Amarok instability

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1

Using Amarok 2.9 KDE 4.14.38 on Manjaro all work nicely. I can add scripts and they all work as expected. (Reference).

On Tumbleweed
Version 2.9.70
Using KDE Frameworks 5.76.0

I keep getting crashes. Trying to add (or remove) scripts Amarok dies. If I try to run the report bug -> Debugger has died unexpectedly.

Example errors

Script error reported by: ReferenceError QProcess is not defined
Script error reported by: ReferenceError QNetworkAccessManager is not defined

The Wiki panel has text too big to be helpful.
Lyrics not being fetched.

I’ve tried exiting Amarok, removing anything amorok named in my home directory to try to restart amarok.

2

I have not tried Amarok on Tumbleweed.

For a long time, Amarok was a plasma4 version. And Tumbleweed maintainers were about to remove it as out of date. Then were able to get a plasma5 version, which is what you are using.

I’ve been using Amarok for a while. Up through Leap 15.1, it was the plasma4 version. For Leap 15.2, it is the plasma5 version. It works, after a fashion, but it is very buggy. You are doing something more complex than I am doing, and you are probably seeing more serious bugs show up.

3

Thanks for the feedback. Don’t think I’m doing anything really complex, just what I’ve always done, set up the local collection, add Shoutcast script, activate some plugins (LastFM). It works fine on 15.1, I’ve not updated that to 15.2. (Separate issue in that I can’t put Grub in to the MBR of disk not containing the software as I could upto 42.3)

4

I too had such problems, I used to use Amarok but left for Elisa it has the full backing of KDE and so far for me has had no problems.

5

Hello,

Amarok version in Tumbleweed is a qt5 version which is still under development.
This is still an alpha version and some big differences are present.

Lyrics:
many lyrics cannot be retrieved automatically. >:( Not sure if this is related on the scripts or the songs that you select (in my case these are mostly french songs).

I configured the new version using the same local directory and reused the same db (mariadb) that I used with the qt4 version.
One of the biggest regression was that most of my registered lyrics were not more displayed.
I have a lot of lyrics which I inserted via copy/paste because they were not automatically retrieved by the scripts.

Register lyrics
It is not more possible to enter the lyrics in the context lyrics windows. You need to select a track and open (mouse right click) the “Edit track details”. Use the tab “Lyrics” to enter the lyrics. This doesn’t always work flawlessly

I can only see the lyrics when I set tracks in the playlist, quit amarok (File -> Quit) and restart amarok.
Only the lyrics for the tracks in the playlist are displayed, if you add a new track in the playlist the lyrics are not displayed.
It is the same problem when filling lyrics via copy paste in the edit track details
Seems that the table lyrics in the db (mariadb) is only fetched for the play list when amarok starts.
Adding albums or track in the playlist doesn’t allow to fill or see lyrics direclty: A restart is needed >:)

The new amarok (KF5) has some settings for the lyrics which cannot be changed in the configuration menu.

  1. the context frame content the lyrics context with a fixed windows height. The same for all the contexts (300).
  2. The font size is big (18 or 24?)
  3. The text is right aligned

These settings are present in the file ~/.config/amarokrc

First be sure that you have selected the lyrics in the context frame
Now quit amarok: be sure that you quit (File-> Quit) and not sent it in the background

Save the file ~/.config/amarokrc
Edit the file ~/.config/amarokrc with your favorite editor (kate, gvim,…)

Search in the file for the [Context] group here is mine

 
[Context]
enabledApplets=org.kde.amarok.albums,org.kde.amarok.lyrics
org.kde.amarok.albums_collapsed=false
org.kde.amarok.albums_contentHeight=300
org.kde.amarok.analyzer_collapsed=true
org.kde.amarok.analyzer_contentHeight=300
org.kde.amarok.currenttrack_collapsed=false
org.kde.amarok.currenttrack_contentHeight=300
org.kde.amarok.lyrics_collapsed=false
org.kde.amarok.lyrics_contentHeight=300
org.kde.amarok.photos_collapsed=true
org.kde.amarok.photos_contentHeight=300
org.kde.amarok.wikipedia_collapsed=true
org.kde.amarok.wikipedia_contentHeight=300

As you see all context elements have the same height (300)
you can change the height to 500 by setting

org.kde.amarok.lyrics_contentHeight=500

Other settings can be changed in the group [Context][Lyrics] : Create it if it doesn’t exist

[Context][Lyrics]
alignment=1
font=Helvetica,10,0,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
fontSize=10

Explanation:
alignment 1 = left, 2 = Right

Select the font size and the font that you prefer.

There is also a mailing list about Amarok where you can find some explanations The Amarok-devel Archives

Hope this help
Regards
Philippe

6

Thanks for the pointers.

So I updated 15.1 to 15.2 and as with Tumbleweed things are less good than they were.

I like Amarok though Googling for help is hard as it keeps finding stuff about the VM Amarok. Especially I like copying files to USB stick to use in the car and it offers to transcode so my FLAC files get changed to MP3 as part of the job.

The track detail editing now not offering the existing values is a pain, all just empty.
Scripts not working is also a pain, I used to use the Shoutcast one a bit but with a Dot in the room that provides some of the function.

Seems like the move to Plasma 5 has broken a fair few things, KMail has some issues (more likely Akonadi).

I’ll try to get Lyrics working, not going to find some of my stuff but not finding Buddy Holly is not expected.

7

There was a script stuf rewrite for qt5 see [KDE/amarok] Replace qtscript with qt qml (#10)
In tumbleweed this seems present: for amarok in YaST2- online_update -> journal of modifcation

 | mer. 30 sept. 2020 14:00:00| christophe@krop.fr| - Update to version 2.9.70git.20200930T124856~3973278a68:
|---|---|
  * Replace qtscript with qjs engine
  * Drop superfluous ZLIB linking
  * Add FindMariaDB.cmake module and use it if MySQL is not found
  * FindMySQL.cmake: Split out MySQL Embedded detection into FindMySQLe.cmake
  * Port Amarok Script Engine from deprecated QScriptEngine to QJSEngine
  * Update stylesheet to QT5
  * Replace deprecated Phonon module with PulseAudio
  * cmake: install amarok.knsrc in newer ECM 5.58.0+ location
  * appdata: use canonical help URL
- Drop amarok_mariadb.patch
- Update translations|

Not sure if your scripts are impacted by the change qtscript to qjs engine. Maybe you can ask directly the author

Regards
Philippe