Checking out Multimedia Applications in Linux

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Most Linux distributions include quite a few multimedia applications — mostly multimedia audio players and CD players but also applications for using digital cameras and burning CD-ROMs. To play some other multimedia files (such as MPEG video), you may have to download and install additional software on your Linux system. Here’s a quick sketch of a few typical multimedia tasks and the applications you can use to perform these tasks:

• Using digital cameras: Use a digital camera tool to download photos from your digital camera in Linux (or simply access the camera as a USB mass storage device).

• Playing audio CDs: Use one of many audio CD players that come with Linux.

• Playing sound files: Use Rhythmbox or XMMS multimedia audio players. (You have to download some additional software to play MP3 files with Rhythmbox or XMMS.) You can also download other players from the Internet.

• Burning a CD: Use a CD burner, such as K3b, to burn audio and data CDs.

Using a digital camera

Most Linux distributions come with a digital camera application that you can use to download pictures from digital cameras. For example, SUSE and Xandros come with digiKam, which works with many makes and models of digital cameras. Depending on the model, the cameras can connect to the serial port or the Universal Serial Bus (USB) port.

To use digiKam with your digital camera, follow these steps:

1. Connect your digital camera to the serial port or USB port (whichever interface the camera supports) and turn on the camera.

2. Start digiKam.
   

   Look for digiKam in the main menu under the Graphics or Images submenu. The first time you open digiKam, you will be asked to specify a default location to store images and choose a number of other configuration preferences.

3. From the digiKam menu, choose Settings»Configure digiKam.
   

   A configuration dialog box appears.

4. Click the Cameras tab in the dialog box, and then click Auto Detect.
   

   If your camera is supported and the camera is configured to be in PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) mode, the camera is detected. If not, you can get the photos from your camera by using an alternate method described after these steps.

5. Choose your camera model from the Camera menu.
   

   A new window appears and, after a short while, displays the photos in the camera.

6. Click the thumbnails to select the images you want to download; then choose Camera➪Download to download the images.
   

   digiKam downloads the images. You can save these files in a folder and edit the photos in The GIMP or your favorite photo editor.

Don’t despair if digiKam doesn’t recognize your digital camera. You can still access the digital camera’s storage media (compact flash card, for example) as a USB mass storage device, provided your camera supports USB mass storage. To access the images on your USB digital camera, use the following steps.

1. Read the camera manual and use the menu options of the camera to set the USB mode to Mass Storage.
   

   If the camera doesn’t support USB mass storage, you can’t use this procedure to access the photos. If the camera supports the Picture Transfer Protocol mode, you can use digiKam to download the pictures.

2. Connect your digital camera to the USB port by using the cable that came with the camera. Then turn on the camera.
   

   Linux detects the camera and opens the contents of the camera in a file manager window.

3. Click to select photos and copy them to your hard drive by dragging and dropping them into a selected folder.

4. Close the file manager window, disconnect the USB cable from the PC, and turn off the camera.

Whether you are using a digital camera tool such as digiKam or accessing your camera like any other storage device, Linux makes it easy to get your pictures onto your computer!

Playing audio CDs

All Linux distributions come with either the GNOME or KDE CD player applications. To play an audio CD, you need a sound card, and that sound card must be configured to work in Linux.

In some distributions, you can insert an audio CD into the drive, and a dialog box appears and asks whether you want to play the CD with the CD player. If this dialog box doesn’t appear, locate an audio CD player by choosing Applications➪Sound and Video from the main menu.

The KDE CD player displays the title of the CD and the name of the current track. The CD player gets the song titles from http://freedb.org — a free, open source CD database on the Internet (freedb.freedb.org at port 888). You need an active Internet connection for the CD player to download song information from the CD database. After the CD player downloads information about a particular CD, it caches that information in a local database for future use. The CD player user interface is intuitive, and you can figure it out easily. One nice feature is that you can select a track by title.

Playing sound files

You can use Rhythmbox or XMMS to open and play sound files (for example, MP3 files). Users with large MP3 music libraries usually like Rhythmbox because it can help organize their music files. You can start Rhythmbox by choosing the music player application from the main menu in several distributions, including Debian and Fedora. When you first start Rhythmbox, it displays an assistant that prompts you for the location of your music files so that Rhythmbox can manage your music library.

After you identify the locations of music files, Rhythmbox starts and displays the library in an organized manner. You can then select music and play it.

XMMS is another music player that can play many types of sound files, including Ogg Vorbis, FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec, an audio file format similar to MP3), and Windows WAV.

You can start XMMS by choosing the audio player application from the main menu (look under Multimedia or Sound & Video). After XMMS starts, you can open a sound file (such as an MP3 file) by choosing Window Menu»Play File or by pressing L. Then select one or more music files from the Load File dialog box. Click the Play button, and XMMS starts playing the sound file.

In some free Linux distributions, you may not be able to play MP3 files because the MP3 decoder is not included. However, MP3 playing works fine in Debian, Knoppix, SUSE, and Xandros. Because of legal reasons, the versions of Rhythmbox and XMMS in Fedora don’t include the code needed to play MP3 files, so you have to translate MP3s into a supported format, such as WAV, before you can play them. You can, however, download the source code for Rhythmbox and XMMS and build the applications with MP3 support. You can also use the Ogg Vorbis format for compressed audio files because Ogg Vorbis is a patent- and royalty-free format.

Burning a CD

Nowadays, most GUI file managers have the capability to burn CDs. For example, Nautilus File Manager and Xandros File Manager have built-in features to burn CDs. Linux distributions also come with standalone GUI programs that enable you to easily burn CDs and DVDs. For example, K3b is a popular CD/DVD burning application for KDE that’s available in Knoppix and SUSE.

Most CD burning applications are simple to use. You basically gather the files that you want to burn to the CD or DVD and then start the burning process. Of course, for this to work, your PC must have a CD or DVD burner installed.

The upper part of the K3b window is for browsing the file system to select what you want to burn onto a CD or DVD. The upper-left corner shows the CD writer device installed.

To burn a CD, you start with one of the projects shown in the lower part of the K3b window — New Audio CD Project, for example, or New Data DVD Project. Then you have to add files and, finally, burn the project to the CD or DVD by choosing Project➪Burn or pressing Ctrl+B. For an audio CD, you can drag and drop MP3 files as well as audio tracks.

K3b needs the external command-line programs cdrecord and cdrdao to burn CDs. K3b also needs the growisofs program to burn DVDs.

If you get an error about missing cdrdao in Debian, make sure that your Debian system is connected to the Internet and then type apt-get install cdrdao to install it.

Using Graphics and Imaging Apps

You can use graphics and imaging applications to work with images and graphics (line drawings and shapes). Two of the most popular of these applications are

• The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program): A program for viewing and performing image manipulation tasks, such as photo retouching, image composition, and image creation.

• Gnome Ghostview (GGv): A graphical application capable of displaying PostScript files.

The GIMP

The GIMP is an image manipulation program written by Peter Mattis and Spencer Kimball and released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Most Linux distributions come with this program, although you may have to specifically select a package to install it. The GIMP is comparable to other image manipulation programs, such as Adobe Photoshop and Corel PHOTO-PAINT.

To try out The GIMP, look for it under the Graphics category in the main menu. When you start The GIMP, it displays a window with copyright and license information. Click the Continue button to proceed with the installation. The next screen shows the directories to be created when you proceed with a personal installation of The GIMP.

If you can’t find The GIMP under the Graphics category, choose Add/Remove Software from the System Settings menu and install it from there.

The GIMP installation involves creating a directory in your home directory and placing a number of files there. This directory essentially holds information about any changes to user preferences you may make to The GIMP. Go ahead and click the Continue button at the bottom of the window. The GIMP creates the necessary directories, copies the necessary files to those directories, and guides you through a series of dialog boxes to complete the installation.

When the installation is finished, click the Continue button. The GIMP then loads any plug-ins — external modules that enhance its functionality. It displays a startup window that shows a message about each plug-in as it loads. After finishing the startup, The GIMP displays a tip of the day in a window. You can browse the tips and click the Close button to close the Tip window. At the same time, The GIMP displays a number of other windows, including a main navigation window titled The GIMP, a Toolbox window (usually on the left side), a Brush Selection window, and a Layers, Channels, Paths window. The center navigation window gives you access to new images to work with, image editing functions, and a number of effect filters that you can apply to the image. The Toolbox window lets you quickly select a number of important image manipulation tools.

To open an image file in The GIMP, choose File➪Open. The Load Image dialog box appears. You can change directories and select the image file that you want to open. The GIMP can read all common image file formats, such as GIF, JPEG, TIFF, PCX, BMP, PNG, and PostScript. After you select the file and click OK, The GIMP loads the image into a new window.

The Toolbox window has many buttons that represent the tools you use to edit the image and apply special effects. You can get pop-up help on each tool button by placing the mouse pointer over the button. You can select a tool by clicking the tool button, and you can apply that tool’s effects to the image to see what it does.

When you right-click the image window, The GIMP displays a pop-up menu that has most of the options from the GIMP’s top toolbar.

You can do much more than just load and view images with The GIMP, but a complete discussion of all its features is beyond the scope of this book. If you want to try the other features of The GIMP, consult The GIMP User Manual (GUM), available online at http://manual.gimp.org. You can also choose Help➪GIMP Online➪User Manual Website to access the online documentation for The GIMP. (You need an Internet connection for this command to work.)

Visit The GIMP home page at www.gimp.org to find the latest news about The GIMP as well as links to other resources.

GNOME Ghostview

GNOME Ghostview is a graphical application ideal for viewing and printing PostScript or PDF documents. For a long document, you can view and print selected pages. You can also view the document at various levels of magnification by zooming in or out.

To run GNOME Ghostview in Fedora, choose Graphics➪PostScript Viewer from GUI desktop. The GNOME Ghostview application window appears. In addition to the menu bar and toolbar along the top edge, a vertical divide splits the main display area of the window into two parts.

To load and view a PostScript document in GNOME Ghostview, choose File➪Open, or click the Open icon on the toolbar. GNOME Ghostview displays a File-Selection dialog box. Use this dialog box to navigate the file system and select a PostScript file. For example, select the file tiger.ps in the /usr/share/ghostscript-8.64/examples directory. (Use your system’s version number of Ghostscript in place of 8.64).

To open the selected file, click the Open File button in the File-Selection dialog box. GNOME Ghostview opens the selected file, processes its contents, and displays the output in its window.

GNOME Ghostview is useful for viewing various kinds of documents that come in PostScript format. (These files typically have the .ps extension.) You can also open PDF files — which typically have .pdf extensions — in GNOME Ghostview.

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