Earcandy is a PulseAudio volume manager, which for me is probably the first thing that i ever liked about pulse audio. This volume manager could mute music in your amarok or rhythombox or literally any music player when you play some video in youtube(i am not lying) or VLC or other video players. Mute is not the right word, but instead the music slowly fades away, and the sound from video player fades in. Sounds promising eh? But it is much better than you think.
Feature List
- Smart Volume Detection:
When a video player is swithched on, music from your music player slowly fades out(of course you can adjust the 'slowness' anytime). But what happens when the video is stopped or paused. Yeah, you guessed it right, the music player starts playing again! Delightful isn't it? This includes the youtube videos in your browser as well. blah!
- Automatic Configuration:
This is a major addition into the new Earcandy 0.4. Simply put, you don't need to configure anything to make Earcandy work. Earcandy will detect your music player and video player and will prioritize them as such(Well almost all. I had to manually set mplayer to 'Video Player', which was set to 'Unknown' by default). But still, that is no big deal, it is just a simple drop down menu.
- Here is a nice preview on what i am talking about.(don't blow away ;-))
Now let us look on the installation steps. Launchpad have a Repo dedicated to Earcandy for ubuntu. Installation is easy and simple. Here is what you need to do.
Add GPG Key
- Goto Terminal and copy-paste the following
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 6E73CA45
Add Launchpad PPA Repo
- Open /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
- Copy-paste the repo according to the version of Ubuntu you use.
For Ubuntu Jaunty
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/flimm/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/flimm/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
For Ubuntu Intrepid
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/flimm/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/flimm/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main
For Ubuntu Hardy
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/flimm/ppa/ubuntu hardy maindeb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/flimm/ppa/ubuntu hardy main
- Close sources.list and save the changes.
Install Earcandy
- Goto Terminal and do the following.
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install earcandy
- Done!
- Now, you may also want to add Earcandy among start up applications. Goto System > Preferences > Startup Applications and in the 'command' field, type ear_candy.
- Once Earcandy is started(to manually start earcandy, type ear_candy in terminal), notice the Earcandy tray icon on top. You can configure Earcandy the way you want(there is nothing much to 'configure' as such though).
This is one of those applications which will slowly grow on you and someday you suddenly realise that you are deepely in love with this amazing little application called Earcandy. And let's hope, gnome will have applications like these by default in the future. Cheers to those who are behind this wonderful piece of software.
Here is another nice blog post on Earcandy by stefanoforenza
Update: Attention Hardy users, I am sorry to inform you guys that, Ear Candy is not presently available for Ubuntu Hardy(at least from this PPA). Deeply regret for the trouble that might have caused to you people due to this misinformation.
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Pulseaudio buggered up Skype for me and stole hours of my precious time. I'm back to something that actually works: ALSA!
I did installed the repo and update, there is something wrong?
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package earcandy
For anybody using Hardy or Intrepid, the repository does not have any earcandy packages. If you look at http://ppa.launchpad.net/flimm/ppa/ubuntu/dists/intrepid/main/binary-i38... (for example) it lists the packages available from this repository for the i386 architecture running intrepid. earcandy is only listed for Jaunty.
I have installed the repositories, I see it in Software Sources but cannot find the package?
sudo apt-get install earcandy
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package earcandy
Worked great for me straight away! Look forward to seeing what it can do :-)
Where is earcandy for ALSA?
My old apps that don't work with PulseAudio, but work perfectly with ALSA/OSS emulation virtually require me to use ALSA (which has never let me down, unlike PulseAudio).
Only linux geeks can replace a perfectly working audio framework from scratch, just as the 'standard' was being globally accepted and embraced.
This should be the first rule of Linux - if it isn't broken, don't fix it!
Pulse audio is great. Yes there are some apps that haven't got the clue and don't work with pulse but it much better then esound. If you would take the time to setup pulse correctly you can get any app the uses oss to use pulse for it's sound. If the app hasn't done the audio programming properly the there will be a problem, read audacity. "This should be the first rule of Linux - if it isn't broken, don't fix it!" This is like te guy with a small am radio in his hand saying it works just fine compared to a guy with a seven chanel sound system. Yea the am radio will give you some "music" but it will noit give you MUSIC. Linus is user friendly But not ignorant or idiot friendly Happy owner of a HT Claro card running under Pulse Audio. Gives the best sound of any sound card I have ever heard. I'm sure the poster if the comment uses a five dollar card or the on board sound card. Those are like the am radio.
What's the song in that video?
me@mine:~$ ear_candy
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/me/bin/ear_candy", line 18, in
from window.WindowWatcher import WindowWatcher
ImportError: No module named window.WindowWatcher
me@mine:~$
Yes, I know how to add the repos & key properly. It's still not being listed in synaptic/etc. Just says not found.
--------------------------------------------------------
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package earcandy
--------------------------------------------------------
YES IT'S ALL RIGHT. trust me. dunno why it's not working tho, just adding another comment for ya to ponder "wtf" on =P
Here is a one line copy and paste install
Adds key and repo depending on lsb_release -cs
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 6E73CA45 && \ echo "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/flimm/ppa/ubuntu `lsb_release -cs` maindeb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/flimm/ppa/ubuntu `lsb_release -cs` main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list && sudo apt-get -q update ; sudo apt-get install earcandy
starts after the echo but doesn't end anywhere..?
Followed instructions verbatim but got the following error:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package earcandy
Did you add the repo? and run the update? Obviously there will be no package named earcandy if you haven't got the repo, and you haven't told it to update its list of software. If you added the repo just go to System -> Admin -> Synaptic and click Reload. If you haven't added the repo go to Synaptic then go to Settings -> Repositories click Third Party Software and Add the repo appropriate for Hardy... though you should consider upgrading from Hardy soon, especially since it is about to lose the ability to get updates.
Upgrade from Hardy to what? Is there a new Ubuntu LTS successor available?
Two versions of Ubuntu have been released after Ubuntu Hardy. Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex and the latest Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope. Both are not LTS edition. But it is recommended that you upgrade your ubuntu to the latest stable release, Ubuntu 9.04, so that it is compatible with everything out there and more secure as well.
Was contemplating about upgrading but Hardy is working great right now & I fear that I'll ruin what I'm currently enjoying. Since Hardy is a LTS version then won't I continue receiving security updates/patches until Hardy's expiration in 2011?
You are absolutely right. Hardy, being the LTS edition, will continue recieving updates until it expires in 2011. And you won't miss out on anything important being a Hardy user. But you may still miss out on small features like the one we discuss here which is Ear Candy. Features like these are not in anyway related to official Ubuntu guys, and so don't expect third party applications like these to work seamlessly. But i absolutely agree with you on your decision to stay with Hardy, if you are thoroughly satisfied with it.
Cheers and happy Ubuntu-ing :-)
Sorry to go of course but does this site have a support forum? I ask because I appreciate your helpful information & assume there are others helpful like yourself.
2 things about Ubuntu I've learned:
1. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
2. Making something work in other versions is sometimes more fun than the app itself.
Followed insructions verbatim. This means that I added the repo precisely as the instructions dictated.
I'm running Jaunty and following the commands above, it installed just fine, well almost. It gave me an entry in Applications/Accessories but when I clicked on it, nothing happened. I noticed the article said you could start it through Terminal by issuing the command eye_candy. I checked the menu entry and found it read eyecandy. I just stuck the underscore in and it started up fine. Same for the entry in my startup list.
Make sure you add the PPA into your /etc/apt/sources.list . If you dont do that, running 'sudo apt-get update' will do nothing but update your current list of sources and therefore, earcandy still will not be available for you to install via apt.
Also, make sure you add the key.
I followed the instruction as detailed out. Just to ensure that I had things done as they should, I did the following:
a. recheck the key using "sudo apt-key list" . I got the following....(I even removed and re-registered the key).
pub 1024R/6E73CA45 2009-01-22
uid Launchpad PPA for David D Lowe
b. Recheck the /etc/apt/source.lst and the "PPA" entries are in there as they should be.
c. Ran "sudo apt-get update" again in the terminal and grep the result. I still didn't see any 'flimm' update line.
d. Ran "sudo apt-get install earcandy" and still got the same 'couldn't find package' error.
e. I changed the PPA rep to note 'jaunty' as opposed to 'hardy', then did an update. Long and behold when I do an aptitude search, I could see earcandy package.
Does this mean that, the repository doesn't have the hardy version?
This is the error that I get running 'sudo apt-get install earcandy":
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package earcandy
The "sudo apt-get update" command didn't seem to return any error. However, I didn't see any line with 'flimm' in it (used grep).
I tried installed using terminal as well as Synaptic.
I use Hardy (8.04).
Double check your sources.lst, sounds like it doesn't have the required repos.
I haven't myself tried installing Earcandy in in Ubuntu Hardy. I will surely try it now a let u know what happened. :-)
hmmm, this would require that i actually turn my speakers on...
yes, more useless things to install that's exactly what we all need.
thanks.
this may not be much useful for deaf people buddy
hmm, then compiz and x-windows are useless too, since visually impaired users cannot see them. man, you have corrupted logic..
"sudo apt-get install earcandy
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package earcandy"
i am also using jaunty
I had tried it myself and earcandy was there in the Synaptic. Did you followed the steps that i have mentioned the post. Double check it and confirm. And try installing earcandy from the synaptic package manager instead.
Thanks for the post. Tried to install it, but couldn't find the earcandy package (during installation). Any clue as to why? Thanks a heap.
Thanks for the comment. Could you please tell me which version of Ubuntu you are using. I have tried this on Ubuntu Jaunty and it worked just fine. Did you find some errors while doing "sudo apt-get update". Please give in more details on what actually happened.
Cheers
Manuel Jose
when i run it from the applications menu i get this error:
Failed to execute child process "earcandy" (No such file or directory)