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papajo
Asked: 2017-01-24 13:59:27 +0800 CST

VLC won't open video files from a secondary internal hard disk

  • 772

I have installed Ubuntu 16.10 on a 120GB hard disk (sda) and I have a secondary internal hard disk 500GB (sdc) which has nothing else but a folder with video files in it.

When I try to open a video with VLC on that sdc drive I get this error:

File reading failed:
VLC could not open the file "/media/"username"/"hardisksdcname"/Videos/"videofoldername"/"videoname".avi" (Permission denied).
Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'file:///media/"username"/"harddisksdcname"/Videos/"videofoldername"/"videoname".avi'. Check the log for details.

The permissions are "read and write" for all (root and others).

When I copy the video to my desktop and then try to play it with VLC (from the desktop source copy) it works but when I try to strictly play it from my SDC hard drive this error appears.

I don't know where VLC stores its log file.

This is how my devices show up:

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
loop1    7:1    0   115M  0 loop /snap/vlc/4  ***<--whats that?***
sdb      8:16   0 447,1G  0 disk 
sr0     11:0    1   1,1G  0 rom  /media/papajo/Ubuntu 15.10 amd64
loop2    7:2    0   228K  0 loop /snap/htop/68
loop0    7:0    0    76M  0 loop /snap/core/714
sdc      8:32   0 465,8G  0 disk 
└─sdc1   8:33   0 465,8G  0 part 
sda      8:0    0 119,2G  0 disk 
├─sda2   8:2    0 102,8G  0 part /
├─sda3   8:3    0    16G  0 part [SWAP]
└─sda1   8:1    0   512M  0 part /boot/efi
sr1     11:1    1   1,5G  0 rom  /media/papajo/Ubuntu 16.10 amd64
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4 Answers

  1. sudo snap remove vlc

    Then install it using APT:

    sudo apt-get install vlc
    • 18

  2. If you're using the snap vlc, by default it'll be confined. To get around that, remove it:

    sudo snap remove vlc

    Then install from the command line:

    sudo snap install --classic  vlc

    This will allow browsing & loading files outside of $HOME

    Please note: that on 16.04 with current snapd package this is no longer needed, vlc can browse mounted volumes, obviously same is true for 18.04.

    --classic is basically the old --devmode option.

    Though atm there seems no way to use hardware decoding with snaps, if that matters to you...

    • 16

  3. In my case, I had to change ownership of the video file from root to the user I was logged on as. Then the file would play. I am using Ubuntu 20.04, installed VLC via snap.

    • 1

  4. Without uninstalling and reinstalling VLC, you can see or listen to your local media files by moving the audio/video file to /home/<your-name>/snap/vlc/<example-audio-file>

    • -1