Frequently Asked Questions about Music Applet
=============================================

Q: I compiled and installed Music Applet, but when I run it from the command
   line, nothing happens.  What's wrong?

A: GNOME panel applets aren't supposed to be run from the command line.
   After installing Music Applet, right-click on a panel, choose "Add to
   Panel", and select Music Applet from the list that appears.



Q: I compiled and installed Music Applet, but it's not showing up in the
   Add to Panel menu.  What's wrong?

A: You installed the applet's .server file, which tells GNOME about the
   applet, to a directory that isn't being checked.  The .server file gets
   installed to $PREFIX/lib/bonobo/servers, where $PREFIX equals whatever
   directory you specified as --prefix at compile time (default: /usr/local).

   The easiest way to fix this is to add the directory the .server file is
   to add it to the list of directories that get checked.  Edit
   /etc/bonobo-activation/bonobo-activation-config.xml (or wherever Bonobo
   keeps its activation configuration on your system) and add this line:

       <item>$PREFIX/lib/bonobo/servers</item>

   between <searchpath> and </searchpath>, replacing $PREFIX with the
   appropriate directory.  For example, with the default prefix, you would
   say:

       <item>/usr/local/lib/bonobo/servers</item>

   Then log out and log back into GNOME to make sure the directory gets
   re-scanned.

   And if logging out and back in still doesn't work, as a last resort you
   can try rebooting.



Q: Why doesn't album art show up in the tooltip when I'm using Rhythmbox?

A: The album art plugin for Rhythmbox doesn't currently have a way to let
   Music Applet access the album art via D-Bus.



Q: Why doesn't the Preferences dialog have sensible defaults?  All the
   fields are blank at first.

A: This usually happens when you are installing Music Applet as an ordinary
   user as opposed to root.  Although all the files will be installed in
   whatever directory you specified as the --prefix at configure time, GConf
   will still try to install the applet's schema file (which has those
   sensible defaults you're looking for) in a directory only writable by
   root.  If you look at the output from a "make install", you'll probably
   see GConf's verbose error messages about this.

   The workaround is to specify at configure time where to install the
   schema.  Use the configure script's --with-gconf-source option to tell
   GConf to install the schema in your user's GConf store, instead of the
   system-wide one.  For example, this works for me:

       --with-gconf-source=xml:merged:$HOME/.gconf

   Of course, GConf has a few different ways to store its data (that's
   what the xml:merged part is all about), so check what your copy of
   GConf is using first.



Q: I found a bug in Music Applet that I'm trying to debug.  Are there any
   tricks to help me debug this (or any other) GNOME applet?

A: The trick is this: run the applet's executable file from the command line
   before adding it to the panel.  When you do this, GNOME will use the
   instance you started yourself instead of launching a new instance of the
   applet.  There's several ways this helps you when debugging:

       * Warnings and debugging messages will be printed on stdout and
         stderr.  Since you launched the applet from the command line,
         you'll be able to see these messages.

       * You can run the applet inside a debugger.

       * You can run a locally-modified copy of the applet instead of the
         one installed on the system.



Q: Music Applet used to work, but ever since I upgraded Rhythmbox to
   0.9.0 or 0.9.1, nothing works anymore!  What's wrong?

A: Short answer: Upgrade to Rhythmbox 0.9.2 later.  Then make sure you
   have D-Bus 0.35 or later installed.  Then recompile the applet, if you
   didn't have D-Bus available when you compiled it originally.  Now it
   should work.

   Long answer: There are two IPC mechanisms that Rhythmbox uses.  The
   first is Bonobo, which Rhythmbox 0.8.x uses.  The second is D-Bus,
   which was introduced in Rhythmbox 0.9.0 and enhanced after 0.9.1 was
   released.

   The root of the problem is that the Bonobo interface changed between
   0.8.8 and 0.9.0 in a way that broke backwards compatibility,
   preventing a client program (such as Music Applet) from being able to
   speak with both versions of Rhythmbox via Bonobo.  That's why things
   stopped working when you upgraded Rhythmbox.

   The D-Bus interface added in 0.9.0 was originally pretty limited, and
   didn't offer the functionality needed by Music Applet.  This changed
   shortly after 0.9.1 was released, making D-Bus a viable option.

   Music Applet will automatically use the best IPC mechanism available.  If
   Rhythmbox 0.9.2 or later is running and D-Bus is available, it will use
   D-Bus.  If Rhythmbox 0.8.x is running, it will use Bonobo.

   Music Applet will never support Rhythmbox 0.9.0 or Rhythmbox 0.9.1.
   If you're using one of those two releases, you should stronly
   considering upgrading to a version that has better D-Bus support,
   especially now that those two releases of Rhythmbox are outdated
   anyway.