I set up a nice IP-enabled jukebox at my house last night using
- an old IBM ThinkPad 770Z
- a new netinst cd of Debian’s Sarge (testing) release
- a bit of experience working with above laptop & linux
- the PyTone ogg/mp3 jukebox app
It was relatively quick & easy!
Here are the steps required to setup your own home jukebox -
- find a laptop or desktop with a sound-card and enough audio cable to run between the computer & and the AUX input of your stereo
- burn a CD of the latest Sarge ISO from http://www.debian.org/CD/http-ftp/
- boot the machine using the ISO you just burned - you can install whatever you’d like. I chose a File Server base config because my mp3s are being shared via smb from another machine in my home LAN. You don’t need to install any servers if they’re not necessary. Follow the instructions in the Debian installer - config date and time, reboot, etc.
- you’ll need to install the PyTone package w/dependencies by either su-ing to root or (even better) installing the
sudopackage and runningapt-get install pytone. You might also want toapt-get install python-pyvorbisif you have Ogg Vorbis-encoded sound files. - create a copy of pytonerc in your local ~/.pytone/ folder and edit pytonerc to point to your
musicbasedir. There was a type-o in the packaged pytonerc that you may need to fix too. If I can figure how to update the package in Debian I’ll do it. - run
pytone -rto tell pytone to build her databases - you’re all set! run pytone and have fun playing DJ at home!