Rhythmbox 3.4.6 on Ubuntu 24.04: Playback Freeze with FLAC Files Despite GStreamer Plugins Installed

Hello community,

I am encountering a recurring issue with Rhythmbox (version 3.4.6, from the Ubuntu 24.04 repositories) where playback of FLAC files consistently freezes after 20–30 seconds. The application does not crash outright, but the playback cursor stalls while the UI remains responsive.

This seems to be a mismatch between Rhythmbox’s GStreamer backend and the installed codec plugins, as MP3 and OGG files play without any problems. I have verified that the gstreamer1.0-plugins-good, gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad, and gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly packages are installed and up-to-date.

System and Software Details

OS: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat)
Device: Dell XPS 15 (2022 model, Intel i7, 32GB RAM)
Software: Rhythmbox 3.4.6, GStreamer 1.22, gstreamer1.0-plugins-good/bad/ugly, libflac12 (all confirmed installed and updated for 24.04).

Has anyone else experienced this playback freeze with FLAC files in Rhythmbox on Noble? Any guidance on debugging GStreamer’s codec handling or forcing Rhythmbox to use an alternative backend would be greatly appreciated.

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