FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for GQmpeg.         (last updated: 03-24-99)
=== ---------------------------- === ======
currently maintained by: John Ellis <gqview@geocities.com>

Contents:
=========

1)  Basic troubleshooting and problems.

  1.1 )  When I try to play a song, I get a 'mpg123 stopped sending data'
         error, what's wrong?
  1.2 )  When I play a song, the time display is not updated and the position
         scrollbar does not work, what's wrong?
  1.3 )  Sometimes when skipping or seeking within a song during playback,
         GQmpeg prints a 'mpg123 reported: can't open /dev/dsp' error, and
         drops into a paused state.
  1.4 )  When loading a playlist with files on a cd-rom, it seems to take
         forever, can I speed this up?
  1.5 )  When I have a playlist with more than 999 songs, why are the song
         counters not correct.
  1.6 )  When using freeamp to emulate mpg123, why is GQmpeg's cpu utilization
         display always zero?
  1.7 )  When using GQmpeg as a shoutcast netscape plugin it crashes.
  1.8 )  My home directory is across a network, and GQmpeg seems to be
         constantly polling a file there, can I disable it?
  1.9 )  When I attempt to load a skin other than the default, GQmpeg crashes,
         why?
  1.10)  Why isn't my video4linux radio card/tuner detected?
  1.11)  Why is radio auto-scan not picking up any stations?

2)  How do I ... ?

  2.1 )  How do I do this via the keyboard?, what are the keyboard shortcuts?
  2.2 )  How do I add an entire directory to a playlist? And how can I add
         them recursively?
  2.3 )  How do I play mpg123 through Esound?

3)  Why isn't ... feature implemented / supported ?

  3.1 )  Why do I have to use mpg123? I want to use another player engine.
  3.2 )  The mixer/volume controls do not work, are they supported on my
         platform?
  3.3 )  Why is there no spectrum analyser?
  3.4 )  Why is there no plugin support like other players?

=============================================================================
1)  Basic troubleshooting and problems.
=============================================================================

1.1 )  When I try to play a song, I get a 'mpg123 stopped sending data'
       error, what's wrong?

   Make sure you are using mpg123 version 0.59o or greater.

   On FreeBSD, SGI IRIX 5.3, Linux/PPC, and most other non-x86 linux platforms
   use mpg123 0.59q. When using 0.59o or 0.59p mpg123 needs to be compiled
   with -DREAD_MMAP enabled in mpg123's Makefile.
   (If you find this applies to other systems/platforms, contact me to have
    that system added to this list)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.2 )  When I play a song, the time display is not updated and the position
       scrollbar does not work, what's wrong?

   Make sure you are using mpg123 version 0.59o or greater.

   On FreeBSD, SGI IRIX 5.3, Linux/PPC, and most other non-x86 linux platforms
   use mpg123 0.59q. When using 0.59o or 0.59p mpg123 needs to be compiled
   with -DREAD_MMAP enabled in mpg123's Makefile.
   (If you find this applies to other systems/platforms, contact me to have
    that system added to this list)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.3 )  Sometimes when skipping or seeking within a song during playback,
       GQmpeg prints a 'mpg123 reported: can't open /dev/dsp' error, and
       drops into a paused state.

   As of 0.4.4 this should be fixed.

   There are reports that even versions after 0.4.4 have this problem
   when used with the 2.2.0 Linux kernel.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.4 )  When loading a playlist with files on a cd-rom, it seems to take
       forever, can I speed this up?

   Try disabling the reading of file headers and id3 tags on the General tab
   of the configuration window. This should decrease the number of file
   accesses when loading the playlist.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.5 )  When I have a playlist with more than 999 songs, why are the song
       counters not correct.

   The Display is only capable of showing three digits, however playlists
   with more than 999 songs work correctly.

   Update: As of 0.5.0 skins can support more than 3 digits, using such skins
           will fix the problem.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.6 )  When using freeamp to emulate mpg123, why is GQmpeg's cpu utilization
       display always zero?

   Freeamp uses multiple threaded processes when running. The initial process
   started by freeamp is the one monitored by GQmpeg, and is not the CPU
   intensive decoder thread.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.7 )  When using GQmpeg as a shoutcast netscape plugin it crashes.

   Shoutcast support is currently buggy at best. Shoutcast requires
   mpg123 0.59pre-p ... mpg123 0.59o WILL NOT WORK!
   Not included in binary packages. See the shoutcast dir in the source code.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.8 )  My home directory is across a network, and gqmpeg seems to be
       constantly polling a file there, can I disable it?

   Disable the 'allow command parsing...' option under preferences->general.
   This will stop GQmpeg testing for a ~/.gqmpeg/command file every 3 seconds.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.9 )  When I attempt to load a skin other than the default, GQmpeg crashes,
       why?

   Make sure GQmpeg was compiled with gtk 1.0.6 and imlib 1.8.x _or_
   gtk 1.2.x and imlib 1.9.x. Do not mix gtk 1.0.6 and imlib 1.9.x!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.10)  Why isn't my video4linux radio card/tuner detected?

   Check that other radio programs work, examples are radio (included with
   xawtv) and kradio. Radio is on supported under linux. The most common
   problem is that video4linux it is not configured correctly - check that the
   required kernel modules are being loaded when /dev/radio is accessed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.11)  Why is radio auto-scan not picking up any stations?

   The radio/tv card (or it's driver) does not support or implement signal
   strength reporting. Another cause are weak radio in your area - try
   adjusting the antenna position.


=============================================================================
2)  How do I ... ?
=============================================================================

2.1 )  How do I do this via the keyboard?, what are the keyboard shortcuts?

   Please see the README for a complete list of keyboard commands.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2.2 )  How do I add an entire directory to a playlist? And how can I add
       them recursively?

   Using the mouse, right click on a directory in the playlist window and
   select the desired operation from the pop-up menu that appears.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2.3 )  How do I play mpg123 through Esound?

   The easiest solution is to use the esound patched version of mpg123,
   available on the Esound home page:

                  http://www.tux.org/~ricdude/EsounD.html

   mpg123 version 0.59q includes built-in Esound support. (compile option)

=============================================================================
3)  Why isn't ... feature implemented / supported ?
=============================================================================

3.1 )  Why do I have to use mpg123? I want to use another player engine.

   Currently there is one other player that works with GQmpeg. Freeamp can
   emulate mpg123's interface and therefore will work with GQmpeg. Freeamp
   is available at www.freeamp.org

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2 )  The mixer/volume controls do not work, are they supported on my
       platform?

   Currently the mixer/volume controls are known to work on Linux, FreeBSD,
   and SPARC Ultra 1 w/ sun 2.5.1, patches to support other platforms will
   be accepted.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.3 )  Why is there no spectrum analyser?

   GQmpeg is a frontend, and by nature does not have access to the sound's
   data stream. (although this may be possible with Esound)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.4 )  Why is there no plugin support like other players?

   See 3.3 Update: this answer is subject to change :)

=============================================================================
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for GQmpeg.                            (EOF)

