HOWTO : Setup XMMS Multimedia Player

XMMS' interface is intuitive, with a playlist, graphic equalizer, and more. Those familiar with Winamp will find XMMS simple to use. XMMS can also play mp3's encoded with Variable BitRate (VBR)

Before you go ahead with the installation, ensure that you have the sound card working. One mothodto do that is to statically compile in support for your sound card in your kernel (you might also want to configure other kernel parameters if you are recompiling your kernel for the first time).You should read the FreeBSD Handbook (Chapter 9 Configuring the FreeBSD Kernel, and Chapter 14 Sound) for details.

I have a P-III 500 with Yamaha YMF-724F based soundcard in one of the PCI slots running FreeBSD 4.5 - STABLE.

For recompiling the kernel, as root type:

#cd /usr/src/sys/i386/conf

#cp GENERIC MYKERNEL

#ee MYKERNEL

Simply scroll down to the section where it says :

device isa

device eisa

device pci

Add the line :

device pcm

press 'esc' key and press 'enter' to save and quit the file, and type :

#config MYKERNEL

#cd ../../compile/MYKERNEL

Now comes the actual re-compilation. Please remember that recompilation can take a long time anywhere between 5mints to 30 mints depending on hardware. Next type :

#make depend

#make

#make install

(or alternatively in one line as #make depend && make && make install)

Once you have successfully recompiled the kernel, reboot your system. Now we need to add the devices, as root issue the command :

# dmesg | grep pcm

The output on my machine looks like:

pcm0: <Yamaha DS-1E (YMF724F)> mem 0xd0000000-0xd0007fff irq 9 at device 16.0 on pci0

Since the previous command returned pcm0, as root type:

# cd /dev

# sh MAKEDEV snd0

If the command returned pcm1, follow the same steps as shown above, replacing snd0 with snd1

To Install XMMS itself is as easy as issuing make install at the command prompt.

Connect to internet as root and type:

#cd /usr/ports/audio/xmms

#make install

Now to start xmms simply type at the command prompt as normal user

$xmms &

Right click on the program to access the menu. XMMS supports Winamp style skins. To quote from the XMMS man page :

"Skins may be stored in either archived (.zip, .wsz, .tgz, .tar.gz, or .tar.bz2) or unarchived format. XMMS looks for skinfiles in /usr/X11R6/share/gnome/xmms/Skins, ~/.xmms/Skins, and locations specified by the SKINSDIR variable .. "

I have found it useful to copy all the winamp skins to /usr/X11R6/share/gnome/xmms/Skins directory so that all users can access it. All users must have read access of that directory. Fire up your XMMS and Right Click on the program and From the options menu select Skin Browser and select a skin from the list.

You can play Audio-CD's too with XMMS. However, you need to check if you have proper permission to access the CD Device. As root user, it's as easy as opening the /cdrom directory from the Play File menu. There are some cool Plugins to check out, for e.g. From Options->Preferences->Effects/General Plugins tab, in the effect section, select the "Extra Stereo Plugin" and now you can enjoy your favorite mp3 with some extra stereo effects. Be sure to enable the "Use Plugins" Checkbox.

For further information :

1. man xmms

2. FreeBSD Handbook - Chapter 9 Configuring the FreeBSD Kernel, Chapter 14 Sound.

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