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Installing BallroomDJ on Linux

Note: BallroomDJ has not been tested with the upcoming VLC version 4.0

Notes: The 32-bit executables are built on Ubuntu 16.04 starting with version 3.19.7. The 64-bit executable is built on Ubuntu 16.04. If you have and older Linux and have issues with the executable not running at all, let me know what version of Unix/Linux you want to run on.

Even though I have added installation support for (some of) the 'arch' Linux variants, I am not sure I can recommend them, as those variants are not designed for stability.

BallroomDJ will work without pulseaudio. If you want ALSA only and no pulseaudio, you will want to install the pre-requisites manually and not use the INSTALLER script.

BallroomDJ will also work with the Jack Audio stack, though BallroomDJ's volume control will not work. Ask for help on the forum in order to set up BallroomDJ for use with Jack.

Linux Volume / pulseaudio

Linux systems seem to be shipping with pulseaudio's flat-volumes configuration set to 'yes'. This means that initializing VLC's volume to 100% is a problem, as every time vlc starts playing a song, the master volume gets reset to the same as VLC's volume (pulse audio weirdness).

I changed $HOME/.config/pulse/daemon.conf to have:

flat-volumes = no

(The INSTALLER script will make this change for you).

Installing via the command line, using the INSTALLER script

This is the recommended method. The INSTALLER script will install the requisite software, change $HOME/.config/pulse/daemon.conf as described above, install BallroomDJ and set up the desktop icon.

tar -x -z -f ballroomdj-3.29.24.tar.gz
cd ballroomdj-3.29.24
./INSTALLER

The ballroomdj-3.29.24 directory can be removed after you are satisfied that BallroomDJ is working properly.

The INSTALLER script will install all of the requisite packages listed below.

Installing via the command line

Install the Requisite Software

Debian/Ubuntu/LinuxMint/MX (debian based systems)

sudo apt-get install python-setuptools python-pip
sudo apt-get install flac pulseaudio-utils
sudo apt-get install sox libsox-fmt-mp3 espeak
sudo apt-get install vorbis-tools
# starting with version 3.20.0, you may use either VLC
# or MPV as the music player.  Use one or both of the
# following.  (MPV does not get much testing).
sudo apt-get install vlc libvlc5
sudo apt-get install mpv
# as python-mutagen is often an older version, make sure
# it is removed and install it via pip
sudo apt-get remove python-mutagen

Arch/Manjaro (arch based systems)

# a stable version of vlc is recommended
sudo pacman -R vlc-nightly
sudo pacman -S --needed ffmpeg flac pulseaudio-ctl
sudo pacman -S --needed sox python-setuptools python-pip
sudo pacman -S --needed espeak vorbis-tools libmad lame
sudo pacman -S --needed twolame libid3tag opusfile
# starting with version 3.20.0, you may use either VLC
# or MPV as the music player.  Use one or both of the
# following.
sudo pacman -S --needed vlc
sudo pacman -S --needed mpv
sudo pacman -R python-mutagen

Fedora

For Fedora systems, I recommend using the INSTALLER script, as the SoX package must be built to support MP3s. The instructions to rebuild SoX are not replicated here.

# the rpmfusion repository is needed for faad2, ffmpeg and vlc
sudo dnf install \
  https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm \
  https://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
sudo dnf install ffmpeg flac pulseaudio-utils
sudo dnf install python-setuptools python-pip
sudo dnf install espeak vorbis-tools libXScrnSaver
# starting with version 3.20.0, you may use either VLC
# or MPV as the music player.  Use one or both of the
# following.
sudo dnf install vlc
sudo dnf install mpv

sudo dnf remove python-mutagen

All systems

pip install --user --upgrade mutagen

Add your user account to the audio group

sudo usermod -a -G audio $USER

Install BallroomDJ

tar -x -z -f ballroomdj-3.29.10.tar.gz
cd ballroomdj-3.29.10
make prefix=/your-install-location install

The ballroomdj-3.29.10 directory can be removed after you are satisfied that BallroomDJ is working properly.

Installing via the graphical user interface

(These instructions apply to version 3.3.14 and later)

(These instructions may vary depending on your file manager and version of Linux. It's easier to just open a terminal and run the INSTALLER script via the command line.)

Open the file manager and double-click on ballroomdj-3.29.10.tar.gz. Select "Extract" and extract all files.

Open the ballroomdj-3.29.10 folder in the file manager.

Double click on the INSTALLER file. Select Run in terminal. (How this works depends on your window manager).

Type in the folder where BallroomDJ should be installed. The default location is $HOME/BallroomDJ. The folder does not need to be created beforehand.

The installation will now run a sudo command to install the requisite packages and a sudo command to add the audio group to your user account. Enter your password.

After installing the requisite packages, BallroomDJ will be installed to the location you entered.

A desktop icon to start BallroomDJ will be created on your desktop. The icon needs to be marked as trusted. Use one of these two methods (depending on your desktop manager): (a) Double click on the icon and select Mark as trusted to activate the icon. (b) Right click on the icon, select Properties, select the Permissions tab, turn on the Allow executing file as program checkbox.

The ballroomdj-3.29.10 folder can be removed after you are satisfied that BallroomDJ is working properly.