Amarok does not correctly re-format cover art when transferring to Ipod

When connecting to an iPod Nano 4th gen, the collection is correctly displayed. Only the cover-imges are missing. When transferring an album with cover from amarok to iPod, the cover ist lost. All other information is transferred correct.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. connect ipod
2. transfer album with cover
3. check the cover in iPod-collection
Actual Results:
album in iPod-collection has no cover

Expected Results:
cover should be present

Hi, what libgpod package do you have installed? Debian/Ubuntu AFAIK offers libgpod4 and libgpod4-nogtk, the latter doesn't support cover images.

Hi,

thanks for the quick response. You guessed it right, I had libgpod4-nogtk installed. It was a plain kubuntu installation, so I wouldn't expect any problems. This seems like an FAQ to me, was there anything in the docs I overlooked?

Maybe the amarok-package should suggest/depend on libgpod4?

Anyway: My problems is solved. Thanks!

(In reply to comment #2)
> Hi,
>
> thanks for the quick response. You guessed it right, I had libgpod4-nogtk
> installed. It was a plain kubuntu installation, so I wouldn't expect any
> problems. This seems like an FAQ to me, was there anything in the docs I
> overlooked?

This is a bug on Debian/Ubuntu side, let me explain.

1. Debian/Ubuntu ships libgpod in two main variants:
   a) libgpod4
   b) libgpod4-nogtk
   This is an artificial distinction that doesn't exist in upstream projects, but I would be fine if it was handled correctly. The only difference is that the -nogtk version is compiled with GDKPixBuf support disabled (thus doesn't support cover art) and therefore it doesn't depend on libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0.

2. However, Amarok's (optional) iPod cover support itself needs GDKPixBuf (as documented in README) *and* Debian/Ubuntu builds Amarok with GDKPixBuf enabled, Amarok's amarok_collection-ipodcollection.so links
libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.0 and thus the amarok package depends on libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0.

3. On the other hand, the amarok package depends on libgpod4 OR libgpod4-nogtk, which makes no sense, because it already pulls libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0. It should just depend on libgpod4 and you wouldn't ever run into this problem.

Debian/Ubuntu pacakgers, if you want to reduce Amarok dependencies, split
<prefix>/share/kde4/services/amarok_collection-ipodcollection.desktop
<prefix>/lib/kde4/amarok_collection-ipodcollection.so
into a subpackage. (but I'd be happied if you did not)

Jens, please report the above to Ubuntu/Debian (I had more luck with Debian last time) developers and CC me on the report. It should be fixed at least for their "testing" distro versions.

(In reply to comment #3)
> This is a bug on Debian/Ubuntu side, let me explain.
> [...]
> Jens, please report the above to Ubuntu/Debian (I had more luck with Debian
> last time) developers and CC me on the report. It should be fixed at least
> for their "testing" distro versions.

Now that I know about the reason for my problem, it's easy to find the solution. ;-)

It seems, this problem hat been reported before - and it was decided not to change the dependencies (see bugs 381102 and 260091 on launchpad).

So maybe, this problem should be described in the docs for amarok resp. the integration of ipod. I understand this piece of software is fairly new, can I be of help writing parts of the documentation?

(In reply to comment #4)
> It seems, this problem hat been reported before - and it was decided not to
> change the dependencies (see bugs 381102 and 260091 on launchpad).

Bug 260091 must have been already silently resolved, read my point 2, and check it is true for current Ubuntu Amarok package. Furthermore, if Amarok was build without GDKPixBuf (with libgpod-nogtk-dev), you woudn't get cover support even after installing libgpod4.

So, my above reasoning still applies, please file the bug.

> So maybe, this problem should be described in the docs for amarok resp. the
> integration of ipod. I understand this piece of software is fairly new, can
> I be of help writing parts of the documentation?

For sure! Amarok Handbook (that is shipped with releases) is generated from http://userbase.kde.org/Amarok/Manual and this is a wiki, so after registering you can start improving it right now! Ask on IRC #amarok if you have any doubts, ping Mamarok.

Note however that this bug is distribution-specific, so it deserves a short note at best in the manual.

(In reply to comment #5)

> Note however that this bug is distribution-specific, so it deserves a short
> note at best in the manual.

A note in this section would be helpful: http://userbase.kde.org/Amarok/Manual/Various/TroubleshootingAndCommonProblems

(In reply to comment #6)

> A note in this section would be helpful:
> http://userbase.kde.org/Amarok/Manual/Various/
> TroubleshootingAndCommonProblems

I wrote something:
http://userbase.kde.org/Amarok/Manual/Various/TroubleshootingAndCommonProblems#Problems_with_collections_on_iPod_etc.

Is there anydefined review-process I should follow?

(In reply to comment #5)

> Bug 260091 must have been already silently resolved, read my point 2, and
> check it is true for current Ubuntu Amarok package. Furthermore, if Amarok
> was build without GDKPixBuf (with libgpod-nogtk-dev), you woudn't get cover
> support even after installing libgpod4.

Since I did get the covers, I'd guess things are like you assumed.

> So, my above reasoning still applies, please file the bug.

I'll see what I can do. Anyway, thanks for support and help!

(In reply to comment #7)
> (In reply to comment #6)
>
> > A note in this section would be helpful:
> > http://userbase.kde.org/Amarok/Manual/Various/
> > TroubleshootingAndCommonProblems
>
> I wrote something:
> http://userbase.kde.org/Amarok/Manual/Various/
> TroubleshootingAndCommonProblems#Problems_with_collections_on_iPod_etc.
>
> Is there anydefined review-process I should follow?

Thank you very much for the input, I review and updated it with the latest information I have from the Kubuntu developers.

(In reply to comment #8)
> (In reply to comment #5)
>
> > Bug 260091 must have been already silently resolved, read my point 2, and
> > check it is true for current Ubuntu Amarok package. Furthermore, if Amarok
> > was build without GDKPixBuf (with libgpod-nogtk-dev), you woudn't get cover
> > support even after installing libgpod4.
>
> Since I did get the covers, I'd guess things are like you assumed.
>
> > So, my above reasoning still applies, please file the bug.
>
> I'll see what I can do. Anyway, thanks for support and help!

This problem is in the process of being solved in Kubuntu, no need to file a bug as it already exists and they are working on it now. Please file a bug for Debian, though, as they still ship the now obsolete libgpod4-nogtk.

(In reply to comment #10)
> [...] Please file a bug
> for Debian, though, as they still ship the now obsolete libgpod4-nogtk.

I tried to do that (twice), but got no email with a bug-number. Is there anything better than use reportbug with a correct email-adress?

On further investigation it seems, the there is a related bug (558606). The discussion looks rather academic to me... The whole topic is more complicated than it seemed to me.

Adding Modestas to CC, he seems to be active Debian Amarok packager.

Modestas,
please see comment #3, hints given there should solve http://bugs.debian.org/558606 and furthermore this bug for Debian users.

Just as an update: Kubuntu has removed the nogtk package and its dependencies in Quantal, So the problem is certainly solved on this side now.