Digg Town Hall #1

Howto: Run Amarok under Windows XP

If you're reading this blog post, you've surely heard about Amarok, one of the best music players out there. Unfortunately it's currently only being developed for Linux, which is great too, but many of us have to use Windows for many reasons. So with the latest release of AndLinux, I sat down and developed a solution for all the desperate Windows users who want to run Amarok.
I haven't tested this guide with Vista, but since AndLinux claims that it's compatible with the 32-bit version of Vista, I assume it will work fine.

1. Download and install the KDE version of AndLinux (direct download link).
   During install, chose whatever options you want to use (I suggest activating the "run as NT service" feature, since you probably want Amarok to be open most of the time you're on your PC).
   
2. Restart your computer.
3. Start "Konsole" from the quickbar button the installer has created (if you can't find that button use c:\Program Files\andLinux\Launcher\andKonsole.exe).
4. After a little while, you should see a command prompt (starting with a # which means you're logged in as root). Type in: "apt-get install xterm libavutil1d libgsm1 libavcodec1d libmad0 libpostproc1d libxine1-ffmpeg". These are packages which are required by Amarok and which do not come with AndLinux per default.
5. Now that you've installed all the required packages, you can install Amarok with this command: "apt-get install amarok".
6. You probably want to access your Windows files to listen to your MP3s. To do this, we have to add a mountpoint. Simply follow these steps:
1. Create a Windows share for your MP3 folder and set the permissions to "Everyone"-> "Everything".
2. Find out what your local IP address is (127.0.0.1 will not work for some reason).
3. Go back to Konsole and start up your favourite editor to edit /etc/fstab (I like mcedit, so you'd have to type: "mcedit /etc/fstab").
4. At the end of the file, add the following line:
   "//local-ip/share /media smbfs username=windows-user,password=windows-pass"
   (i.e. "//192.168.0.3/mp3s /media smbfs username=Administrator,password=SuperSecret")
5. Save the file and exit (in mcedit, press F10 and select "yes").
6. Now you have to create the /media folder by entering "mkdir /media" into Konsole.
7. To test your configuration out, type "mount /media && ls /media". If you cannot see the contents of your share, something went wrong and you should check your settings again.
   
7. So, let's go on. It is not recommened to run any applications as root user, so you should go and create your own user: "adduser ", i.e. "adduser jimmy". You'll have to enter a password, but you can leave out all the other details (full name, room number, etc).
   
8. Switch to that user by typing: "su " ("su jimmy").
   
9. Now we're ready to go. Really? Type "amarok" and hit the enter key. Your music files will be located in /media.
   

I hope this wasn't too complicated. However, if you have any questions, feel free to post them as a comment and I'll try to respond as soon as possible (moderation is activated to avoid spam issues).