XMMS won't play MP3 files anymore

daihard · 10-09-2004, 03:31 PM

Hi.

I've been having problems getting XMMS to work with my Turbolinux 10. I'm hoping someone can help me. Here's what's been happening.

Turbolinux came with its own XMMS 1.2.7. I removed the package and did my own config/make to install from the source (1.2.8). It worked beatifully... until at a point it suddenly stopped playing back my MP3 files. I must have done something before it occurred, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was.

So I removed the XMMS-related components (i.e. xmms, xmms-config, libxmms*, etc). I also deleted the config directory ($HOME/.xmms) to start from the scratch. I then downloaded 1.2.10 and installed it the same way (config, make, make install). Still no luck. I can add tracks to the playlist, but pressin the "play" button won't do anything.

The only suspicious thing is that when linking, the following warning comes up:

Code:

libtool: install: warning: relinking `libmpg123.la'

But this file is part of the source, so it cannot be doing the damage that I see, can it?

I am totally clueless at this point. Any help would be much, much appreciated.

Thanks,
Dai

Andrew Benton · 10-09-2004, 05:49 PM

I wouldn't worry about libtool warnings, they don't usually mean anything. Does Xmms give an error if you launch it with a command? Also, did you do anything that might affect the permissions on the device nodes in /dev? I think to play music you need to have read and write permission on /dev/dsp and /dev/mixer.

su
password
chmod 666 /dev/dsp /dev/mixer

Or, alternatively, add yourself to the audio group (man usermod for more details).
Does sound work OK for you with other apps like Mplayer or the Realplayer? They can play mp3's, are they working?

Edit - Also, is there anything else blocking the sound devices? And what desktop are you using? I've read of people having trouble with KDE/Arts, could that be an issue?

crnchyfrog · 10-09-2004, 09:18 PM

You might have deleted the plugin that allows mp3 playback. My distro came w/ xmms but didn't come with a mp3 plugin.
I had a similar problem, I could load the mp3's into the playlist, but when i clicked play nothign happened.
I think i may have gotten an error saying that it doesn't support mp3 playback, but i can't remember if that was xmms or if it was the audio player thing.

i d/led a plugin called "xmms-mp3-1.2.8-3.p.i386.rpm" you can just google it i'm sure.

After that, i could play mp3's.

Hope this helps,

Dave

daihard · 10-10-2004, 03:34 AM

Thanks guys. First, I am using KDE 3.1.5. I used to be able to use XMMS on the same environment, so I'd like to rule out the possibility that KDE is the culprit.

Both /dev/dsp and /dev/mixer are set to 0666 (-rwxrwxrwx).

I am able to play MP3 files using Noatun, the multimedia player that comes with KDE, which leads me to believe that there's nothing wrong with the physical sound device/drivers. I could be wrong, though.

When I run xmms from the command line, no error messages show up. Just nothing happens.

I removed everything related to XMMS again and compiled/installed 1.2.10 from the source, but to no avail. The source tarball that's available on http://www.xmms.org includes support for MP3 format, doesn't it?

Thanks again,
Dai

Andrew Benton · 10-10-2004, 10:22 AM

Yes, the Xmms source compiles with mp3 support enabled by default. I still think that KDE/Arts is most likely to be guilty. Do you have another desktop (Fluxbox, Gnome or whatever) installed that you could log into and test Xmms. If not, try dropping to init 3 and see if you can startx without KDE starting. If Xmms still doesn't work then we know the problem is with Xmms. If the problem is with outputting through Arts, it may be worth trying http://www.xmms.org/plugins.php?details=22# or http://www.xmms.org/plugins.php?details=85 I haven't tried either so I don't know if they'll work. At least if I post this it'll bump the thread to the top again.

daihard · 10-10-2004, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Andrew Benton
I still think that KDE/Arts is most likely to be guilty. Do you have another desktop (Fluxbox, Gnome or whatever) installed that you could log into and test Xmms. If not, try dropping to init 3 and see if you can startx without KDE starting. If Xmms still doesn't work then we know the problem is with Xmms. If the problem is with outputting through Arts, it may be worth trying http://www.xmms.org/plugins.php?details=22# or http://www.xmms.org/plugins.php?details=85 I haven't tried either so I don't know if they'll work. At least if I post this it'll bump the thread to the top again.

You were right! I booted into Gnome and ran XMMS. Voila! It worked perfectly. That leads me to believe the updated arts package is the culprit, though I have no idea what has been changed in it to prevent XMMS from working. I will re-install the older version of arts to see if that gets XMMS working.

Thanks for your advice!
Dai

daihard · 10-10-2004, 11:37 AM

I'm following up on myself. Well, XMMS still did not work with the old arts package. However, I did find a way to get it to work. I ran the following command instead of "xmms":

$ artsdsp -m xmms

Magically, that got XMMS working just like before. I still have no idea what the original problem is, but I've at least figured out a workaround. (I did "man artsdsp" but didn't get anything out of it.)

Thanks anyway for all your help. I'll probably continue my investigation on and off.

Andrew Benton · 10-10-2004, 03:14 PM

Well done for fixing it. Thanks for teaching me to build Firefox.

daihard · 10-27-2004, 10:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Andrew Benton
Well done for fixing it. Thanks for teaching me to build Firefox.

Did I?

Oh, a little follow-up. Strangely enough, XMMS plays MP3 music just fine if I log on as another user. I wonder what I've done to my own account. Anyway, I've resorted to creating a new account and moved everything to it. Now I can use XMMS without any problem.