Okay, another report about the progress:
-Collection update from the menu has no function (perhaps because)
-the selection of the folders containing the collection still disappears on restart.
-so no changes will be noticed (the entry for the folder(s) is still in amarokrc)
-selecting the folders will result in double entries in amrokrc and a full scan
-amarok isn't usable during the scan (lock of the collection db?)
-no covers on compilations (hmmmm)
-the media applet has no function at all (what function is it supposed to be?)
-opening the playlist browser->my playlists with large playlists causes the UI to freeze. Seems that amarok loads all songs from all playlists, even none is dragged to the playlist editor (high HDD activity)
-applets sizes are fixed, so the height of all applets sums up and can be larger than the main window's height, causing the lowest applet to disappear partly. (See screenshot)
-some tracks on iPod appear under various artist and under artist/album(, which would be correct)
-no artist in collection bowser under compilations (perhaps wanted behavior)
-(still) no playlist sorting

But most of the problems depicted here, should be discussed in the Ubuntu forums, it seems. Especially the trouble with Jaunty and 2.0.90, regarding iPod support and sound issues, doesn't seem to be Amarok2 fault.
Btw. There will be an option in amarokrc to hide the middle pane. But (still) no button to switch
And again, please submit at least version of amarok and your distribution/version. That would make it al lot easier to help and to search for related topics.

I've attached an actual screenshot. (openSUSE 11.1/KDE 4.2.2/Qt 4.5.1)

Hope the developers don't take it as an offense, just an overview from the other side of the mirror.

Greetings
m0nk

After restarting, the usual reselection of the folders and the annoying scan, I found the collection messed up. Some albums have lost the year, some albums got wrong titles. The messed up entries even can't be opened. Will try SVN964194, but don't have much hope of a solution.

Collection scanning and building is fundamental for a music collection software and should have precedence over all the gimmicks, I think.
Rebuilding the collection over and over again, can't be the main sense of an audio player.
In amarok 1.x the collectionscanner was a mess most times. Let's hope that A2 will get a better one.
Maybe my critics are a bit harsh, but as a user I want to enjoy the music, not doing repeatly administrative tasks. (Losing of the statistics may be another point for a lot of the users)

Greetings
m0nk

SVN rev. 965002
Got a compilation consisting of 7 CDs today. Ripped it and added it to the collection. And guess what? The entries aren't under "Various Artists", but are listed under the artists. Moving them manually to VA results in the well-known phenomenon of multiple identical entries but for each track (101 exactly). So a step backward, unfortunately.
The treeview of the collection had some hickups, too. Context menu didn't open on right mouse click.

The problem with compilations could be caused by updating taglibs-extra to 0.1.3, although it happens only on this special compilation. [EDIT] After scanning today, other compilations are also splitted, but still shown under V.A.[EDIT]
And the annoying reset of the folders containing audio files, could be caused, because my music is on an external vfat-formatted usb-drive. See output below:

Object::connect: No such signal MountPointManager::mediumConnected( int ) in /home/ds/Download/SVN/amarok/src/MountPointManager.cpp:91                 
Object::connect:  (sender name:  'MountPointManager')                                                                                                 
Object::connect:  (receiver name: 'MountPointManager')


Removing config/amarok* and apps/amarok didn't help. I'll investigate that.

Greetings
m0nk

Okay, another report about the progress:
-Collection update from the menu has no function (perhaps because)
-the selection of the folders containing the collection still disappears on restart.
-so no changes will be noticed (the entry for the folder(s) is still in amarokrc)
-selecting the folders will result in double entries in amrokrc and a full scan

known: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=178973


-no covers on compilations (hmmmm)

also known: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=172953


-the media applet has no function at all (what function is it supposed to be?)

it works for me, I can connect/disconnect my MTP device just fine.


-opening the playlist browser->my playlists with large playlists causes the UI to freeze. Seems that amarok loads all songs from all playlists, even none is dragged to the playlist editor (high HDD activity)

Same here, even tho I don't have any large playlists.

I don't know about the rest..

Sorry, bug report 178973 is about messed up collection. Here the collection stays intact, but the selection of the folders in Settings->Amarok->Collection is gone after restart. So the folders won't be watched, so no updates occur.
Seems that amarok thinks, that the (in my case external) device is not connected, and removes the entry. Checking the database directly, there are entries for the device. Don't know, why it does not save the path in the db, instead of using amarokrc for the folder and the db for the device.

The cover bug; well this is a minor annoyance and can be fixed by adding covers manually (for now). Although the covers for my compilations are organized in the same way.

The media applet shows the path to my iPod (5.5th gen Video) and a plus/minus sign. So what are the functions of these buttons? Connecting/Disconnecting? Well, as long as the iPod appears in the collectionbrowser, I really don't care a lot.

And the applets size: Add f. e. Current Song+Albums+Lyrics applets to the middle pane and you'll see what I mean.

All these points apply to recent changes in SVN.

Greetings
m0nk

Dieter Schroeder wrote:Sorry, bug report 178973 is about messed up collection. Here the collection stays intact, but the selection of the folders in Settings->Amarok->Collection is gone after restart. So the folders won't be watched, so no updates occur.
Seems that amarok thinks, that the (in my case external) device is not connected, and removes the entry. Checking the database directly, there are entries for the device. Don't know, why it does not save the path in the db, instead of using amarokrc for the folder and the db for the device.

Yea sorry, copied the wrong link. Right one: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=187126
Although, the title should be changed because it happens also when the ~/Music folder exists

That's the right bug . I've read Mark's tip with ~/Music, but that didn't work for me.
And the comment from Valentin Rouet isn't correct. My collection is on an external drive with fat32 and after adding tracks, changes are recognized (with the folders checked in the settings and amarok running).
In earlier versions the collection got messed up, if the mountpoint wasn't present. So I've used the mountpoint check script from kde-apps.org.
This is a real annoying bug, because you always get a full scan and amarok is unuseable in the meanwhile.
[EDIT]
Just changed
[Collection Folders]
1=./Mucke
to
[Collection Folders]
-1=/media/IOMEGA_HDD/Mucke
in amarokrc
[EDIT]
and now the selection stays, even after restarting amarok. But still no updates
As you can read above the compilation bug is back again (Just checked svn rev. 965143, no solution yet)
But tell me about the media applet (screenshot?).

Greetings
m0nk

A quick overview for SVN 966704 built on 11.05.2009:
+compilations work (except in this case)
+collection path is permanent now
+automatic database updates work
+/-media applet closes iPod collection (seems still senseless to me)
+import from amarok 1.4 works

-(still) no covers for compilations
-applets not resizeable and height bug still present
-large playlists (>1,000 entries) causes the UI to freeze when changing to "My Playlists"
-iPod collection has the same entries under compilations and artist (inconsistent iTunes.db/Artwork.db)
-iTunes (8.x) import doesn't work
-collection browser tree view still closes completely on changes (like adding a cover)

[EDIT]Adding the band "sToa" results in "Stoa" to appear in the collection, although I have "shEver" and "maudlin of the Well" recognized correct. Tags are correct. Should check the albumartist once more. Strange.[EDIT]

And some minor visual glitches like ugly applets (I don't care...)
There are points I didn't test (podcast, mtp devices), because I'm not interested/don't have such a device.

So, in my opinion there are real showstoppers/serious bugs solved.
Hats off!

On my wishlist in no special order:
covers for compilations
easier handling of iPod (auto-fill, transportqueue)
import of last.fm statistics (as you're trying to import from iTunes XML db, why not import from last.fm weekly stats XML files?)
playlist sorting

Thank you for your work so far. Seems, that A2 is coming into shape.

Greetings
m0nk