Ben Jao Ming

Here’s a little step-by-step guide to getting your Rio Karma running on Ubuntu 8.04 with the new amazing Banshee 1.0. But first a little appetizer:

What we’ll do is fetch some stuff to get the compilation of Banshee working, patch up the source code, compile it and then as a last step we’ll get the kernel module for Karma up and running. So, here’s what you do:

$ sudo apt-get install libkarma0 libkarma-cil libkarma-dev omfs-source
$ sudo apt-get remove banshee
$ sudo apt-get build-dep banshee

Now we have the software from the Ubuntu repos, we’ve removed the old Banshee and installed the software needed for compiling Banshee. But we still need to get the Banshee source code. I prefer grabbing the latest version from SVN as Banshee is still under heavy development, and a lot of bug fixes will have been contributed as of writing this howto.

$ svn co http://svn.gnome.org/svn/banshee/trunk/banshee
$ cd banshee

And now the cool stuff: The patch that installs the support for Rio Karma which has not yet been committed to the trunk of the project. Bob Copeland is the maintainer so let’s all use this moment to send him our best of thoughts. He’s posted a patch here that you should download (look for the latest one). Save it in the same directory as the one with your banshee/ source dir. Now apply it like this:

$ cd banshee/
$ patch -p1 < karma.patch

After that you can compile banshee with the following commands.

$ ./configure –disable-boo
$ make
$ sudo make install

One thing we still need to do is compile the OMFS module for our Linux kernel. The source package in Ubuntu is broken, and what you basically need to do is to grab the latest version of the OMFS module and then overwrite the files provided by the Ubuntu omfs-source package. And only after that use module-assistant to install the module, otherwise the compile fails because something in the kernel API has changed.

$ sudo bash
# cd /usr/src
# tar xvfj omfs-source.tar.bz2
# tar xvfz omfs-0.8.0.tar.gz
# cp omfs-0.8.0/* modules/omfs
# module-assistant build omfs
# module-assistant install omfs
(plugin your Karma)
# modprobe usb-storage

This isn’t such a beautiful solution, but it ensures that we can still benefit from using module-assistant.

Lastly you should disable the Mass Storage plugin (it makes the Karma show up twice) and you cannot currently attach the Karma while Banshee is running.

I’m passing this on: A stop motion/3D/sound project with very (understatement) beautiful videos. They can all be streamed here:

http://www.dailymotion.com/PSSTpassiton

And the from website they can be downloaded:

http://www.psstpassiton.com

The pictures cannot be enlarged… my camera sucks, so this is as good as it gets.

BATTLES

BUILT TO SPILL

CLINIC

CORNELIUS

ISIS

NOTWIST

SHELLAC

THE CROWDS

THE GLASS ON THE FLOOR

FRIENDS+ME

ON A PLANE

First off, I just got a replacement hard drive for the second time. A Hitachi Travelstar 1.8″ (C4K20) compatible with the Karma is very hard to get, but Hitachi just started a new production, so if you need one, you should try to call Hitachi and ask, who’s stocking them currently.

Now, just to let you know, what you’re in for:

The features are pretty simple, but effective:

• USB Transfer (much faster than LAN-interfacing with RMMLite)
• Automatic plug’n'play detection with HAL
• Automatic transcoding of file-types that the Karma doesn’t play (see the screen shot)
• Synchonisation with media library
• All the new cool features of Banshee 0.12 (or whatever later version of Banshee that might currently be out)
• The version I got from SVN was stable! No crashes after hours of running.

This is what you need to do:

All of this takes less than an hour. We’re gonna install some stuff from 3rd party repositories, get Banshee from SVN, patch it and install it, and then last – but not least – install a kernel module that enables Ubuntu to detect the Karma and mount it.

1. Run all this stuff in superuser mode by doing a sudo bash
2. Get the newest Mono-framework libs by adding a source to apt, updating and then upgrading:
   

   # echo “deb http://directhex.mfgames.com/ ./update” >> /etc/apt/sources.list
   # apt-get update
   # apt-get dist-upgrade

3. Remove Banshee and add the requirements for compiling it from SVN
   

   # apt-get remove banshee
   # apt-get build-dep banshee
   # sudo apt-get install libmono-sqlite2.0-cil \
   libmono-cairo2.0-cil libglib2.0-dev libtool \
   subversion autoconf automake1.9 gnome-common \
   libavahi1.0-cil

4. Ensure that automake is set up properly and the new libraries are loaded in runtime cache:
   

   # update-alternatives –set automake /usr/bin/automake-1.9
   #ldconfig

5. Get the newest packages of libkarma, libkarma-dev and libkarma-cil from this source. Install them (from command line simply do dpkg -i package.deb).
6. Checkout Banshee – SVN will create a new directory for it. But before executing make, ensure that the the last lines of autogen said “Karma: Yes” – otherwise you’re missing the Karma Libs.
   

   # svn co http://svn.gnome.org/svn/banshee/trunk/banshee
   # cd banshee
   # wget “http://bobcopeland.com/karma/banshee/fix-transcode.patch”
   # patch -p1 < fix-transcode.patch
   # ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr --disable-docs
   # make
   # make install

7. Now you have Banshee installed and ready, but you still need to make Ubuntu and HAL capable of detecting and mounting the Karma. To do this, you need to compile a module that enables OMFS, which is the filesystem the Karma uses. First get the Kernel sources and link them correctly:
   

   # apt-get install linux-source
   # cd /usr/src
   # tar xvfj linux-source-*.tar.bz2
   # ln -s linux-source*/ /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build

8. Now go here and get the latest version of the OMFS kernel module. Untar it somewhere and do this:
   

   # make modules modules_install
   # depmod -a
   # modprobe usb-storage

   # mkdir /media/karma

9. To have the Karma automatically detected please refer to the “HAL” and “fstab” chapters on this page.
10. Now plugin your Karma. Something should happen (maybe Rythmbox starts… of so, kill it). Now start Banshee and notice that nice Karma icon.

Troubleshooting

Double-check that you have followed all these steps. To ensure that you have the kernel module installed properly, do this:

# blockdev –report
# mount -t omfs (name of partition… /dev/sda2 or something) /media/karma

If this command says “unknow filesystem type”, the module isn’t installed correctly. You should check that it is located in /lib/modules/your-current-kernel/extra/omfs.ko. If it is, then try to do a “depmod -a” again and then “modprobe usb-storage” and then re-connect the Karma. The command “dmesg” will tell you if the kernel detected your drive at all.

Other resources

• Bob Copeland’s Banshee HOWTO
• Banshee Project
• .deb files for libkarma
• OMFS kernel module

This animation contains so much symbolism, and the music is beautiful. I just don’t get how it can be Russian-made from 1983 and emerge through the censorship back then?