Getting Spotify to work nicely on Linux

Note: the Linux Spotify client will only work with a premium Spotify account.

I spoke at the NYC PostgreSQL Users' Group meeting in December, and while there someone mentioned that Spotify is a great music service (and that they are using PostgreSQL!). So I decided to give it a try. The issue was that, while it can be made to work on Linux, the process of making it work well on Linux is less than simple. I decided to document what I did (and my sources) as I had to pull information from several sources and added a few modifications of my own.

There are two main problems to deal with:

1. Getting the program itself installed and running


2. Getting Linux and your browser to handle the spotify protocol so that, for example, clicking on playlist URLs will work correctly

The answer to problem number one depends in part on your Linux distribution. I am only going to cover Ubuntu and Fedora here -- extrapolation is left as an exercise for the reader.

On Ubuntu (I'm using 11.10), the directions from Spotify seems to work fine. I'll paste them here for the sake of completeness:

# On Ubuntu
# This gets you the older released client
# From http://www.spotify.com/us/download/previews/
# -----------
# 1. Add this line to your list of repositories by
#    editing your /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free

# 2. If you want to verify the downloaded packages,
#    you will need to add our public key
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 4E9CFF4E

# 3. Run apt-get update
sudo apt-get update

# 4. Install spotify!
sudo apt-get install spotify-client-qt

I just noticed that the Ubuntu directions result in the older client working, not the shiny new preview version. See below for instructions to get the preview client working

# On Ubuntu, new preview client
# From 
# http://getsatisfaction.com/spotify/topics/try_out_the_linux_apps_client_beta_preview
# -----------
wget \
http://download.spotify.com/preview/spotify-client_0.8.0.1031.ga1569aa.552-1_amd64.deb
ar vx spotify-client_0.8.0.1031.ga1569aa.552-1_amd64.deb
tar -xzvf data.tar.gz
cp -rf ./usr /

# From 
# http://meltingrobot.wordpress.com/2011/11/08/spotify-installation-on-fedora-16/
# modified to handle passing of arguments

vi /usr/local/bin/spotify

# add the following lines to /usr/local/bin/spotify
8<--------------------------
#!/bin/bash

/bin/rm -rf ~/.cache/spotify
/usr/share/spotify/spotify $*
8<--------------------------

# make the script executable
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/spotify

# arrange to use the script in place of the binary to work
# around a known issue causing segfaults
rm /usr/bin/spotify
ln -s /usr/local/bin/spotify /usr/bin/spotify

# create symlinks to work around library mismatches
ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libplc4.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libplc4.so.0d
ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnspr4.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnspr4.so.0d

On Fedora things are complicated by the fact that Spotify no longer distributes an RPM - at least not that I could find. There are several recipes for solving this dilemma that can be found scattered around the Internet. Here is what I used:

# On Fedora (I am on Fedora 15)
# From http://www.passwdshadow.com/
yum -y install perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker gcc qt-webkit rpm-build git
cd /tmp
git clone git://git.kitenet.net/alien
cd alien
perl Makefile.PL; make; make install
wget \
http://download.spotify.com/preview/spotify-client_0.8.0.1031.ga1569aa.552-1_amd64.deb
/usr/local/bin/alien --to-rpm \
spotify-client_0.8.0.1031.ga1569aa.552-1_amd64.deb
rpm -Uvh --nodeps spotify-client-0.8.0.1031.ga1569aa.552-2.x86_64.rpm
ln -s /usr/lib64/libssl.so.1.0.0e /usr/lib64/libssl.so.0.9.8
ln -s /lib64/libcrypto.so.1.0.0e /lib64/libcrypto.so.0.9.8
ln -s /usr/lib64/libnss3.so /usr/lib64/libnss3.so.1d
ln -s /usr/lib64/libnssutil3.so /usr/lib64/libnssutil3.so.1d
ln -s /usr/lib64/libsmime3.so /usr/lib64/libsmime3.so.1d
ln -s /lib64/libplc4.so /lib64/libplc4.so.0d
ln -s /lib64/libnspr4.so /lib64/libnspr4.so.0d

# From 
# http://meltingrobot.wordpress.com/2011/11/08/spotify-installation-on-fedora-16/
# modified to handle passing of arguments

vi /usr/local/bin/spotify

# add the following lines to /usr/local/bin/spotify
8<--------------------------
#!/bin/bash

/bin/rm -rf ~/.cache/spotify
/usr/bin/spotify.bin $*
8<--------------------------

# make the script executable
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/spotify

# arrange to use the script in place of the binary to work
# around a known issue causing segfaults
mv /usr/bin/spotify /usr/bin/spotify.bin
ln -s /usr/local/bin/spotify /usr/bin/spotify

At this point you should be able to click on the Spotify desktop shortcut and the program will launch.

So on to problem number two. One of the key features of Spotify is the ability to share playlists. This is done via a "spotify" protocol URL. Unfortunately at this point neither Linux nor your browser know how to handle this protocol. I have only worked out the specifics for gnome and Firefox, but here they are below:

# Handling the spotify protocol -- e.g. to allow use of http://sharemyplaylists.com
# From http://kb.mozillazine.org/Register_protocol
# -------------------------------------------------
# At shell command prompt:
gconftool-2 -s \
/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/spotify/command '/usr/bin/spotify %s' --type String
gconftool-2 -s \
/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/spotify/enabled --type Boolean true

# In Firefox:
#    Type about:config into the Location Bar (address bar) and press Enter.
#    Right-click -> New -> Boolean
#          -> Name: network.protocol-handler.expose.spotify
#          -> Value -> false
# Next time you click a link of protocol-type spotify you will be asked
# which application to open it with. Select /usr/bin/spotify

I think that's everything. I used the preceding successfully on my Fedora 15 desktop and my Ubuntu 11:10 laptop. But use at your own risk -- no guarantees that the foregoing will work or will not eat your data ;-)

Hope this helps someone else!

OpenERP is increasingly becoming a serious contender in the ERP market, as its features and usability improve. This tip explains how its flexible views provide ways to save time retrieving the data you want. You can search for the exact data you are interested in by just filling out the necessary search filters, but if there is a search which you perform on a regular basis, you have the option of saving filters to make life easier.

This feature was added in the OpenERP webclient from version 6.0.0 and is available for all users. Simply go to any tree view and you will notice to the bottom right of the search filters, there is a drop down selection box '-- Filters --'... this is where the magic happens.

To get started creating your own saved filter, enter the search as normal and after pressing the 'Search' button, simply select 'Save filter' from the drop down box, give it a name and press 'Save'.

If you already have a filter defined for the view you are currently in, select your filter from the options available and it will be immediately applied on top of your current search results, replacing the currently selected filter if one is already selected.

For the power users there are ways to customize your filters to exactly how you want them. You can select 'Manage Filters' from those available, or under Administration -> Customization -> Low Level Objects -> Actions -> Filters, you will see a list of all filters for all views and you will even be able to fine tune the search domain that the filter uses.

At the time of writing there are a few pit falls to watch out for. When it comes to editing your filters it may just be easier to create a new one from scratch. The reason for this is that when you use a filter as well as other search parameters, when it comes to saving the filter it will save the two search conditions to the same filter, rather than exchanging the existing search condition. You may end up with much fewer results than you would expect, and might not even get any at all! Also, the hint text for the filter suggests that if a filter is not assigned to a user (by making it 'False'), it will be viewable by all users; currently this is not the case does not currently work but should be resolved in the next release.

All tips in this blog can be found in the Tip Category. Should you need further Support for Linux, you've come to the right place at credativ.

This month, credativ is pleased to welcome two new members of staff to the team in Rugby; as a leading specialist in Linux and Free Software, we are expanding in order to accommodate the growing demand for our services.

At credativ we invest in our employees - their growth and development is important to us and, by working for a dynamic company which is constantly evolving, our employees gain exposure to a diverse range of opportunities which may not be available so readily in larger, more traditional organizations.

Current Opportunities
credativ UK is looking for competent open source developers and assistant free software engineers to join our development team permanently. We have a small development team in the UK, so you need to learn quickly and be the kind of person who gets things done and cares about your coding and craftmanship. Current customer projects using Python and Ruby include:

What do we do?
We develop and support business software solutions using free software; our key business areas are consulting, development, support and training. credativ supports a diverse range of clients and has a long history of contributing to free software projects.

Our technical team is actively involved with software projects such as Debian, PostgreSQL and OpenERP, among others. Over the last decade, credativ has expanded from Germany to the UK, US, Canada and India, and worked to maintain excellent relationships with other free software organisations, companies and upstream projects. This means we have extensive links with the wider free software community and a vast pool of resources we can tap in to for the benefit of our customers.

What do we use?
Our platforms run on Linux and are all built using open source technologies. We use Python, Ruby, Rails, PostgreSQL, Django, Apache, C++, Git, and whatever is the best tool for the job. We use lightweight agile development processes, with a strong emphasis on test driven development; we like to get involved in user groups and open source community initiatives.

Skills and Requirements
Solid development skills, a hunger for learning new things and enthusiasm are the most important things. We are using some interesting technologies to solve some interesting problems, so a good approach to problem-solving is a must.
Our platforms use a few core technologies, the more you are familiar with the better. Here is a sublist; for detailed job descriptions please see the careers pages on our website.

How to get in touch
Please send your CV, a covering letter, and links to your blog, github or any open source project contributions to careers@credativ.co.uk

Saturday 17th September - credativ employees were among the volunteers of Rugby Linux Users Group (LUG) who held an open day at The Benn Partnership Centre in Rugby to promote Free Software to the local community.

Software Freedom Day is celebrated in over 100 countries worldwide; Linux User Groups in cities all over the UK organise their own initiatives, but this is the first year that the Rugby LUG has held the event.

"The idea of Software Freedom Day is to educate the public about the many benefits of using high-quality, free open source software that is available. Many people may be using Free Software already, without even realising it." says Nick Morrott, from the group. "By increasing awareness of Free Software, our vision is to empower everybody to be able to freely connect, create and share in a digital world that is participatory, transparent, and sustainable."

At the free event, there were representatives from the Free and Open Source software community, as well as from local ICT companies who specialise in FOSS for the home, education and business.

A specialised session for members of the education sector took place prior to the main event, where they could discuss their needs on a one-to-one basis with the specialists.

Volunteers had set up a range of PCs, laptops and projectors so that visitors could experience first-hand the huge range of free software available. A wide range of software suitable for the home, education and business were on-hand, suitable for common tasks such as photo and video editing, multimedia, office and productivity, and games. Visitors could try out these free and open applications on both Microsoft and Linux platforms and benefit from informal and free advice, with the opportunity to arrange further follow-up sessions if required. Many took away information on the solutions as well as "Software Freedom Day" T-shirts, free CD's and memory sticks loaded with software.

The event was a great success, bringing in over 100 visitors, from individuals wanting to know how FOSS can be applied to their home computers, to representatives from larger organisations, charities and local government.

Rugby LUG hopes to organise a similar event next year. For more details, please see the group's website: http://www.rugby.lug.org.uk. or contact us at info@credativ.co.uk

Rugby, UK - 19 July 2011 credativ have been helping clients to benefit from OpenERP for 3 years now. During this time we have made 10 deployments from our UK office, including customising and writing additional accounting, invoicing, VAT, and reporting modules for specific client requests, many of which have been sent back upstream to further the development of the project.

Our engineers have also worked on integrating with Magento web stores and have merged many branches into OpenERP Server -web and -addons, including improving the performance of the web client by running it behind mod_wsgi. During the OpenERP Community Days in March this year, one of credativ's Consultants became the first community member (non-OpenERP employee) to have contributed to the upcoming web client 6.1.

As part of each deployment, credativ have delivered user and admin training to customer candidates. Here we take a look at the journey with Made.com, who our UK experts have been working closely with over the past year to design, develop and deploy further functionality in OpenERP.

About Made.com
Made.com is an ecommerce business in the home furnishings sector, selling indoor and outdoor furniture, artwork and leisure products directly from overseas factories to customers in the UK. They currently have 30 employees, based in London and Shanghai, with a warehouse near Ipswich. Their systems have 25 users, including the fulfilment, sourcing, customer service and quality control teams, as well as financial staff who use the data to manage the monthly ins and outs.

The Challenge
The Made.com business model is unique in that they take orders for stock prior to ordering it from suppliers, enabling them to fill containers and order in quantities high enough to keep the overall costs down, and thereby pass significant savings on to customers.
Due to the long order lead time, it was important to Made.com to be able to automatically email customers at various stages along the process, such as when manufacture had completed and their item had been loaded into a container, and when it was about to be despatched from the warehouse. All this would help them deliver as transparent and seamless a user experience as possible to their customers.

Requirements
In order to be able to provide accurate delivery information to their customers, they needed to be able to allocate stock to customers before it arrived at the warehouse in Ipswich. This allocation information is used throughout the day in the customer service department in response to customer queries, and is also passed to the Magento website to provide the user with up-to-the-minute information about the status and expected arrival date of their order. This requirement meant that they needed a software solution which could be modified to grant them the ability to allocate customer orders to purchase orders prior to it arriving, which is not a default behaviour.

Solutions considered
As the challenge was not based on an existing system, it was designed from scratch between Andy Skipper, Chief Technology Officer at Made.com, credativ and the Magento development agency used to build the initial version of the website. Made.com had considered several other stock management and ERP systems, including SAP, Netsuite and ERPLY, but decided that OpenERP offered the most flexibility and agile development capabilities. By selecting an open source solution, the whole process was vastly more cost effective than it would have been, had they tried to modify a proprietary system.

Skipper recalls, “credativ provided a very focused development resource, and were capable of providing solutions to the complexities that were uncovered through the process. The Made.com ERP development project is a very good example of how using a modular and flexible core system can provide a comparatively fast turnaround for a large and complex system. credativ offered very impressive technical ability and project management to enable the project to be completed to our requirements and budget. We plan on using them for further open source projects in the future.”
 
Future Plans
credativ are now working on the reporting capability of OpenERP to improve usability for non-technical users. Made.com may potentially move all of their product database to OpenERP, in order to remove the use of static files in that part of the company. credativ are now also creating modules to integrate OpenERP with Metapak and Asterisk.

Contact us for more information on how open source could benefit your business.

Rugby, UK - 6 June 2011

credativ Ltd, the UK branch of the largest independent provider of Open Source consultancy in Europe, today announced that it is partnering with OpenERP in a move aimed at increasing OpenERP’s share of the UK enterprise resource planning market (ERP).

Chris Halls, MD, credativ UK, comments on the partnership: “OpenERP provides a flexible, robust and cost-effective alternative to proprietary systems such as SAP, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and Sage, and is especially attractive to SMEs that may have previously found the cost of ERP systems prohibitive.”

“credativ has already introduced OpenERP to UK SMEs and enterprises in the manufacturing, ecommerce and logistics industries. credativ’s customers using OpenERP have already realised business benefits including cost savings, streamlined processes, improved visibility and simplified reporting.”

OpenERP's comprehensive suite of modular applications caters for all major business processes including: CRM, project management, warehouse management, manufacturing, financial management and human resources.

credativ has been providing open source training and consultancy to public and private sector clients since 1999. The credativ team has extensive experience of working with OpenERP; recent implementation work includes delivering customisations for warehousing, accounting, VAT, reporting and Magento e-commerce integration.

Halls continues: “Our partnership with OpenERP underlines our commitment to improving the system’s functionality. We want to highlight open source ERP as an alternative to less flexible proprietary platforms, and believe that this new partnership will bring our experience, size and range of services to organisations who are considering OpenERP.

OpenERP’s modular design allows organisations to introduce or replace existing ERP systems at their own pace without the burden of ongoing licensing costs. We see our partnership with OpenERP as an opportunity to encourage more organisations to make the move to open source.

credativ's unique support offering is available from operating systems to business applications - at scale. Our international OSSC (Open Source Support Centre) provides support and consultancy not only for OpenERP but for all major open source applications and distributions.”

Committed to actively participating in the Open Source community, members of credativ’s 40+ developer team regularly contribute to projects with recent input into OpenERP bug fixes, banking functionality and VAT reporting modules.

About credativ:

Founded in 1999, credativ is an independent consulting and services company which operates from Germany, the U.K., Canada, and the U.S. With a large team of experts in open source software, credativ offers a vast knowledge base that can be tapped into at any time by its clients. The company focuses on the service and support of open source software with a comprehensive range of services, including open source consulting, architectural and technical advice, open source software development, open source training, and personalised support. credativ is “Your One-Stop Shop for Open Source SupportTM”.

The System Administrator will often come across a situation where an SSH connection to Host B is only possible by making a detour via SHH to Host A:
client -> ssh A -> ssh B

To shorten this two-step process, an entry can be made in the ~/.ssh/config of Host A as "Jumphost", to ensure that this step is always followed in future.

Host Bdirekt
Hostname $IP_von_B
User rwo 
ProxyCommand ssh root@A.intern.lan nc %h %p

In the first row an alias is defined - this can be arbitrary, but some relation to B would make sense. The second row defines the host name of B - for permissions in every network thereafter, an IP is a good idea as a hostname! The option ProxyCommand defines the underlying Jump function - where access via SSH to A and the pipe of data occurs by means of numerical control.

Where SSH keys are properly allocated, there are no more queries. A simple ssh Bdirect leads directly to host B.

All tips in this blog can be found in the Tip Category. Should you need further Support for Linux, you've come to the right place at credativ.

Recursively finding Windows Internet Shortcut (*.url) files and changing them into GNOME desktop files

Over the past few days I have finally converted my wife's computer from WinXP to Linux (Ubuntu 10.10). One of the many fine points of the negotiation leading to this was that I needed to preserve her many Internet Shortcut files. Since she has literally thousands of them, and they are sprinkled about in many a nested folder, I needed a script that could find them, and create the equivalent GNOME desktop files. The following is my solution. Perhaps not the most elegant way to achieve these ends, but it worked great for me. However I cannot promise this script will not eat your files, so please test and use at your own risk ;-)

Create the following script (e.g. using vi)

vi /usr/local/bin/fix_url.sh

Put the following in fix_url.sh (press "i", and then type or paste):

#!/bin/bash

(
    IFS=$'\n'
    files=$(find . -name *.url)
    for fl in $files; do
        NEWFILE=${fl}.desktop
        cp "${fl}" "${NEWFILE}"
        sed -i 's/InternetShortcut/Desktop\ Entry/g' "${NEWFILE}"
        sed -i '/^\[DEFAULT\]/d' "${NEWFILE}"
        sed -i '/^BASEURL/d' "${NEWFILE}"
        sed -i '/^IconFile/d' "${NEWFILE}"
        sed -i '/^IconIndex/d' "${NEWFILE}"
        sed -i 's/\r$//' "${NEWFILE}"
        echo "Type=Link" >> "${NEWFILE}"
    done
)

Save the file by typing ":x" if you used vi.

Make it executable:

chmod +x /usr/local/bin/fix_url.sh

Test/run the new script. Do this first on an isolated test location, e.g. copy some Windows Internet Shortcut files to /tmp/windows_urls:

cd /tmp
/usr/local/bin/fix_url.sh

Check out the resulting *.desktop files. Verify they look correct, and that they actually work when clicked from Nautilus, etc.

If completely satisfied, change to the root of the real directory tree and re-run the script.

When you are all finished, the original *.url files are still hanging around. If you want to get rid of them (again test first):

cd /tmp
find . -name *.url -delete

Hope this helps someone else!

Rugby, 6 December 2010 - credativ Ltd and Black Duck Software Inc. have announced an international partnership to help further the deployment and integration of Open Source Software.

The OSSC (Open Source Support Centre) run by credativ in the UK, US, Germany and Canada will now also be providing support for customers of Black Duck Software Inc.

Black Duck Software is a worldwide provider of “managed software component reuse” solutions; they support businesses and organisations who use Open Source and third party source code in adhering to relevant licensing obligations, thereby reducing the associated business risks.

Through this partnership with credativ, Black Duck can now also offer comprehensive technical support for the many free software projects which are developed through extensive developer communities rather than through an organisation. This service guarantees Black Duck customers additional security for complex Open Source services and provides an alternative which is comparable to the manufacturer's support available with proprietary software.

Mr. Chris Halls, Managing Director of credativ Ltd in the UK, explains:

“We are delighted about the partnership with Black Duck. We hope that combining our competencies will enable us to cover all the requirements for safe operation of Open Source software. Our partnership is a good basis for further international expansion - our Open Source Support Centres will be enhancing Black Duck's service offering, not only for the US but also the European market.”

If you would like to know more about our Open Source involvement simply leave us a comment here... alternatively please contact us directly.

About credativ

Founded in 1999, credativ is an independent consulting and services company which operates from Germany, the U.K., Canada, and the U.S. With a large team of experts in open source software, credativ offers a vast knowledge base that can be tapped into by its clients. The company focuses on the service and support of open source software with a comprehensive range of services, including open source consulting, architectural and technical advice, open source software development, open source training, and personalized support. credativ is “Your One-Stop Shop for Open Source Support” ^TM.

The Open Source Support Centre (OSSC) offers support for the following:

Debian, Kubuntu, Ubuntu, Xandros, SUSE, Red Hat, Fedora, CentOS, Linspire, Mandriva, Slackware, Open BSD, Gnome, KDE, MySQL, PostgreSQL, PostGIS, Slony, Zarafa, eGroupware, Kolab Groupware, Scalix, SugarCRM, vtiger, CITADEL, Mozilla-Firefox, Mozilla-Suite, OpenOffice, Thunderbird, Wine, Apache, Asterisk, OpenSER, FreePBX, OpenPBX, CallWeaver, SpamAssassin, ClamAV, OpenLDAP, OTRS, RT, Samba, Cyrus, Dovecot, Exim, Postfix, sendmail, Amanda, Bacula, DRBD, Heartbeat, Keepalived, Nagios, Open Security Filter, Ferm, FAI, Squid, XEN, VirtualBox.

For further information please contact:

credativ Ltd,
36 Regent Street,
Rugby,
Warwickshire,
CV21 2PS

Press contact

Simon Bowring

Tel: +44 (0) 1788 298150
Fax: +44 (0) 1788 298159
Email: simon.bowring@credativ.co.uk

About Black Duck Software Inc

Black Duck Software is the leading provider of products and services for automating the management, governance and secure use of open source software, at enterprise scale, in a multi-source development process. Black Duck™ enables companies to shorten time-to-solution and reduce development costs while mitigating the management, compliance and security challenges associated with open source software.  Black Duck Software powers Koders.com, the industry’s leading code search engine for open source, and is among the 500 largest software companies in the world, according to Softwaremag.com. The company is headquartered near Boston and has offices in San Mateo, California, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Beijing.

For more information, visit www.blackducksoftware.com. 

Black Duck, Know Your Code and the Black Duck logo are registered trademarks of Black Duck Software, Inc. in the United States and other jurisdictions. Koders is a trademark of Black Duck Software, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

Press contacts

Peter Vescuso
Black Duck Software
press@blackducksoftware.com
+1 781-891-5100

Ann Dalrymple
TopazPartners

Earlier this year, blogger and PostgreSQL Committer Andrew Dunstan drew up a list of individual Committers to the PostgreSQL Project. We are proud to say that this list featured some of our employees.


In May, PostgreSQL's Andrew Dunstan published some data about the productivity of PostgreSQL Committers at 30,000 commits and still going strong, detailing the number of commits made by developers with commit rights. Incidentally, becoming a Committer is no mean feat; although there is no set procedure for acquiring the right to commit, it will generally follow a candidate having sent numerous good patches over a long period of time. Existing Committers, or the core team will then propose and approve assigning Committer's rights to the candidate.

credativ can claim involvement with many other Open Source Projects in addition to PostgreSQL. Community involvement is taken seriously at credativ, as is evident from Andrew Dunstan's statistics. A few of the Committers mentioned work at various international credativ offices; Michael Meskes, Joe Conway and Dave Cramer. What is not clear from Dunstan's list is the number of credativ employees who contribute large amounts of code but are not actually Committers; take Bernd Helmle, for example, who readers of this blog will be familiar with from his PostgreSQL articles not only as author but also as a developer, yet he does not feature in Andrew's statistics.

Nevertheless credativ's presence on this list is indicative of our achievements as well as our employees' connections with Open Source; if you would like to know more about our Open Source involvement simply leave us a comment here... and if you are interested in Open Source Support, please contact us.