Table of Contents
Thank you for downloading Prokyon3.
Prokyon3 is a multi threaded MP3/Ogg manager and tag editor originally developed for Linux. It was written in C++ using the Qt3 widget set and the MySQL database. Prokyon3 can access both MP3 and Ogg files on local as well as shared network drives.
![[Note]](images/docbook/note.png) | Note |
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Ogg is an audio encoding format that surpasses MP3 encoding. Further Ogg is license and patent free. Keep away from proprietary format like MP3, use Ogg!!! For more information check http://www.xiph.org/ogg/index.html. | |
Prokyon3 is especially good if you have lots of musical files. Some users have been reported using it successfully with up to 33000 MP3's....
The files view is customizable and favorite artists as well as sampler and sound-tracks are supported. Prokyon3 also offers an editor for ID3/Ogg tags and has been designed to support tagging for multiple files "en masse".
Files can be played directly form a CD as Prokyon3 identifies CDs by content.
Prokyon3 is simple and straightforward to use. Help is provided via this file and some additional pop-ups.
Additional information and links can be found at http://sourceforge.net/projects/prokyon3.
We can be contacted using Prokyon3 Help and Open discussions forums http://sourceforge.net/forum/?group_id=47522.
The Prokyon3 development team
Prokyon3 key features are:
Manages files on hard disk/CDROM or over network
Search the database by artist, song, album, filename...
Very comfortable editor for ID3 tags
Manages favorite artists and sampler/sound-tracks
Plays and enqueues MP3 files with XMMS/Winamp or any other player with a command line interface.
Uses MySQL as database back end
Configuration editor and database wizard
Play-list editor
Access files over SMB and NFS
Support for Ogg/Vorbis
Random play list generation
- 2.1.1. Compile from Source
- 2.1.2. Binaries
- 2.1.3. Troubleshootings
Qt 3.0.0 or above (multithreaded)
Qt3 MySQL Plugin
MySQL client
id3lib 3.8 or above
Ogg and vorbis libraries (optional)
Note NEW: With release 0.9.2 prokyon3 now offer the ability to burn a CD from a play-list.
Prokyon3 is mostly available as a source tar file. It uses GNU Autotool and in most case, compiling and running Prokyon3 on a Linux box consist of:
Download and untar latest stable project archive from http://prokyon3.sourceforge.net
user#>tar -zxvf prokyon3-XXX.tgz
As an option, download latest html documentation archive as well.
user#>cd prokyon3 user#>tar -zxvf prokyon3_doc-XXX.tgz
Configure and compile.
user#> ./configure user#> make root#> make install
Create the database
Create a database and setup the parameters in the configuration dialog .
Note As an alternative, with MySQL 3.22 and later, you can use the 'create new database' wizard in the file | menu....
Fine tune your configuration with File | Settings
Please refer to INSTALL file for additional instructions about using ./configure to fine tune compilation for your system.
| Note |
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Some users reported, that they successfully compiled and run Prokyon3 on BSD. | |
Table 2.1. Key programs required by prokburn script
| Name | Function |
|---|---|
| mpg123 | Decoding mp3 files to wav. |
| ogg123 | Decoding ogg files ro wav |
| normalize | normalizing tracks audio volume program available at http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~cvaill/normalize/ |
| cdrecord | CD burning. |
| Note |
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prokburn will assume SCSI target 0,0,0 for your cd burner. If this is not the case, you will have to edit the prokburn script in your install directory. | |
There are some. We know that there's a debian package available and we discovered some gentoo ebuild scripts (well, that's not a binary ;-) ).
Here is a list of [gotcha's] that may prevent prokyon3 from running once compiled properly.
Make sure the environment variable QTDIR points to the right directory (Debian/Woody: '/usr/share/qt')
Make sure you provide the correct MySQL superuser user and password to the wizard.
Do not forget to connect to the database by clicking the 'connect' button.
See also FAQs here .
- 2.2.1. Prokyon3
- 2.2.2. MySQL Server
- 2.2.3. WinAmp
Installing Prokyon3 is straightforward using a self-contained binary zip package. Just open the archive and double click on setup.exe.
![[Warning]](images/docbook/warning.png) | Warning |
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Prokyon3 was developed by a team of enthusiastic people as an open source development product. As such we strongly advocate use of non proprietary operating system. Prokyon3 was mostly written on Linux OS using open source development tools. However we recognize that not everybody is having access to a computer running Linux. We considered our Windows port as a "demo" version. It is definitely not as good as it's Linux counterpart. We hope the Windows version will give you a good overview of Prokyon3 ability and encourage you to set-up a Linux PC quickly to run it on a non proprietary OS. The main restriction that apply to the Windows version is a lack of multi threading support. This result in slow operation when intensive CPU tasks are performed. Concerned are mostly commands involving files synchronizing. It is also somehow lacking remote file support. | |
| Note |
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You will need to install two other programs before running Prokyon3 on Windows:
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See also FAQ here .
All tests were made using release 3.23 for Windows. You can download it from http://www.mysql.com/downloads/mysql-3.23.html. Just run the installer and make sure you have a running server. You will notice a small traffic light in your system tray. It must be green. If not, try to right click the icon and run the server manually.
You absolutely must have a running MySQL server for Prokyon3 to run. While you are at it, double click again on the icon, select "show me" and look at the default user and password under "myini Setup" tab.
WinAmp can be downloaded from http://www.winamp.com/download. You recommend to use Winamp3. Previous version (i.e. Winamp2) will run as well, but there is some limitation to the command line length: Winamp2 will crash if you try to play a long play-list. And if you are unlucky enough to use win98 you probably will have to start Windows again. So try to use Winamp3. It is a bit slow to start but after that it is very stable and you can expect future versions to improve start-up time. The installation of WinAmp is straightforward.
When you run Prokyon3 for the fist time it will detect it and a window will provide detailed help.
From Prokyon3 select File | Create new database. Use the superuser name and password for your MySQL server. Most probably the default value is OK for your installation (which means that there is no root password required in most cases). You must first create a valid database to proceed any further. A message box will confirm this has been done. Now you should be able to connect to the server with File | connect and get a little smiling face in the status bar at the bottom of Prokyon3. If this is the case, just relax, you are nearly done (see also FAQ here).
After selecting your search path with File | settings | Directory (see FAQ here) then right click in the hard disk button at the lower left bottom of the screen. Choose Synchronize (Prefer sources) for the first time.
Right click on a musical file in the middle window and choose PLAY Tracks. If nothing happens, check your play and enqueue command lines in File | Settings | Toggle. Try to run your play command directly from a console. If you did not install in a standard location you will have to edit both commands.
You can select one or several files and edit all tags via the Edit button.
| Note |
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When your are in edit mode, pay special attention to the button available to the right side of each editable fields. It has two specific modes of operation (See also FAQ here ).
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Modifications are immediately recorded into Prokyon3 MySQL database when Save button is pressed, but the information embedded into your musical file ("tags") are not changed unless you specifically asked for it. This is done via various synchronize commands. These are found when right clicking on the hard disk icon in the lower left window, from normal mode. Several options are available as described below.
In the following, by files, we mean information from the file system and by tags information kept by Prokyon3 into it's database.
Update Only
New files are read and added to tags. Deleted files are removed from tags. No other tags or files change is taking place. As a result, information from some files can still be different from their tags equivalent.
Synchronize
Same as Update Only command. In addition, write modified tags to files and read tags from modified files. As an option, one can prefer tags or files when both have been changed. Both files and tags are modified.
Update and Read tags
Same as Update Only command. In addition, read tags from modified files. As an option one can force read if both files and tags have been changed. Some modified tags may be lost, but files are never modified.
Update and Write tags
Same as Update Only command. In addition, write files from modified tags. As an option one can force write if both files and tags have been changed. Some files info may be lost, but tags are never modified.
| Note |
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In addition to complete editing and searching capability, Prokyon3 offer some special features:
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- 3.6.1. "Read ID3v2 tags"
- 3.6.2. "Write ID3v2 tags"
- 3.6.3. "Auto connect to database at startup"
- 3.6.4. "Auto hide artists/sources/playlists in tag edit mode"
- 3.6.5. "Never show content of whole hard disk|SMB shares|NFS exports"
- 3.6.6. "Allow tool tip"
- 3.6.7. "Allow column to expand automatically"
- 3.6.8. "Allow Gui configuration restore"
- 3.6.9. "Play and enqueue commands"
- 3.6.10. "BurnCD command"
Prokyon3 can be further configured with he following options available with file | settings | toggles as detailed below.
When this box is checked, Prokyon3 will read ID3V2 tags from mp3 files. It will default to V1 if no V2 tags are available.
If unchecked, Prokyon3 will only read V1 tags from mp3 files. ID3V1 tags had some obvious limitations and drawbacks so it is better to leave this box checked. One can find more detailed information about ID3 tags at http:/www.id3lib.org.
Default value is checked.When checked, Prokyon3 will always write tags as ID3 V2 tags to your file.
Default value is checked.
Once your Mysql base is running and your connection is OK, this box should be checked.
Default value is unchecked.When checked, Prokyon3 will hide play lists and artists tree when tags are edited. This will expand your display during edit mode.
Default value is checked.If checked, Prokyon3 will not attempt to display all you files in a single list when, for example, you click the Harddisk button form the Media tab in the selector. Useful if you have lots of files on your hard disk|SMB shares|NFS exports as this can be painfully slow.
Default values are unchecked.When checked, columns size will be adjusted automatically by Prokyon3 to match displayed text width.
When unchecked, Prokyon3 will remember your manual column width adjustments and restore it between sessions. These will not changed unless you modify them manually.
Default value is checked.When checked, internal frame sizes, as well as relative columns position in listing views will be saved and restore between sessions. In a similar manner, if some main frames are hidden by the user, this will be saved and restored by Prokyon3.
Default value is checked. | Note |
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However, Prokyon3 will always automatically save an restore the following Gui information:
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Play command must cancel and reset any existing play list already loaded into your favourite player. Enqueue command will be used to add your selected tracks to the current one. Selected tracks are passed as additional arguments to these commands.
Default value are OK with xmms.- 4.1.1. "Do I need to connect manually to the database each time I start Prokyon3?"
- 4.1.2. "What directory should be included in File | Settings | Directory?"
- 4.1.3. "How are CDs handled?"
- 4.1.4. "Can I edit several tracks at the same time?"
- 4.1.5. "What is the play list generator about?"
- 4.1.6. "These pop-up windows (tool tips) become quickly a real nuisance..."
- 4.1.7. "What is the Andromeda option for?"
- 4.1.8. "Is searching using regular expression supported?"
- 4.1.9. "How can I reset my configuration values?"
No, You can enable auto-connect feature in File | Settings | Toggle.
Indicate where all your Ogg and MP3 files are located. But do not enter a CD path. Prokyon3 will automatically look in all sub-directories. In theory you could put your hard disk root there ("c:\" or "/") but it may take a long time to scan.
First insert a CD, then right click on the CD icon and select Append to Database. This will compute a unique CD ID and scan the removable disk for musical files. When the CD is loaded/unloaded corresponding Artist/title from the list will be highlighted/grayed out.
Yes, you can. Select them in the middle window, and edit them. Although only one track is selected at any time, you can still apply a change to the whole selection by left clicking the grey square button at the right of any tag field. Right clicking on the same button will give you more options.
This will automatically generate a play list picking random tracks from your library. Very Handy....
| Note |
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Only tracks available on hard disk are considered at the moment. | |
You can disable them permanently via File | Settings | Toggle.
This option is available in edit mode, when right clicking on the square button associated to filename field. The Andromeda option assigns a filename to a track, so it is lexically in the right order including the order of track numbers. It was implemented from the great PHP-Script Andromeda. An Andromeda filename consists of the artist name, followed by the album abbreviation, a track number and finally title of the track.
By consistently using Andromeda file name, a simple alphanumeric sort will classify your tracks by artist, album and track number.
`.' matches any single character.
Character class `[...]' matches any character within the brackets. For example, `[abc]' matches `a', `b', or `c'. To name a range of characters, use a dash. `[a-z]' matches any lowercase letter, whereas `[0-9]' matches any digit.
`*' matches zero or more instances of the thing preceding it. For example, `x*' matches any number of `x' characters, `[0-9]*' matches any number of digits, and `.*' matches any number of anything.
The pattern matches if it occurs anywhere in the value being tested. (SQL patterns match only if they match the entire value.)
To anchor a pattern so that it must match the beginning or end of the value being tested, use `^' at the beginning or `$' at the end of the pattern.
Following tags are searched (if and only if checked ): path/filename, artist, title, album,comment.
Search is started when Enter key is pressed or alternatively by pressing the "Start" button.
"Reset" button will reset searched string to blank and "Defaults" will select default search fields list to its original value.
By default your config file is located in ~/.qt/prokyon3rc for the Linux version or c:\qt\prokyon3rc for the Windows version.
If you ever run into problems with your saved values, you can delete this file. Prokyon3 will then revert to its default values.
- 4.2.1. "What do I need to compile Prokyon3?"
- 4.2.2. "What package are required to compile on Redhat (SuSE)?"
- 4.2.3. "What packages are required to compile on Mandrake 9.1?"
- 4.2.4. "Which version of the QT library is required?"
- 4.2.5. "What version of g++/gcc is required?"
- 4.2.6. "How do I compile Prokyon3 on Mandrake?"
You will need the following components (and their libraries) installed to compile from source code:
A running MySQL server
QT3 compiled with both thread and MySQL support enabled
id3lib libraries
Ogg and Vorbis libraries if you want Ogg support
Here is what ldd tells on SuSE 8.1:
libqt-mt.so.3 => /usr/lib/libqt-mt.so.3 (0x40023000) libogg.so.0 => /usr/lib/libogg.so.0 (0x40647000) libvorbis.so.0 => /usr/lib/libvorbis.so.0 (0x4064b000) libvorbisfile.so.3 => /usr/lib/libvorbisfile.so.3 (0x4066b000) libid3-3.8.so.0 => /usr/lib/libid3-3.8.so.0 (0x40672000) libz.so.1 => /lib/libz.so.1 (0x406ad000) libstdc++.so.5 => /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.5 (0x406bc000) libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x4076f000) libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x40792000) libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x4079a000) libpng12.so.0 => /usr/lib/libpng12.so.0 (0x408b8000) libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x408e8000) libGL.so.1 => /usr/lib/libGL.so.1 (0x408fd000) libXmu.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXmu.so.6 (0x40ac8000) libICE.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libICE.so.6 (0x40ade000) libSM.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libSM.so.6 (0x40af5000) libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x40afe000) libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6 (0x40b01000) libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x40b0f000) libXrender.so.1 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXrender.so.1 (0x40c07000) libXft.so.1 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXft.so.1 (0x40c0c000) libfreetype.so.6 => /usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6 (0x40c38000) libXi.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXi.so.6 (0x40c7a000) /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000) libXt.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXt.so.6 (0x40c82000)
Redhat at least by 7.3 has MySQL in a separate rpm from qt-devel. To compile, you'll need both the qt-devel package and something like qt-MySQL-3.0.3-11.i386.rpm
SuSE missed some dependencies, which means that an installation of qt3-mysql.rpm not automatically causes an installation of mysql-shared.rpm and mysql-client.rpm.
This is the (hopefully) complete list of required packages:
libid3lib3.8_2-3.8.2-2mdk
libid3lib3.8_2-devel-3.8.2-2mdk
libqt3-3.1.1-13mdk
libqt3-common-3.1.1-13mdk
libqt3-mysql-3.1.1-13mdk
libqt3-devel-3.1.1-13mdk
libmysql12-4.0.11a-5mdk
gettext-0.11.5-2mdk
XFree86-devel-4.3-5mdk
zlib1-devel-1.1.4-5mdk
libmysql12-devel-4.0.11a-5mdk
MySQL-common-4.0.11a-5mdk
MySQL-client-4.0.11a-5mdk
MySQL-Max-4.0.11a-5mdk
libvorbis0-1.0-6mdk
libvorbis0-devel-1.0-6mdk
libogg0-devel-1.0-3mdk
libvorbisfile3-1.0-6mdk
libogg0-1.0-3mdk
| Note |
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Prokyon 0.9.2 or higher (or CVS snapshot) is needed to support the creation of the database if MySQL4 is used. | |
Basically any version above 3.0 will work. Please note that there was on-going improvement/bug fixes from Trolltech since the original release. More specifically, multi thread capability of some function was significantly improved. We have found qt3.1.1 (last available at the time of this release) to be more stable and robust than previous versions.
Prokyon3 can be compiled successfully using gcc 2.95 or 3.2. We recommend gcc 3.2 but other versions may work as well. If you are using g++ 3.XX you need to recompile all C++ libraries used by Prokyon3 are these are not binary compatible with g++ 2.XX libraries . C libraries are no problem. Currently, Prokyon3 requires 2 C++ libraries: QT3 and libid3. If you upgrade your compiler, your will need to recompile both libraries to successfully link Prokyon3.
| Note |
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Prokyon3 v0.9.1-r1 could not be compiled using gcc 3.3 (SuSE 8.2). The next version will compile as well as the current CVS version does ;-) | |
Unfortunately you will need Microsoft Visual C++ V6.0 as Qt Win230 free package is a binary distribution that can only be used with MSVC++ :-( . It is not even guaranteed that it will be compatible with more recent version of the compiler: you must have a try first. The easiest way to get MSVC++ 6.0 is to purchase it second hand over the Internet as I did. In addition you will need the following GPL packages:
QtWin230-NonCommercial.exe from http://www.trolltech.com/download/index.html
id3lib-3.8.3.zip from http://sourceforge.net/projects/id3lib/
OggVorbis-win32sdk-1.0.zip form http://www.vorbis.com/download_win.psp
mysql++-1.7.1-1-win32-vc++.zip from http://www.mysql.com/downloads/api-mysql++.html
Included in the source code you will find a make file compatible with Microsoft NMAKE. I modified it by hand so you should directly run the make file to compile. I never tried to compile from the MSVC++ IDE.
I used Emacs for windows from http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ rather than Microsoft IDE for all Windows development.
Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 has some problems with latest ANSI features and force me to implement lots of minor changes to compile properly. Further I had to "back-port" Prokyon3 from QT3.0 to QT2.0. Unfortunately Qt2.0 was missing any SQL support so I had to provide a minimum wrapper to the mysql++ API to interface with Prokyon3 database layer. As a result it will be a major work to recompile latest Prokyon3 release. My starting point was release 0.9.1.
What is really great is the debugger bundled with Microsoft Visual C++. This is the only point where the Microsoft Visual C++ out-pass Linux development tools IMHO. (Comment from Markus: PHF, try eclipse for windows!)
If you have any more questions about the Windows port, feel free to contact me at paul-henri.ferme@noos.fr.