Hello again,
After a long while struggling to get a decent mp3 player for my linux machine, I came across a simple way to enable MP3 on rhythmbox, which comes with the Fedora 8 DVD. Unfortunately, Fedora’s Rhythmbox does not come with a nice menu function ‘Install MP3 GStreamer’ like in Ubuntu. To go round this, we will have to do it manually. Here are the steps:
Step1:
Install the GStreamer repository which is provided by Livna. GStreamer is the plugin that will enable Rythmbox to decode MP3 files. A repository is like a gigantic web storage space for linux installation files. Well, don’t worry much about this.
su
yum -y install yum-priorities
vi /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/priorities.conf
Step 2:
You will need to edit this file. Now that you have already opened the file in the VI editor, type ‘i’ to enter edit mode. You should see -INSERT- in bold at the bottom of the terminal window. Move your cursor to the end of the text, and add this line:
check_obsoletes = 1
Now, press ‘Esc’, then save the file (Shift+ZZ). Ensure that the file is properly edited by opening it again in VI. It should look like this:
[main]
enabled = 1
check_obsoletes = 1
To quit VI without editing, press ‘Esc’ then type ‘:q!’ , without quotes.
Step3:
rpm -Uvh http://www.fedorafaq.org/f8/yum
rpm -Uvh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-8.rpm
Ensure you have installed yum-priorites from step 1 to avoid errors
Step 4:
Install the GStreamer Plugin, finally..
yum install gstreamer-plugins-ugly
Say yes to all the question is asks you. You should be done.
Any problems, just post them below, I will try to help you and together we can find a solution. If it worked for you, do come back and post some comments and if you have suggestions how I can improve this article , let me know.
Thanks.
Shailen is a Technical Consulting Engineer at Intel Corporation. He has a Master degree in Computational Science and Engineering from the Technical University of Munich and a Bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Jacobs Univerity Bremen. Shailen has conducted research in power modelling for HPC applications and has high interests in the mobile sector. At Intel, Shailen is responsible for the Intel Integrated Native Developer Experience (INDE) suite of software for mobile developers. Shailen comes from the beautiful island of Mauritius. He has a LinkedIn and a Xing profile. Lastly, his name is unique in the world and he admires Bill Gates.
Shailen Sobhee : Blog 
There is a simpler way of doing this (and a few other useful things) at http://www.gagme.com/greg/linux/f8-tips.php#mp3
worked for me.
LikeLike
Thanks Ozjd, I have just checked the site which is very resourceful. I should point however, that the code on that site, installs XMMS which is another music player. But that is not a big deal, since you could test another player and eventually settle with the one you prefer most.
I like Rhythmbox because of its nice library functionality which catalogues all my mp3 files.
And also, if you wish to install XMMS from the code from ozjd’s proposed website, you must ensure you have Livna’s repository set up. To do that, carry out Step 3 ..
Good Luck 😉
LikeLike
Sorry you are right.
I think I used that link to install something else and now I can’t find the one I used. I used to use Rhythmnbox but have switched back to Amarok since I installed F8.
Another site I found useful when setting up Fedora 8 was http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-fedora-f8.html
LikeLike
The gstreamer-plugins-ugly doesn’t seem to exist. When I enter the last step nothing happens:
[root@ursus iank]# yum install gstreamer-plugins-ugly
Loading “priorities” plugin
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
No package gstreamer-plugins-ugly available.
Nothing to do
LikeLike
Hi, Ian,
When it says that “No package gstreamer-plugins-ugly available.”, means that Fedora is looking in a place where there are not gstreamer-plugins-ugly.
It’s like you go in a meat shop and ask for apples and oranges. So, what do we have to do here? We tell Fedora where to get the plugins, and how to do that? We import a small file which makes Fedora aware of another place on the internet where we can have extra files. These extra files are provided by Livna.
You probably missed step 3 which explains how to tell Fedora where the plugins are found.
Try again:
rpm -Uvh http://www.fedorafaq.org/f8/yum http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-8.rpm
Then continue the steps; it should work. Let me know of any further problems. Kind regards,
Shailen Sobhee
ai [dot] revolutions [at] gmail [dot] com
LikeLike
One important Note:
rpm -Uvh http://www.fedorafaq.org/f8/yum http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-8.rpm
That whole piece of code should be on the same line. If have tried a 100 ways to trick wordpress to display it on the same line but without any success.
It is true, wordpress has the worst article editor online, so you can’t type something and expect it to display the way you want when you save it. I hope the wordpress guys will improve on that!
Regards,
LikeLike
Hi,
I have a problem during the installation of the gstreamer-plugins-ugly:
Loading “priorities” plugin
fedora 100% |=========================| 2.1 kB 00:00
updates 100% |=========================| 2.3 kB 00:00
Could not retrieve mirrorlist http://ayo.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/8/mirrors-freshrpms error was
[Errno 4] IOError:
Error: Cannot retrieve repository metadata (repomd.xml) for repository: freshrpms. Please verify its path and try again
I guess the link isn’t working properly, so does anyone have another one ?
LikeLike
I have more of a general Fedora Question: I am just getting into Linux and have been running Ubuntu, but was thinking about trying or migrating to a different Distro and was thinking a Red Hat based one. How difficult would you say it is to learn the new commands, and more importantly, is it worth it? Sorry, this isn’t based on this specific entry.
LikeLike
@ Julien,
Yoiu are right. I have just tested downloading the mp3 plugins. It seems that the freshrpms server is temporarily down. I will soon check that matter with them, write them a letter, and find out whether they have changed server. It may be possible that the (apache?) server is under maintainance.
I hope you aren’t deprived of your favourite mp3 for the moment. If meanwhile you found a nice way to get the mp3 codecs for fedora, post them here, its a great linux culture to share and learn. I will search for a new server, or if the problem persists, I will upload my backup mp3 codec rpms, so that anyone can install using the simple command rpm -ivh codec.rpm 🙂
Thanks again for pointing out this problem.
@Ben,
Hi,
No need to say sorry for being off-topic. It is indeed a great incentive for me to start a new blog entry about helping the new guys out there choose a good linux, and most importantly, make the change from windows to linux, smooth and easy. Ubuntu is a nice beginning platform to test and learn the basics of linux. There nice customizable features, and also Ubuntu has a well-versed forum will many new fellows posting articles. From a beginner perspective, launchpad (ubuntu’s forum) is a nice platform to learn from other new people like you, and also share knowledge in a simple language, common to all of you.
After crossing that milestone, there is a definite urge (of course) to shift to a more ‘professional’ and powerful linux. I don’t say that Ubuntu is weak. I inherently mean that, there is much more to gain from RPM based linuxes like RedHat and Fedora (in my humble opinion.)
So to answer your question, without trying to influence your opinions, plans and beliefs, in a short beeline-way, Fedora is a derivative of Red Hat. You may think it like Fedora being a beta with minimal bugs version of the big stable Red Hat Enterprise. So go too far, just download the few gigabytes of Fedora, and enjoy the big wealth of the repository on the cdrom (good if you are a developer, database designer..)
Fedora has a full-fledged forums as well (fedoraforums.org) where you can learn useful commands rapidly, like listing all processes using :
ps -edf or listing free memory using free -m, and the big well of commands.
Happy Linuxing and Fedoring ! lol
Post your comments here itself if you wish 🙂
Kind regards,
LikeLike
I appreciate the thoughts/advice. Its funny coming from Windows and moving to Linux just how many options there are. A person like me just sits around and thinks about things they want to try, and there are so many. And since I have only experienced the Debian based distros, I just wondered about the others. Still running the same GUI in Fedora, GNOME, but what are those other differences… Will try them out soon enough I am sure. Right now things are pretty stable on my dual boot laptop.
LikeLike
I wrote a simple utility in html/php to listen to mp3 on linux, here is the link
http://techbirbal.com/viewtopic.php?f=95&t=2025
LikeLike
Sorry … linux newbie here … how about fluendo mp3 decoder ? can you help me about my dead crystal eye on aspire 4315 with fedora 8 inside ..
Thanks
LikeLike
@Bayu,
I haven’t yet tried the fluendo mp3 decoder, but I recall however coming across it during my newbie stage, and googling for and mp3 player. If fluendo does your job, go on. Don’t hesitate to try. If you fall, you’ll wake up stronger.
Btw, anyone having the freshrpms error, add this string to your download line:
disablerepo=freshrpms
like in:
yum install gstreamer-plugins-ugly disablerepo=freshrpmsNote: these two pieces of code are on the same line; I’ve tried in vain to trick wordpress to display them on one line 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks I was Able to install Rhythm box following the instructions
LikeLike
Hey, This tutorial worked for me. Just copied and pasted steps and worked just like that. Thanks for a great guide!!
LikeLike
It worked fine. I followed your steps exactly.
Thanks a lot.
P. K. Mishra
LikeLike
Thanks very much! You really saved me a lot of work and precious time. I got many things working on my fc9 by modifying the commands you gave. It’s rare you get piece of advice as clear as yours.
LikeLike
hey..thanks for the tutorial…it’s run smoothly on my fedora 8
LikeLike
after all of you sey i see :
No package gstreamer-plugins-ugly available.
what can i do..?
thanks
LikeLike
Got to the second command in Step 3 and returned this error:
error: skipping http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-8.rpm – transfer failed – Unknown or unexpected error
warning: u 0x80801b0 ctrl 0x8080f70 nrefs != 0 (rpm.livna.org http)
where do I go next? Cheers Y
LikeLike
Hi,
I followed the instructions. At the last command, it started downloading some files, but then it displayed this error message and stopped:
http://ayo.ie.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/8/i386/freshrpms/repodata/primary.sqlite.bz2: [Errno -3] Error performing checksum
Trying other mirror.
Error: failure: repodata/primary.sqlite.bz2 from freshrpms: [Errno 256] No more mirrors to try.
I tried it again with the line disablerepo=freshrpms, but it still doesn’t work.
Any ideas?
Thanks
LikeLike
I am using Fedora 12. I tried to enable the mp3 plugin for Rhythmbox. But some problems have arised when i started the process which had given by you.
They are
step 1:
-> First i typed this command
$] yum -y install yum-priorities
It gave me an error
Loaded plugins: presto, refresh-packagekit
Error: Cannot retrieve repository metadata (repomd.xml) for repository: fedora. Please verify its path and try again
step 2:
then i gave the command
$] vi /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/priorities.conf
->But there is no such file .
In the direcroty pluginconf.d there are only three files are present. They are presto.conf, refresh-packagekit.conf,whiteout.conf
-> Now what to do?
step 3:
In step 3 you have given the command like
rpm -Uvh http://www.fedorafaq.org/f8/yum.
But i have no internet connection to comprimise with that command. Now what to do?
step 4:
-> Then i typed the command
$] yum install gstreamer-plugins-ugly
It had given the error
loaded plugins: presto, refresh-packagekit
Error: Cannot retrieve repository metadata (repomd.xml) for repository: fedora. Please verify its path and try again
Give some guidelines on how to enable the mp3 plugin.
LikeLike