Timidity and DOSBox in Ubuntu 10.04

For those of you who care about this sort of thing, here's how I finally got decent General MIDI playback for DOSBox in Ubuntu 10.04:

(These instructions are somewhat adapted from a post by Malor on the official Ubuntu forums)

1. Go into Synaptic Package Manager and install these packages:

• dosbox
• timidity
• fluid-soundfont-gm
• fluid-soundfont-gs

2. Open a command prompt, and type:

sudo gedit /etc/timidity/timidity.cfg

• The last line in the file says:

  source /etc/timidity/freepats.cfg

  Put a # mark at the beginning of that line to comment it out. We're going to use the soundfonts we installed from the previous step.
  
  
• On the next line, type:

  soundfont /usr/share/sounds/sf2/FluidR3_GM.sf2

• Save and exit

3. If you don't already have a dosbox.conf you want to use, type:

dosbox

and hit enter. Dosbox will pop up. At its command prompt, type:

config -writeconf dosbox.conf

This will generate one for you. Then type:

exit

to quit dosbox.

4. Type

gedit dosbox.conf

• Click the Find button, type:

  mpu401=

  and click Find. You should see a line highlighted.
• Close the search popup.
• The three lines starting with mpu401= should look like this:

  mpu401=intelligent

  device=alsa

  config=128:0

• Save and exit

5. Restart Ubuntu

6. Open a command prompt, type:

timidity -iA -B2,8 -Os -EFreverb=0 2>&1 &

7. Start dosbox

8. Enjoy General MIDI. :)

9. Close terminal window when finished.

Note: You may have to occasionally change

config=128:0

To

config=129:0

in your dosbox.conf. Watch the output when you start timidity and it'll show which to use.

Also, if you get permission errors while installing or running timidity, you may have to add "timidity" to the "audio", "pulse", and "pulse-access" groups in Users and Groups (In the System menu).

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

I finally broke down and installed it, and here's some initial thoughts:

The Bad:

-The "Default Keyring" thing is still around, and it must die. Now.

- There should be an option to install "forbidden" codec support and encrypted DVD playback during installation. Given the amount of people who need to play MP3s alone, this should be a no brainer. I'm sick of having to explain to potential Ubuntu users why they can't do something every other operating does out of the box without jumping through hoops.

- No volume control on the top bar without the mail/messaging control? Really?

- Adding the Medibuntu repository is still a necessary evil if you want to use Handbrake or FFWin to convert Flash video to another format... like for your iPhone or PSP.

The Good:

- Snappy boot performance, slightly better than before.

- I thought I'd hate the new cosmetic changes, but the left-side window controls are actually kind of handy, and the new default theme is actually pretty cool looking (salmon accents aside).

- Overall better performance.

- New Thunderbird and Firefox. The former especially is a major upgrade.

- Ubuntu Software Center. It's almost to the point of being the easiest package manager ever made.

It feels more like a non-Long Term Service release, but still worth upgrading IMHO. My issues may not be the same as yours, so take my comments accordingly.