hi guys,
i wanna build a distro that only is used for playing music files such as mp3,aac,wma etc, so i need help to build a very basic gui based jukebox distro.

requirements:~

support popular audio codecs
audio hardware support
popular pic formats
no desktop environment ( simply boots up music jukebox program,tis all!)
internet protocols for grabbing album art and track info,codec updates etc
wifi+bluetooth+usb+removable media support

basically a linux ipod type distro for an old desktop pc.

any ideas or help would really be appreciated as im recycling my dads old pc and turning it into a wall hanging jukebox for a school project, but im not too software savy and learned of linux from scratch.

many thanks! .

Hi Finlandrocks

I did something similar using the mklivecd script in PCLinuxOS. The steps:

Install PCLinuxOS 2007. You can put it on a separate partition of a powerful computer rather than your Dad's old one, and dual boot into it.

Use Synaptic Package manager to uninstall everything you don't want. Be severe but keep your system intact.

Use Synaptic to install icewm windows manager. This gives you a basic GUI from which to launch your apps

Install your favourite music apps

Keep everything under 2.1G of disk space (use the command df -h to check)

Run mklivecd from the command line (read man mklivecd first) and burn it onto a blank CD

You now have your own customised Live CD which can be installed to any computer.

Enjoy

How do you intend to control this device?
How does the user interact with it to select the music to be played?
Are you thinking of an attached keyboard and monitor or an infrared port or via web pages from any other computer in the house?

Is the music supposed to play on speakers attached to this computer or does this computer stream the music to the requesting computer?

I'd suggest installing Xubuntu with the Ice desktop and using the various music programs to get comfortable with the choices so that you can make those decisions.

Since you talk about hanging it on the wall, I'm guessing you want to look at web players or infrared communications.

Have fun. Looks like a good learning experience.

I just learned that PCLinuxOS has a cut-back version that will save you the trouble of uninstalling unwanted software. It is PClinuxOS Minime 2008. If you install that, then add your music playing software, you can build your own distro. I read that Minime also has the mklivecd script (with GUI to make it easier) so if you like you can create the distro on a faster PC before installing it on the older one.

How old is your Dad's PC? I have had a cut-back PCLinuxOS running on a pentium 2 - a bit slow but good enough. (Xubuntu was just too slow)

As far as music apps go, Amarok is a resource hog so you might want to avoid it.

the speakers will be usb external, stripped of there casings to be intergrated into the jukebox enclosure. the input method is via a touch resistive screen layer, so no keyboard.

i could use ubuntu, ive used it b4, but was primarily wondering ifa custom build would be a smaller package. the reasons behind the empty desktop is that it will only fire up one program and thats the jukebox application, that handles all functions such as playback, cataloging,playlists, encoding, info retrieval,auto detect functions etc.

the reason i was looking into linux was cos its not so restrictive, as the other option is a stripped out win98 distro using a custom built litestep desktop (like powerDVD/windows media edition menu etc)

the pc its self is an old 500Mhz, another reason for choosing linux as i can stil have fast operation.

to get a clear idea of this project, think of the standalone mp3 jukeboxes you find in pubs/bars/clubs.

Check out mythbuntu, it's intended for TV but it will probably work equally well for a music jukebox.

I'd go with mpd (music player daemon) for the back end music player.
From the website http://www.musicpd.org/ you can check out the clients.
There is a command line client mpc which is scriptable and you should be able to integrate into your gui interface.
There are also web or gui clients.

I like the idea of a web based interface because you could also provide control from the bar or office. I've been using Apache but would look into lighttp.

Because the separate back end is separate it can be controlled via different HI (human interface) devices such as your screen.

p.s. I have no real preference for any particular linux but would go with the ice gui over kde or gnome for the size.