8

I installed the videolan player

sudo apt-get install vlc-nox

but now if from the terminal I type vlc, instead of a GUI appearing, I get this in the terminal:

fdr@maggie:~$ vlc
VLC media player 2.0.3 Twoflower (revision 2.0.2-93-g77aa89e)
[0x27e2b18] main interface error: no suitable interface module
[0x25ea198] main libvlc error: interface "globalhotkeys,none" initialization failed
[0x25ea198] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
[0x26bb4b8] [cli] lua interface: Listening on host "*console".
VLC media player 2.0.3 Twoflower
Command Line Interface initialized. Type `help' for help.

So the question is:

How do I start the videolan GUI (like the one that runs in Windows)?

3
  • Are you using Ubuntu server or Desktop edition.
    – atenz
    Aug 14, 2012 at 14:50
  • 1
    My fault! The text of the question is wrong, I had installed vlc-nox instead of vlc.
    – fdierre
    Aug 14, 2012 at 15:10
  • Fixed that for you
    – SirCharlo
    Aug 14, 2012 at 15:33

2 Answers 2

8

Using Ubuntu 12.04, this is the result I get from loading vlc from the command line as you have done:

doctormo@delen:~$ vlc
VLC media player 2.0.3 Twoflower (revision 2.0.2-93-g77aa89e)
[0x9b35908] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.

Where upon the graphical front end loaded correctly.

This means that there is something with your installation, or the way your trying to load vlc. If you're logged into another user or computer via the command line, then you can't load the GUI. But you've given no indication you're using a different user (su) or another computer (ssh).

Reinstall vlc like this and try again:

sudo apt-get purge vlc vlc-nox
sudo apt-get install vlc

It should also be available in the Unity/Gnome/KDE menu, it has a desktop icon so you could always use that too. You can force the GUI using these commands:

For KDE/Qt:

vlc --intf qt4

otherwise:

vlc --intf skins2
5
  • While a reinstall may help, it's best to purge because this may be caused by config files. Forcing the interface as in my answer could also work.
    – nanofarad
    Aug 14, 2012 at 14:55
  • 1
    My fault! Instead of vlc I had installed vlc-nox. Obviously your instructions fixed the problem. Thx!
    – fdierre
    Aug 14, 2012 at 15:07
  • Merging your answer OF Aug 14, 2012 at 20:02
  • 2
    Well that's frustrating. If you try and run vlc without having it installed, the error message tells you to install vlc-nox
    – Izkata
    Feb 10, 2014 at 0:14
  • Default frontend is command line interface for me...
    – Calmarius
    Oct 6, 2018 at 13:02
1

I needed to run:

sudo apt-get install vlc-plugin-qt

to get the GUI to launch.

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