why is xmms so bothersome?

Apreche · Guru Joined: 18 Sep 2003 Posts: 506 Location: Beacon, NY

Ok, XMMS is really starting to bother me. Don't get me wrong it works at playing music very well. In fact, I think it is still the best music player for linux. And its probably the second best music playing software ever (winamp still owns). But desktop wise the thing is just evil.

XMMS does not cooperate with any window manager that I have tried. Even the almighty devilspie can not make xmms dissapear from the taskbar and the pager. I tried to replace the whole thing by using the corner desklet, but xmms still hangs around.

Linux and the vast majority of software for it is open source. So at the very least I can modify code to get what I want. But I'm sure that I probably wont have to do that. I'm just not sure which software in which configuration will meet my desires.

Here is what I want.
I want a program that will appear on every desktop (sticky) but never in the pager or taskbar.
I want it to be relatively pleasing to the eye.
I want it to control XMMS to play music.
I want it to have a button in it that will make xmms appear and dissapear so that I can modify the playlist.
It must have the basic buttons (play/stop, etc) and preferably a scope or analyzer.
It must be under all other windows.

Also, I have a nice logitech keyboard that has all sorts of media controls on the top. I know how to make those keys do things using xbindkeys. It is very nice. However, there are many different programs that allow controlling of xmms via the command line. Which one is best? All I need is the ability to stop, play/pause, track forward and track backward.

I'm very demanding as you can tell

Why can't everyone just make their stuff freedesktop.org standards compliant?

b0fh_ · Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2004 1:27 am Post subject:

I am using xmms under kde and I'm happy with it... basically:

- use xmms-weasel plugin so xmms hides on the top of the screen;
- use devilspie to make it disappear from the taskbar / window list (yes, it works)

relevant .devilspie.xml piece:

Apreche · Guru Joined: 18 Sep 2003 Posts: 506 Location: Beacon, NY

b0fh_ · Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2004 1:36 am Post subject:

There is an ebuild for it at:

https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=45790

put it in your portage overlay and emerge it.

just a warning: it does not play well with the kde pager (things slow down to a halt sometimes when rolling in-out of the screen, because the friggin pager keeps taking snapshots.. LOL...) I just disabled the pager, don't like pagers anyway)

good luck
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"Contrary to popular belief, UNIX is user-friendly. It only happens to be picky on its friends."

g3n · Guru Joined: 13 Dec 2003 Posts: 543 Location: México

lol i have the same thread initiated two days ago, i think, and i'm enjoying a xmms only in my taskbar, you should check the thread.
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=183673
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superjaded · l33t Joined: 05 Jul 2002 Posts: 802

XMMS isn't even GTK+2 yet. Don't expect too much from them.

Oh well, no matter. I don't realy like the Winamp-style players anymore.. now if only a fb2k-style player would come around for Linux.