gst-plugins-bad does not include libgsttimidity.so

[Marcus Granado]

Binary package hint: gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad

The package gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad 0.10.6-5 in ubuntu hardy 8.04 does not include the plugin libgsttimidity.so
(http://webcvs.freedesktop.org/gstreamer/gst-plugins-bad/ext/timidity/gsttimidity.c?view=log)
required to use timidity as a back-end to play midi files. It only includes the plugin libgstwildmidi.so:

$dpkg -L gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad |grep midi
/usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstwildmidi.so
$ gst-inspect|grep midi
typefindfunctions: audio/midi: mid, midi
wildmidi: wildmidi: WildMidi

Because of that, the following gstreamer command fails in hardy:

$gst-launch filesrc location=mysong.mid ! timidity ! alsasink
WARNING: erroneous pipeline: no element "timidity"

The above command works with wildmidi:
$gst-launch filesrc location=mysong.mid ! wildmidi ! alsasink

Timidity is a powerful alternative to wildmidi: While both work with the basic sound fonts in the package "freepats", timidity works out-of-the-box with more advanced sound font packages like those in the package "fluid-soundfont-gm".

Currently, totem, which uses gst-plugins-bad to play midi files, only plays midi files with basic freepats sound fonts through wildmidi, even when fluid-soundfont-gm is installed. Because libgsttimidity.so is absent, in order to enjoy more complex soundfonts like fluid-soundfont-gm, the user must ignore totem and resort to executing timidity directly in the terminal.

[Emilio Pozuelo Monfort (pochu)]

That's not possible unless libtimidity is packaged, see bug 111555.

I'm tempted to close this as won't fix. Feel free to un-duplicate bug 177759 so that people know libtimidity needs packaging (and feel free to report a RFP in Debian).

[Emilio Pozuelo Monfort (pochu)]

See also http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=346455

[Tony Espy (awe)]

The code is present, but gst-plugins-bad is currently configured in Debian ( 0.10.17-1 ) to only build the wildmidi plugin. The code for the timidity plugin is there, it's just not turned on.

If it can be proved that the two plugins don't conflict, then it should be possible to enable it.

[Stefan Sauer (ensonic)]

Tony, the plugins don't conflict. The problem is the absence of a packaged libtimidity on ubuntu. only timitidty as a standalone binary is packaged.