search around in Synaptic to see what results you get using the search tools for "music" and "audio playback" and searches like that.

Find Synaptic by going up to the top taskbar and click on

System - Administration - Synaptic Package Managers (the sub-menu is alphabetical)

it asks for your normal user password, not your SuperUser/Root one. The "Search" hunts around in the descriptions as well as the titles. All packages that you already have installed are marked with a green blob. Install others using a right-click option and then click on the "Apply" button. Updates work better through Synaptic sometimes too.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Another idea would be to test amarok. It's the best audio player out there imho. To install:

sudo apt-get install amarok

Thank you very to Bernhard and Tom for your valuable help

This appears to be a "never ending story". For the time beeing I seem to have sufficient tools in the toolbox for some time.
Before signing out, I wonder whether it would be possible for me to return to this thread if I manage to solve the various mysteries?-- sort of writing the last chapter in a detective story!
Furthermore, I wonder whether you are able to tell me which Ubuntu feature/program makes it possible to generate sound from files in the the home/music directory??
When I placed to curser on the file [ from the USB turntable via Audacious and saved as ogg vorbis] in the directory and left it there its contents became audible. I did not launch any audio player. I just by incidence placed the cursor and Bily Holidays voice was heard and it continued to play! Perhaps another amateur question?

Sincerely yours
M Bjornbak

Yes, you can follow the links in the email to the launchpad site and the thread of this question. However, questions that aren't marked as solved are wiped out in something like 5-15 days. Also we tend to only look at new questions as they arise and it's just pure luck who happens to be in and answering. It's usually best to ask a new question.
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+addquestion

Visiting the launchpad site in your web-browser (probably firefox) will hopefully clear up a few mysteries. We are almost entirely volunteers and could always do with help in one area or another. A fresh perspective is always good to add in to the Ubuntu community.

I've not noticed that effect but now that i have noticed it i am clueless where to find out how that happens. If you go up to the "View" menu you might be able to turn it off - perhaps by un-ticking thumbnails? Doesn't sound like a good thing to try though.

Thanks and regards from
Tom :)

If you put the cursor on a file, isn't it simply using the default player? Which is usually totem?

Probably, and amarok does ring a bell as a good music package - i think it was the one i was trying to remember. :)