Windows Binaries of Amarok 2 Tech Preview

Wednesday, February 6. 2008

Windows Binaries of Amarok 2 Tech Preview

I've had the killer combination of being both sick and busy lately, so I haven't got much done on Amarok recently.

However I do have one announcement that might make a few people happy: the windows installer of KDE now has packages of the Amarok 2 tech preview available.

You can download it by grabbing the installer and following the instructions over at the KDE techbase. It should be pretty self explainatory, just run the installer, select a mirror, and download the amarok package: all the dependencies should be automatically downloaded and installed for you.

A few notes:

It'll be a large download, since all the associated KDE libs will be installed. Once KDE on Windows is more stable (hopefully for the 4.1 KDE release) you'll only have to download the core libraries once, but at the moment the packages change semi-regularly.

When asked for compiler selection, either MSVC or mingw work fine for Amarok. Unless you're a developer, there's really no reason to care which compiler you select at this point, other than the fact the MSVC packages are somewhat smaller (the mingw ones have debugging information embedded in the binaries).

Amarok should be able to play the same file formats you're used to being able to use on Linux, provided you have the appropriate Direct Show filter. As a guide, if WMP can play the file, Amarok should be able to. For file format support, installing ffdshow can help.

This is a tech preview, we know there are problems, don't file bugs. Any bugs filed will be closed anyway, so you're just wasting someone's time.

As it's in a pre-alpha state, don't use it on any files you don't mind being corrupted/deleted/otherwise mangled. Although I don't think there are any such problems with it, it pays to be careful since it hasn't been extensively tested yet.

If the installer doesn't work for you, the installer guys do want to know about that: please post on the KDE windows mailing list and someone will try to figure out the problem.

The binaries packages will be updated as development on Amarok 2 progresses. It's not entirely in my hands though, since I'm not the one making the packages. I'll try to make a blog post to let people know whenever there's a new package with some major addition in it, so watch this space.

Hope you enjoy this taste of what is to come with Amarok 2 on Windows!

Posted by Shane King in shakes at 18:15 | Comments (36) | Trackbacks (0)

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The KDE techdatabase page linked to actually says that Amarok does not have packages yet. I guess they are just so new it has not been updated on the site?

Anyhow, I am really waiting for an installer that will specifically install amarok for me. I am excited about seeing it on windows, but I have too much other stuff keeping me busy to really give it a good look right now. Thanks for the good work, keep it up!

#1 Micah Shaw on 2008-02-06 23:02 (Reply)

The site is out of date.

As far as an installer that will specifically install just Amarok, there probably wont be one. You need the KDE libraries installed anyway, so the KDE on Windows installer does the job.

#1.1 shakes (Homepage) on 2008-02-07 01:09 (Reply)

I changed the techbase page now.
I cannot say for sure yet, but I hope Amarok makes big steps towards getting more usable. Since Amarok is of great interest, I think we will package it on a more regular base soon.

#1.2 SaroEngels (Homepage) on 2008-02-07 08:10 (Reply)

Shane, we really need to get your blog on planet.kde.org. Can you please write to clee@kde.org and ask him for inclusion of your "shakes" feed?

#2 Mark Kretschmann on 2008-02-07 03:22 (Reply)

I'll try to keep the amarok package up-to-date. We're currently releasing new binaries for windows every time dirk adds a new snapshot. Maybe we can integrate amarok within this release cycle.

#3 Christian Ehrlicher (Homepage) on 2008-02-07 09:45 (Reply)

We're about to deploy a "nightly build service" for Amarok 2, called Neon. But so far Neon is only able to create Kubuntu packages. Maybe we could integrate Windows builds too?

#3.1 Mark Kretschmann on 2008-02-07 10:02 (Reply)

Currently we're using our own emerge buildsystem. It can also be automated to create daily binaries. But I think a daily binary is to much - the current idea to follow dirks snapshot releases is fine atm.

#3.1.1 Christian Ehrlicher (Homepage) on 2008-02-07 10:26 (Reply)

That'd be awesome if we could keep the package in sync with the other ones. I don't think Amarok is really close enough to real "releases" yet that it matters when you grab the the snapshots from, they're all really "nightly build" quality.

Thanks a lot for all the work you do on that side of things!

#3.2 shakes (Homepage) on 2008-02-07 18:59 (Reply)

does this use solid?

#4 cies on 2008-02-07 10:02 (Reply)

ehh i ment phonon.. the multimedia framework.

comeing to think of it i'm also interested in if it uses solid for media device detection...

[i'm downloading]

#4.1 cies on 2008-02-07 10:11 (Reply)

Yes, uses Phonon with a custom Direct Media (or whatever the thing is called) backend. Eventually we're going to use the built-in Phonon backend from Qt 4.4.

#4.1.1 Mark Kretschmann on 2008-02-07 10:14 (Reply)

Yes, the Direct Show phonon plugin is part of Qt 4.4, but is maintained by Trolltech in KDE's repository. So we can use it from either place, it's the same code.

#4.1.1.1 shakes (Homepage) on 2008-02-07 18:36 (Reply)

Unfortunately there's no solid backend for windows. Nobody on the KDE-Windows project at the moment really has time to write one either, so we're hoping for contributers in that area!

#4.1.2 shakes (Homepage) on 2008-02-07 21:48 (Reply)

That is very interesting, I was waiting a long time for it. And I'm very glad that there will be more stable versions soon. The current (I know I shall not make bug reports!) is very unstable... amarokcollectionscanner.exe quits and so on. But it made me very happy to see it running on my Vista computer

#5 Jonas Bark (Homepage) on 2008-02-07 10:44 (Reply)

From what I've heard there are some Vista issues with KDE still to resolve. I don't have Vista to test with so I can't really tell you much more at this point though.

#5.1 shakes (Homepage) on 2008-02-07 18:18 (Reply)

Absolutely awesome, I love Amarok and curse that Windows apps keep me chained to Windows. In other words this is great for me and all Windows users!

So far I haven't gotten as many crashes as I thought I would, awesome

On the criticism side I would hope that in the future we can optionally remove the "Dont report bugs" text in the header

#6 Will H (Homepage) on 2008-02-07 11:26 (Reply)

scratch that

I figured out how to get rid of it, Thanks for leaving it in SVG format guys.

#6.1 Will H (Homepage) on 2008-02-07 11:31 (Reply)

That's a one time only thing - it was in the Unix Tech Preview release too. Future packages will be from the svn trunk and not have it ... but it's good to keep it in the first time just to be absolutely clear it's not finished yet.

#6.2 shakes (Homepage) on 2008-02-07 18:20 (Reply)

sorry for my english
I could run amarok on windows it says could not find libstreamanalyser.dll

what i cand do?

#7 flipelunico (Homepage) on 2008-02-07 11:57 (Reply)

Hi!
My amarok for windows starts only the splash screen and then freezes. I have installed only amarok and games package. Do I have to install something else or do I just have bad luck and amarok is not ready for my config. I am running Win XP Pro.

#7.1 Luka (Homepage) on 2008-02-07 12:23 (Reply)

Hehe, sory, I forgot this is Windows and I have to restart it to get any change working...

#7.1.1 Luka (Homepage) on 2008-02-07 12:31 (Reply)

Unfortunately when something crashes with KDE at the moment you might have to kill a few processes manually to get things working again. But you shouldn't need to restart.

If it happens again, you can try killing the following if they're running:

dbus-daemon.exe
kded4.exe
klauncher.exe
kioslave.exe

#7.1.1.1 shakes (Homepage) on 2008-02-07 18:25 (Reply)

Nice work!

I am testing Amarok for Windows now. Of course, there are many bugs. But you showed me that Amarok can be run on Windows as well as Linux!

In addition, automatic album cover fetching also works.

#8 barosl (Homepage) on 2008-02-07 13:18 (Reply)

i have another problem with amarok for windows:

"audio-engine plugin"

please help me...

#9 Flipelunico on 2008-02-07 15:29 (Reply)

No offense...but if you can't do your own basic debugging you don't need to be running a tech preview...wait until it's more stable and has a simple installer.

#9.1 FameWolf on 2008-02-07 21:06 (Reply)

thanks for the help , i resolve the problem

No offense...but this is a community you should give help to others, you should not angry when others need help!

(excuse for my english)

#9.1.1 flipelunico on 2008-02-09 16:04 (Reply)

On the techbase page linked from the blog, there is a set of post install instructions. Follow these and it should work.

Really, remember to read the install guide!

#9.2 Nikolaj Hald Nielsen (Homepage) on 2008-02-08 01:23 (Reply)

Thanks you really help me.

#9.2.1 flipelunico on 2008-02-09 16:06 (Reply)

I'm looking forward on testing Amarok on windows.

#10 Dan (Homepage) on 2008-02-08 05:14 (Reply)

Thanks for your great effort!

#11 Raghu Nayak (Homepage) on 2008-02-08 11:22 (Reply)

Does Amarok for Windows runs in Wine?

#12 dodo on 2008-02-09 02:08 (Reply)

Any instructions on how to uninstall?

#13 Joe on 2008-02-09 17:38 (Reply)

just like you install it but than in reverse

Just uncheck the check boxes inside the KDE desktop installer and execute. After that you can remove the KDE installer with the normal Windows uninstaller.

(sorry for the bad English, it's not my native language)

#13.1 dodo on 2008-02-09 19:23 (Reply)

I am happy to confirm it works on vista x64. Looking forward to the final release

#14 chris on 2008-02-12 15:06 (Reply)

I am also getting audio-engine plugin problem. Help me plzzz

#15 k.s.reddy (Homepage) on 2008-02-16 14:39 (Reply)

good point. It is actually easier to make a living online if you come from a country where the cost of living is lower. I’m living in China at the moment and it would be much easier to make a living online here than it would be if I lived at home in Australia.

#16 song (Homepage) on 2008-02-24 16:32 (Reply)

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