FAQ

   1
   2 Q. I am using MacOSX and I am having problems to use abcde.
   3 A. Well, I have a Mac, but I use linux on it. I have not been able to find
   4    a way to make it work there, since I do not have the development tools
   5    installed. I have placed a basic support, but some user reports are just
   6    complaining about abcde not encoding the ripped tracks, as if
   7    cdda2wav/cdparanoia/cddafs would never end reading them. If you have such
   8    a system and experience problems, please, report them, and I will try to
   9    work them out with your help.
  10
  11 Q. I would like to give the trackname and the artist_name directly to the
  12    encoder (in my case oggenc), but found no documentation.
  13 A. That is not possible, since abcde gets the information from CDDB database.
  14    You can create a template and fill it with the option "-n".
  15
  16 Q. What formats can I encode my music to?
  17 A. As for version 2.1.7, abcde includes support for MP3, Ogg/Vorbis,
  18    Ogg/Speex and Flac.
  19
  20 Q. I have a CD with a data track, and abcde complaints it cannot read/encode
  21    it.
  22 A. It is not easy to find a data track on a CD. Right now, I can only think
  23    of getting the track info from CDDB and ask the user for continuing should
  24    a "data" track name is found. But the solution is far from been optimal.
  25    For now, if you find a "data" track and you know the number, restart abcde
  26    specifying the tracks to be encoded, leaving out the data one.
  27
  28 Q. How can I separate the different output files I get using multiple-output
  29    support?
  30 A. Use the OUTPUT variable in PLAYLISTFORMAT and OUTPUTFORMAT. It holds the
  31    different output file types you passed to abcde (i.e., ogg, mp3, flac)
  32    during playlist creation and file/directory creation.
  33
  34 Q. I keep on getting files with ".ogg.ogg" extension. What am I doing wrong?
  35 A. The code for multiple-output adds automatically the extension of the
  36    different outputs you select with the "-o" extension (or with OUTPUTTYPE
  37    variable). Erase the ".${OUTPUTTYPE}" part from the OUTPUTFORMAT variable
  38    in /etc/abcde.conf or ~/.abcde.conf
  39
  40 Q. I use Debian/RedHat/(put your Unix flavour here) and MP3 encoding is not
  41    working. What am I doing wrong?
  42 A. Since MP3 is considered non-free (you get it for free, but hardware players
  43    and net broadcasters have to pay license fees), some release engineering
  44    groups and release management teams have decided not to provide MP3 encoding
  45    tools.
  46    These distributions or operative systems have decided to use Ogg/Vorbis as
  47    the default encoding format, since it contains no (known) patent claims
  48    and they are (supposed to be) completely Free (released under a BSD-like
  49    license).
  50    However, there is no strong (at the moment) hardware support, although
  51    some groups and companies are strongly working on getting it, real soon
  52    now. For that reason some people prefer to encode to MP3.
  53
  54    UPDATE *** UPDATE
  55    There are at least 3 known brands already selling Ogg/Vorbis portable
  56    players: Rio, iRiver and Neuros.
  57    Go buy one and you have no more reasons to use MP3.
  58
  59    If you are among those individuals, you might need to add support for MP3
  60    encoding to your system:
  61    Debian : check http://marillat.free.fr to install lame in your system.
  62             others prefer bladeenc. Check www.apt-get.org or google.
  63    RedHat : search on rpmfind.net
  64    FreeBSD: By default includes LAME support.
  65    OpenBSD: Available by specifying you want to install the port with LAME
  66             support, or by just installing it later from the ports tree.
  67    NetBSD : Available in pkgsrc.
  68
  69    Others : Please, help me here.
  70
  71 Q. I have modified some of the options, and now CDDB has stopped working.
  72 A. Check that you have modified everything in the right way. For instance, if
  73    you modify the HTTPGET program you might want to set some options of your
  74    own. If you use the predefined ones (wget, curl and fetch) abcde will try
  75    to use some defaults. Keep in mind that the output should go to the output
  76    as standard output, to be saved in a file for later use.
  77
  78 Q. My hardware player (put it here) does not recognize the playlists created
  79    with abcde. What I am doing wrong?
  80 A. Try using "-m" when creating the playlists, or setting DOSPLAYLIST as an
  81    option in the config file.
  82
  83 Q. I am requested to have eject when setting the speed although I do not use
  84    for anything.
  85 A. If you do not use cdparanoia, eject is used for setting the speed of the
  86    cdrom drive. You can substitute it for "cdset" with "-x" as the argument,
  87    but you have to install it manually.
  88    Another way to get the same results is using the pre_read function, defined
  89    in your /etc/abcde.conf file.
  90
  91 Q. Huh! Why is MPPENCODER (with MPP) and .mpc the extension?
  92 A. Dunno. You must ask the guys who created and defined the format. The
  93    standard is MPEGplus (MPP/MP+) but the files use .mpc extension.
  94
  95 OBSOLETE
  96 --------
  97 Q. I set KEEPWAVS to "y" but abcde insists on erasing my directory, along
  98    with the wav tracks. What I am doing wrong?
  99 A. The default action set includes clean, which cleans the temp directory,
 100    if nothing goes wrong. Take the "clean" out from the action list and you
 101    are done.
 102    UPDATE: KEEPWAVS unselects now the clean action.