Comment 10 for bug 176332

I just fixed this issue on my computer. Installing the package libxine1-gnome enabled ESD support for xine, and it was subsequently selectable in Amarok. This package should be added as a dependency for amarok for people using amarok from inside of gnome.

Additionally, I agree that the next update of Amarok should use ESD as the default output plugin (it still reported it as invalid, despite it playing sound through ESD once selected). I assume that the issue is that KDE users will not be wanting to use ESD? Is there a mechanism for selecting the output plugin depending on the sound manager being used?