LinuxQuestions.org - can't open any audio media players

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can't open any audio media players

Hi, im a complete newbie, and im trying to figure out how to play my music (mp3, cds) on linux. ive tried rhythymbox music player, but when i click play to songs opened from my mp3 player, no sound. the volume is fine, and it says its playing, but i hear nothing. ive also gone on firefox and searched for downloads of other audioplayers, among which ive tried songbird and amorak, but when i double click to open them after ive downloaded them, a message box comes up saying 'could not open; archive type not supported.'
what does this mean/what do i do?

thanks so much for any help you can give :)

You need codecs, an effective way I found to get them was throught Automatix2 at www.getautomatix.com

huh?? :confused:

i went to the site and downloaded automatix (at least, i think thats what i did >.>)... then i couldnt find it anywhere... after like 20 min of searching through my computer files, i found it in applications xP...

thanks for all your help, i will let you know if it works... :)

and i probably sound like a complete idiot, but whats a codec? someone might have explained it to me once, but it didnt make any sense... :confused:

~thanks~

i downloaded codecs (whatever they are) and a bunch of different programs to play audio files, but there is still no sound. most of the programs show that the songs are playing, but no audio. :gonk:

go to the media codecs and get the basic media codecs whatever they are, codecs are things that give the player instructions on how to play that media extension

go to the media codecs where? x.x
i installed all the codecs/plugins that came with automatix, and looked for others w/ google...

is he using ubuntu automatix is not gonna help if hes not using ubuntu

ah ha! i think i figured it out. ubuntu/linux doesnt have a built-in speaker thing, does it? cause i went into volume to make sure everything was unmuted, which it was, then on impulse, plugged in my mp3 speakers, and it worked!

now i have to decided which of the eight different audio players ive downloaded to use xD

thank you so much for your help! :D

~ :newbie: ~

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boow

is she using ubuntu automatix is not gonna help if shes not using ubuntu

yesh, i have ubuntu =^.^=

Hello theonetoblame!
So, you're using ubuntu. OK. I am glad to hear that you can now play and of course listen to your music. I'll make a suggestion, so you will have less trouble in the future. Ubuntu provides a very powerful package manager: Synaptic. Open it, type in the root password when asked, and press the search button. Search for these: w32codecs and madplay.
These packages will solve a lot of problems, which didn't even occurred yet. w32codecs for example, provides a lot of codecs not only for music, but for movies too. With this installed, you will be able to play most video formats with Xine or MPlayer movie players. If Synaptic cannot find w32codecs, you can do one of these things to install this very essential codecs package:

1. In synaptic go to Settings menu, and there click Repositories. Here press New, and select from the scroll-down menu the Binary (deb) option.
In URI line add this: http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/
At the Distribution line add your ubuntu version (breezy, dapper, edgy, feisty or gutsy). Add only one!
At Section(s) line you will need this: free non-free
Press Reload button, and search again for w32codecs.
I recommend this install solution, since this repo will provide you not only this, but other useful packages too.

2. Open a web browser and go here: http://www2.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/rel...061022.tar.bz2 This will download the codecs tarball, but this way you will need to copy the codecs manually to the right directory. Where to copy? Here: /usr/lib/codecs/ This should work.

To handle all kinds of compressed files/archives, you will need some packages. Go to Synaptic again, and search for these: tar, bzip2, gzip, p7zip, unzip, zip, rar, unrar, unrar-free, arj, unace, and lzop. With these installed, you will be able to handle most of your compressed archives.

So, you're she. And what brought you to start using Linux? I'm just interested. It is not a negative question, I am just impressed.

hello rob
you almost sound like a sales person; 'this very essential codec package' lol =D
i didnt know where synaptic even was at first. had to look around quite a bit. but i found it (success!!)
madplay was there, itll be helpful for mp3 files, but no w32codecs.
okay, ive gotten as far as settings, then repositories, but there is no 'New.' only add, remove, edit and add cdrom. help?

problem with option 2: no codec folder in /usr/lib, and it wont let me create one. a question though: how can access be denied, when im the admin of this computer? dont i set the accesses?

as far as how i found ubuntu/linux, a friend of mine is a big-time user (not drugs, mind you) and absolutely hates windows (and loves to rant about it) xD plus, he happened to mention that fact that most hackers are guys (clearly a challenge :P)
...as well as all the obvious advantages of open source... :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by theonetoblame

okay, ive gotten as far as settings, then repositories, but there is no 'New.' only add, remove, edit and add cdrom. help?

Ok. Then press Add. I use Mepis, it is ubuntu based you know, but as we can see there can be some differences. Press add, and type the things I told you in my previous post, so it should work. If the lines like URI, Distribution and Section(s) appear, and they are all blank, you are in the right place.

Quote:

Originally Posted by theonetoblame

problem with option 2: no codec folder in /usr/lib, and it wont let me create one. a question though: how can access be denied, when im the admin of this computer? dont i set the accesses?

Sorry. I forgot to mention, that in /usr/lib/ the codecs dir doesn't exist as default, so you have to create one. How did you try to access that folder? In linux as a user you cannot write too much folders, except in /home/ folders for example. If you're logged in as a user (highly recommnded), than you will need to do the following to create that dir. Go to synaptic, and search for package mc. This is Midnight Commander, a clone of Norton Commander (was used in DOS times) for linux. Install it. Open a terminal window, and type su. It will ask for root password, so type in and press ENTER. Now, you're terminal window is now has root permissions. Type mc, and Midnight Commander will start. Here navigate to /usr/lib/ and press F7 key. This will create a new folder, name the folder codecs, and press ENTER. Voila, your codecs folder is now created. With mc you can also access your tarballs, I mean you don't need to extract the contents before copying to somewhere, but mc navigates into the tarball like into a folder. Go inside your codecs tarball, and press F5 key to copy. The other side of mc should be the destination folder.

Quote:

Originally Posted by theonetoblame

as far as how i found ubuntu/linux, a friend of mine is a big-time user (not drugs, mind you) and absolutely hates windows (and loves to rant about it) xD plus, he happened to mention that fact that most hackers are guys (clearly a challenge :P)
...as well as all the obvious advantages of open source...

Well, I am even more impressed. You not only listened to your friend, but you heard him. That is a huge step forward! Really! You know, I hate Window$ too (most of true Linux users do hate it I think), and I did tell "things" about it, and I told people why Open-Source is good, but everybody just listened (I think most girls don't even do that). Nothing more. I can't tell yet, that I converted somebody. Nobody wants to take some time to give it a try. I think this is the biggest problem. They say Win is better, but they say it because they cannot compare it with something else. So: I am really happy that you're not one of those people. ;) One more thing: I am very interested, how long your friend was talking about Linux until you did give it a try?

Quote:

1. In synaptic go to Settings menu, and there click Repositories. Here press New (add), and select from the scroll-down menu the Binary (deb) option.
In URI line add this:

theres no binary option, or url line after clicking 'add.' no mc either, but i went to terminal and typed su, and it asked for my root password, just like you said it would, so i guess it was already installed... only i have no idea what a root password is xP is it just the admin password? cause i tried that, and it didnt work... oi. my computer hates me... xP

Quote:

I use Mepis, it is ubuntu based you know...

i know next to nothing about *nix... : D

Quote:

One more thing: I am very interested, how long your friend was talking about Linux until you did give it a try?

uh... a few weeks?? maybe... ?? i dont really know, i saw him maybe once a week, and he didnt talk about it all the time...

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

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but everybody just listened (I think most girls don't even do that).

sad but true... your stereotypical female is a prep who is afraid of bugs and reptiles, a slut who thinks only about guys and dresses accordingly, and completely ignorant when it comes to anything having to do with sports or technology...xP as you can see, i am trying to change that

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theres no binary option, or url line after clicking 'add.'

This is very very interesting. Can't you send a print-screen of your synaptic? If I could see it, I could tell what to do.

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no mc either

mc should be installed through Synaptic. Press search button there, type mc, mark for installation and apply. After installation is complete, try to start mc again.

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but i went to terminal and typed su, and it asked for my root password, just like you said it would, so i guess it was already installed...

su is not a program, it is a command to switch you to Super User (root) mode. Root is the same as Administrator, but this word is used in linux world. Shorter name for Admin. you need to type your admin password there, if doesn't work, try your user password. I don't like ubuntu because of this confused user management. In other distros it is very clear who is the user and who is the root. In ubuntu, well, it is mixed somehow. I never liked when I needed to type the same password as my user password, and there were no real root account. Thats why I never used ubuntu for long time.

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your stereotypical female

my stereotypical?

Quote:

is a prep who is afraid of bugs and reptiles, a slut who thinks only about guys and dresses accordingly, and completely ignorant when it comes to anything having to do with sports or technology

I think I have much more complex conception about girls. I don't think about them like every girl is the same. I'm not the guy who says this well known phrase: "you know them... girls..." Only those have such thoughts about girls, who never really speak with them.

Quote:

as you can see, i am trying to change that

You are a very good example for what did I say. Not every girl is the same, and true what is true, you are even less the same than others. This is good to see that someone does something against that picture you told before. :)

Quote:

Can't you send a print-screen of your synaptic?

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...earchformc.png
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...insettings.png
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...oblems/add.png

i searched for mc, but it wasnt there... or at least, i didnt see it. maybe i looked in the wrong places.

Quote:

you need to type your admin password there, if doesn't work, try your user password

i was not aware that the root (admin) password was different from the user password. i have no idea which is which. i only know the password i use to login, but i am the only user name there is, so i guess i am the admin. but would that not make my password the admin, and therefore root, password? only it didnt work to change to super user.

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...ionfailure.png

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my stereotypical?

well not your stereotypical female... yours because it was you who I was talking to, but not like yours because theyre yours, like they belong to you, or that they are the stereotypes that you agree with or believe or anything...

Quote:

i did not mean to imply in any way that it was your stereotypical thinking to which i was ranting about. just stereotypes in general. honestly i cant judge you (or anyone, really), i havent even met you, i have no idea what kind of person you are or how you act/what you believe. so im not dissing you (sorry if it seemed that way)

and i didnt mean it like all females are like that, just that that is society's stereotypical view of women... but not that everyone believes that either. but for anyone who does, I want to prove them wrong... I know several men, including some of my teachers and one of my pastors who are biased against women and are still stuck in the thinking that women cant have jobs, they stay at home and love to cook/clean/etc. its annoying to be grouped in a "category" because of gender...

sorry if i insulted you in any way...

...

im done