amaroK README
=============

amaroK - a new media player for KDE

There are many media players around these days, true. What's missing from most
players is a user interface, that doesn't get in the way of the user. How many
buttons do you have to press for simply adding some new tracks to the
playlist? amaroK tries to be a little different, providing a simple drag and
drop interface, that really makes playlist handling easy.

    * fresh playlist concept, very fast to use, with drag and drop

    * plays all formats supported by aRts, including mp3, ogg, audio CDs,
      streams

    * audio effects, like reverb and compressor

    * compatible with the .m3u and .pls formats for playlists

    * nice GUI, integrates into the KDE look, but with a unique touch


This file was last updated with relevance to amaroK 1.0.2


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPENDENCIES
============

required
    * KDELibs 3.2
      http://www.kde.org

    * TagLib 1.0
      http://freshmeat.net/projects/taglib

recommended
    * aRts 1.2 + KDEMULTIMEDIA 3.2
      http://www.kde.org

    * OpenGL accelerated X-Server

optional
    * GStreamer-0.8.1 + Gst-Plugins-0.8.1
      http://gstreamer.net
    
    * xine 1.0-rc4
      http://xine.sourceforge.net

    * NMM 0.4.4
      http://www.networkmultimedia.org

    * XMMS 1.2 + XMMS visualization plugins
      http://xmms.org


Please note, if you obtain these dependencies via a packaging system, you must
also install the devel versions of these packages!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IMPORTANT INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS
==============================

In order to compile and install amaroK on your system, type the following in the
base directory of the amaroK distribution:


                % ./configure --prefix=`kde-config --prefix`
                % make
                % make install


Using enable-final will usually give a much faster compile, but it may cause
compile failure. See the file INSTALL for more information.


                % ./configure --enable-final --prefix=`kde-config --prefix`
                
                
In order to compile the xine-engine with amaroK 1.0.2 you must:

                
                % ./configure --with-xine
                
                
You won't be able to use the gstreamer-engine unless you install some
gst-plugins! Especially the mp3 plugin (uses libmad), and a sink plugin
eg. alsasink.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MINI-FAQ
========

There is a more thorough FAQ available at http://amarok.kde.org, this FAQ only
deals with installation issues.

Q: I have the required version of GStreamer installed but configure doesn't
   find it!
A: Here's an extract from the PKG-CONFIG man page:

     pkg-config retrieves information about packages from  special metadata
     files. These files are named after the package, with the extension
     .pc. By default, pkg-config looks in the directory prefix/lib/pkgconfig
     for these  files;  it will  also  look in the colon-separated list of 
     directories specified by the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable.
     
   So, do export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/path/to/gstreamer-0.x.y.pc" and reconfigure.

Q: My configure went ok and it installed but amaroK says it cannot find any
   sound plugins.
A: Try:

     export KDEDIR=`kde-config --prefix` && amarok

   if you get the same message-box then see if you get any output from:

     ktradertest amaroK/Plugin
     
   if not then amaroK is not installed properly. Try again!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CONTRIBUTING
------------

If you wish to contribute to amaroK, you should build it from CVS and subscribe
to the amarok-devel mailing list. The IRC channel is  also  a  place  where
it's  nice  to  be, since you can talk to other developers much easier, and
get instant notification of commits to the CVS.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WWW : http://amarok.kde.org
IRC : irc.freenode.net, #amarok
MAIL: amarok-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
WIKI: http://wiki.kdenews.org/tiki-index.php?page=amaroK

