VLC 3 Won't Start

Question

• Version: VLC media player 3.0.1 Vetinari (revision 3.0.1-0-gec0f700fcc)
• Ubuntu 18.04

Error:

cannot load module `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/vlc/plugins/gui/libqt_plugin.so' (libQt5Svg.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)

How I got there:

• Installed vlc: sudo apt install vlc
• Installed qt5 (downloaded from the site, followed through the steps, and added to path. Followed the answer at Qt4 interface not working for VLC.

Here's my entire trace when I do vlc -vvv: https://pastebin.com/3wDmGhWV

Solution 1

Ubuntu 18.04 seems to have a problem (at least on my instance) with shared object files that apt/dpkg believes are installed, but the files are missing.

I solved my problem by running vlc -vvv and looking for lines like the following:

main libvlc warning: cannot load module `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/vlc/plugins/gui/libqt_plugin.so' (libQt5Svg.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)

In this case, it's missing the package libqt5svg, which you must reinstall:

sudo apt install --reinstall libqt5svg

Keep doing this until all the missing shared object files are restored, and vlc will launch.

Unfortunately, this is not just a vlc issue, many of my apps are having the same problem.

Solution 2

I removed every trace of VLC

sudo apt remove '^vlc'

Then opened Ubuntu Software, searched "Vlc", then selected the first option.

Not sure what's going on there, but there are 2 VLC in the application store.

Doing sudo apt install vlc seems to install the second VLC in the list (with stars) which doesn't work.

But the first one works, yet has no ratings.

Comments

[KhoPhi]

In my case, after several tries at re-installation of countless broken packages, I simply re-installed Ubuntu 18.04, but this time round, ticking the "install third party packages" whiles connected to internet.

[datashaman]

Weird, I did that too. But I had other issues with the installation, which may have affected it.