#XMMS Channel FAQ - What NOT To Ask!

  1. What is DTD / I have problems with DTD (Dynamic Taste Detection)
  2. I get one of following errors (or very similar) when starting XMMS:
  3. Is there a way to play WMA/ASF/ASX with XMMS?
  4. Can I use WinAmp3/.WAL skins with XMMS?
  5. Plugin <insert a third-party plugin here> does not work!
  6. Playing some MP3-files crashes XMMS!
  7. When is XMMS2 coming? Is there CVS for XMMS2? Can I get it?
  8. Why don't you use Gtk+2? / When will XMMS go Gtk+2?
  9. Can I use XMMS from commandline?
  10. Can I use XMMS without X?
  11. How do I get ID3v2 tags to work? I edit ID3-tags and they don't change!
  12. Can I use XMMS under Windows?
  13. Is XMMS based on WinAmp?
  14. What is this XMMS-2.0.0 with Gtk2 support I found?
  15. Why XMMS doesn't continue to next song in playlist?! I need to press play to continue!
  16. XMMS still does not advance to next song, it seems that the current song does not "end".
  17. XMMS does not start, shows error: Inconsistency detected by ld.so: ../sysdeps/generic/dl-tls.c: 72: _dl_next_tls_modid: Assertion 'result <= _rtld_local._dl_tls_max_dtv_idx' failed!
  18. XMMS does not start, shows error: libmikmod.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
  19. XMMS does not work, I'm using Debian unstable.
  20. XMMS crashes with error "GLib-ERROR **: could not allocate 1074131992 bytes"
  21. How can I save Shoutcast/Icecast-streams while playing?
  22. Is it possible to stream mp3's with XMMS, via IceCast, like in WinAmp+ShoutCast DSP?
  23. Why playlist and/or equalizer don't minimize when I minimize XMMS's main window?
  24. XMMS does not minimize correctly, what gives?!
Things that we have answered million times and don't want ever answer again.

Q: What is DTD / I have problems with DTD (Dynamic Taste Detection)
A: It is a PATCH for XMMS that tries to manipulate playlist order so that the music you like most is played most.

This DTD-patch is NOT in vanilla-XMMS, it is included into at least Gentoo package of XMMS. Please do not contact us about problems with it.


Q: I get one of following errors (or very similar) when starting XMMS:

- ** CRITICAL **: file configfile.c: line 266 (xmms_cfg_write_string): assertion 'value != NULL' failed.

- charset.c:182: xmms_autocharset_iconv_open: Assertion 'xmms_autocharset_changed>=0' failed.

A: Using Gentoo? These are related to russian character set patch added by Gentoo packagers to the XMMS package they distribute. To solve the problem, please remove ALL the patches added and recompile XMMS. Or install from tarball.

Bother Gentoo packagers about this, not us.


Q: Is there a way to play WMA/ASF/ASX with XMMS?
A: Yes and no. There exists one WMA-plugin that MAY or MAY NOT work properly. It uses ffwma-codec from FFMPEG, which has several flaws in decoding-tables that produce audio glitches.

XMMS-WMA is available at: http://mcmcc.bat.ru/xmms-wma/

There are also two MPlayer-related plugins that may or may not work better (since MPlayer is able to use the Win32-codecs):

http://thegraveyard.org/xmmplayer.php http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/~nandan/xmmsmplayer.php


Q: Can I use WinAmp3/.WAL skins with XMMS?
A: No.

The WinAmp3 skin-format is overly complex and will (probably) never be supported in XMMS. Unless someone is mad enough to reverse-engineer WinAmp3's skin engine and bolt that into XMMS. That is very unlikely, though.

However, XMMS2 will have it's own format that offers features similar to WinAmp3 skins.


Q: Plugin <insert a third-party plugin here> does not work!
A: The polite answer to this is that we cannot take responsibility of plugins we didn't make, thus we cannot support them either. Please contact the respective author of the plugin instead.

Naturally some 3rd party plugin authors may be hanging on #xmms and other XMMS-related forums, but don't trust that as a general rule of thumb. XMMS-devs only give support for those plugins that come with XMMS, aka:

- CD-audio plugin
- MP3 plugin (mpg123)
- MOD plugin (MikMod)
- Ogg Vorbis plugin

- OSS output
- Disk Writer output
- EsounD output (not recommended, though)
- ALSA output (since XMMS 1.2.8)


Q: Playing some MP3-files crashes XMMS!
A: Check if you are using the MAD-input plugin, if yes, change to use mpg123 plugin instead. MAD-plugin is buggy and known to crash on broken and even some good MP3's.

Don't complain to us about MAD-related problems, it's a third-party project.


Q: When is XMMS2 coming? Is there CVS for XMMS2? Can I get it?
A: We don't know. No, we use BitKeeper. No, you can't get it. XMMS2 will be released "when it's done".


Q: Why don't you use Gtk+2? / When will XMMS go Gtk+2?
A: There are multiple of reasons why XMMS does not use Gtk2. Probably the major reason is that porting XMMS to Gtk2 would require all the plugins to be ported too.

Some independent people are working on this, however.

- BeepMP (http://beepmp.sourceforge.net/) is a fork of XMMS1 codebase, with additional features and some plugins ported to Gtk+2.

- XMMS2 is the second generation of XMMS. It will have Gtk+2 "client", among others, but it will still mean that the plugins have to be ported to XMMS2's architechture, which is a complete re-write and very different from XMMS1. (See also: http://tnsp.org/WHAT-NOT-TO.php#7)


Q: Can I use XMMS from commandline?
A: Yes, use xmms-shell. (See also next Q/A)


Q: Can I use XMMS without X?
A: No. XMMS1 is tied to X. But XMMS2 will not be.


Q: How do I get ID3v2 tags to work? I edit ID3-tags and they don't change!
A: If ID3v2 support is enabled, XMMS shows them instead of ID3v1 tags, but XMMS's MP3-plugin can ONLY edit ID3v1 tags. Changing the ID3v1 tags don't affect v2-tags.

To disable XMMS's support for ID3v2 tags:

- go to Preferences by pressing ctrl+p
- select "Audio I/O Plugins" tab
- select "MPEG Layer 1/2/3 plugin [libmpg123.so]"
- press "Configure"
- select "Title" tab
- select "Disable ID3V2 tags"

Better support for ID3v2 tags is supposed to be in next version of XMMS (e.g. XMMS 1.2.11 or such).


Q: Can I use XMMS under Windows?
A: No.


Q: Is XMMS based on WinAmp?
A: It's based on the interface of WinAmp, there is no code from WinAmp in XMMS.


Q: What is this XMMS-2.0.0 with Gtk2 support I found?
A: It is a fork of XMMS1 code, falsely named "XMMS2", but it is NOT official XMMS2 and it is not made by XMMS development team, so DO NOT ask us about it. This fork has been recently renamed to "Beep Media Player". It is being developed by M. Derezynski and it is available from:

http://beepmp.sourceforge.net/

Please notice that most plugins will not work "out of box" with the Gtk2 port and there may be some other problems.


Q: Why XMMS doesn't continue to next song in playlist?! I need to press play to continue!
A: You may have accidentally enabled "No Playlist Advance"-option, which keeps the playlist position in the current song.

To disable, press CTRL+N or right-click XMMS's main window, select Options -> No Playlist Advance.


Q: XMMS still does not advance to next song, it seems that the current song does not "end".
A: This is probably a bug in your soundcard's/audiodevice's driver OR you are using a combination of following:

- ALSA with OSS output-plugin in XMMS Solution: Change XMMS to use ALSA output-plugin.

- OSS or ALSA with eSound or aRts output-plugin in XMMS Solution: Remove eSound (esd) and/or aRts, they are considered harmful and change XMMS to use OSS or ALSA output-plugin respectively.


Q: XMMS does not start, shows error: Inconsistency detected by ld.so: ../sysdeps/generic/dl-tls.c: 72: _dl_next_tls_modid: Assertion 'result <= _rtld_local._dl_tls_max_dtv_idx' failed!
Q: XMMS does not start, shows error: libmikmod.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Q: XMMS does not work, I'm using Debian unstable.
A: Please see following for more information:

Bug#219352: Inconsistency detected by ld.so... http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=219...

Bug#219962: libmikmod.so.2: cannot open shared... http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=219...


Q: XMMS crashes with error "GLib-ERROR **: could not allocate 1074131992 bytes"
A: This bug has been fixed in XMMS 1.2.10 and later, please upgrade.


Q: How can I save Shoutcast/Icecast-streams while playing?
A: See MP3/MPG123-plugin preferences.

- go to Preferences by pressing ctrl+p
- select "Audio I/O Plugins" tab
- select "MPEG Layer 1/2/3 plugin [libmpg123.so]"
- press "Configure"
- select "Streaming" tab
- select "Save stream to disk" and select a path


Q: Is it possible to stream mp3's with XMMS, via IceCast, like in WinAmp+ShoutCast DSP?
A: Yes, but you don't want to do that.

If you insist on doing that, there is one plugin available, though it is mostly crap and as it's a third party plugin, don't ask us about it.

http://www.oddsock.org/tools/oddcastv2_xmms/

There is also older plugin, which probably does not work at all:

http://star.arm.ac.uk/~spm/software/liveice.html


On the other hand, we can recommend some specialized software for broadcasting, for example MuSE is an excellent yet simple to use multichannel mixing and broadcasting software for Icecast:

http://muse.dyne.org/


Q: Why playlist and/or equalizer don't minimize when I minimize XMMS's main window?
Q: XMMS does not minimize correctly, what gives?!
A: Most probably you are using KDE and it's a bug in KWin (e.g. window manager used in KDE). Should be fixed in KWin's CVS and next release. More information:

http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=66868 http://webcvs.kde.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/kdebase/kwi...

There are known problems with other window managers too:

- Oroborus (http://www.oroborus.org/): Status unknown, this may be a bug in either XMMS or Oroborus.

If you have problems with any other window manager, please contact XMMS developers.



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