: recompiling amarok to reconfigure it???

[Bruno Majewski]

This is an enquiry e-mail via http://amarok.kde.org from:
Bruno Majewski <majewskibr at gmail.com>

Hello --

I currently have two different desktops running KDE3.5 (DesktopBSD and Kubuntu) and in both, amaroK could not even output a peep.  What was puzzling was that amarok said something like "xine could not init any audio driver", despite the fact that KDE itself was able to notify me with various sounds.  To make really sure I did not have broken low-level drivers, I downloaded & installed XMMS.  It worked.  But amarok still did not.

After that, since amarok mentionned xine, I downloaded and installed xine itself and all
the relevant plugins, etc. in both environments ('bsd and Kubuntu).  Xine was able to play local audio files, plus streaming MP3 and aacPlus without a problem.  In both environments.  But not amarok, which is/was claiming to use a xine engine.

At one point, a cvsup/portupgrade cycle made me re-compile amarok on the 'bsd platform.  I made sure gstreamer support was compiled in and also downloaded + installed all the proper gstreamer plugins, the artsd engine/plugin, etc.  Once amarok's port was upgraded, it suddenly became capable to playing audio on bsd. 

At the same time, I discovered the "easyubuntu" script that added missing codecs, plugins et al. to {Ku|U}buntu.  I ran it, thinking that missing codecs might be a big part of the problem on my Kubuntu box, as Noatun could not play music either.  End result: I can play locally stored & streamed audio under Kafeine, Noatun and XMMS  on Kubuntu, but amarok still can't.

That's when it hit me: unless I am wrong here, amarok does not make use of the underlying KDE audio infrastructure and  carries its own separate audio support structure (libamarok_xine-engine, libamarok_gstengine_plugin, etc.), which is only configurable at compile time.

To have to re-compile amarok in order to reconfigure it (e.g., adding gstreamer support, for example) it is quite unexpected.  In '86-87, that was the norm under *nix and I had no problem doing it.  But we are now in 2006, in an era of Free integrated graphical *environments* (e.g., KDE) how can this still be the case?  An amarok binary should see any audio library/infrastructure present on the system and show them in its engine configuration dialog box.  The end-user should always be able to quickly choose the sound engine to be used by amarok without having to re-compile the programme. 

Actually, not just the sound engine, but any codec present on the system, newly-added or not.  You can't play that audio file you just downloaded or that sound sample from the web-store you're visiting?  Quick, install the required codec via some "add/remove software" control panel, select it in one of amarok's control panel, and voilà! Music to your ears!   (No pun intended)

If such capabilities are not in your to-do list for the next version of amarok, please add them.  End-users should not have to recompile their copy of Amarok in order reconfigure it.  

Thank you.