(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Exaile is one of the well-known "large" music jukebox applications in Linux. Being based on GTK2 libraries, it's normally associated with Gnome-based Linux distributions, and it relies on a number of additional support libraries, too - most notably Python, but also pygtk, dbus-python, gst-python, mutagen, and GStreamer as the underlying media player engine.

For Slacko 5.3.x I have packaged everything such that you need to install 3 dotpets:
1. Exaile front end + libraries 2.9MB
http://minipc.org/ipup/download/exaile-0.3.1.2-i486.pet
2. Python 21.5MB
http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/pe ... i486-s.pet
3. GStreamer 5.4MB
http://minipc.org/ipup/download/gstream ... .10.35.pet
This version of GStreamer was compiled to support ALL worthwhile audio formats/codecs:
MP3, wav, FLAC, Vorbis (Ogg), AAC (m4a), ALAC (Apple Lossless m4a), WMA.

I obtained the Exaile binaries from Slackware 13.37 repositories, thus the program works well in Slacko.
The chances of this program successfully running in other Puppy versions are not good. This package definitely fails in Puppy Lucid.

You may notice that version 0.3.1.2 is not quite the latest version of Exaile; this is because the most recent 0.3.2-series won't allow running as root. And as all good Puppy users know, Puppy runs as root.
Initially I experimented with the latest version of Exaile by setting Slacko 5.3.3 to run as the limited user "fido", but fido is buggy, and it takes a lot of faffing around. Worst is that fido doesn't allow drive mounting, and it was frustrating to go through several steps at each boot up to get my USB drive mounted, before finally launching Exaile and then being able to access my music files.

You will notice there's no "Audio Disc" tab - I was unable to get CD reading/ripping function working, despite having fully enabled the cdiocddasrc function of the libgstcdio GStreamer plugin. And yes, I installed libcdio.
So for playing Audio CD's you will need to use PMusic,
and for ripping CD's you will need to use Asunder.
I think the tagging function works OK, but if not, Puppy has Pmetatagger.

If you want to create a desktop icon for Exaile, I included a suitable 48x48 icon at
/usr/local/lib/X11/pixmaps/exaile48.png

Mate, that's great.
Timely.
I have been looking at Exaile for a couple of days.

I must be learning something from my dog.
He has a theory..
"If you look at a door for long enough, it will open".
It works for him.

U can learn a lot from your dawg.

2 fixes:

1. the Lyrics Fly plugin doesn't work properly, I have removed it from the Exaile package.
Use the Lyrics Wiki plugin instead.

2. Internet radio streams were not working because Slacko is missing the libsoup libraries.
I have just added the missing libraries to the Exaile package.

Streaming now works OK ... for supported streams and codecs. See the next post for details and instructions.

Also the Shoutcast Radio plugin is broken - it fails to list Shoutcast stations. Shoutcast has changed their API and the terms of service, so the Exaile developers will no longer support it. I have just removed it from the Exaile package.
I have an alternative Icecast Radio plugin - but it's only "half working" - it successfully populates a list of Icecast radio stations, but it fails to also list the URL for each radio station.
Generally, Shoutcast and Icecast streams will still work OK in Exaile - it's just that you need to manually enter the stream details. See the next post.

Exaile and internet radio streams.

Exaile will play audio streams with these codecs:
MP3, Vorbis, AAC.

Exaile will NOT play streams with these codecs:
HE-AAC (aacPlus), Flash, WMA, RealAudio.

Compatibility is partly due to codec support built into Exaile's underlying GStreamer libraries. But I definitely compiled GStreamer with support for WMA, so there are other issues involved ... read on.

First look up on the web the URL's of radio station streams you would like to listen to. You will find many websites which maintain such lists. Here's an example -
http://www.mikesradioworld.com/

Now in Exaile's "Radio" tab press the "+Add Station" button. Enter a description, and the URL.
Now double-click the newly created listing, and it will be added to the current playlist field, as a separate tab. Select this tab, then press the play icon. The progress bar should display "Streaming...".

Be aware that some stations will fail to play. This may be because their true URL is hiding behind code contained in the linked URL. This is because (bizarrely) many radio stations want you to listen via a web browser, so they can display graphics to you of their choice (including advertising) while you're listening.

If you're determined, you can do some investigation to learn the true URL of the audio stream - apparently one way is to listen using Winamp under Windows, then click on the "Now Playing" properties tab.

But even with the true URL, some streams will still be blocked because there's code built into the URL which detects how you accessed that URL. If the code doesn't like how you arrived there, or doesn't like your media player (!) it will not play.

ipod plugin for Exaile !!

This plugin contains the same underlying libraries as gtkpod, with the addition of libgpod python bindings.

After installing this dotpet, launch Exaile, and go to
Edit > Preferences > Plugins
Scroll to the end of the list and you will see a new plugin listed - "iPod support".
Select its checkbox to enable it, then "Close".

If you have an older iPod device, you should just be able to connect it via USB, then I think (??) a new tab will appear in Exaile on the left hand side. If not, you may need to go to
Tools > Device Manager
and enable the iPod. I'm not sure.

If you have an iPhone, iPod-Touch or iPad, you must first follow the initial setup process I described for these models here -
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 456#445456
After that, I think you just need to mount the iPhone, iPod-Touch or iPad with this command - before being able to access its contents in Exaile.

How to sync your music? You will need to check this out yourselves. I don't own an iPod.

And PLEASE be aware that the very latest i-devices are currently unsupported, specifically:
iPhone 5th gen, iPod Touch 4th gen, iPad 3rd gen, and Nano 6th gen.
See my comment here about a possible hack/workaround -
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 860#635860

Android Remote Control for Exaile

This is cute! "RemEx" is an application to control Exaile via wifi from your Android phone/tablet. The developer is Lukas Diekmann.
The Puppy computer (which runs Exaile) doesn't need to be connected to your local network via wifi, itself, but obviously the network must have some form of wifi access point, for the phone to be able to connect. Most commonly, this will mean that you have a wifi router.

First download and install the RemEx application onto your phone -
https://bitbucket.org/l.diekmann/remex/ ... -0.6.1.apk

Now you need to install the Exaile RemEx plugin, which I have attached below; exaile-remote-control-plugin.pet

After installing this dotpet, launch Exaile and go to
Edit > Preferences > Plugins
Scroll down the list of plugins, and you will now see "RemEx" listed. Enable it by selecting the checkbox.
It's probably worth closing/re-launching Exaile to make sure that the RemEx plugin is running.

Now you need to take note of your Puppy/Exaile computer's IP address on the local network, by running this command - Your ethernet connection will be listed as "eth0". Take note of the "inet addr" value - in my case that's 192.168.0.4

Now on your phone, launch RemEx, and go to "Settings"
in "Host" enter the IP address we just took note of.
in "Port" enter 46337 (this is a value fixed by RemEx).

If you launched Exaile from the commandline, you will now see "Connected by <IP address of Android phone>" in your terminal.
The default display on the RemEx gui is the "Playing" page. You must select the "a-z Playlist" tab to start the currently loaded playlist. Now you can go back to the "Playing" page and you will see artist/track/album details, plus cover art, plus play-controls and progress bar.
Screenshot attached. Enjoy!

Some notes about remote control -
I described the previous Exaile plugin as "cute", and that's really what it is. It doesn't offer full independent access to your music library from a remote Android device, only a remote start-stop-skip function (along with pretty cover art) once your playlist has first been set up in Exaile.

This is not necessarily a shortcoming, it's simply adding some remote control functionality for someone who is already comfortable using their computer for both general computing, and as their main music player device, presumably in an area of the house which serves as both a study, and entertainment area.

But if you want full-featured remote access to your music database, music player applications such as Exaile, Rhythmbox, Amarok etc are, quite frankly, less than ideal choices.
If this is what you want, the best solution is to use an application which was designed from the ground up to work that way - Music Player Daemon. MPD is discussed extensively here -
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=70052

Precise 5.4.3 Transcend 4Gb

list of music players
Songbird is know to work french Puppy Slaxen
Slacko is no more for public, just a student exercice for Linux school.

Slacko : just use the zdrive to fit a recent computer and marry it with a nice Puppy of your choice.
Many have juke-box included. Vicmz runs exaile on its Puppy Precise.
Alternative choice :
Songbird and nightingale (newer) can easily added. Search how-to in french forum by Medor, le rossignol will enchant you de sa voix d'or.
Be very careful if you decide to load Slaxen, the french Slacko, no to delete Windows 7 in sda1.
All links are broken, compile again exaile must be necessary.

to be resolved. 2016 developers don't use multimedia software.
Users were unable until now to play exaile. lot of alternative jukeboxes are available.
python seems to be in the wrong place."You may notice that version 0.3.1.2 is not quite the latest version of Exaile; this is because the most recent 0.3.2-series won't allow running as root." tempestuous said.
What a mistery. Nobody complains about that.

false ! Puppy was dancing with exaile, in the past

Vicmz asked for it, and got it ! Click the blue and go to precise topic

Feedback :
Exaile 0.2.13 tomh told us 'Brilliant Smile Works perfectly. Thankyou so much for this.'
10 mai 2008 : To run my version of exaile, type:
/usr/local/bin/exaile. Incredible. In2016 nonody is able to get exaile doing its job