XiMP3 0.1.14 INSTALLATION
Monkey comes standard with a console based CD player, but you’ll have to download and install XiMP3 to listen to MP3’s. Download the ximp3-0.1.14.tar.gz source code from home.swipnet.se/~w-10246/unix/ and unpack it like you would any other Monkey software package (review software packages tutorial).
The sound card on your computer(s) must be properly configured (review compiling kernel tutorial) and the gccall.tgz software package (review software packages tutorial) must be installed before installing XiMP3. For XiMP3 to work, /dev/dsp and /dev/audio support have to be compiled into the kernel along with your computer’s sound card. Follow these instructions to compile and install XiMP3 after you configure your sound card, install gccall.tgz, and unpack ximp3-0.1.14.tar.gz:
cd /ximp3-0.1.14 CHANGE TO /ximp3-0.1.14 DIRECTORY
sh ./configure CONFIGURE XiMP3 IN BOURNE SHELL
make COMPILE THE XiMP3 PACKAGE
make check RUN SELF-TESTS
make install INSTALL THE XiMP3 BINARY
make clean REMOVE XiMP3 OBJECT FILES
make distclean REMOVE FILES CONFIGURE CREATED
After a successful install, the ximp3 binary will be placed in the /usr/local/bin directory. There is no man page for XiMP3 and I haven’t been able to find an operations manual on the web. There is a file, located in the XiMP3 source directory, listing the programs options. Here are some commands that you can use to find XiMP3 information.
cd /ximp3-0.1.14 CHANGE TO /ximp3-0.1.14 DIRECTORY
cat README | more DISPLAY README FILE
ximp3 DISPLAY XiMP3 VERSION AND SWITCHES
ximp3 v0.1.14
usage: ximp3 [-d device] [-b buffers] [-s] [-l] [-v] [-r] <file...>
Here's a break down of the ximp3 command and it’s options:
ximp3 START XiMP3 OR LIST OPTIONS
- device AUDIO DEVICE TO USE. DEFAULT: /dev/dsp
-b buffers NUMBER OF AUDIO BUFFERS TO USE. EACH BUFFER
IS 18432 BYTES. DEFAULT: 30.
-s SHUFFLE PLAY; RANDOMLY SHUFFLES FILES SPECIFIED
ON THE COMMAND LINE AND, IF THE FILE IS A
PLAYLIST, THE FILES IN IT.
-l PLAY FILES IN AN ENDLESS LOOP.
-v VERBOSE OUTPUT IN STANDALONE MODE.
-r USED WHEN PIPING TO ximp3shell. NOT USEFUL IN
STANDALONE MODE.
<file...> MP3 FILE NAMES.
I have fiddled around with the program and found a few hitches. For instance, Linux/Unix does not like blank spaces in file names so get used to naming your files like music_file.mp3. Also, the first time I started XiMP3 I had to wait until the song was over to get back to the shell prompt. You could press ‘Ctrl+C’ to kill the process. To work around this problem add ‘&’ to the end of the initial ximp3 command. This allows XiMP3 to run as a background process, therefore, allowing you access to the shell prompt while your MP3’s play.
Below I illustrate how I created a song list and used XiMP3 to listen to it.
cd music CHANGE TO DIRECTORY WITH MY MP3'S
cat >> list.m3u CREATE SONG LIST NAMED list.m3u
summertime.mp3
sunday_afternoon.mp3
good_day.mp3
brooklyn_queens.mp3
passing_me_by.mp3
computer_love.mp3
Press Ctrl+D SAVE list.m3u AND RETURN TO PROMPT
ximp3 -l list.m3u & PLAY LIST IN A LOOP AND RETURN TO PROMPT
Two more bits of information that may help you out. Suppose you would like to shutdown the computer, but XiMP3 is in the middle of the playlist. It’s generally a bad idea to shutdown the computer while a process is running. First list out all of the running processes with the ‘ps’ command. You’ll find two processes relating to XiMP3. Next kill the processes with the ‘kill -9 (process id number)’ command. Finally, you can delete the ximp3-0.1.14 source code directory to save hard disk space with the ‘rm -R /ximp3-0.1.14’ command.
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