I experienced this same problem after I upgraded packages on my unstable desktop recently: VLC would freeze upon startup and the only recourse was to kill -KILL it.
Following the advice of Bernat Arlandis I tracked down the line in ~/.config/vlc/vlcrc causing the problem on my machine. Having the line (written by a previous version of VLC): control=notify:growl makes VLC 2.0.1-3 exhibit the problem on my machine. Removing that lines fixes it; VLC plays video just fine again. Best regards, Adam -- "You have to photosynthesize" Adam Sjøgren a...@koldfront.dk -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-rc-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org