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View Full Version : GnomeBaker 0.3 - a K3B alternative



jtang613
7th July 2005, 04:52 AM
This is definately one to watch. This CD/DVD burning app seeks to provide a Gnome-alternative to K3B. And in my opinion, it's off to a good start. All the main features you expect are there - visit the GnomeBaker homepage for details at: http://gnomebaker.sourceforge.net/

We're all familiar with K3B, which has become the burning app for Linux. And it's a great app. But the trouble is that it is a KDE app. Those of us who use Gnome as our default window manager have come to loathe the fact that K3B takes so long to load (due to the KDE libraries that must load first), as well as the fact that it doesn't track Gnome theme changes. Well, GnomeBaker solves all those problems. On my system, GnomeBaker loads in less than 1 second - compared to the 10+ seconds required for K3B (and KDE libs). And GnomeBaker has that great Gnome look that reflects the current theme, see screenshot below.

I tested GnomeBaker 0.3 on my (fully patched / updated) system:
- FC4 - 2.6.12-1.1387_FC4
- AthlonXP 2200+
- 512MB DDR
- 120GB RAID-0 HD
- GeForce4 Ti4200 / 128MB DDR
-- LG GSA-4120B DVD+/-RW DL
-- etc, etc, etc

I installed GnomeBaker by rebuilding the src.rpm since I had trouble with the FC4 rpm provided by nrpms.net. I used the following commands to build and install:
wget http://repo.nrpms.net/gnomebaker/0.3/SRPMS/gnomebaker-0.3-1.1.fc4.nr.src.rpm
rpmbuild --rebuild gnomebaker-0.3-1.1.fc4.nr.src.rpm
rpm -Uvh /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/gnomebaker-0.3-1.%\{disttag\}.%\{repotag\}.i386.rpm
Note: I apparently forgot to specify the 'disttag' and 'repotag' fields, but no harm done.

Granted it is still early in development, the feature set is very complete and is likely to expand to cover more advanced uses and configurations.

My ratings:
- Installation 3 / 5
- Ease of use 5 / 5
- Features 4 / 5
- Quality 4 / 5
- Overall assessment 8 / 10

Jason

BandC
7th July 2005, 04:43 PM
Cool. I am having problems burning stuff with K3B (and others). Can this thing burn MP3s to an audio CD or does it rely on FC's crippled version of sox?

jtang613
7th July 2005, 05:20 PM
Cool. I am having problems burning stuff with K3B (and others). Can this thing burn MP3s to an audio CD or does it rely on FC's crippled version of sox?
It can burn mp3, ogg, etc to audio cd. GnomeBaker requires the mpg321 package (instead of sox) to perform these functions.

btw: Regardless of which burning app or media utility you use, you can easily "un-cripple" it by installing the proper version. Sox works fine on my system.

Jason

tejas
7th July 2005, 05:36 PM
great, I can see it now:

FC5 - K3B no longer packaged with FC. Need to download huge install file using yum, or else switch to GNOME for gnome-baker

Just kidding, hopefully

jtang613
7th July 2005, 05:42 PM
great, I can see it now:

FC5 - K3B no longer packaged with FC. Need to download huge install file using yum, or else switch to GNOME for gnome-baker

Just kidding, hopefully
heh, I was thinking more like replacing xcdroast - which appears to be no longer maintained.

Regardless, GnomeBaker is still in very early development (v.0.3) - I don't think K3B has anything to worry about until GnomeBaker-1.0+.

It's just nice to see progress in this area.

Jason

BandC
7th July 2005, 06:44 PM
It can burn mp3, ogg, etc to audio cd. GnomeBaker requires the mpg321 package (instead of sox) to perform these functions.

btw: Regardless of which burning app or media utility you use, you can easily "un-cripple" it by installing the proper version. Sox works fine on my system.

Jason

1) On GnomeFiles.org it says it depends on mpg123 (not mpg321). Does mpg321 also work?
2) I believe there is a regular RPM (as opposed to a source RPM) on nrpms. Is there a reason you used the source RPM instead?
3) How / From where did you install sox with mp3 support? I thought about doing it but I didn't wanna mess up anything.

jtang613
7th July 2005, 07:07 PM
1) On GnomeFiles.org it says it depends on mpg123 (not mpg321). Does mpg321 also work?
The mpg321 package provides the mpg123 executable.


2) I believe there is a regular RPM (as opposed to a source RPM) on nrpms. Is there a reason you used the source RPM instead?
Yes, I explained this in my review. I had trouble installing the rpm from nrpms.


3) How / From where did you install sox with mp3 support? I thought about doing it but I didn't wanna mess up anything.
You need to install the libmad, libmad-dev, lame and lame-devel packages. Then rebuild the sox src.rpm and install it.

Jason

BandC
7th July 2005, 07:17 PM
The mpg321 package provides the mpg123 executable.


Oh, I see. Then, I'll probably install mpg321 since it's free.



Yes, I explained this in my review. I had trouble installing the rpm from nrpms.


Sorry, I should have read your post better. :)



You need to install the libmad, libmad-dev, lame and lame-devel packages. Then rebuild the sox src.rpm and install it.

Jason

Do you remove the old sox before doing that? Would that break anything?

foolish
8th July 2005, 10:15 AM
To add mp3 support to k3b in Fedora Core 4 see http://rpm.livna.org/configuration.html#Core4 and add the livna.org repository, then install the kdemultimedia-extras package:


yum install kdemultimedia-extras

BandC
8th July 2005, 05:05 PM
Thanks, I already have MP3 support for K3B. My problem is with slow burning and skipping as detailed in this post of mine: http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=61383

By the way, yum installed Gnome Baker fine from nrpms. I noticed a couple of things. It calculated song durations wrong for some MP3s (maybe has to do with bitrate) and it gave an error before it can start burning. It still has a long way to go before you can compare it K3B but it has potential and it's nice to see a competing GNOME application being developed.

Graveman doesn't see my DVD-RW drive. K3B is perfect. Only if it wasn't so slow and didn't skip...

* Sigh *

jtang613
8th July 2005, 07:56 PM
Much of these comments neglect my original openning statement: "This is definately one to watch". And my other assertion: "...it is still in early development".

This is GnomeBaker 0.3. Don't expect an immediate K3B replacement yet. But follow the development and support the dev team by testing and filing bug reports and suggestions and giving positive feedback. This project has lots of *potential* to be the G3B we've been waiting for.

Just My Two Cents,
Jason

sirbrett
13th July 2005, 07:45 PM
nice to see some activity in this area. not as fleshed out as xcdroast, but its getting there!

Shadow Skill
17th July 2005, 06:37 AM
About time Gnome got a burning app that looks to be better than Xcdroast..too bad I switched to KDE already....Maybe when I get my new uber 1337 laptop for my next birthday [hopefully sooner.] I'll give this a try. Seems like .4 is already out btw..

Just read the site more and realized it [.4] needs Gstreamer to make audio cd's...sigh.