I never could find a good comprehensive guide to turning CD's into MP3's with Linux, and I found out how recently, so I thought I'd post it for posterity. Note that I am legally entitled to translate my CD's into any audio format I choose, as long as I am not sharing them. [I am not a lawyer; this is not legal advice.]
If anyone actually wants to use this document for a HOWTO or other documentation project, you can redistribute it under either the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License or the GNU GPL.
I'm using Debian. You're on your own if you're not. I install abcde and all of its prerequisites, of which the main one is cdparanoia. Now, I want to rip to MP3 (some day I'll probably go the OGG route), so I change OUTPUTTYPE in /etc/abcde.conf to mp3. (I'm sure there's a per-user file where you can change this, too.) Making MP3's with abcde requires two other packages: id3v2 and toolame. The program actually requests a program called lame, but to get that you'll need to install toolame and make a symbolic link from /usr/bin/toolame to /usr/bin/lame. I suspect lame is a piece of proprietary software and toolame is a free clone, but I didn't look into this.
The CD ROM appears to be /dev/hdc. abcde wants it to be /dev/cdrom, so I make a symlink. (This was the case on my ibook and my intel machine; YMMV.) I also change the group ownership of /dev/hdc to audio and add myself to group audio so I can do this without being root. That's probably a bad idea long term. (Like if you ever want to use a data CDROM again.)
Then you just put the CD in and run abcde. It does a lot of nice things for you including naming the tracks.
I learned most of this the hard way. If there's an easy way I should have learned it, please post links. :)
Coming soon, or at least some day: actually getting your Debian GNU/Linux system to play sound. (In some ways RedHat really has a leg up, but I don't think I'd trade apt-get. Besides, having to figure this all out myself is educational.)
Re:lame
jdavidb on 2002-05-22T01:50:44
The primary difference for me was I couldn't apt-get install lame. At least, not with only a free setup. (No contrib or non-free. I try those from time to time when looking for something I need for school, but this was for fun, and I saw toolame first.)
Double take
jdavidb on 2002-05-22T01:59:21
Gasp! Sputter! What happened to sourceforge? It
... changed.
Re:BeOS is your friend
jdavidb on 2002-05-22T15:05:12
iTunes used to be my friend, back when my Macintosh would boot
:) But I never got much into it, then.
