Arch Linux

xnooby2

Member

Registered: 2007-07-15

Posts: 104

mad at mpd

Are there step-by-step instructions for installing mpd (and sonata)?  There is a lot of confusing things about this.  Why would the global config override the local one?  Why is the default user name "mpd" instead of something like "yournamehere", and why are there default paths that point to /var/log/mpd if they are supposed to point to your home directory?  The Arch MPD wiki doesnt say who to issue the commands as, says to edit a file but not to what, and gets errors when followed.  I want to set up a light-weight music player to use with Arch + OpenBox.  Amarok and rhythmbox seem to pull in a lot of KDE and Gnome.

jnengland77

Member

From: Black Hills, USA

Registered: 2005-05-06

Posts: 111

Re: mad at mpd

You you have to edit the default mpd configuration file.  The defaults need to be changed.  Change them how you desire.  Change the user name to yours or whoever has permissions to the music, and where you want the logs(mine are in $HOME/.mpd)  When your done, and is all setup up.  Just start the daemon via /etc/rc.d/mpd start.  Run Sonata and select the Library tab.  Right-click "Update Library".  You should see your music there, and you're done.

~jnengland77

Last edited by jnengland77 (2007-07-16 03:02:02)

tom5760

Member

From: Philadelphia, PA, USA

Registered: 2006-02-05

Posts: 283

Website

Re: mad at mpd

Heres what I do.
1.) Install MPD
2.) copy /etc/mpd.conf.example to /etc/mpd.conf
3.) edit /etc/mpd.conf
The only fields you should change are:

# Set this to where your music is. Make sure the world can read + execute 
# (chmod -R a+rx whatever)
# NOTE: DONT USE A RELATIVE PATH.  USE A COMPLETE PATH (NOT ~/ but /home/tom)
music_directory    "/home/tom/media/music/"

# Uncomment the alsa audio output
audio_output {
        type                    "alsa"
        name                    "My ALSA Device"
#        device                  "hw:0,0"     # optional
#        format                  "44100:16:2" # optional
}

# If you want MPD to adjust the volume of audio sent to the
# audio outputs, you can tell it to use the software mixer:
#
mixer_type                      "software"

4.) Run as root:

mpd --create-db

5.) Start mpd:

/etc/rc.d/mpd start

6.) Enjoy!

You do not need to worry about changing the user or anything.  It should work fine.  Just make sure they have +rx on your music directory.

EDIT: Fixed the mpd --create-db flag.

Last edited by tom5760 (2007-07-16 04:52:18)

jnengland77

Member

From: Black Hills, USA

Registered: 2005-05-06

Posts: 111

Re: mad at mpd

4.) Run as root:

mpd --update-db

Tom5760, just to inform you that option isn't available anymore.  You have to use mpc update or update library like I suggested with Sonata.  There are other ways, too, using other frontends, but I figured he would want to use Sonata.

~jnengland77

tom5760

Member

From: Philadelphia, PA, USA

Registered: 2006-02-05

Posts: 283

Website

Re: mad at mpd

@jnegland77
Whoops, what I meant to say was 'mpd --create-db'
That does work though, just tried it now.

xnooby2

Member

Registered: 2007-07-15

Posts: 104

Re: mad at mpd

I will try these shortly, thanks for the quick answers.   I will let you know how it works out!

xnooby2

Member

Registered: 2007-07-15

Posts: 104

Re: mad at mpd

Thanks this worked perfectly!