I'm confused. music on console won't run without timidity. So whyisn't it a "dependency"?

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1

I’m confused. music on console won’t run without timidity. So why isn’t it a “dependency”?

I say that because I installed Music on Console to my new Leap installation
via zypper. But when I tried to start it up I got this:

This confused me because zypper is usually very good at installing dependencies. So
since there was at least a default configuration file someplace, it hadn’t occurred to
me that timidity itself wasn’t actually installed.

It turned out to be an easy fix (once I realized what was wrong)

zypper in timidity

And now Music on Console works.

But since it won’t run without timidity, I wonders why the

zypper in moc

didn’t pull timidity in as a dependency?


Information for package moc:
----------------------------
Repository: packman
Name: moc
Version: 2.5.0-5.5
Arch: x86_64
Vendor: http://packman.links2linux.de

How would I go about suggesting to whoever packages it that they should think about
adding timidity to moc’s dependencies??

–
JtWdyP

2

Hi
It just needs a place to dump a midi file… You might want a ~/.moc/config file as well?


cd
echo 'default /tmp/timidity.tmp' > ~/.moc/timidity.cfg
mocp
3

Hello,

I’m interesting by the solution, but !!

But I do not understand the file has changed, is the “config” file in the hidden .moc folder?

Can you explain to me ?

Thank you in advance.

Vigen

4

Hi
Yes, the config file can be copied from /usr/share/doc/packages/moc/config.example to ~/.moc as filename ‘config’ and modified as required. The details are in the man page (man moc).

5

Hi !!

Thank you for that full answer !! :good:

Regards;

Vigen.

6

It would appear that on Jul 11, malcolmlewis did say:

> Subject: Re: I’m confused. music on console won’t run without timidity. So
> whyisn’t it a “dependency”?
>
>
> Vigen;2785109 Wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I’m interesting by the solution, but !!
> >
> > But I do not understand the file has changed, is the “config” file in
> > the hidden .moc folder?
> >
> > Can you explain to me ?
> >
> > Thank you in advance.
> >
> > Vigen
> Hi
> Yes, the config file can be copied from
> /usr/share/doc/packages/moc/config.example to ~/.moc as filename
> ‘config’ and modified as required. The details are in the man page (man
> moc).

Which is all good info about those config files. But as my initial post to this
thread explained, in spite of the error message that moc was exiting with, the problem
wasn’t the configuration file itself. It most probably was caused by it’s needing a
place to “dump a midi file” as malcolmlewis mentioned in his June 22nd reply.i

For which it is evidently necessary for timidity to actually be installed. Once I
realized that the presence of the “default” timidity configuration file that moc
complained about didn’t necessarily mean timidity had been installed. (there was some
timidity related library, but not timidity itself.)

Which confused me. I’ve been using moc to play my music for years, on several
different Linux distributions. And installing it from the appropriate distribution
specific repo with the appropriate package management system {aka zypper, apt-get,
urpmi, etc…) has always pulled in all the appropriate dependencies for me.

So since moc evidently needed timidity to actually process that midi file, I was
confused why the package moc from packman didn’t pull in timidity when I installed
moc???

It’s a small potatoes thing. I mean once I had the time to look close enough at the
problem to find out timidity wasn’t actually installed, it was a no brainer.

The only thing I did to make it work was that once I realized timidity hadn’t been pulled
in, I did a:


zypper in timidity

and without any other changes moc started working. (I hadn’t touched a single moc or
timidity related configuration file. Though I had copied my ~/.moc folder from the
Opensuse 13.2 that was installed on my previous desktop computer. But that was before
I’d installed moc to leap and certainly before it first complained about timidity)

Still somewhat puzzled.

–
JtWdyP

7

Hi
I don’t have timidity installed, AFAIK it needs the ~/.moc directory a timidity.cfg and maybe a config file to fitst fire up, then all is good. I do note that not quitting mocp properly can leave the processs runing, so if you try to create another it hangs…? All a bit hit and miss it would seem…

8

It would appear that on Jul 12, malcolmlewis did say:

> Hi
> I don’t have timidity installed, AFAIK it needs the ~/.moc directory a
> timidity.cfg and maybe a config file to fitst fire up, then all is good.
> I do note that not quitting mocp properly can leave the processs runing,
> so if you try to create another it hangs…? All a bit hit and miss it
> would seem…

Hmmnn… Where as I’ve been using moc for years on multiple distros. And except for
when I was experimenting with Sabayon Linux, and had to select the right combination
of usage flags for their compiler intensive package management systems to get it
running, I’ve never had to configure a thing for it. Except that anytime one does
properly quit mocp with the “Q” command, it likes to save the working directory of
it’s left panel someplace. And anytime I “C” cleared the playlist, then built a new
one {usually with the recursive “A” load all command} it would remember the new
playlist next time, even if I’d failed to “Q” before my routine end of day “# poweroff”

But I never had to configure anything to do with timidity. Before I started getting
the error message in leap about it’s config file, I didn’t even know timidity had anything
to do with any kind of sound files.

Once I’ve got moc running enough to fail to quit properly, doing so has never
resulted in the next mocp command hanging. Though I’ll admit I’ve never tried that
while some terminal window was still actively displaying it’s mc like display screen.
But I have, on occasion, closed the terminal window it’s running in without having
issued either the “Q” quit or the “q” disconnect commands.

Most of the time I run it in a {yakuake or qterminal depending on distro} drop down terminal
window. I like the ability to run it from a virtual console for those rare times when
I’m really not running the gui, but I seldom do. Though now that I think about it,
since I prefer to do my system updates without being dependent on X remaining stable,
Maybe next time I’ll experiment with root running a disconnected mocp session when
next he types:

zypper ref && zypper up on tty1…

But aside from all that. If you have moc running on leap without actually having
timidity installed, then it must be that the dependency is just for the config file, and
mine must have been corrupt or some such. Just as it must be that installing timidity
was enough to “fix” that config file.

Thanks for explaining it.

–
JtWdyP