SonicStage on Ubuntu Linux - Sucess!

[raintheory]

I came across a blog entry that had a short tutorial on installing SonicStage on Linux using VMware Server (freeware) & Samba Filesharing... Of course a working Windows CD is also needed to install the Virtual OS.

Anyways, I tried it out on my Ubuntu installation and it works very nicely! A good bit faster than I was expecting as well (considering I am using a Dell Optiplex GX110 933mHz PIII with only 256mb of RAM./

Tried uploading and downloading and had no problems whatsoever. I also tried SimpleBurner and it worked just fine. I installed Windows 2000 Professional on the VMware Server.

The only downside is that you still are tied to Windows (albeit a Virtual install of Windows). But hey, it works!

Link - http://undocumentedcode.com/?p=15

Edited August 11, 2006 by raintheory

[danielbb90]

Can you run any program on that windows server thing?

That would save me dual booting my computer later this week!

I have a OEM version of XP that came with my laptop (I'm installin' linux on my laptop) Would that work?

If this would work, you would be my hero!

And in perfect timeing too!

Edit:

What can I not do with it?

You will not be able to use hardware that doesn't work on Ubuntu. This is very important to understand!

The Virtual Machine runs on top of Ubuntu, so it can only acces Ubuntu detected devices. It is a virtual machine with virtual hardware.

Also don't expect to be gaming on a Virtual Machine at this moment. Heavy Videocard 3d things are just not supported right now. So for gaming it's unfortunately a no go. For everything else, just try it out!

Maby not... That probably won't detect my mp3 player in 'recovery mode' to firmware update!

Edited August 11, 2006 by danielbb90

[danielbb90]

I thought I better say that on ubuntu linux 6.06, I just got this working! Perfetly ok with my NH1, just it does run abit slow.

With Windows XP Pro.

Edited September 13, 2006 by danielbb90

[Sparky191]

Dual booting would be quicker I'd assume, especially on a lower spec machine.

[danielbb90]

Yeh, I would do anything not to dual boot, its really bugs me.

Mainly when I'm on a messenger convo! On a low spec-machene I wouldn't recomend it, you are basically running 2 os' at the same time.

[Sparky191]

It didn't occur to me you'd be multitasking on a low end machine. But I guess for light tasks why not.

[danielbb90]

Just a update, I changed my vmemory in microsoft and it dousn't run slow atall now, infact its hard to tell when in full screen that I'm running ontop of linux!

Its a pritty nifty peice of software if you ask me!

[raintheory]

Yeah I forgot to mention that I tweaked that on my setup.

[danielbb90]

My brother convinced me to dual boot! ,

So I'm not usein' VMWare anymore, but it was good while it lasted!

[raintheory]

The original machine (desktop) that I installed VMWare and SonicStage on is just Ubuntu, and works fine.

Though for my laptop I have to keep a small windows partition alongside Ubuntu anyway to run my EMU 1616m audio interface, S-Video, SD card reader, and to write data to my LaCie 500gig firewire drive (ubuntu will only pick it up as read-only because it is formatted as HFS+). Also for my music programs, Ubuntu is great for almost anything except music production...

[curls]

How big is VMWare and how much Windows does it install? If it's a big installation, I may as well stick to dual-booting. My normal XP Pro directory is around 750 meg.

[timonoj]

Hi! I'm on ubuntu feisty, and having some trouble about using vmware. Can't install it, the installer just crases, even though I have the kernel headers and all the rest of the stuff. So I tried KVM, still on development, but aledgedly faster. Some trouble here (windows xp boots, and before showing the desktop crashes and boots again...and so on).

I just came here to tell you, that it seems to be possible to run XP on a VM, (okay nothing new here), but with the ability of loading just the programs you are interested in (like, sonicstage running on your ubuntu desktop). How? A remote application server. You install that server on the XP machine, and the client on your ubuntu. Then you click on your sonicstage icon on your ubuntu desktop, and it should go...

Here's the howto, he made that for something easier...Excel. But if you manage it to work, I'll be glad to see it. As soon as I install the new Ubuntu Gutsy I'll try it again. Meanwhile I'll manage using Win98SE, which doesn't fail, and also can run sonicstage... Here's the link:

http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.co...1238129,00.html

Good luck, mates! hope that someone achieves it

curls, Vmware takes around 100-140MB to install. The problem is the windows image. It should take at least 1-2GB, but if you're planning to import multimedia files there, then you should think of something bigger...Like 4-6GB

Edited September 16, 2007 by timonoj

[raintheory]

The only problem I could foresee when running a Server/Client setup would be getting external/removable devices on your client computer to register on the server computer. Last I checked when using VMware Server in this way (on dapper, I just had server installed on the system and ran it from the same pc) it wasn't compatible with USB devices attached to client consoles.

I had gotten this initial VMware sever/SonicStage setup installed and working on Ubuntu Feisty around the time it was first released. However, I wasn't able to get any NetMD devices to be recognized by either Ubuntu or VMware. Hi-MD worked fine, but not NetMD, which worked previously on Dapper. I suspect some packages were moved/removed.

Anyway, hopefully there will be continuing development of similar virtualization workarounds for running Windows only software somewhat-natively on linux (ex. WiNE).

EDIT: It seems the original article I referenced in the initial post has been moved..

Edited September 16, 2007 by raintheory

[Avrin]

Why would you want to install Windows XP? Use Windows 2000 instead, and the installation size will be much smaller. SonicStage works fine with Windows 2000.

[raintheory]

Why would you want to install Windows XP? Use Windows 2000 instead, and the installation size will be much smaller. SonicStage works fine with Windows 2000.

I agree, that's my OS of choice for virtualization.

[timonoj]

Okay, I will give it a try. Meanwhile, I found out a pretty much easier way of having your integrated sonicstage running through linux. Pretty neat. Using VirtualBox. It has two versions, the closed code one, and the totally free one. Choose the closed code one, since it has usb support, which we will need. Now: Once you have installed your system (okay okay, i'll install w2k!), you can choose the seamless mode. This will hide the windows desktop, and make only the windows visible. It also will leave the windows tray bar just over the KDE bar. or the Gnome bar. That isn't annoying, since you can mark the autohiding option in it (I never chose that when I had windows on its own, but comes handy now). So the windows bar is totally invisible and total USB support

The problem is with my kubuntu feisty, which still has that annoying bug mounting usb units. That means I'm still fighting for connect the Minidisc. My Samsung Cellphone, however, was connected and identified at the first attemp. It's weird, since I can't use it on linux properly, but in windows it's detected the way it should. So I expect the same behavior for the minidisc whenever i manage to automount it

PS: For activating that seamless mode, once you have windows running, you check on the virtualbox the "guest additions" option, which will automatically launch on windows the special windows manager installer. That will make it able to hide

[tothehilt]

How big is VMWare and how much Windows does it install? If it's a big installation, I may as well stick to dual-booting. My normal XP Pro directory is around 750 meg.

My CD installation of Sonic Stage 3.4 warns against installing in a dual boot environment. It does not say why. Have you been able to use SS on your dual boot computer with no issues?

[timonoj]

My CD installation of Sonic Stage 3.4 warns against installing in a dual boot environment. It does not say why. Have you been able to use SS on your dual boot computer with no issues?

I'm afraid this has nothing to do with the dual boot thing, since SS doesn't need to do anything in the boot record. I have Dual Boot, and SS will install properly either the real windows XP partition, or the Vmwared one through ubuntu. In any case, I strongly recommend you to install at leas SS 4.0 or 4.2, since it has some improvements since then (more bitrates available, better encoding quality on low bitrates).

[tothehilt]

I'm afraid this has nothing to do with the dual boot thing, since SS doesn't need to do anything in the boot record. I have Dual Boot, and SS will install properly either the real windows XP partition, or the Vmwared one through ubuntu. In any case, I strongly recommend you to install at leas SS 4.0 or 4.2, since it has some improvements since then (more bitrates available, better encoding quality on low bitrates).

Well, my CD says it is version 3.4, but the about SS says it is 4.0. Does Sony purposely try to confuse people or can they just not help it?

Is 42. really much better than 4.0?

[timonoj]

Well, In fact, it has some audo encoding improvements. Nothing new on the behavior, nor looklike. But the "audio encoding improvements" sound should make you not to bother about anything else...After all, it IS a music player. It's the most important thing.

And also: I think some more high bitrate codecs were added on that version, as well. So you shouldn't be thinking that much about it...Just get it!

[tothehilt]

Well, In fact, it has some audo encoding improvements. Nothing new on the behavior, nor looklike. But the "audio encoding improvements" sound should make you not to bother about anything else...After all, it IS a music player. It's the most important thing.

And also: I think some more high bitrate codecs were added on that version, as well. So you shouldn't be thinking that much about it...Just get it!

Whew! I need a class in SS. I uploaded the SS 3.4 from my CD but did not try it. When I read your reply I immediately downloaded 4.3. (could not find 4.2 on this site). Everything went fine until I tried opening SS. Got an error message 00005e30 stating that it cannot locate the files required to open the database file.

I realized that I was confused on the readme file - it was Simple Burner that had the flag warning against installing it on a dual boot computer. Thus I have only been installing SS. I tried the 3.4 CD installation again (after deleting all the 4.3 files, my uninstall feature does not work on this computer) and still get the file error message. Do I need to install Simple Burner during the installation to get SS to work? The installation completes and tells me that SS was installed successfully even without installing SB.

While I am at it plaguing you with questions, what is the deal with having to get on the internet to backup ones files? I could not decipher meaning of the copyright protection files mentioned. Will I or won't I be able to use my backed up files on other computers with SS? Is checking the box that prevents DRM on the conversion tool sufficient?

Sony should provide funding to this site. I don't think I could use the MD, at least on the computer, without it.

[raintheory]

SonicStage 4.2 is here: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=17769

Many people (including myself) have had problems with 4.3, so I would recommend 4.2 unless you are running Vista.

For what it's worth, I have had SimpleBurned installed and running just fine on at least 3 dual-boot systems, and a few Virtual Machines.

Edited September 26, 2007 by raintheory

[tothehilt]

SonicStage 4.2 is here: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=17769

Many people (including myself) have had problems with 4.3, so I would recommend 4.2 unless you are running Vista.

For what it's worth, I have had SimpleBurned installed and running just fine on at least 3 dual-boot systems, and a few Virtual Machines.

This is all very depressing. All i want to do is make CDs and backup my recordings like millions of MP3 player owners do. But I cannot get SS to work on my computer. I can't fathom it.

SS 3.4 works on my laptop, but I have not found a version (I have now tried 3.4, 4.0, 4.2, and 4.3) that will function on my desktop. What a pain.

[raintheory]

This is all very depressing. All i want to do is make CDs and backup my recordings like millions of MP3 player owners do. But I cannot get SS to work on my computer. I can't fathom it.

SS 3.4 works on my laptop, but I have not found a version (I have now tried 3.4, 4.0, 4.2, and 4.3) that will function on my desktop. What a pain.

What version of Windows are you using?

[tothehilt]

This is all very depressing. All i want to do is make CDs and backup my recordings like millions of MP3 player owners do. But I cannot get SS to work on my computer. I can't fathom it.

SS 3.4 works on my laptop, but I have not found a version (I have now tried 3.4, 4.0, 4.2, and 4.3) that will function on my desktop. What a pain.

2000 Pro

[raintheory]

2000 Pro

Have you tried the MDAC repair utility from the download section here in the forums?

Failing that you could try reinstalling MDAC completely.

MDAC repair/reinstall almost always fixes database problems.

[tothehilt]

Have you tried the MDAC repair utility from the download section here in the forums?

Failing that you could try reinstalling MDAC completely.

MDAC repair/reinstall almost always fixes database problems.

Eureka! Downloading the new version of MDAC did the trick. After downloading various MDAC fix it files, including paying $5.50 for some fix it program on the MS site, which prompted as a first step to download the new MDAC, I tested SS and it opened. Oh Happy days! Also, a long standing problem of not being able to unistall programs in the add/remove profram menu was repaired.

Now, do I dare download version 4.2 or just stick with a working 3.4?

I am feeling lucky.

Thank you all so much for your help.

[raintheory]

Eureka! Downloading the new version of MDAC did the trick. After downloading various MDAC fix it files, including paying $5.50 for some fix it program on the MS site, which prompted as a first step to download the new MDAC, I tested SS and it opened. Oh Happy days! Also, a long standing problem of not being able to unistall programs in the add/remove profram menu was repaired.

Now, do I dare download version 4.2 or just stick with a working 3.4?

I am feeling lucky.

Thank you all so much for your help.

Hey no problem... 4.2 adds support for importing AAC files, so if you need that functionality you may do well to upgrade.

I prefer 4.2 over 3.4, but if it works and does what you need it to you may as well stick with it. I don't think you'll run into problems if you do upgrade.

Edited September 27, 2007 by raintheory

[tothehilt]

Hey no problem... 4.2 adds support for importing AAC files, so if you need that functionality you may do well to upgrade.

I prefer 4.2 over 3.4, but if it works and does what you need it to you may as well stick with it. I don't think you'll run into problems if you do upgrade.

The 4.2 download went smoothly as did my most recent upload.

But now i realize that I am no closer to my holy grail - uploading all my old minidiscs, as most of them were edited, and I have found out that placing track marks can often create write errors during the upload process.

Back to the original solution, a home deck with an optical out and a sound card for the stuff I want to make CD copies and just leave the rest on mini discs until a software upgrade comes along, which is looking increasingly unlikely given Sony's distancing from ATRAC.

" We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time."