Ever wanted to play CDs digitally in Linux? I did. This is because I like hearing my
music in my rear speakers as well as my front ones. Also, my CD burner doesn't have
a CD audio cable connected to it. Now it doesn't matter!
This tutorial was written and tested using Mandrake 8.2 and the XMMS version that came
with it. You need to have the xmms-cdread plugin installed for it to work. If you don't
know how, try installing it by using
urpmi xmms-cdread. If anyone requests more
detailed information on this, I can add it to this tutorial.
Mandrake 9.0 does not include this plugin. You can download an RPM for it from MDKEXTRAS here:
xmms-cdread-0.14a-2mdk.i586.rpm.
First thing you do is start XMMS. Do this however you normally would.
Now right-click on the XMMS interface. This will bring up a menu.
Go to Options, then to Preferences:
Alternately, you could press CTRL+P.
This will open up the preferences panels. The first panel has what we are interested in.
Select the CD Audio Player plugin from the list:
Uncheck the Enable plugin option.
This will disable CD audio playback via the CD audio cable. This is okay, as we
are wanting digital playback.
Now select the
Audio CD Reader plugin.
Make sure that the Enable plugin option is checked. It should be by default.
Now it is time to configure the plugin.
Click on the
Configure button that is part of the Input Plugins section of this panel.
Now click on the
Options tab.
It should look like this:
You can set your default CD device here.
Next, click on the
Output tab.
Here you select whether to use digital audio or direct audio. We obviously want
digital audio, so click on that.
Click Read Digital CD Audio as shown:
Optionally, you can set your CD speed. Leaving it at the default is fine.
Click on
Ok when you are done.
Now, open the XMMS playlist. You can make a new playlist if you like, but this is optional.
Click on the
+ File button at the bottom of the playlist window. Hold the mouse button
down so that you get more options, as shown in the next image.
Click on + URL from the resulting menu:
This will open a dialog box, into which you type in the device path to your desired CD-ROM
drive. Most often, this will be
/dev/cdrom. If you have a CD burner, and it uses SCSI
emulation, it would probably be
/dev/scd0.
Type in the full URL in the dialog box:
Alternately, you can browse your URL history and use that if it contains the needed entry.
If the device path is entered correctly, and you have an audio CD in that CD-ROM drive, then the
audio CDs tracks will be added to the playlist.
Now just click on the play button and enjoy the digital audio in your favorite operating system!