Amarok 2.2 and the Equalizer

[Rog131]

This is posted under the Experimentation/Customization/Optimization (and this is an EXPERIMENTAL > Topic: Rules for posting in this forum (http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3080235.0)).


As told > Amarok 2.2 – Reloaded, revamped, rethinked, reeverything! (http://padoca.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/amarok-2-2-reloaded-revamped-rethinked-reeverything/). The Amarok 2.2 is having the equalizer but it needs the phonon snapshot from the trunk (development) > http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/kdesupport/phonon/.


Downloading the sources from the trunk:

svn co svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/trunk/kdesupport/phonon/


...
A phonon/qt7/mediaobject.mm
A phonon/CMakeLists.txt
A phonon/COPYING.LIB
Checked out revision 1037991


Inserting them to the Ubuntu phonon sources > http://packages.ubuntu.com/karmic/phonon. Editing a bit:


phonon (4:4.3.1~svn1037991~karmic~ppa1) karmic; urgency=low

* svn1037991 release
- removing patches: r950739_fullscreen_hidecursor
and 924144_encoding_local_files_fix
+ edit patch: disable_phonon_build


Building packages...Downgrading (only the phonon-backend-xine is needed at here):


Commit Log for Tue Oct 20 17:08:51 2009

Downgraded the following packages:
phonon-backend-xine (4:4.3.1-4ubuntu1) to
4:4.3.1~svn1037991~karmic~ppa1



Testing - seems to enable the equalizer.

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/1150/equalizer.th.png (http://img15.imageshack.us/i/equalizer.png/)

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/4180/amarok2.th.png (http://img15.imageshack.us/i/amarok2.png/)


An example package can be found > PPA for Rog131 (https://launchpad.net/~samrog131/+archive/ppa) >> Package name contains: phonon Published in Karmic (https://launchpad.net/~samrog131/+archive/ppa/+packages?field.name_filter=phonon&field.status_filter=published&field.series_filter=karmic)


Earlier / More:
> xine backend equalizer plugin [patch] (http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/phonon-backends/2009-May/000282.html)
> Bug: 448245 Kubuntu Karmic Amarok no graphic equalizer (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/amarok/+bug/448245)
> Topic: Amarok 2.2 Beta 1 (http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3106181.0)
> Re: amarok don't have any equalizer (http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3084531.msg200868#msg200868)


(edit - adding)

The PPA package version number is lower than the official package because:
- then you can't install it by accident.
- some day the ubuntu will release an update. Time will show if it is 4.3.2, 4.4 or something else.


Earlier:
> How to downgrade packages (forcing version) (http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3090553.0)
> Topic: SOLVED: How to keep a program from being updated in Kpackagekit or apt? (http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3104123.0)


Example:

Downloading the phonon-backend-xine package and installing (downgrading) it:

sudo dpkg -i /home/rog/Documents/phonon-backend-xine_4.3.1~svn1037991~karmic~ppa1_i386.deb


[sudo] password for rog:
dpkg: warning: downgrading phonon-backend-xine from 4:4.3.1-4ubuntu1 to 4:4.3.1~svn1037991~karmic~ppa1.
(Reading database ... 293212 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace phonon-backend-xine 4:4.3.1-4ubuntu1 (using .../phonon-backend-xine_4.3.1~svn1037991~karmic~ppa1_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement phonon-backend-xine ...
Setting up phonon-backend-xine (4:4.3.1~svn1037991~karmic~ppa1) ...


Pinning the version to the 4.3.1~svn1037991 - Alt + F2 and

kdesudo kate /etc/apt/preferences
Dropping there:


Package: phonon-backend-xine
Pin: version 4.3.1~svn1037991*
Pin-Priority: 1001


Testing:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get -s dist-upgrade

and the result:


Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
phonon-backend-xine
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.


When i want to upgrade - i remove the pin file: /etc/apt/preferences - and upgrade.

[askrieger]

That's GREAT! I've been missing the equalizer.

[Snowhog]

@Rog131

I use your PPA (thanks, you do good work!). I use your packaged phonon-backend-mplayer, currently:

Maintainer: Rog131 <samrog131@hotmail.com>
Architecture: i386
Version: 0.1~svn1075449~karmic~ppa2

My Amarok is:

Maintainer: Kubuntu Developers <kubuntu-devel@ubuntu.com>
Original-Maintainer: Modestas Vainius <modestas@vainius.eu>
Architecture: i386
Version: 2:2.2.0-0ubuntu2

My laptop's audio is:

Audio: Card Intel 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller driver HDA Intel
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Version 1.0.20

Amarok plays my music CDs and my .mp3 files on my Sansa e280 MP3 Player no problem. But Amarok reports:

"Equalizer is not supported by Phonon"
(Amarok > Settings > Configure Amarok... > Playback (Miscellaneous))

Any insight on this? Should I uninstall pulseaudio? Sound in all applications, including startup and shutdown, works great - no problems at all. I installed pulseaudio to stop the annoying 'Removed devices' notification about the HDA Intel Audio devices I was getting earlier.

[Rog131]

About phonon backends

There are:

apt-cache search phonon-backend-

phonon-backend-null - Phonon null backend (no real backend)
phonon-backend-xine - Phonon Xine 1.1.x backend
phonon-backend-gstreamer - Phonon GStreamer 0.10.x backend
phonon-backend-mplayer - Phonon mplayer backend
phonon-backend-vlc - Phonon vlc backend

The phonon-backend-null, phonon-backend-xine and phonon-backend-gstreamer are in the official repositories.

The phonon-backend-mplayer and phonon-backend-vlc are at the moment in the KDE playground - applications that are early in their lifecycle (earlier > Topic: Phonon-backend (http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3109565.0)).

The Amarok equalizer is only supporting the phonon-backend-xine. The official Karmic repositories were frozen before the new (or patched) version of the phonon-backend-xine was available.

The mplayer and the phonon-backend-mplayer do have own equalizer but the Amarok does not support it. That is - there is not gui available with the Amarok+phonon-backend-mplayer. If you want to use the mplayer equalizer you need to add the values to the ~/.mplayer/config manually. More of the mplayer equalizer: man mplayer


...
equalizer=[g1:g2:g3:...:g10]

10 octave band graphic equalizer, implemented using 10 IIR band pass filters. This means that it works regardless of what type of audio is being played back...

[Snowhog]

Hmm. I have phonon-backend-xine installed:

Maintainer: Kubuntu Developers <kubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com>
Original-Maintainer: Debian Qt/KDE Maintainers <debian-qt-kde@lists.debian.org>
Architecture: i386
Source: phonon
Version: 4:4.3.1-4ubuntu1

Amarok shows xine as the Backend, but as I said, Amarok won't permit the Equalizer with Phonon.

[Rog131]

Yes, that is the official Karmic phonon-backend-xine. It doesn't have the Amarok equalizer support ( > xine backend equalizer plugin [patch] (http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/phonon-backends/2009-May/000282.html)).

If you are using my PPA you need to "downgrade" to the:


Package: phonon-backend-xine
Source: phonon
Priority: optional
Section: sound
Installed-Size: 572
Maintainer: Rog131 <****@***.***>
...
Version: 4:4.3.1~svn1037991~karmic~ppa2
....
Description: Phonon Xine 1.1.x backend
Phonon is the Qt 4 multimedia API, which provides a task-oriented abstraction
layer for capturing, mixing, processing, and playing audio and video content.
.
This package contains the Xine 1.1.x backend for Phonon.
.
! This is an EXPERIMENTAL package from the trunk !
.
It could break your system !
.
http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/kdesupport/phonon/
.
More: http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3107126.0



Or you could search the PPA repositories for the backported version of the phonon-backend-xine:
> [ubuntu/lucid] phonon-backends 4:4.3.1-5ubuntu1 (Accepted) (https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/lucid-changes/2009-November/000156.html) or later.

[Snowhog]

Thank you. That's a very clear explanation. I'll happily wait until such time as phonon-backend-xine gets updated to include the equalizer support for Amarok.