[vlc-devel] Occasional hang while running VLC as root

[Peter Tap]

Folks,

Enviroment: Ubuntu 12.04 minimal + Openbox. VLC 2.04

In my custom VLC module, I have to obtain some runtime information from the OS that requires root privileges. To solve this problem, I configured vlc to run as root and compiled the code.

This customized version of VLC has been working fine under normal conditions. However, during stress testing, when we run a playlist continuously for a few days, once in a couple of days we see that the system hangs. The keyboard and the mouse do not respond at all. 

There is no other application besides VLC running on the machine. I am wondering if there is any side-effect of running VLC as root that may cause this problem.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Regards,
Peter