#modarchive

Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome back to my little world of Linux. So I have been a bit busy with family business so I have not had much time with Linux for the last few weeks or so.

Well since we last had words I seem to be having a few problems with Linux. While none are majorly damaging they can be a bit of a pain. Firstly VLC will lock up tight when loading up videos occasionally. The only way to recover it is to switch to another terminal and then to kill the process using PS and kill -9 instructions.

Why it does this I can’t seem to ascertain as it doesn’t seem to leave a log explaining what is causing it. It is not always doing so which is confusing. If it did it with every video or a particular type but is not the case. So is it a glitch with VLC or the video driver unknown.

Also the Show Desktop application crashes at the same time normally so is it VLC or a MATE issue? It could even be a NVIDIA issue.

I really don’t have a clue. As I said it’s not the end of the world as normally a reboot sorts it but it is annoying.

I guess I could use something else for video such as Kodi but it is a bit of an odd sheep when it comes to its bizarre UI setup. However if VLC keeps bugging out I might have no choice but to find a different video player.

I have also had a few issues with certain RSS readers. I decided to try a couple but they have proved to be a bit of a problem. First I tried FeedReader which I managed to add the feeds reasonably easy but every time I updated the feed it would crash upon me. Only way to kill it was using the above process.

So I removed it and have been running RSS Guard, now it was a pain working out how to add the feeds but with a bit of persistence I finally managed it. However it does not seem to update itself automatically. Also it seems to have issues picking up the feeds straight away.

Maybe there is a decent RSS reader. Not that I really need an RSS reader but I try and keep up with various podcasts. Making it easier than trawling through Twitter to find the latest news.

So I will continue to look to find one that does the job with the least problem. If anyone has any recommendations feel free to let me know.

So I decided to download the complete torrent collection from the Mod Archive. Reason being I decided to see what Linux was like regarding tracker music playback. Even though there is only a few mods I actually like. I now probably have about quarter of a million of them.

Now I am not a newbie when it comes to MOD trackers but it seems there is now many new formats I had never even heard of.

Sure there was the usual MOD, S3M, XM, IT files even the odd MED. I was even aware of the 669 files as I am that old I can remember them.

However then there was AHX, MTM, FAR, MO3, MPTM, STM, MTM, ULT, HVL, DSM, PLM, OKT and others I had no idea how to play them.

Now Schism Tracker ( Modern day Impulse Tracker) will play quite a lot of these formats but there was a few it wouldn't.

I was amazed at how many tracker formats VLC can playback.

OpenMPT (previously ModPlug player) seems to play virtually anything thrown at it but although you can install it on Linux it just runs the Windows version through Wine.

However AHX and HVL were not covered by any of the above players

Both files are used by the Hively Tracker which I did not even know existed. Then again I stopped following tracker software after SkaleTracker died. So I am hardly on the cutting edge of tracker software.

So back to Hively Tracker first I ran the Windows version using Wine. Just to see what they were. Sure enough it's just another tracker.

However on their site was a version for 64 bit Linux but it was for Debian. Now long time readers will remember Pencilsheep (A weak Photoshop clone which died) was only available in .DEB format.

So off I went and found Debtap again which converts Debian files into a format useable by Arch.

Sure enough converted file but would not let it install via Pacman due to needing a dependency of the deja vu fonts core.

Now they were installed just not where Debian installs them. Bit of fiddling I install Hively Tracker using the Pacman -Udd command which basically instructs it to install and ignore the dependencies.

So now installed native to Linux I try and open it. Nope, however a quick check using terminal it is looking for the font in a specific directory in the /usr/share/fonts directory.

Bit of root file copying to where it expects to see the fonts. Now Hively Tracker is working fine under Linux so I was able to delete the Windows version.

Bit of a fiddle but it now can play AHX and HVL files without starting Wine.

However I still need to use OpenMPT for most of the other obscure ones. So I am still using a Windows application. One that is listed in the AUR but it's still a Windows app running through Wine.

Now all I need is about 10 years of free time and infinite patience to sit through all the MOD Tracker files I have (about 35GB worth)...

Who would have thought MOD Music was so complicated?

Jogeir Liljedahl- Seeing Sunset