GStreamer Setup
Table of contents
- 1. Installation and Plugins
- 1.1. Distribution Specific Notes
- 1.1.1. Ubuntu 6.06 LTS
- 1.1.2. Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
- 1.1.3. Fedora Core 5
- 1.1.4. Gentoo
- 1.1.5. Debian (Unstable)
- 1.1. Distribution Specific Notes
- 2. Selecting Your Output Plugin
- 3. Troubleshooting
- 3.1. Startup Problems
- 3.2. Playback Problems
- 3.3. Testing tags
Installation and Plugins
The Linux version of Songbird currently depends on GStreamer version 0.10.x for media playback. This means that you must have GStreamer 0.10.x installed to use Songbird on Linux. Additionally, which plugins you have installed will determine your ability to play back certain media types.
GStreamer distributes their plugins in three separate packages -- "good", "bad", and "ugly" -- each representing different levels of quality and licence compatibility. More information about the packages can be found on the GStreamer modules page. Your distribution typically distributes these plugins in corresponding packages. For example, Ubuntu provides the GStreamer "good" plugins in the gstreamer0.10-plugins-good package.
There are also GStreamer plugins created by third parties, such as the Fluendo MP3 plugin. These plugins can also be found in your distribution's package management system. For example, Ubuntu distributes the Fluendo MP3 plugin in the gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3 package.
Songbird recommends that you install all available GStreamer plugin packages. This will ensure you have the widest range of media playback capabilities. See the GStreamer Plugins Guide for a detailed list of available plugins and what features they provide.
Distribution Specific Notes
Ubuntu 6.06 LTS
The following packages are required:
- libgstreamer0.10-0
- gstreamer0.10-x
- gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
- gstreamer0.10-plugins-base
- gstreamer0.10-esd or gstreamer0.10-alsa (depending on your audio setup)
- libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev (Ubuntu 7)
- libgstreamer0.10-dev (Ubuntu 7)
The following packages are recommended:
- gstreamer0.10-plugins-good
- gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad
- gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly (for mp3 playback)
- gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
- gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3 (alternate for mp3 playback)
If you have enabled the Multiverse repository, you can also install these packages:
- gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse
- gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
The following packages are required:
- libgstreamer0.10-0
- gstreamer0.10-x
- gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
- gstreamer0.10-plugins-base
- gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio
- libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev
- libgstreamer0.10-dev
Run in terminal:
sudo apt-get install libgstreamer0.10-0 gstreamer0.10-x gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gstreamer0.10-plugins-base gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev libgstreamer0.10-dev
The following packages are recommended:
- gstreamer0.10-plugins-good
- gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad
- gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly (for mp3 playback)
- gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
- gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3 (alternate for mp3 playback)
If you have enabled the Multiverse repository, you can also install these packages:
- gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse
- gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse
If you use the Adobe Flash Player in Firefox then you should install libflashsupport so that it knows how to talk to Ubuntu's Pluseaudio sound server.
Fedora Core 5
The following packages are required:
- gstreamer
- gstreamer-plugins-base
The following packages are recommended:
- gstreamer-plugins-good
If you have the Freshrpms repository enabled, you can also install these packages:
- gstreamer-plugins-bad
- gstreamer-plugins-ugly (for mp3 playback)
- gstreamer-ffmpeg
- gstreamer-pitfdll
Gentoo
The following packages are required:
- gstreamer
- gst-plugins-base
- gst-plugins-xvideo
- gst-plugins-x
- gst-plugins-gconf
- gst-plugins-gnomevfs
- gst-plugins-alsa or gst-plugins-oss or gst-plugins-esd (depending on your audio setup)
The following packages are recommended:
- gst-plugins-ugly
- gst-plugins-faad
- gst-plugins-ffmpeg
- gst-plugins-flac
- gst-plugins-lame
- gst-plugins-mad
- gst-plugins-ogg
- gst-plugins-vorbis
- gst-plugins-pitfdll
- gst-plugins-mpeg2dec
- gst-plugins-theora
- gst-plugins-faac
- gst-plugins-speex
Debian (Unstable)
The following packages are required:
- libgstreamer0.10-0
- libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0
- gstreamer0.10-x
- gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
- gstreamer0.10-plugins-base
- gstreamer0.10-esd or gstreamer0.10-alsa (depending on your audio setup)
The following packages are recommended:
- gstreamer0.10-plugins-good
- gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad
- gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly (for mp3 playback)
- gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
- gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3 (alternate for mp3 playback)
Selecting Your Output Plugin
Songbird uses the default output plugin specified in your Gnome desktop configuration. To change this configuration, run the application "gstreamer-properties". If this application is not installed, you can edit the configuration manually by editing the "~/.gconf/system/gstreamer/0.10/default/%gconf.xml" file. You will need to modify the "stringvalue" element under the "entry" element with the attribute "name" that has the value "audiosink". Possible values for this element are "autoaudiosink", "alsasink", "esdsink" and "osssink". Note that you may need to send a SIGHUP to the gconfd daemon when editing this file by hand.
Troubleshooting
Startup Problems
First of all, make sure you have the correct version of Songbird installed. We offer both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Songbird for Linux (see our download page). If you want to run 32-bit Songbird on your 64-bit Linux, you must make sure that you have 32-bit versions of GStreamer installed as well.
If Songbird starts but you get errors that include "NS_ERROR_NOT_INITIALIZED", it is likely that something is wrong with your GStreamer setup. You can use ldd to test to see that the GStreamer component is finding the GStreamer libraries:
$ cd /path/to/Songbird $ ldd components/sbGStreamer.so
If you see "not found" next to GStreamer related libraries, you need to check your GStreamer installation.
Playback Problems
If you are experiencing playback problems, you can test your GStreamer installation on the media you are trying to play with the following command:
$ gst-launch-0.10 playbin uri="<url to media>"
(Note that the program "gst-launch-0.10" may be named just "gst-launch" depending on your system.)
For example, if you are unable to get mp3s to play, use the gst-launch program to test mp3 playback:
$ gst-launch-0.10 playbin uri="file:///home/steve/mp3/Richest%20Guy%20In%20The%20Graveyard.mp3"
To enable additional debugging output, add "GST_DEBUG=3" to the command:
$ GST_DEBUG=3 gst-launch-0.10 playbin uri="file:///home/steve/mp3/Richest%20Guy%20In%20The%20Graveyard.mp3"
If your media plays with gst-launch and not Songbird, you may have encountered a Songbird bug. If your media does not play with gst-launch, your GStreamer setup may be incorrect or you may not have the appropriate GStreamer plugins installed. See the GStreamer Plugins page for a detailed list of available plugins and what features they provide.
At least one Linux user (on archlinux) ran into a problem with gstreamer not including the neon libraries which didn't allow him to be able to play web content. The neon libraries provide the http handler for gstreamer (the library also has WebDav support but I'm not sure if that is used by gstreamer).
Testing tags
If GStreamer doesn't display tags for your files, when you try to play them, here's some help with troubleshooting that.
$ gst-launch-0.10 file:///home/myname/files/MyFile.mp3 ! decodebin ! fakesink -t
Here, the "-t" tells gst-launch to print out any tags that it encounters.
If this doesn't print any of your tags out, then either your file doesn't have tags, or GStreamer can't read them. If you have another application that can read tags from this file, then it's probably a bug in GStreamer - please file a bug and we'll try to fix it!
http://getsatisfaction.com/songbird