Updating to the latest software versions? Specifically Rhythmbox v3.4.8?

General Help
1

The one that comes with Zorin OS is 3.4.4. I uninstalled it via software (delete icon), then install the latest version on Software and chose the flathub version, then I can confirm that it is Rhythmbox v3.4.8. All good so far, and there is only one Rhythmbox icon in the app menu.

But then when I try to add third party plugin:

Specifically:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fossfreedom/rhythmbox-plugins

then

sudo apt-get update

then

sudo apt-get install rhythmbox-plugin-equalizer

then the equalizer plug in was NOT installed in v3.4.8.

But another Rhythmbox icon appeared strangely in the app menu.

When I quit the current Rhythmbox v3.4.8 instance, and clicked on the new Rhythmbox icon that appeared, Rhythmbox 3.4.4 is launched with the equalizer plug-ins?

How is this possible?

What is the proper way of removing the old version of the app?

2 
sudo apt-get remove [name of app]
3

Thanks - but that doesn't work. Still the same Rhythmbox 3.4.4 icon that mysteriously appears

4

Flatpak packages can't access the rest of the filesystem by default, so that might be getting in the way of things.

You can create a rule allowing specific Flatpak packages access to certain files, however, using something called Flatseal (available in Software Store):

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Scroll down to Filesystem and either enable All user files, or specify the file to the location that you need. From what I've seen plugins should be stored in /home/zenzen/.local/share/rhythmbox so that's what I'd suggest as that's all you need. But you can also enable it for your entire home folder if this doesn't work out.

2 Likes
5

Thanks.
It still doesn't work... I have allowed it access to all system files and user files...
The old v3.4.4 again reappeared.
I have a feeling that somehow the old 3.4.4 were not "deleted" and that the plug-ins just got installed in the old 3.4.4 - or whether the system just recognized part of the code of the new 3.4.8 as the old 3.4.4.
This is because with 3.4.8 opened, clicking on the new icon that re-appears does not open a new instance of 3.4.4, but just goes to the 3.4.8 window, but after 3.4.8 is closed, and clicking on the new icon, Rhythmbox will appear now saying version 3.4.4.
Also strangely when looking at the apps store, Rhythmbox 3.4.4. (the Zorin OS apt) is not installed (as the icon is only giving the option to install rather than uninstall)

6

Please post back the results of:

sudo flatpak list
7

Maybe this is the Problem. When You do it like this, it removes the Program but there can be still Parts of it left. What you coould try is:

sudo apt purge rhythmbox-common

and after this

sudo apt autoremove

BUT please be careful and look on the List of Stuff what will be deleted!

Because of the installed Flatpak-Version: Because the Plugin is an APT Package and the Program itself is a Flatpak this Combination couldn't work because Flatpaks run containerized and have only limited Permissions to the System. @zenzen's Explanation is a Way, but You could take a Look at the Developer's Website from Rhythmbox and - if available - download the up-to-date .deb File from there and install it. Then the Plugin should work.

1 Like
8

I found this thread that may be related, although I didn't get any luck in making it work:

9

Still no luck... but i think i will just stick with the older version. But it is very strange that I just cannot uninstall the older version of the app even if I did what @Ponce-De-Leon recommended.

10

Maybe it would be good to install Rhythmbox again and then do the Steps with the Uninstallation. when it is really installed, it maybe works. If You want, You could try that.

11

The package that you're installing has Rhythmbox listed as a dependency; it will install it automatically if it's not already there. If you're wondering why that is even though you already have the Flatpak version, the reason is because these are two separate package formats that are independent from each other.

As per the discussion I linked above, you would have to download and set it the plugins manually in such a way that Flatpak can recognize them. The problem that I see with this particular collection of plugins is that they were meant to be installed through the default package manager. You would have to study whatever changes are needed to make it work with Flatpak, and even then there are no guarantees that they support the newer version of Rhythmbox.

This is what I tried to do yesterday but after a while I gave up :cry:

I think it might be faster to search for an alternative plugin that already works for the newest version, or stick to 3.4.4 if it suits your needs. In case you are wondering, you can see what changed between the 3.4.4 and 3.4.8 versions here:

12

wow thanks very much! It makes more sense now. To make it work for 3.4.8 is just too much trouble. I think I will just stick with 3.4.4 or find another music player that is library based and has an equalizer. Fooyin seems good, but just lacking an equalizer at moment.

13

Looking a bit more into this and seem like the root cause is with how this plugin is coded. As it's a rather old codebase, it's using the now-deprecated GConf module, which, being deprecated, the Flatpak runtime does not include.
This could be fixed by updating the codebase, but after 7 years since the last commit it doesn't seem like that's going to happen anytime soon. Even then, other issues of similar nature may still cause problems.

One option could be to build the Flatpak runtime from source code (or maybe just this one package), including this missing module. That's certainly doable and I'm a bit curious on how to do this, but it's not something that I want to get into right now.

Going with the non-Flatpak approach, it's a lot easier to just install the gconf library using the default package manager, which is why you can easily load this plugin.
The only issue is simply with the relatively outdated version of Rhythmbox. This can also be addressed by building Rhythmbox 3.4.8 from source... but some of the libraries needed are not at the right versions and it definitely needs some tweaking. I manged to do it, but in the end some of the plugins were not available and even this :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: equalizer plugin wouldn't load:

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In case anyone wants to give it a try (I might give it one last try!) you need to download the source code, and install a bunch of dependencies:

sudo apt install itstool cmake meson lib{totem-plparser,cairo2,gdk-pixbuf2.0,girepository1.0,gstreamer1.0,rust-gstreamer-audio-sys,gtk-3,json-glib,peasd-3,soup-3.0,xml2,tdb}-dev

You also need to hack into the required dependencies by editing meson.build:

project('rhythmbox', 'c',
  version: '3.4.8',
-  meson_version: '>= 0.64.0',
+  meson_version: '>= 0.61.0',
  default_options: ['c_std=gnu89'])

...

- gstreamer_required = '1.4.0'
+ gstreamer_required = '1.2.0'

I don't know if this causes something else to break (probably why there are so few plugins) but eventually it allows to proceed with the compilation, and it seems to run fine.

In conclusion, it really is too much trouble :joy:

3 Likes
14

Wow thank you! This is beyond what I was hoping for. The Zorin community is really fantastic!

1 Like
15

By the way, I've given up on this at this point. Maybe on Debian I could get it to work due to dependency versions, but I think it's not all that worth it at this point :frowning_face:

1 Like