Re: [gentoo-user] xmms alternative

[Sarah <sarah@thenoos.co.uk>]

Dotan Cohen wrote:
> On 23/10/06, Arnau Bria <arnau@emergetux.net> wrote:
>> On Mon, 23 Oct 2006 08:08:08 -0400
>> Dave V wrote:
>>
>> > Hello,
>> Hi,
>>
>> > I just read on the gentoo-dev list that xmms is about to be removed,
>> > but it's probably the only sound player that I've used. Could someone
>> > recommend a good alternative. I'm rather surprised that no one wanted
>> > to maintain the packages.
>>
>> you should, not should, you MUST use Amarok :-)
>>
>> Cheers!
>
> I second that. My search for the ultimate music player has stopped
> with Amarok. Absolutely brilliant. Name a feature- lyrics? wikipedia
> integration? It's got it.
>
> Dotan Cohen
>
> http://rorot.com
> http://what-is-what.com/what_is/linux.html
Hi, I'm new to the list but have been lurking for a while... so forgive 
the slightly long post (bits of 'background' included to put things in 
context)

I tried to get on with Amarok - I tried on my Ubuntu install before I 
discovered Gentoo... thought I'd be bound to get it working with Gentoo 
but couldn't... and tried Rhythmbox in desperation to have something 
play music.

 From what I've seen of Amarok, I'd love it, but I every time I've 
installed it I've run into the same problems:

All our music (about 80 Gb, I think, mainly (but not all) OGG files) is 
stored on a server, accessed on a mounted Samba share.  The share would 
mount correctly - and I tried mounting it with a variety of permissions 
set - but I couldn't get Amarok to 'read' the music collection 
successfully.  I read various man/wiki/help pages which were supposed to 
get it working but I couldn't - and when Amarok bombed out it would take 
the system with it - things would lock up and I ended up have to reboot 
(!) and/or have major problems getting sound to work at all (it seemed 
to come and go, almost without reason).

I'm a relative newbie with linux and have only had my gentoo install up 
and running for about a month now... but I have managed to get most 
other things sorted by *lots* of reading/Googling.  I started off with 
kde, removed that (despite really giving KDE a really good go, I still 
wanted to go back to my Gnome comfort zone!) and installed gnome-light,  
unmasked the ~x86 packages that gnome-light pulled in and upgraded 
them... and sound works at last.  And Rhythmbox works - but I don't like 
it (never have).  I had xmms on my Ubuntu install... and had emerged it 
(now unmerged) to use with Gentoo... and would love to have a simple, 
working Amarok... but I haven't got my bravery together to embark on 
trying again!

I can't help thinking the problem lies with my (lack of) understanding 
of samba - our Squeezebox serves up the music from the samba share 
beautifully - so I'm not sure what I'm getting wrong in how I mount the 
share (mounting exactly the same way is fine for Rhythmbox) for Amarok 
to read.  Maybe I'll have another go one day soon!  If anyone has any 
hot tips or pointers that might help, I'd be grateful - I think I'll 
tear all my hair out if I try to emerge it again and end up with big 
problems with my system (I so want to avoid a problem that I'll be doing 
a full system backup before I have a go).

I wouldn't vote for rhythmbox.  I might try audacious instead.  But I'd 
really like a working amarok!

Sarah


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