Bug 2394950 - No thumbnails for video, music, epub and pdf formats
Summary: No thumbnails for video, music, epub and pdf formats
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED ERRATA
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: glycin
Version: 43
Hardware: x86_64
OS: Linux
unspecified
high
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Aoife Moloney
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard: openqa AcceptedBlocker https://discus...
Depends On: 2394999 2395000
Blocks: F43FinalBlocker
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2025-09-13 12:56 UTC by Victoria
Modified: 2025-10-02 01:21 UTC (History)
14 users (show)

Fixed In Version: glycin-2.0.2-1.fc43
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2025-10-02 01:21:07 UTC
Type: ---
Embargoed:
fedora-admin-xmlrpc: mirror+


Attachments (Terms of Use)


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System ID Private Priority Status Summary Last Updated
Red Hat Issue Tracker FC-2242 0 None None None 2025-09-13 22:15:20 UTC

Description Victoria 2025-09-13 12:56:27 UTC
I use Fedora Silverblue Rawhide. When I rebased to newer version from F42 and changed user, no new thumbnails at all could be generated. There was bug for gdk-pixbuf + glycin not being able to generate thumbnails for image formats, but after today's update, the problem was fixed. Hence this bug report, since I was hoping it would also fix the other problems (if you think I have no idea how thumbnails work, then you're absolutely right, I don't).

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Update to new major version (I use rawhide, but the problem was there in 43 too)
2. rm -rf ~/.cache/thumbnails
Actual Results:
no thumbnails for above mentioned formats

Expected Results:
beautiful thumbnails for my files

Comment 1 Fabio Valentini 2025-09-13 17:27:12 UTC
Sadly, no. glycin is only responsible for image thumbnails (on Fedora 43+).

Video (and I think audio) thumbnails used to be handled by totem-video-thumbnailer - but totem is obsolete, and is getting replaced with Showtime in GNOME 49 / Fedora 43. But Showtime doesn't include a thumbnailer, so there is currently no thumbnailer installed for video and audio files on Fedora 43+.

I think as a workaround, you might be able to layer totem-video-thumbnailer onto your Silverblue install?

As for there being no thumbnails for epub and PDF files, I actually don't know for sure why that would be the case - but I suspect that something similar is needed there (evince-thumbnailer no longer installed by default, and papers-thumbnailer not *yet* getting installed by default). You could try installing papers-thumbnailer too?

Comment 2 Victoria 2025-09-13 17:36:54 UTC
Both evince-thumbnailer and totem-video-thumbnailer are installed on my system by default. I don't understand this. I didn't messed with my install in any way or form. (well, except rebasing to rawhide and switching to bootc, but oh well), so I don't get why that wouldn't work.

Comment 3 Fabio Valentini 2025-09-13 17:39:22 UTC
Hm. Then I suspect that they just got broken by the transition to glycin-only gdk-pixbuf (we've already seen some double-sandboxing issues elsewhere). I've asked in the Workstation room on Matrix, maybe they know more.

Comment 4 Fabio Valentini 2025-09-13 22:12:54 UTC
OK, I've moved this to the "distribution" component, which is for bugs that affect Fedora as a whole. I think this is appropriate, since thumbnail generation on Workstation, Silverblue, and likely other Spins is just mostly broken on Fedora 43+ right now.

I opened separate bugs against gnome-epub-thumbnailer and totem-video-thumbnailer, which both crash on Fedora 43+.

I could not reproduce the issue with PDF thumbnails on my test machine, both evince-thumbnailer and papers-thumbnailer appear to work correctly on a fully up-to-date Fedora 43 install.

And the fact that no video thumbnailer is pre-installed on Fedora 43+ right now is a separate issue ...

Comment 5 Fedora Blocker Bugs Application 2025-09-13 22:31:01 UTC
Proposed as a Blocker for 43-final by Fedora user decathorpe using the blocker tracking app because:

 It appears that generating thumbnails for a large variety of file types is broken on Fedora 43+ right now, which is a significant regression from Fedora 42 and earlier.

No thumbnails for video files - or audio files with cover art - are generated. totem-video-thumbnailer is no longer installed by default on Workstation (or other affected spins) because totem was replaced by Showtime, which does not ship a thumbnailer implementation.

Even after installing totem-video-thumbnailer, it does not work. It seems to crash due to a double-sandboxing issue between gnome-desktop / gnome-thumbnail-factory and gdk-pixbuf2 / glycin.

The same crash also affects generation of thumbnails for eBook files in the EPUB format - gnome-epub-thumbnailer is installed by default.

I think the "Default application functionality" final release criterion applies to this issue, since functionality of the File Manager is significantly impacted, and browsing folders with any video, audio, or EPUB file contents causes crashes of launched thumbnailer processes (even if these are "caught" by parent processes and hence don't show up in abrt).

Comment 6 Adam Williamson 2025-09-13 23:37:04 UTC
aha, I'd noticed thumbnailing issues in openQA tests but hadn't managed to look into it yet.

Comment 7 Lukas Ruzicka 2025-09-15 19:00:01 UTC
Discussed at the 2025-09-15 (blocker / freeze exception) review meeting:

This is accepted as a violation of "The following applications must start successfully and withstand a basic functionality test" for the file manager. It's a close call, but we think thumbnails are sufficiently important that it would create a very bad impression for them to be broken.

https://meetbot-raw.fedoraproject.org//blocker-review_matrix_fedoraproject-org/2025-09-15/f43-blocker-review.2025-09-15-16.00.txt

Comment 8 Michael Catanzaro 2025-09-16 22:18:26 UTC
So we have a two-part plan here:

 * I've created https://pagure.io/fedora-comps/pull-request/1167 to restore totem-video-thumbnailer
 * The thumbnailer is currently broken but will be fixed by the next Glycin update, which Fabio has volunteered to package

The packaging is complicated (split between glycin and rust-glycin) and we expect a new upstream release well before final freeze, so for now we just wait.

Comment 9 Adam Williamson 2025-09-26 19:28:20 UTC
I've merged the comps PR. Waiting on the glycin changes now. Final freeze is Oct 7.

Comment 10 Matthias Clasen 2025-09-27 12:54:44 UTC
A new glycin release is out

Comment 11 Fedora Update System 2025-09-29 21:26:23 UTC
FEDORA-2025-87fb66138f (glycin-2.0.2-1.fc43, rust-fax-0.2.6-1.fc43, and 4 more) has been submitted as an update to Fedora 43.
https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-87fb66138f

Comment 12 Fedora Update System 2025-09-30 01:34:08 UTC
FEDORA-2025-87fb66138f has been pushed to the Fedora 43 testing repository.
Soon you'll be able to install the update with the following command:
`sudo dnf upgrade --enablerepo=updates-testing --refresh --advisory=FEDORA-2025-87fb66138f`
You can provide feedback for this update here: https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-87fb66138f

See also https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Updates_Testing for more information on how to test updates.

Comment 13 Kamil Páral 2025-09-30 08:29:39 UTC
(In reply to Fedora Update System from comment #11)
> FEDORA-2025-87fb66138f (glycin-2.0.2-1.fc43, rust-fax-0.2.6-1.fc43, and 4
> more) has been submitted as an update to Fedora 43.
> https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-87fb66138f

This works on my upgraded system, but in a cleanly installed VM, it doesn't. I'll try to verify once again later, but please somebody try the same use case.

Also, the video and audio (with cover art) thumbnails are only generated for new files. For existing files (which you already saw in a broken state, and show no thumbnail at the moment), the thumbnails don't get regenerated. That's unfortunate, but should only affect pre-release testers. Still, it would be nice if we could fix it.

Comment 14 Kamil Páral 2025-09-30 09:30:46 UTC
Mystery uncovered, totem-video-thumbnailer is not installed by default in F43, and until it is, no audio/video thumbnails are generated. Once I install it, it works even in a fresh F43 install.

Comment 15 Michael Catanzaro 2025-09-30 14:32:52 UTC
Odd. It's part of the gnome-desktop comps group since https://pagure.io/fedora-comps/pull-request/1167

Comment 16 Kamil Páral 2025-10-01 10:02:22 UTC
Ah, that's pretty fresh. I tested now with Fedora-Workstation-Live-43-20250930.n.0.x86_64.iso and indeed, totem-video-thumbnailer is there and with the update, thumbnails work.

Comment 17 Fedora Update System 2025-10-01 15:59:05 UTC
FEDORA-2025-87fb66138f has been pushed to the Fedora 43 testing repository.
Soon you'll be able to install the update with the following command:
`sudo dnf upgrade --enablerepo=updates-testing --refresh --advisory=FEDORA-2025-87fb66138f`
You can provide feedback for this update here: https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-87fb66138f

See also https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Updates_Testing for more information on how to test updates.

Comment 18 Fedora Update System 2025-10-02 01:21:07 UTC
FEDORA-2025-87fb66138f (gdk-pixbuf2-2.44.3-1.fc43, glycin-2.0.2-1.fc43, and 6 more) has been pushed to the Fedora 43 stable repository.
If problem still persists, please make note of it in this bug report.


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