I've been searching forums for this, but everyone seems to have slightly different problems.

I let Amarok scan the folders that needed to be scanned and it created a local collection, that works alright. The problem is that it does not play anything. When I play a song or album it just skips through the list, not paying anything, as if the files weren't there.

I can play these mp3's in Audacious, but Amarok has some nice features, so I'd like to make that work.

I've read about some bug in Amarok where it does not play files starting with a number, or something, but I took that problem out of the equation by testing if it played something with a simple filename in a simple folder. It doesn't.

In the "Backend" tab, Xine is the one selected and the only option, maybe that's important too.

Any suggestions as to what might be the problem in my case?

suggestions:

does the test button in the device preference tab work? the backend must be highlighted to test

version of Amarok? should up to 2.4 if not there http://www.kubuntu.org/news/amarok-24

you could try other backends phonon-backend-gstreamer or phonon-backend-vlc

It sounds like you haven't got mp3 codecs for the Xine backend installed.
sudo apt-get install libxine1-ffmpeg

Soundtest works, I already have ibxine1-ffmpeg.
I do not however have the newest version (I really thought I already checked that). Don't know how to update something in linux, but I'll have a look around.
I'll get back to you once I have the newest version.

Open KPackageKit and hit the Software Updates tab, or from console run sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade.

you need to add the Kubuntu Backports PPA

Oops, missed that he didn't have 2.4 already. If you're running 10.10, use the Kubuntu PPA backports, which will upgrade Phonon versions and the like as well (which is more likely to help with playback issues).
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

If you're on 10.04, that's not available, and you'll need to enable main Ubuntu backports from the package manager.

Ok I did update using the ppa backports, it seemed to update a whole lot of stuff, but I guess that's a good thing.
It still says it's version 2.3.2. And music still doesn't work.
Should I restart or something? I did reload the program.

Edit: When I have the terminal open I see the following error appear a lot when I try to play an album:
amarok(1816): couldn't create slave: "Unable to create io-slave:
klauncher said: Unknown protocol ''.

Oh and after a restart it still says I have version 2.3.2 in stead of 2.4.

Edit #2:
more errors:
amarok(1816)/kdecore (KSycoca) KSycoca::flagError: ERROR: KSycoca database corruption!
and:
kmimetype filetype guessing failed for /path/filename.mp3

Please run

Code: Select all

kbuildsycoca4 --noincremental

in a console and restart Amarok. Any better?

no luck

Are you really sure you use the xine backend? If it is the phonon gstreamer backend, you will have to install the package ubuntu-restricted-extras as well.

Checked it once again, it really says Xine at the backend window.
So you mean I should install ubuntu-restricted-extras now? Or only if it would have said "gstreamer" in stead of Xine.

Only if it were Gstreamer.

Just to go back to the initial problem: which exact Kubuntu version and KDE version are you using currently?

Sorry, How do you reach the backend window of Amarok?

My Amarok is "running" through the mp3 songs, but is not playing them.

My system is Kubuntu 10.10, 64 bit

settings > configure Amarok > playback > configure Phonon > backend

Xine is the default backend on your version of Kubuntu, and you will need to install the package libxine1-ffmpeg.