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-
- Some quick comments on mCD.app, a music CD player (replacement for
- CDPlayer.app) that I've been working on very sporadically... This
- should be considered beta software.
-
- It has been compiled for NeXT, Intel, HP-PA, and SPARC architectures.
-
- It seems to work fine on NeXT hardware (with a NeXT CD-ROM, or an
- Apple CD-300, at least).
- It seems to work pretty well on NS/Intel hardware, or at least on
- my configuration. Your mileage may vary.
- It has not been tested (that I know of) on HP-PA.
- It has not been tested (that I know of) on SPARC.
-
- - - -
- To run mCD.app to play music CD's:
-
- First off, mCD.app/mCD has to be running setuid root. If you try
- to run it and you don't have it setup that way, it'll tell you what
- to do to make it work. Since it runs as root, the source for it
- is available. If you do not trust me (and you should not blindly
- trust programs that run as root), you can pick up the source and
- make it yourself.
-
- Second, start up mCD and check out the preferences. Make sure
- the right device is selected for the CD-ROM drive (if the only
- SCSI devices you have is a hard disk and the CD-ROM drive, then
- the CD-ROM drive is sd1, for example). Once you know that's set
- right, you probably won't have to change it.
-
- Now to actually play a CD. Click on the "Load CD" button. A
- panel should pop up asking you to "insert disk in external drive".
- If you get that, then put in a music CD. If the cursor spins a
- while and then stops, but that panel does *not* pop up, then quit
- mCD and start it again. Then press the "Load CD" button again.
- This time you should get the panel, and can insert the CD.
-
- After getting that far, the program should be pretty self-explanatory.
- You can use the "Eject" button to eject a music CD, but have the
- program keep ahold of the CD-ROM drive. You can then just insert
- another music CD and the program will pick it up. The "Unload CD"
- button also ejects the CD, and in addition the program gives up
- the drive. You'd have to press "Load CD" again if you wanted to
- play another music CD.
-
- There's plenty of room for improvement on this application, but it
- seems to work fairly well for the CD-ROM drives it's been tested
- on. There's a "CD Testing..." menu item. If you bring up that
- panel and start clicking buttons, then you may cause your system
- to lock up. Don't play there unless you're pretty sure you know
- what you're doing.
-
- - Garance Alistair Drosehn
- May 11, 1995
-