Using Mandrake 8.1 with the KDE desk Top. Newbie is an understatement. About 10 hrs. of Linux experience. My question is what player should I look for and install in order to play audio cds. I did a fairly skinny installation and I don't have a player. I would like one which is similar to the capabilities of Window Media Player., although video is not imperative at this point. I just want to listen to music while learning Mandrake. There seems to be several files related the music in the installable file selection but I've no clue as to what to try to install.

XMMS is a good choice, I believe it comes with the Mandy distro, and check the multimidia section in your K start menu, there should be a simple CD-player (of course if you installed it).

I still have no music. There are 3 cd players programs in the multimedia dir.The first is called Cd Player. It' error box states "cd read or acess error. Please make sure you have acess permission to /dev/cdrom". The next is Grip. It's error box states "unable to oen cd drive, make sure that you are using the correct device passed to thr program woth "-d". The third player is KDE Media Player. It won't play either and but gives no error box. As far as the permission part , I even signed in as root and none of them will work. Any ideas from anyone is appreciated. Also, I have always had problems with the cd drive, for example, if I use the install cd rom's for loading programs, I can never seen to eject the cd. If I right click on the cd rom icon on the desk top and click eject, nothing happens. I hit the eject button on my tower, still no eject. So I just reboot to get it out. Programs do load tho.!

sounds like its not unmounting it correctly.. next time you can't eject your cd.. ( oh, unless its unmounted, linux wont' eject the cd by pressing the open button on the cd-rom itself ) try typing this on the command:

umount /dev/cdrom

and then see if it allows you to eject the cd.. in some cases you can just type eject from the command line as well..

I can't help much with your cd mount problem since I am a newbie as well, but I can tell you that XMMS does come with the mandrake distro. I prefer it since I am familiar with using winamp and this program operates just like it.

I tried xmms also, it won't play either. My cd rom and a floppy both show up in the Block menue under the Controll Center. Both the floppy and the cd Rom Icons are already on my desk top. When I put a music cd rom in my cd drive. and click mount the error box I get states: /dev/hdc: Imput/output error. Mount: I could not determine the filesystem type, and none was specified. My Mandy program cd seems to mount ok, but not music cd. ??
I opened up Konqerer I clicked on the button and the left called services. A cd symbole and the words audo cd browser appeared to th far left. When I clicked on it an error box appreaed stating- File / or directory does not exist. ??? Now what?

You don't mount an audio cd, you only mount a data cd. Do you get any sound at all?

The only sound I have with Linux is when I boot up or sign off. . KDE plays a little sign on and sign off tune. It come across the speaker very clear. I tried the xmms player, it's like the other 3 players, it can't recognize the the cd is even in the drive. I think my problems might be related to the fact the my box is a Compaq, and in order to save a few cents, Compaq did not use any audo cables for my sound but instead the used skimped on audio cables to save a buck, and suck me with sending audio via the IDE cable. Hepl
:smash:

why do ou only mount data cd's not music?

Because data cd's have a file system and audio cd's do not.

Grummy, go to your nearest computer shop and but an audio cable for a couple of dollars and your cd audio problems will be fixed.

Aussie's right, have to have the cable from CD drive to sound card.
When I installed for first time ever (last month) I had to get on the MandrakeExpert help boards (free for 30 days) to ask why I had no sound.
Support guy first had me open the box and check for presence of audio cable. It was there. I told him I DID have the KDE startup sound, just no sound in audio players like xmms. So then he told me to click on Options/Preferences in xmms and to enable a certain plugin. Don't remember exactly which. Sorry.
It worked though.

Ok, I don't have the cables and if I go install the audio cables what happens with the cd player configuration under my WindowsME O/S ? What about the fact that Compaq designed the system to run the sound via the IDE cable (what ever that is). My main system is still Windows. If I screws up everything using the sound cables it will be a problem. Is the motherboard and bios linked to the IDE cable. Do I have to diable the IDE cable? Anyone had any experience with this before?

Installing the direct cable between the CD-ROM drive and the soundcard will not affect sound in Windows. Don't take out the IDE cable(ribbon cable). Then it will definitely affect how your computer works in Windows and in Linux.

Thank You frkstein, once I get the sound cables and buy a new modem maybe my Linux migration will start to progress. My appreciation to all of you who have posted to help me.

I'm not sure that buying extra cabling will help you. I'm having the same sound problem on an a21e Thinkpad with Mandrake 8.1 but my sound worked fine with 7.0 and 8.0 beta. I think half my problem is a misconfigured alsa entry in /etc/modules.conf, but there's definitely something screwey with the way 8.1 deals with music CD's. I also find that I have to leave a console open with su so that I can umount my cdrom and use RPM since RPMDrake is really quirky on KDE.