GNU/Linux on an Apple Titanium: Audio

Sound

General

To play any sound, kernel support is needed using the modules dmasound_core and dmasound_pmac. Simply load these modules via /etc/modules.conf. To access the CD drive you need the generic SCSI support and the the ide-scsi module. Loading the module the drive can be reached under /dev/scd0. To eject a CD out of the drive issue the command "eject /dev/scd0" on the command line.

Audio CD

According to http://www.xiph.org/archives/paranoia/0557.html:

Starting with MacOS 9 Macs play CD using CDDA. Therefore recent models don't have audio cables anymore. Also under GNU/Linux audio CDs have to be read as data and played via the sound card.

This is supported by XMMS in combination with the cdread-Plugin.

However there are some pitfalls playing Audio CDs:

Ensure to use the libesound module for output! Otherwise you will only hear "white noise".
Changing a CD:
- First "open" the drive in the XMMS user interface
- Eject the CD using eject /dev/scd0
- Insert the new CD
- Select the CD from the XMMS user interface
If you don't follow these steps, the CD drive will be locked and inserting the new CD is not possible.

Playing MP3 files

MP3 files can be played using XMMS in combination with the MP3 input plugin. Playing MP3 audio files the output plugin selectiuon does not matter.

Playing Ogg Files

Ogg Vorbis files can be played using XMMS in combination with the Ogg input plugin. Playing Ogg audio files it is essential to use the OSS output plugin! Otherwise you only hear "white noise".

Encoding

Ogg audio files can be encoded installing the corresponding packages:

apt-get install libvorbis-dev libvorbis0 oggtst vorbis-tools
apt-get install cdparanoia

The encoder oggenc can be combined with cdparanoia. Note that cdparanoia finds the CD drive under /dev/sg0.

A more comfortable frontend to encode is grip:

apt-get install grip

Grip provides a nearly self explaining user interface. What makes it realy useful is the fact that it is one of the spare tools which can be configured with different devices for access on the CD. As noted above, the Track-Browser will see the CD through /dev/scd0, whereas cdparanoia needs /dev/sg0.