Information about coming Music Jukebox 3.0

[yokos]

[EDIT 03/11/2008] This version is out of date. Latest version you can find here.

Hello to all who are interested in using iLiad as a music player.
I can offer brand-new information about my current porting project.

First a bit of history:
It started all months ago. Adam B. ported the Music Player Daemon [mpd] & the command line client mpc. You find the thread here.
I got a new toy [Yamp!]. I have added some shell scripts to make all features of mpd/mpc useable in iLiad's Contentlister.
This is working, last update was uploaded some time ago.

GUI is better than command line bundled with shell scripts in Contentlister:
My current jukebox 2.x is working, but it could be better, of course.
# mpd is compatible to more formats like mpc or flac. Hey, this is geeky, a lossless format on iLiad. It is working on my iLiad.
# The next great step is replacement of the command line client mpc with a Graphical User Interface [GUI] client. I have chosen Gimmix. It is "working", problems are described below. Screenshots are attached.
# I wanna have full access to music library during running ipdf/mobipocket/fbreader

fake FAQ:
[never asked, but could be asked; I decide what FAQ is and what not. ]
Q: We have mpd & mpc. Why change a winning horse?
A: Switching from command line to GUI is a evolutional step. W/o evolution we wouldn't get progress.
Q: Can Gimmix playback xvid, divx files, control my coffee cooking machine, calculate next week lottery's numbers, or enable iLiad's top secret colour mode?
A: No & never will.
Q: That's bad. Why?
A: Your car isn't a rocket plane.
Q: Hey yokos, do you own a mp3 player?
A: Yes, an iLiad. My old Sony MZ-R50 [a MD Walkman] doesn't count.
Q: Can I control music [switching song etc] during reading a pdf?
A: Yep, isn't this cool? This was not possible with command line/Contenlister.

current status/problems of project:
Gimmix is running on my iLiad. This is much more sexy than these entries in Contentlister.


Problems [-> therefore not published yet, but it will be soon, hopefully not iRex' "soon"]:
# 4 icons in Gimmix are missing [very odd] [information, volume control, shuffle, repeat] -> error message of run.sh below gives a first clue
# right-button click of stylus would be cool, because Gimmix has got [right button] Clicking in dialogs
# window of Preferences dialog is too small Solved
# The font of artist/track title is too big.
# The names of playlists generated by mpd are not userfriendly: like genre.100. Solved
# Refreshing screen as always [not a real problem]

run.sh 2> run.error.txt:

(gimmix:980): libglade-WARNING **: unknown property `urgency_hint' for class `GtkWindow'
(gimmix:980): libglade-WARNING **: unknown property `do_overwrite_confirmation' for class `GtkFileChooserButton'
(gimmix:980): Gtk-WARNING **: Could not find the icon 'gnome-fs-home'. The 'hicolor' theme
was not found either, perhaps you need to install it.
You can get a copy from:
	http://freedesktop.org/Software/icon-theme/releases
(gimmix:980): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_tree_view_column_cell_layout_pack_end: assertion `! gtk_tree_view_column_get_cell_info (column, cell)' failed

A small episode of porting/Removing the greatest bug of Gimmix:
It's past 2 o'clock in the morning [It's a Hard Days Night!].
Gimmix has a huge bug. What is the problem? Playback stops all the time, because of this stupid progress bar.
Gimmix tries to update the progres bar [mm:ss, visual position in song], the playback is clipped. What a crap!
I can't publish something like this.
After tweaking the file /mnt/cf/_local/share/gimmix/gimmix.glade [which I knew already because I have set the main
window to

GDK_WINDOW_TYPE_HINT_DIALOG

in this file] the bug is gone. I have set a value to "False". Yamp!

Gimmix' home with screenshots of Gimmix on a Linux PC.

explanation of screenshots:
#1 Gimmix couldn't connect to mpd, because it was not running. [I haven't started mpd.] Gimmix is a client of mpd.
#2 Gimmix/compact mode
#3 Gimmix/full mode
#4 Gimmix/information dialog
#5* Gimmix/mobi [Toolbar/Pagebar moved Gimmix out of bottom of screen]
#6* Gimmix/ipdf
*I removed progress bar as described above.
#7 Gimmix/Playlist Manager/entries in Programs folder.

First beta is out!/added 7th screenshot with Playlist Manager

[Adam B.]

Great work so far. Very impressive.

Pretty soon, you'll have more ports than me. Especially if I don't get shell access soon.

Let me know if you need help with anything. Looks like you're doing great on your own though

[yokos]

Originally Posted by Adam B.

Great work so far. Very impressive.

Pretty soon, you'll have more ports than me. Especially if I don't get shell access soon.

Let me know if you need help with anything. Looks like you're doing great on your own though

I have read somewhere sometimes sometinig about usage of the button on stylus. Was it here? Or on iRex's site.

[EDIT:] First I got this error message when trying to start gimmix:

/usr/local/bin/gimmix: symbol lookup error: /usr/local/lib/libglade-2.0.so.0: undefined symbol: g_object_ref_sink

all the time. But everything was ok. It's just a missing libgobject-2.0.so.0 in lib folder.

[Adam B.]

The factory stylus doesn't really have a button. It looks like it, but it doesn't.

If you have another stylus, you can get button 2 and 3 working on it with a version of the calibration package. This thread at the iRex forum should have all the info you'll need to set it up.

[yokos]

Originally Posted by Adam B.

The factory stylus doesn't really have a button. It looks like it, but it doesn't.

If you have another stylus, you can get button 2 and 3 working on it with a version of the calibration package. This thread at the iRex forum should have all the info you'll need to set it up.

Thx, all linked tar.gz download. It's time to play with it, but I don't have another stylus.

Originally Posted by jayk

I also added a plugin for those who don't have a fancy stylus. It's called the 'taphold' plugin and it lets you put the tip down and hold for a short period (configurable, defaults to half-second), and it will turn the tap into your button 3 (or whatever button you configure).

Oh, this would be nice.
The theme package that maybe solves the missing icon problem.

[yokos]

I have uploaded first beta. I hope you like it.

[yokos]

gmpc is another mpd client, it is more complex than gimmix, it offers more features like cover/artist images, lyrics tags.
A screenshot of running gmpc on my iLiad is attached.
In the position of the CD image would live the cover art if cover art/plugin is found/installed.

Playback is clipped because patched libX11 wants to update screen all the time. [movement of progress bar, update of current playing position]
In gimmix I disabled the progress bar by editing the xml file of the glade interface. This should work here, too.

[yokos]

Those icons in Gimmix are missing which were introduced in a newer version of GTK+ than used on iLiad.
Fixing the glade interface solves this.
Right now I am struggling a bit withe the glade program. I want to get the 2 right vbox buttons in the top hbox to get a much smaller window. I have the feeling it is easier to edit the xml file directly.
The artist/song title will be disabled in next version for the same reason.
The version of glade with comes with openSUSE 10.3 is pretty old & has got no undo feature.
Compiled recent version of gimmix doesn't start because it can't find a shared library.

# Screenshot shows the program glade which can be used to edit the interface of gimmix. [openSUSE 10.3, German localisation].

[EDIT] Current old version of jukebox uses non stripped libraries.

[bennoblumenthal]

I installed the beta of jukebox 3.0 -- works pretty nicely, though some settings I could only do through the contentlister interface, except that I only get the left channel. Is there something I can do?

[yokos]

Originally Posted by bennoblumenthal

I installed the beta of jukebox 3.0 -- works pretty nicely, though some settings I could only do through the contentlister interface, except that I only get the left channel. Is there something I can do?

Very old firmwares had got the right channel missing bug.
your editing reason: "Solved the problem -- fussy miniplug socket, I guess." So, Is it working now?

New version of jukebox is in preparation [latest gimmix version, stripped libraries, fixed gimmix icons...].

[bennoblumenthal]

Originally Posted by yokos

Very old firmwares had got the right channel missing bug.
your editing reason: "Solved the problem -- fussy miniplug socket, I guess." So, Is it working now?

New version of jukebox is in preparation [latest gimmix version, stripped libraries, fixed gimmix icons...].

Yes, it is working now, I just have to be careful about which miniplug cable I use (I remembered the postings about those early firmware problems, which confused me -- nice to have some definitive words).
I am looking forward to the new version -- thank you for your efforts.