TKRio is a graphical user interface (GUI) to the Linux RIO program, which has been written by the the "Snowblind Alliance" (http://www.world.co.uk/sba/). You can use TKRio also as a GUI for the MpMan program, which supports the MpMan player (see http://www.world.co.uk/sba/).
TKRio allows you to exchange files between the Rio player and your host. In addition to that, you can play songs, rearrange files on the Rio player, and you can create and edit play lists.
For a detailed description of the functionality read the tkrio man page.
- PREREQUISITES
TKRio has been implemented using the Tcl/Tk system, which is part of every decent Linux distribution. It has been developed using version 7.6/4.2, but it also seems to run under later versions such as Tcl/Tk 8.0. There used to be a problem getting to run TKRio (before version 1.05) under the RedHat 6.0 distribution, but this problem is solved now (thanks to Dennis Gerasimenko).
TKRio needs the following programs:
- rio version 1.07 with my patch, i.e., 1.07p1 (http://www.world.co.uk/sba/)
- mpg123 version 0.59r (http://mpg.123.org/) also other MP3 decoders such as xaudio could probably be used
- mp3info version 0.2.16 (ftp://bimbo.hive.no/pub/mp3info/ or ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/appsapps/sound/editors)
- mixer version 2.3 (http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/mixers/)
These programs (which are GPLed) are distributed together with TKRio and can be installed automatically (see below). If you want to use the original RIO program (version 1.07 or 1.06), some of the setups have to be modified (see below). However, I strongly recommend to use version 1.07.p1. See README.PATCH in the rio directory for the list of added/changed features. In particular, the unpatched version does not print the filenames in full length and for this reason you cannot delete or download files with long names with TKRio.
In addition, the following Linux utilities should be installed:
- head (version 1.22 or later),
- killall (version 17)
- xlsfonts
I tested the program using the Linux kernel 2.0.36, but more recent
versions (and older versions) should probably present no problem.
2. INSTALLATION
In order to make and install "tkrio", "rio", "mpg123", "mixer", and "mp3info", edit the makefile variables TKRIODIR, BINDIR, MANDIR, XPMDIR, and XBMDIR. You may also want to change MPG123FLAG to "linux-i486" or "linux-3dnow" if you have a 486 or an AMD with 3dnow support, repectively.
There are 3 options for installing tkrio:
- Install all programs under BINDIR and all man files under
MANDIR. In this case you get all the above programs plus the
respective man pages.
Type as root:
make all make install
- Install all programs under TKRIODIR, install a link to tkrio under
BINDIR and install the tkrio man page under MANDIR. In this case
you only can start tkrio and the other programs are only visible to
TKRio.
Type as root:
make all make install-aslib
- Install only the GUI tkrio without the other programs. This only
makes sense if you already have the other programs (or similar
ones) installed. You most probably have to change the program setup
(using the "Setup" menu in tkrio).
Type as root:
make install-tkrio
After that, you may want to install an icon for tkrio. If you use fvwm, the line
Style "TKRio" Icon rio.xpm will do the job (provided XPMDIR is an icon directory).
Please note that /dev/dsp needs the appropriate permissions, Otherwise mpg123 will fail to play songs. Please note also that the rio program needs to be "setuid root".
3. CUSTOMIZATION
After having installed TKRio (and the other programs), you can customize TKRio. You can change a number of parameters using the "Options", "Display", "Warning", "Color", "Font", and "Setup" menus. These settings can be saved by executing the "Save Profile to ~/.tkriorc" entry in the "File" menu for one particular user. If these settings should be the global default settings, the file ~/.tkriorc should be copied to the the place where TKRIODIR (usually /usr/local/lib/tkrio) points to and renamed to system.tkriorc.
TKRIODIR contains also some partial settings that can be loaded using the "Load System Profile" entry in the "File" menu. Some of them change the color (bright-colors.tkriorc, dark-colors.tkriorc, default-colors.tkriorc) or the fonts (small-font.tkriorc and default-font.tkriorc). You can also load settings that interface to the unpatched versions of RIO (rio107.tkriorc and rio106.tkriorc). However, the latter settings do not allow to delete and download files with long file names.
4. DOCUMENTATION
A documentation of the program can be found in the man file (which can be displayed using the HELP/MANUAL PAGE menu entry).
5. PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
5.1 Installation Problems
Problem: You get the error message that "sys/perm.h" cannot be found when compiling rio.cpp
Solution: You probably have an old Linux system where the "ioperm" calls are declared in "unistd.h". In this case you can safely delete the line "#include <sys/perm.h>" in rio.cpp.
Problem: You get an error when compiling mpg123 with 3dnow.
Solution: Perhaps you have an old 'as'. Read the README file in the mpg123 directory. It'll tell how to solve the problem.
Problem: You get an error when the command "tclsh mkman" is executed.
Solution: You better install Tcl/Tk before continuing.
5.2 Problems when running TKRio
Problem: You get the error message "bash: /usr/local/bin/tkrio: No such file or directory" when starting TKRio the first time after the installation.
Solution: You probably have to change the first line in the tkrio file to the location where "wish" resides on your system. If you do not have "wish" on your system, you have to install Tcl/Tk first.
Problem: Some command does not work as advertised.
Solution: Most of the time this problem has something to do with the fact that some programs cannot be accessed or that the wrong version of a program is started. This may in particular happen if you have installed a new version of TKRio. First try to delete your personal .tkriorc file and restart your program. If this does not help, try to reinstall TKRio by su-ing to root, change to the most recent TKRio directory and type
make uninstall
make install
Problem: TKRio requires more space on the screen than there is (say more than 640x480)
Solution: Choose the "File/Load System Profile" entry and load "small-font.tkriorc". After that choose "27 columns" in the "Display/List Width" entry. Now the GUI should fit on a 640x480 screen.
Problem: You get a dialog box with the message "Internal Error: ...".
Solution: This should, of course, not happen at all. If it happens -- and you care about it -- please send an error report to me (bernhard.nebel@gmx.de). Try to be as specific as possible about the context (last operation you tried) and mail me the file .tkrio-error that should have been generated in your home directory.
5.3 Problems with the Rio player
Problem: The RIO directory is messed up when the Rio player is connected to the host.
Solution: I noticed that this problems only occured when connecting
the parallel port adapter to my computer AFTER boot-up. When the parallel port adapter was present at boot time, this never happend.
Problem: Some of the songs do not play right, e.g., the Rio player
stops in the middle of a song or parts of the song are distorted.
Solution: This happens if the battery level is too low when uploading
songs to the Rio player. Simply make sure that the battery level is adequate when uploading songs.
6. PORTING
TKRio works fine (most of the time) on an X11 Linux platform accessing a Rio PMP300 player. It has not been tested on other platforms or with other MP3 players. Since the rio program is very portable and there are interfaces to other MP3 players, there shouldn't be serious problems to port TKRio to other platforms or MP3 players. If anybody is interested to check this out, I'll help (provided I can manage to assign the necessary time) and include it in the distribution.
7. CONTACT
I can be reached under bernhard.nebel@gmx.de