Linux.... mediamonkey.... meant to be..?

Owyn · Post by **Owyn** » Fri May 02, 2008 5:24 am

Just went through my archive of installers for Windows.

Looks like I only have a few other apps that do not have native Linux versions or suitable replacements. They could all be a bit of a bitch however.

- eBookwise Libarian. Update my eBook reader from my PC eBook library. Needs a special USB driver on Windows.

- Overdrive Media Console. Download audio books from my library. Format is protected wma.

- DebugView. robitjo tested this and noted it as not working. He did provide a workaround, so...

and of course
- MediaMonkey

Owyn · Post by **Owyn** » Fri May 02, 2008 9:05 am

Update:
ODM refuses to even installl. It does not trust it's own source. In any event it is tightly integrated with WMP9+ and requires a "special security update" for WMP to handle it's DRM.

eBookwise librarian has no USB driver available for Linux. The convert/prepare ebook file function works but the sync with eBook reader function only works from Windows. Also needed one winetrick to get it that far.

Looks like I will keep this system as dual boot for a while. If the MM+Wine tests get reasonably successful I should be able to run primarily in Ubuntu. So, in other words, time to get to the "primary" task.

botijo · Post by **botijo** » Fri May 02, 2008 5:37 pm

I am trying to backtrack the wininet errors. The furthest I got was this point (I hope this is it):

Code: Select all

0062:Call wininet.HttpOpenRequestA(00000002,0140ffa8 "GET",02aa27e4 "/opml/1817",005dd750 "HTTP/1.0",00000000,00000000,84000000,00000000) ret=005dd4b6
0062:Ret  wininet.HttpOpenRequestA() retval=00000003 ret=005dd4b6

I wonder what that retval=3 can stand for. I got a hunch how to debug this, but it will take some time.
By the way, I made some small edits to the wiki with whatever I tested today.

Owyn · Post by **Owyn** » Fri May 02, 2008 6:26 pm

Hmmmm. Wonder if installing IEs4Linux would help.

http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page

Owyn · Post by **Owyn** » Fri May 02, 2008 6:40 pm

botijo wrote:By the way, I made some small edits to the wiki with whatever I tested today.

Installation packages install correctly, but Xubuntu file manager (dunno if it happens with vanilla Ubuntu one) does not register the filetype with MM.

Running with stock Ubuntu so should be able to resolve this quickly.

There is also the question that WINE might not be able to translate Unix paths into Windows paths, so the only way to do this is to have the file in the same directory of MM (or in any child one) and execute MM directly from there.

Test of Ctrl+D (Change Directory) function in MP3Tag and Open File in Notetab Pro both had no problem with paths. I am curious however about what the Media Ids will be in MM.DB.

botijo · Post by **botijo** » Sat May 03, 2008 3:40 am

Hi, Owyn,
I made the text a little bit understable now. Sorry if you misundestood,
Regards.

Owyn · Post by **Owyn** » Sat May 03, 2008 8:21 am

Thanks botijo,

Reviewed changes and made some others (mainly editorial). Will have larger submission later today. Need to clear away some real world tasks first.

Owyn · Post by **Owyn** » Sat May 03, 2008 12:04 pm

Added Installation Summary section to Wiki.
http://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index.p ... on_Summary

Was stuck at OLE init error until I cleaned up the plugins. Now looking at Tip of the Day.

More later, in and out for rest of the day.

Owyn · Post by **Owyn** » Sat May 03, 2008 4:38 pm

Decided to run a "burn in" test this afternoon.

Used My Computer node to locate and queue up a variety of music.

First test was a short mix of mp3, wma(unprotected) and m4a(unprotected, enhanced).. mp3 and wma play without problems. m4a can not be played and gray out in Now Playing, etc as soon as attempted. Properties sheet available, but...

Second test was to grab a pile of songs (4 hours, mix of mp3 and wma) and let it rip. Combination of system otherwise idle and sometimes hectic browsing via FF3b5.

No artifacts noted in sound. No crashes in MM. Now back to my household chores, got to get them done so I can get out to the jam.

nohitter151 · Post by **nohitter151** » Sat May 03, 2008 5:14 pm

Owyn wrote:Decided to run a "burn in" test this afternoon.

Used My Computer node to locate and queue up a variety of music.

First test was a short mix of mp3, wma(unprotected) and m4a(unprotected, enhanced).. mp3 and wma play without problems. m4a can not be played and gray out in Now Playing, etc as soon as attempted. Properties sheet available, but...

Second test was to grab a pile of songs (4 hours, mix of mp3 and wma) and let it rip. Combination of system otherwise idle and sometimes hectic browsing via FF3b5.

No artifacts noted in sound. No crashes in MM. Now back to my household chores, got to get them done so I can get out to the jam.

m4a playback requires quicktime components. Perhaps try installing quicktime lite on WINE?

Owyn · Post by **Owyn** » Sat May 03, 2008 9:25 pm

nohitter151 wrote:m4a playback requires quicktime components. Perhaps try installing quicktime lite on WINE?

Installed qtlite251.exe.
http://www.free-codecs.com/QT_Lite_download.htm

Good News. That fixes m4a playback.

Bad News. Does really interesting things to xorg when the track starts to play.

botijo · Post by **botijo** » Sun May 04, 2008 5:59 am

Great stuff!

I wonder if instead of installing QT, you can install any of these plugins: http://home.scarlet.be/ruben.castelein/ ... lugins.htm
I do not have any AAC encoded files, so I cannot try.

The reason why I prefer not to install IE or QT is because that might hinder packaging MM into one file, ala Picasa. You know, licensing and redistribution reasons. Even so, wsh56 might be already an offender.

Owyn · Post by **Owyn** » Sun May 04, 2008 6:42 am

botijo wrote:Great stuff!

I wonder if instead of installing QT, you can install any of these plugins: http://home.scarlet.be/ruben.castelein/ ... lugins.htm
I do not have any AAC encoded files, so I cannot try.

The reason why I prefer not to install IE or QT is because that might hinder packaging MM into one file, ala Picasa. You know, licensing and redistribution reasons. Even so, wsh56 might be already an offender.

Will try. Let's split the workload. You do the deep spelunking for nasty fixes, and I will work on getting the functions working using any available tool. That should also make me a good alpha tester for anything you come up with. i.e. You Guru, me QA.

I plan to do a clean re-install later on this system. If it happens sooner as opposed to later, no big. Gives me an incentive to make sure all my working notes are up to date and stored somewhere in the cloud (Google Docs, Google Notes, the Wiki).

Hmmm. Should be able to document License Needed workarounds in the Wiki in the same manner as WineTricks.

Couple of other things while we are talking:
- I plan to automatically update to latest beta on Linux at least until 3.0.3 goes stable.
- Was planning to start organized testing of plugins. Will publish test plan / notes via Wiki when I have things worked out.
- Devs?? Do you have a publishable test plan for MM3 that can be used as a model for Linux testing?
- Devs?? Have Sent error reports via Linux from botijo or myself been received? No action required, but, would appreciate notification of receipt.

Owyn · Post by **Owyn** » Sun May 04, 2008 7:03 am

botijo wrote:any of these plugins: http://home.scarlet.be/ruben.castelein/ ... lugins.htm

Great link. Scraping and using as basis for Linux plugin tests.

Owyn · Post by **Owyn** » Mon May 05, 2008 3:04 pm

Updated to MM3 1066 and latest Wine.

Tested Convert Flac -> Ogg, Flac -> Wave. Ok.

Tested Play Flac, Ogg, Wave. Flac, Ogg Ok. Wave same initial symptom as m4a.

Working on Audit / Documentation / Test of Plug-ins. Should be able to release first version today on Wiki. Expect to resolve Wave problem while I am cleaning this up.

One strange. MM3 maximized and playing a full FLAC album on another desktop, set to keep on desktop. I was working in FF3 posting comment to a blogspot blog. Suddenly just the title bar for MM3 appeared on current desktop. Switched back, nothing running on MM's desktop. Moved "title bar" back but no way I can find to get full UI back.

Ohhh. That is bizarre. Closed (X) title bar when album finished. Full UI briefly showed before MM3 exited. Restarted MM. Seemed slow for UI to get back, e.g. Took several tries before I could get context menu for first track in Now Playing.

Replaying same album (New Coat of Paint - Songs of Tom Waits, great music to test by). Will see what happens.

Hmmm. That did not take long. Problem repeated at start of second track. In FF3 again but just editing this message.

Question to all:. How does MM3 determine the priority of plug-ins when multiple plug-ins can provide the same service?

Linux.... mediamonkey.... meant to be..?

Would you use mediamonkey on ubuntu?