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#1 2007-05-27 13:27:48
- FUBAR
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- From: Belgium
- Registered: 2004-12-08
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Turn a written off laptop into a music station
I've got an old laptop lying around I'd like to use as a dedicated MP3 player. I'd hook it up to my amp's auxiliary input and just listen to the cool tunes.
The trouble is, the thing is really old: a Pentium 133 with 31.1 (900KB for the VGA) MB RAM. I don't think it's powerful enough to do the actual playing itself though. So I was wondering if there was another way to have it output the sound and also control simple stuff like play, pause, next, skipping, playlists, ...
The real reason why I'm asking rather than trying is that the laptop only has a floppy drive and a PCMCIA NIC. Installing any OS on it is a real bitch so I'd like to know my options in advance. 
A bus station is where a bus stops.
A train station is where a train stops.
On my desk I have a workstation.
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#2 2007-05-27 14:34:56
- ataraxia
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- From: Pittsburgh
- Registered: 2007-05-06
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Re: Turn a written off laptop into a music station
Back when these were current, I was able to play mp3s on such a machine. Install mpd (musicpd) on it and open the port so your other machines can talk to it. Hopefully you have the diskspace on it to hold the music?
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#3 2007-05-27 16:33:59
- liem
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Re: Turn a written off laptop into a music station
First, try playing an mp3 on it. Way simpler if it works.
Otherwise mpd on another machine and use something like icecast to stream the music to the laptop.
Sebastian A. Liem
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#4 2007-05-27 18:29:04
- rayjgu3
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- From: Chicago IL usa
- Registered: 2004-07-04
- Posts: 695
Re: Turn a written off laptop into a music station
1st off id try plugging it into sound system to check the quality of sound
dont know bout you but every laptop i ever messed with got cheapo crappy sound cards
the sound coming out weather through built in speakers or using external system like you described aint pretty
usually very tinty or tin can effect
maybe your not as anal as i am bout what your listening to
i had an old P-133 lappy i gave it away to my brother , he still uses it from time to time
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#5 2007-05-28 10:58:08
- FUBAR
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- From: Belgium
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Re: Turn a written off laptop into a music station
Thanks for the brilliant tips. The laptop will mount an NFS-share where the music is stored. I thought about running MPD on it, but since it's a large collection I don't think it would ever come to the actual playing.
I'll give the MPD and Icecast combination a try.
A bus station is where a bus stops.
A train station is where a train stops.
On my desk I have a workstation.
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#6 2007-05-29 06:24:37
- Phlosten
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- Registered: 2006-12-10
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Re: Turn a written off laptop into a music station
It should play your basic mp3. It may struggle with VBR mp3s possibly. My only thought, do you really need that extra computer running?
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#7 2007-05-29 08:28:44
- tomk
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Re: Turn a written off laptop into a music station
Re your install, floppy and PCMCIA are sufficient, as long as your chosen distro provides install floppies, of course. I installed Lowarch via floppy/PCMCIA on a machine of similar vintage, and it worked fine.
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#8 2007-05-29 09:31:58
- kth5
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Re: Turn a written off laptop into a music station
i'd recommend running mp3blaster in a screen as init3 - so that it restarts. if you wanna play some tricks you could hack the mp3 playing user so that it prompts you with mp3blaster on ssh as well. not as heavy as mpd when done right.
I recognize that while theory and practice are, in theory, the same, they are, in practice, different. -Mark Mitchell
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#9 2007-05-29 12:46:14
- FUBAR
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- From: Belgium
- Registered: 2004-12-08
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Re: Turn a written off laptop into a music station
It should play your basic mp3. It may struggle with VBR mp3s possibly. My only thought, do you really need that extra computer running?
It's probably the only way to have a dedicate MP3 player. I'll be using a laptop to keep the electricity consumption at a minimum.
Re your install, floppy and PCMCIA are sufficient, as long as your chosen distro provides install floppies, of course. I installed Lowarch via floppy/PCMCIA on a machine of similar vintage, and it worked fine.
The laptop is currently running Rubix Linux, based on Arch but compiled for i586. Since the Rubix project has been cancelled, I was thinking about using Slackware. I'll give Lowarch a look too tho.
I can't do all the cool stuff right now though, I've lost me networking dongle! 
Last edited by FUBAR (2007-05-29 12:58:41)
A bus station is where a bus stops.
A train station is where a train stops.
On my desk I have a workstation.
Offline