Amarak crashes.

openSUSE: 12.3
KDE: 4.10.5
Amarok: 2.8.0

This is a bug that has been previously reported and the solution is that it is not the fault of Amarok but an upstream app named gstream. So it is also suggested that I use phonom-backend-olc.

What happens is that after I add a music CD to my local collection and then try and play it, Amarok crashes back to the desktop with nothing that I can see as to the problem. When I went to try and report the bug I see that there are 3 other similar issues which look to be the same to me.
Oddly, some CDs that I had loaded earlier play ok.

I have no idea what to do about using gstream or phonom-backend-olc so I am casting about looking for an alternative.

thanks

First of all, they are called “gstreamer” and “phonon” and “phonon-backend-gstreamer-0_10” and “phonon-backend-vlc”.

Unfortunately there is no newer phonon and phonon-backend-gstreamer-0_10 available for 12.3 without upgrading your whole KDE. (In my experience those CD playing bugs should be fixed already in the newer versions, as included in openSUSE 13.1)

If you want to try the VLC backend, you have to install phonon-backend-vlc (available from Packman, which you should have already if you want to play multimedia files). Then move the VLC backend to the top in KDE’s “Audio and Video Settings” (also reachable via right-clicking on the KMix icon, or in Amarok’s settings).
But from memory, playing back CDs never really worked for me with the VLC backend either.

If that doesn’t help, use a different program to playback CDs, f.e. VLC, Kaffeine (should be installed by default) or Xine.