Add mp3 support in Fedora 10
One of more frustrating aspects of some modern Linux distributions is that they do not ship with mp3 support rolled in. This is, by design, done because of licensing issues. And granted using the ogg format is a much better solution in the end (as well as a much better sounding format) but for those of us who have massive amounts of mp3 files already located on multiple hard drives converting to ogg format would be a very time consuming option. To that end it is nice to be able to have mp3 support native on your machine.
Fortunately that is not difficult. And even more fotunate, here are the instructions.
The first thing you need to is close out all applications that might want to make use of an mp3 file. This could include Ryhthmbox, Amarok, Banshee, or xmms. Now open a terminal window because you are going to be issuing some commands in a moment. Once the terminal window is open you will first need to su to root. With root privileges it is time to get down to business.
The first set of commands to run will install the necessary repositories for yum to use. First issue:
rpm -ivh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm
Once that command completes issue:
rpm -ivh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rmpfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm
Now it's time to install the actual plugins for support. Issue the command:
yum -y install gstreamer-plugins-bad gstreamer-plugins-ugly xine-lib-extras-nonfree
Now your system will allow mp3 playback in the major players. But there is still no xmms. To install xmms with mp3 support issue the following command:
yum install xmms xmms-mp3
Once this is finished your machine is all ready for full-blown mp3 playback in just about every type of application.
Final Thoughts
Yes it's true it would be nice if the major Linux distributions could ship with mp3 support built in. But that is not the case due to licensing. Fortunately getting this working is as simple as a few commands.
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thanks…its perfect …
gud job!
Tahnks..it works….
THANK YOU VERY MUCH !! IT WORKS GOOD !!
Bye
thanks! is really good.
i think we should try to use mp3 as little as we can
any time i backup my cd for listen on the pc i do it on ogg. and i only convert them to mp3 to play them on my portable-mp3-player.
I’m getting slow playback which is weird, all the songs sound slower and deeper. any ideas?
isaacahloe@hotmail.com
Perfecto !. Muy bien explicado y funciona !. la verdad es que no tenia soporte de MP3 en Fedora y lo hacia menos apetecible que Kubuntu o Suse.
Yes the second command returned an “error: 404” message (still using rpm instead rmp), but seems that it is not necessary however. I skipped such step and continued with third and fourth commands and it worked out.
I’m listening mp3’s now,
Thanks a lot.
how to get all combined rpm packages for linux audio and video playbacks alltogethor
Ahh it works, listening to sleepbot now., thank you so much!!
its working fine.
thanks
2nd cmd does NOT work!!!!
It works!!
Thanxs
I am not sure if the second command is essential for MP3 play back. I issued the first rpm command, then the yum command, and now can play MP3s. What is the second rpm command actually working to do?
Thanks Buddy…
it worked for me….
First time I installed Fedora 5, I was not able play mp3 files, this is also happen with Fedora 10, but like what this article said, we have to install manually using rpm or yum.
But, if you don’t want the yum installed directly to internet or if you don’t have internet connection (manual installation), you have to change the location of repositories first to cdrom mount.
roguespear – yes it would be nice if more companies would support ogg and flac. the Sansa Fuze was supposed to add ogg support in their last update but they didn’t.
michael – thank you for correcting that.
dotan – yeah, some distros make it much easier. i generally say Fedora is not for the new user based on issues such as this.
In Ubuntu one simply clicks an mp3 file, and the system asks if he wants to install mp3 support. No terminal, no thinking, just click and go. It could not be easier.
Lest i forgot, thanks for the simple summary nonetheless!
There is a typo in the second rpm command, (rmp). Correct command is “rpm -ivh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm“.
Always run through it again before you post, cutting and pasting from your doc.
“Yes it’s true it would be nice if the major Linux distributions could ship with mp3 support built in.”
Actually, what would be nice would be for more, if not all, vendors supporting ogg and flac. The stereo system in my car for instance only supports MP3 and WMA :/
I haven’t read any conspiracy theories about this, but one would have to think that there was a fairly major campaign to keep those formats off of so many devices.