Timidity installation from package manager fails

[yolhurt]

Are you just looking for something to play midi files?
My Audacious audio player which I compiled in S15Pup64 will do that out of the box.
It uses libfluidsynth rather than timidity
The only thing is that the included soundfont is very small and basic just to get you up and running. You need to add your own bigger soundfont to produce better quality sound.
http://smokey01.com/OscarTalks/audaciou ... 4-s15p.pet

Thanks. I tried your Audacious pet and it worked fine ootb.

Playing midi files with a simple left-click and getting them to play in the Windows program Synthesia (using Wine) is what I've been looking to do. It was easier (for a non-Linux savvy person like me) to set things up in Slacko 5.6/7 than it has been in S15Pup.

[rcrsn51]

However, when I reboot the computer and try the same thing again, the midi file doesn't play and the console just outputs those 2 lines with "Couldn't open output device" at the end.

In my tests, you can't have the timidity server running in the background AND try to play a file through timidity.

You have to stop the server with: /etc/init.d/timidity_server stop

Then you can run: timidity -int -o hw xxx.mid

Or you can use your original run action: rxvt -e timidity -int -o hw "$1"

You don't need the midi-play script any more.

[mikewalsh]

@geo_c :-

Just to add that so far I've found the package manager on this distro to be poor compared to the ones I've used on other Puppies. Almost nothing I've tried to install has worked first time and everything seems to take ages. I've just tried to install Audacity, which took about 40 minutes (:0) including dependencies, and at the end it still give me a list of 17 "missing shared libraries" before the package manager froze.

I've been running an install of SC-15Pup, and though it's a very fast system, the slackware repos are slim indeed. I was really disappointed at not finding Xfe file manager in the repos, or in an online search for a slackware package. It looks like if I want to use Xfe in SC15 I'll need to compile, unless there's a .pet package hiding somewhere on the forum.

Coupla thoughts on this. Slackware repos are traditionally quite "light" anyway, since great emphasis is placed by the community on compiling/building most stuff from source.....even here in 2023. To this end, there's a HUGE repo of "Slackbuilds" build recipes for compiling with, but there's precious few people providing ready-built packages.....Eric Hameleers, "AlienBob" to the Slackware community, is one such.

On the whole, it DOES make for a very self-sufficient community. All they really need from outside is source code.....the rest, the community is geared-up to deal with. I should add that most people running Slackware these days seem to fall into one of two categories; either "old hands" from the early days, when it was quite the norm for new Linux users to be expected to teach themselves to set-up and run their own server, AND preferably to set-up and maintain their own website, too. Only thus would the rest of the community take you seriously. OR, current-day noobs who like the sound of doing-it-all-yourself, and want to dive in at the deep end. Most people don't.......but even for user-friendly distros, there will still always be a need for a small cadre of individuals who can actually build the packages that populate said distro's repositories.

The other thought is that, for Slackware, version 15 is still relatively new. Unlike Ubuntu, who churn out new releases every 6 months, regular as clockwork, new Slackware releases are often 2-3, occasionally even 4 years apart... In the ten years I've been running Linux, this is only the 3rd new release in all that time..!

Mike.

[yolhurt]

However, when I reboot the computer and try the same thing again, the midi file doesn't play and the console just outputs those 2 lines with "Couldn't open output device" at the end.

In my tests, you can't have the timidity server running in the background AND try to play a file through timidity.

You have to stop the server with: /etc/init.d/timidity_server stop

Then you can run: timidity -int -o hw xxx.mid

Or you can use your original run action: rxvt -e timidity -int -o hw "$1"

You don't need the midi-play script any more.

Thanks @rcrsn51. I've noticed that when timidity server is running, no other audio at all (for example, in Mplayer or a web browser) will play until the server has been stopped. Is there any way of getting around this or is it just due to the way the version of ALSA in S15Pup64 works? In Slacko 5.7 you can play other audio with the server running.

Also, I was wondering if those two lines can just be ignored:

Code: Select all

timidity: /lib64/libncurses.so.6: no version information available (required by timidity)
timidity: /lib64/libtinfo.so.6: no version information available (required by timidity)

[yolhurt]

Coupla thoughts on this. Slackware repos are traditionally quite "light" anyway, since great emphasis is placed by the community on compiling/building most stuff from source.....even here in 2023. To this end, there's a HUGE repo of "Slackbuilds" build recipes for compiling with, but there's precious few people providing ready-built packages.....Eric Hameleers, "AlienBob" to the Slackware community, is one such.

On the whole, it DOES make for a very self-sufficient community. All they really need from outside is source code.....the rest, the community is geared-up to deal with. I should add that most people running Slackware these days seem to fall into one of two categories; either "old hands" from the early days, when it was quite the norm for new Linux users to be expected to teach themselves to set-up and run their own server, AND preferably to set-up and maintain their own website, too. Only thus would the rest of the community take you seriously. OR, current-day noobs who like the sound of doing-it-all-yourself, and want to dive in at the deep end. Most people don't.......but even for user-friendly distros, there will still always be a need for a small cadre of individuals who can actually build the packages that populate said distro's repositories.

The other thought is that, for Slackware, version 15 is still relatively new. Unlike Ubuntu, who churn out new releases every 6 months, regular as clockwork, new Slackware releases are often 2-3, occasionally even 4 years apart... In the ten years I've been running Linux, this is only the 3rd new release in all that time..!

Mike.

Thanks for your thoughts on this @mikewalsh. Apart from a few difficulties trying to get stuff set up the way I had it on my old Slackos, I've found S15Pup to run really well on my laptop. The CPU fan is very quiet compared to on other Puppies I've tested.

[rcrsn51]

Is there any way of getting around this or is it just due to the way the version of ALSA in S15Pup64 works?

It may have something to do with using the "-o hw" option. You would need to run tests on some other Puppies.

Also, I was wondering if those two lines can just be ignored:

Yes.

[yolhurt]

[9 months later...]

After starting Timidity server, I sometimes find that (even after trying to stop it) no audio works until I reboot.

If I enter "/etc/init.d/timidity_server stop" in the console (before rebooting) this is what I get:

Code: Select all

cat: /var/run/timidity.pid: No such file or directory
kill: usage: kill [-s sigspec | -n signum | -sigspec] pid | jobspec ... or kill -l [sigspec]
rm: cannot remove '/var/run/timidity.pid': No such file or directory

Could anyone tell me what's happening here?

[Clarity]

Have you tried the latest S15...64 version from here?

[yolhurt]

Have you tried the latest S15...64 version from here?

Unfortunately, Timidity still fails to install from the PPM in the latest S15Pup64 release (I tested it on a fresh frugal install).

Since earlier this year I've been using the workaround provided by rvgcrsn51 in this thread, but occasionally after using Timidity I have to reboot to get any audio at all.