All I Want To Do Is Update Amarok/banshee

Hi everyone,

I'm new to Linux in general, and simple things like updating a program has so far produced nothing but days of frustration. I have some music files that are encoded in the apple lossless formate (m4a extension). Banshee doens't know how to play them. ONe I install the w32 codecs, I can get Totem to play the files, but Banshee still cannot. After trying for hours to get Banshee to work, I gave up and went to Amarok. The problem with the default Amarok installation that comes with suse SLED 10 is that there is a bug where the m4a files are not listed in the library, although the files can still be played if I drag them from the folder where they are stored to the playlist. THe latest version of amarok fixes this problem.

I downloaded the rpm file for suse 64 bit, it opened with the zen installer, but then it complains about missing dependencies and just aborts the installation. It seems like the zen installer never works, because each time it complains about this and that, I go to Yast, and everything installs fine. I'm usine suse SLED 10, and I thought that these issues were fixed! Furthermore, for some reason, when I try to search for new software via ZEN, it doesn't find everything that's available (that I can get with searching with Yast). What gives?

So, my question now is: how do I install a local rpm from Yast? I don't want to use zen. Each time I click on the rpm, it tries to use zen...

Thanks for any help,

Frustrated.

That you can get Totem to play the files, suggests that you should be able to get amaroK to play them if you make sure that amaroK uses the xine engine. I believe the gstreamer engine supports m4a format as well as xine, which suggests that you might be able to get Banshee to play them with the gstreamer engine rather than the helix engine. Real Player should also play them, but I'm unsure whether this has trickled down to the helix engine.

Have you tried the amaroK from guru's repository?

As far as installing from a local directory, I always use kpackage to do this as it's simple. But since you are using SLED, I'm not sure what a gnome equivalent is. You can always set up a local directory as an installation source in YaST. Or you can do a command line installation using rpm.

Thanks for the reply.

To be clear: I _can_ get amarok to play the files. The problem is a bug in amarok 1.3 that doesn't let the m4a files be incorporated into the library. Supposedly the latest amarok release fixes the problem, but for the life of me, I just can't get the installation to work. I tried making a local installation repository, but it didn't work. Maybe I'll try using rpm from the command line, as you suggested.

That amarok, and Totem can play the files, suggest that banshee should be able to play them also. I've tried using the gstreamer engine with banshee, but it just failed to load the engine? or something like that. I've given up on banshee...

Anyway, if I get amarok to work with the command line rpm command, I'll let you know.

Cheers!

That you can get Totem to play the files, suggests that you should be able to get amaroK to play them if you make sure that amaroK uses the xine engine. I believe the gstreamer engine supports m4a format as well as xine, which suggests that you might be able to get Banshee to play them with the gstreamer engine rather than the helix engine. Real Player should also play them, but I'm unsure whether this has trickled down to the helix engine.

Have you tried the amaroK from guru's repository?

As far as installing from a local directory, I always use kpackage to do this as it's simple. But since you are using SLED, I'm not sure what a gnome equivalent is. You can always set up a local directory as an installation source in YaST. Or you can do a command line installation using rpm.
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Supposedly the latest amarok release fixes the problem, but for the life of me, I just can't get the installation to work.
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Be more specific...what exactly doesn't work?
Really all you need to do is add Guru's repo.

That will let YaST or SMART do all the work for you.

So, my question now is: how do I install a local rpm from Yast?
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You could try from a konsole (with root permissions):
yast2 -i xxxxxxx.rpm

Or you could use the rpm command:
rpm -Uvh xxxxxxx.rpm

Having typed the above, I agree with the recommendation about using Smart.