Thanks for reporting this bug. The sound menu shows vlc as inactive because vlc reports that it cannot raise its main window:
$ gdbus call --session --dest org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc --object-path /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 --method org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get 'org.mpris.MediaPlayer2' 'CanRaise' (<false>,) Also, the sound menu doesn't handle multimedia keys. That's up to the application. ** Package changed: indicator-sound (Ubuntu) => vlc (Ubuntu) -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of DX Packages, which is subscribed to indicator-sound in Ubuntu. Matching subscriptions: dx-packages https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1331460 Title: vlc sound-menu entry broken 14.04 Status in “vlc” package in Ubuntu: New Bug description: I can observe some weird behaviour (see also http://askubuntu.com/questions/481713/vlc-sound-menu-integration-broken-14-04 ) where the sound-menu entry is insensitive to anything, only when vlc is running; when closing vlc one can use the entry to open it again, but as soon as it is running the entry becomes insensitive (which means, that the back/forward/play buttons do not work) again; Moreover the multimedia-keys do not work for vlc. All other players spotify, gmusicbrowser, gnome-mplayer work flawlessly... I'm Running ubuntu 14.04 and vlc 2.1.4 To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/vlc/+bug/1331460/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~dx-packages Post to : dx-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~dx-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp