Boris's dashboard

Boris replied on March 14, 2009 00:53 to the question "Library does not show up in the left panel" in Songbird:

The bug is filed about Seeqpod showing in a service pane after update:
http://bugzilla.songbirdnest.com/show...
Bad thing it keeps showing even if you uninstall Seeqpod.

I would recommend to create a new profile.
Looks like you're running on Vista.
Go to Start->Programs->Songbird->Songbird(Profile Manager) and create a new profile.
Launch Songbird into that profile, it should get Library node back and get a rid of Seeqpod node.

Boris replied on March 13, 2009 23:54 to the question "buffer overflow detected on startup of 1.1" in Songbird:

Are you guys getting Songbird RPM packages at:
http://packman.links2linux.org/packag... ?
Did you try to download .tar.gz files at:
http://getsongbird.com/ ?

The same issue is tracked in a Bug #15682

Boris replied on March 13, 2009 06:53 to the question "buffer overflow detected on startup of 1.1" in Songbird:

I've found similar bug in gpac filed in launchpad.net:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+so...
This bug was fixed in the package gpac - 0.4.4-0.3ubuntu4

Boris replied on March 13, 2009 06:46 to the question "buffer overflow detected on startup of 1.1" in Songbird:

Hmm....I couldn't find any reports regarding "buffer overflow" in our Bugzilla
Info from the web:
"Buffer overflow" is usually caused by corrupt registry entry.
There's a number of reasons why Buffer overflow might of happened, but the most common reason is caused when new programs are installed over all old ones that are not completely uninstalled 100%, causing registry pile ups and getting error messages.:
Another reason, is damage that's been done by malware programs, attaching themselves to your PC and wrecking havoc, deleting crucial files from your PC.

Like I said, We've never had reports that Songbird could cause that when installing new version on top of the old one.

Can you describe your steps in details?
How did you install Songbird and where from?
Was it a clean install or older version upgrade?
Where you able to install and launch?
At what point you got this error?

Boris replied on March 13, 2009 05:55 to the idea "how about being able to filter add-ons by version on website?" in Songbird:

That's because you can only install them directly inside Songbird browser so this filter option is not available if opened in outside browser.
If you open this add-ons page in outside browser, you will see "Download" green buttons instead of "Install".
Clicking that button will redirect you to versions page, then clicking on All Platforms link will download the .xpi file on your local drive. After that dropping the xpi onto Songbird will start installation process, during which you might get "Incompatibility message" if it's not compatible.
Long way, I agree, but that's a standard rule how xpi files can be downloaded/installed.
So, the quickest way to install is to open add-ons page inside Songbird browser.
It will detect incompatibility right a way.

Boris replied on March 13, 2009 05:28 to the idea "Keep It Light (in terms of resources) using add-ons" in Songbird:

That's what we do in nightly builds:
http://wiki.songbirdnest.com/Develope...
You can use those if you prefer light builds with no add-ons.
Final builds are loaded with most needed/popular add-ons.
After all, you can disable or uninstall any/all of them.

Boris replied on March 13, 2009 05:22 to the question "What's the best way to update Songbird from 1.0 to 1.1 on Linux" in Songbird:

select Help->Check for Updates

Boris replied on March 13, 2009 05:17 to the question "How do you display the bit rate of a song currently playing?" in Songbird:

Add Bit Rate column in a Library via column picker.
Right click anywhere in a column title bar(under three filter pane) and choose Bit Rate in a dropdown list. The column should appear at the right.You can switch column location by dragging the column header and pointing cursor in between the other column headers.

Boris replied on March 12, 2009 01:20 to the question "Administrator rights required for install" in Songbird:

Normally, it shouldn't.
I'm afraid, there is something in your OS settings....
Is that Windows Vista?
Can you provide exact steps of what you're trying to do?
Does it ask for Admin rights if you're installing any other application?

Boris replied on March 12, 2009 01:14 to the problem "Page Load Error-Network timeout!" in Songbird:

What platform are you running on?
What Songbird build do you use?
How do you try to download add-ons?
Does it only happens when you try to open add-on page?
Any other web content page opens fine?

Boris replied on March 11, 2009 16:40 to the idea "Stop messing with my metadata (album art)" in Songbird:

You set songbird.metadata.artwork.enableWriting to 'false' and it still writes the artwork to your files?
Hmmm....that's not good...
This is correct pref, the other two mean that you enabled to pick up artwork from the folder(cover.jpg, folder.jpg, etc)....and that might be a problem you're facing.
So, set 'songbird.albumart.file.enabled' to 'false', 'songbird.metadata.artwork.enableWriting' to 'false'
It should not write images back to files(we're talking about files that had no embedded artwork before)
Let us know, please, if it works.

Boris replied on March 09, 2009 23:59 to the problem "glibc 2.8 detects invalid free() pointer" in Songbird:

Thanks to Laura for upgrading me to Ubuntu Q/A guy(which won't make me Ubuntu guru quite yet :)
We've had some reports about this issue, like this one:
http://bugzilla.songbirdnest.com/show...
(BTW, there is another workaround in a Comment #2)
and haven't been able to look at closely.

The problem seems to be in Cairo failing to build with Glitz Support on Linux machines using Nvidia beta drivers.

There is a bug filed in cairographics.org:
http://lists.cairographics.org/archiv...
and there are many other posts on Linux forums addressing this problem.
Unforunately, we're still pretty much swamped trying to get Songbird1.1.1 release out the door.
Boosh' workaround is great(in fact he probably knows more about it than I do).

I'll ping our engineers to look at it as well.
Hopefully, the solution will be found soon

Bear with us!
Thanks.

Boris replied on March 05, 2009 06:58 to the problem "Songs dont play from external Harddrive" in Songbird:

Are you running on Linux 64 bit?
We have a bug which addresses the problem to play remote m4a files on Linux 64bit:
http://bugzilla.songbirdnest.com/show...

Boris replied on March 04, 2009 21:43 to the problem "Songs dont play from external Harddrive" in Songbird:

Oh....you physically connect the drive via USB.
So, the problem might be in a way the system assigns the name for the drive every time you connect the drive.
See, Songbird reads the files from their original location. If path is changed it will give you an error: "Source not found"
What could happen in your case that upon new connection the drive gets different name and the path doesn't match the original soterd in Songbird.
Example:
original path is
file:///sda1/Music/Song
(where sda1 is the name of your drive)
the next time system assigns the name as 'sda2' so the path looks like:
file:///sda2/Music/Song
To check on that, enable "File Location" column in Songbird library(right click on column title bar and choose in a list).
To avoid, either Delete All and re-scan your library every time you connect the drive...it takes some time though... or try to Rename the drive in Windows(i guess that's a Windows formatted drive), so it will use the same name every time.
Another option not to disconnect your external drive(not very useful if that's a laptop)

Boris replied on March 04, 2009 19:18 to the problem "Songs dont play from external Harddrive" in Songbird:

Can you describe the way you connect to that drive?
There might be a problem based on a way the drive is mounted in Linux.
Does your drive mounted as SMB drive?

Boris replied on March 03, 2009 06:57 to the question "Album art storige" in Songbird:

C:\Documents and Settings\Home\Local Settings\Application Data\Songbird2\Profiles\********.default\artwork

Boris replied on March 02, 2009 20:31 to the problem "Songbird CPU Usage with Active NPR Media Player Tab" in Songbird:

TEST BUILD:
Songbird 1.1.1b3, Build 1005 (2009030202)
TEST OSs:
Windows XP SP3
Mac OS X 10.5.6 (Leopard) i686

Re-tested on Windows and Mac comparing to FF 3.0.6
It jumps up and drops down within a few seconds, same as for any other site
with a flash.
Same results on Windows.

Firefox behaves the same way with the same sites loaded in a tab.
Any tab, even without flash, brings CPU usage up while loading, then down when
loaded completely.

Boris replied on February 27, 2009 18:09 to the question "How to add custom SHOUTCast stations to 'Favorite Stations'?" in Songbird:

This should also create a 'Favorite Stations' playlist list under SHOUTcast node in a service pane or add the station to the list, if you already have one.

Boris replied on February 27, 2009 18:04 to the question "How to add custom SHOUTCast stations to 'Favorite Stations'?" in Songbird:

In Songbird 1.1b2 click SHOUTcast node in a service pane to open SHOUTcast directory. Click 'Red Heart' button next to a filter box and 'Clear' button.Enter Name, URL, and select which Genre you want it to show under.
Should work just fine.

Boris replied on February 26, 2009 22:04 to the problem "SB doesn't load ratings from files" in Songbird:

Endura,

To clarify my previous statement:
>You can rate songs is Songbird and share your library between a different >machines.
using the same application - Songbird.

If you enable the above pred in about:config, Songbird will write ratings in a file, so you could keep your ratings between different libraries.

The other players might write/read ratings in different tabs then Songbird does
So, that's a bug in their product, not in Songbird.
The fact that we read iTunes ratings is because it was fixed and implemented by Songbird engineers.