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So... I wanted to try out mpd. I went to the arch wiki, copied the example file and then started tinkering with it.
I ended up with this config:
music_directory "~/Music"
playlist_directory "~/.local/share/mpd/playlists"
db_file "~/.local/share/mpd/database"
state_file "~/.local/state/mpd/state"
sticker_file "~/.local/share/mpd/sticker.sql"
bind_to_address "127.0.0.1"
port "6600"
log_level "notice"
restore_paused "yes"
save_absolute_paths_in_playlists "no"
metadata_to_use "artist,album,title,track,name,genre,date,composer,performer,disc"
auto_update "yes"
follow_outside_symlinks "yes"
follow_inside_symlinks "yes"
zeroconf_enabled "no"
audio_output {
type "pipewire"
name "PipeWire Sound Server"
}
replaygain "track"
filesystem_charset "UTF-8"Now when I run mpd in the terminal I get this message:
decoder: Decoder plugin "wildmidi" is unavailable: configuration file does not exist: /etc/timidity/timidity.cfg
exception: Failed to read from file: Is a directoryThen the mpd clients do open, but they do not display the audio files contained in the "Music" folder. Also, when I click on "Open With" and I chose a mpd client (Ario) I get nothing. The client opens normally but no song plays - it isn't even displayed in the track list.
The same thing happens also when I try opening a file from the command line, whether I do it with "Ario" or "ncmpcpp".
Does anyone know what is going on here and how to fix it?
Last edited by Aggelos_SG (2025-08-06 16:15:21)
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Have you enabled your "--user mpd mpd.service"?
└─[0] systemctl status --user mpd
● mpd.service - Music Player Daemon
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/mpd.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Thu 2025-07-31 15:56:37 SAST; 1 day 12h ago Make sure that you've disabled the system-wide service "mpd.service".
└─[0] systemctl status mpd
○ mpd.service - Music Player Daemon
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/mpd.service; disabled; preset: disabled)As regards "wildmidi" just install it via pacman [extra/wildmidi 0.4.6-1] "sudo pacman -S wildmidi" and as far as I can remember a timidity.cfg file is generated @/etc/timidity/ when you install "wildmidi".
Also, as far as I am concerned this shouldn't adversely effect MPD.
Last edited by johnpiers (2025-08-02 02:53:11)
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I had tried using the systemd service already prior to posting here, however it wasn't really fruitful. Also, I just tried installing "wildmidi" only to realize that it was installed all along. So I was getting this message despite having it installed.
I am kind of out of ideas regarding this.
I tried running mpd using the "--verbose" flag hopping to get some useful information. This is what I got
config_file: loading file "/home/Aggelos_Sgartsos/.config/mpd/mpd.conf"
libsamplerate: libsamplerate converter "Fastest Sinc Interpolator"
vorbis: Xiph.Org libVorbis 1.3.7
opus: libopus 1.5.2
decoder: Decoder plugin "wildmidi" is unavailable: configuration file does not exist: /etc/timidity/timidity.cfg
sndfile: libsndfile-1.2.2
simple_db: reading DB
input: Input plugin "qobuz" is not configured: No Qobuz app_id configured
curl: version 8.15.0
curl: with OpenSSL/3.5.1
state_file: Loading state file /home/Aggelos_Sgartsos/.local/state/mpd/state
event: RTIOThread could not get realtime scheduling, continuing anyway: sched_setscheduler failed: Operation not permitted
exception: Failed to read from file: Is a directory
inotify: initializing inotify
inotify: watching music directoryAlso, I tried again using the systemd service. And I took a look at the journal output. I ran "journalctl --user --unit mpd.service". This is what I got:
Aug 01 20:25:54 Palantiri systemd[1230]: Starting Music Player Daemon...
Aug 01 20:25:54 Palantiri mpd[1299]: server_socket: bind to '0.0.0.0:6600' failed (continuing anyway, because binding to '[::]:6600' succeeded): Failed to bind socket: Address already in use
Aug 01 20:25:54 Palantiri mpd[1299]: exception: Failed to access /home/Aggelos_Sgartsos/.local/share/mpd/playlists: No such file or directory
Aug 01 20:25:54 Palantiri mpd[1299]: decoder: Decoder plugin "wildmidi" is unavailable: configuration file does not exist: /etc/timidity/timidity.cfg
Aug 01 20:25:54 Palantiri mpd[1299]: exception: Failed to access /home/Aggelos_Sgartsos/music: No such file or directory
Aug 01 20:25:54 Palantiri mpd[1299]: exception: Failed to open "/home/Aggelos_Sgartsos/.local/share/mpd/database": No such file or directory
Aug 01 20:25:54 Palantiri mpd[1299]: exception: Failed to open database plugin; On parent directory of db file; Failed to access /home/Aggelos_Sgartsos/.local/share/mpd: No such file or directory
Aug 01 20:25:55 Palantiri systemd[1230]: mpd.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Aug 01 20:25:55 Palantiri systemd[1230]: mpd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Aug 01 20:25:55 Palantiri systemd[1230]: Failed to start Music Player Daemon.
Aug 01 20:34:30 Palantiri systemd[1230]: Starting Music Player Daemon...
Aug 01 20:34:30 Palantiri mpd[4095]: server_socket: bind to '0.0.0.0:6600' failed (continuing anyway, because binding to '[::]:6600' succeeded): Failed to bind socket: Address already in use
Aug 01 20:34:30 Palantiri mpd[4095]: decoder: Decoder plugin "wildmidi" is unavailable: configuration file does not exist: /etc/timidity/timidity.cfg
Aug 01 20:34:30 Palantiri mpd[4095]: exception: Failed to access /home/Aggelos_Sgartsos/music: No such file or directory
Aug 01 20:34:30 Palantiri mpd[4095]: exception: Failed to open "/home/Aggelos_Sgartsos/.local/share/mpd/database": No such file or directory
Aug 01 20:34:31 Palantiri mpd[4095]: exception: Failed to open "/home/Aggelos_Sgartsos/.local/state/mpd/state": No such file or directory
Aug 01 20:34:31 Palantiri mpd[4095]: exception: Failed to access /home/Aggelos_Sgartsos/music: No such file or directory
Aug 01 20:34:31 Palantiri mpd[4095]: exception: inotify_add_watch("/home/Aggelos_Sgartsos/music") failed: No such file or directory
Aug 01 20:34:31 Palantiri systemd[1230]: Started Music Player Daemon.
Aug 01 20:43:27 Palantiri systemd[1230]: Stopping Music Player Daemon...
Aug 01 20:43:27 Palantiri mpd[4095]: exception: Failed to commit /home/Aggelos_Sgartsos/.local/state/mpd/state: File exists
Aug 01 20:43:27 Palantiri systemd[1230]: Stopped Music Player Daemon.
Aug 01 20:52:21 Palantiri systemd[1230]: Starting Music Player Daemon...
Aug 01 20:52:21 Palantiri mpd[10748]: exception: Failed to bind to '127.0.0.1:6600'; Failed to bind socket: Address already in use
Aug 01 20:52:21 Palantiri systemd[1230]: mpd.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Aug 01 20:52:21 Palantiri systemd[1230]: mpd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Aug 01 20:52:21 Palantiri systemd[1230]: Failed to start Music Player Daemon.
Aug 01 20:52:40 Palantiri systemd[1230]: Starting Music Player Daemon...
Aug 01 20:52:40 Palantiri mpd[10861]: exception: Failed to bind to '127.0.0.1:6600'; Failed to bind socket: Address already in use
Aug 01 20:52:40 Palantiri systemd[1230]: mpd.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Aug 01 20:52:40 Palantiri systemd[1230]: mpd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Aug 01 20:52:40 Palantiri systemd[1230]: Failed to start Music Player Daemon.
-- Boot c50854810ad24a1fa1fb7818dc36be3b --
Aug 01 20:53:44 Palantiri systemd[1154]: Starting Music Player Daemon...
Aug 01 20:53:49 Palantiri mpd[1163]: decoder: Decoder plugin "wildmidi" is unavailable: configuration file does not exist: /etc/timidity/timidity.cfg
Aug 01 20:53:49 Palantiri mpd[1163]: exception: Failed to read from file: Is a directory
Aug 01 20:53:49 Palantiri systemd[1154]: Started Music Player Daemon.
Aug 01 20:55:13 Palantiri mpd[1163]: exception: Not playing
Aug 01 20:55:26 Palantiri systemd[1154]: Stopping Music Player Daemon...
Aug 01 20:55:26 Palantiri systemd[1154]: Stopped Music Player Daemon.
Aug 01 20:55:26 Palantiri mpd[1163]: exception: Failed to commit /home/Aggelos_Sgartsos/.local/state/mpd/state: File exists
-- Boot ff368c56876f468a801c1c7319b4562a --
Aug 02 15:55:54 Palantiri systemd[3798]: Starting Music Player Daemon...
Aug 02 15:55:54 Palantiri systemd[3798]: Started Music Player Daemon.
Aug 02 15:55:54 Palantiri mpd[9575]: decoder: Decoder plugin "wildmidi" is unavailable: configuration file does not exist: /etc/timidity/timidity.cfg
Aug 02 15:55:54 Palantiri mpd[9575]: exception: Failed to read from file: Is a directoryIt seems these logs contain some information from when I was still modifying this config. I posted it too just in case it proves any useful.
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To start with... m != M
music_directory "~/Music"Aug 01 20:25:54 Palantiri mpd[1299]: exception: Failed to access /home/Aggelos_Sgartsos/music: No such file or directorySecondly, have you actually created the files in your home directory prior to starting mpd?
Aug 01 20:25:54 Palantiri mpd[1299]: exception: Failed to access /home/Aggelos_Sgartsos/.local/share/mpd/playlists: No such file or directory
Aug 01 20:25:54 Palantiri mpd[1299]: exception: Failed to access /home/Aggelos_Sgartsos/music: No such file or directory
Aug 01 20:25:54 Palantiri mpd[1299]: exception: Failed to open "/home/Aggelos_Sgartsos/.local/share/mpd/database": No such file or directory
Aug 01 20:34:30 Palantiri mpd[4095]: exception: Failed to access /home/Aggelos_Sgartsos/music: No such file or directory
Aug 01 20:34:30 Palantiri mpd[4095]: exception: Failed to open "/home/Aggelos_Sgartsos/.local/share/mpd/database": No such file or directory
Aug 01 20:34:31 Palantiri mpd[4095]: exception: Failed to open "/home/Aggelos_Sgartsos/.local/state/mpd/state": No such file or directory
Aug 01 20:34:31 Palantiri mpd[4095]: exception: Failed to access /home/Aggelos_Sgartsos/music: No such file or directory
Aug 01 20:34:31 Palantiri mpd[4095]: exception: inotify_add_watch("/home/Aggelos_Sgartsos/music") failed: No such file or directoryAlso, please post
file /etc/timidity/timidity.cfgCheers,
Edit - spelling
Last edited by dakota (2025-08-03 00:22:08)
"Before Enlightenment chop wood, carry water. After Enlightenment chop wood, carry water." -- Zen proverb
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MPD needs to be configured to know where your music is, where to store its database, and how to output audio. It’s generally recommended to run MPD as a user service.
Create MPD configuration directory and files: It’s good practice to keep MPD’s configuration and related files in ~/.config/mpd/.
bash
mkdir -p ~/.config/mpd/playlists
touch ~/.config/mpd/database
touch ~/.config/mpd/log
touch ~/.config/mpd/pid
touch ~/.config/mpd/state
touch ~/.config/mpd/sticker.sql
Copy the example configuration file: MPD provides a good starting point for its configuration.
bash
cp /usr/share/doc/mpd/mpdconf.example ~/.config/mpd/mpd.confLast edited by johnpiers (2025-08-02 20:23:37)
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MPD needs to be configured to know where your music is, where to store its database, and how to output audio. It’s generally recommended to run MPD as a user service.
Create MPD configuration directory and files: It’s good practice to keep MPD’s configuration and related files in ~/.config/mpd/.
bash mkdir -p ~/.config/mpd/playlists touch ~/.config/mpd/database touch ~/.config/mpd/log touch ~/.config/mpd/pid touch ~/.config/mpd/state touch ~/.config/mpd/sticker.sql Copy the example configuration file: MPD provides a good starting point for its configuration. bash cp /usr/share/doc/mpd/mpdconf.example ~/.config/mpd/mpd.conf
Allright, I had seen in the Arch Wiki that I had to create those files and folders before running mpd and I thought that I had done it. But after I moved all those file locations to "~/.config" and run the "touch" command for all of them, mpd seems to be running just fine. Which means that I had forgotten about some. It can't have been something else, right? By the way, I don't use a "pid" and a "log" file because it says in the example config that they are unneccessary if using systemd.
Anyways, the matter is resolved. Thanks a lot!
PS: Sorry for the delayed response.
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