ThirdDrawerDown Posted February 1, 2020 Posted February 1, 2020 The joy of FreeDB and EAC is that you can control the quality of your back-up copies of CDs. Having an extensive CD collection held as "eggs in one basket" is *problematical* these days, it's best to have a backup, but having every track listed as Track 01, Track 02 etc is a nightmare. This is why FreeDb is essential for any EAC user. But FreeDb is being shuttered real soon now. Fortunately you can download it - it's only about 1 gigabyte. So I've put the links below. Unfortunately you have to do a couple of clever things to run the database on your own PC. Please can any of the computing experts on SNA please say how to do this, so that EAC will call on the database when a music listener puts a crispy mint CD into the CD drive please? I am hoping this will turn into a support thread. The story: https://liliputing.com/2019/12/freedb-is-shutting-down-in-march-2020-free-music-database.html MusicBrainz doesn't quite do the same job. Here's a useful thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21902652 Quote MrGilbert 33 days ago [-] A lot of this stuff is already open - in fact, you are allowed to run your own, local server. After shutdown, I'm pretty sure no one will stop you from hosting a free instance publicly. If in doubt, get written permission from the company, german laws apply. Download: http://www.freedb.org/en/download__server_software.4.html hamiltont 34 days ago [-] Disclaimer: I know nothing about what led to this situation Found it a bit sad to see this notice followed by a recent news headline saying the project was guaranteed to continue: Continuation of the free database guaranteed With the acquisition of the www.freedb.org domain MAGIX also takes on all duties regarding the worldwide freedb community jacquesm 34 days ago [-] That acquisition was the reason why I made a fork of the freedb database, I'm actually pretty happy with how long they held out. I would encourage everybody to download the software: http://www.freedb.org/en/download__server_software.4.html And the db: http://ftp.freedb.org/pub/freedb/ It would be good to have multiple copies floating around. sixtyfourbits 34 days ago [-] I made a torrent: magnet:?xt=urn:btih:96208ba12ca7ffdac5b5adccf1a41e484de94f4a&dn=freedb&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.opentrackr.org%3A1337%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.coppersurfer.tk%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.tiny-vps.com%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.torrent.eu.org%3A451%2Fannounce&tr=http%3A%2F%2Ftracker.torrentyorg.pl%2Fannounce&tr=http%3A%2F%2Fexplodie.org%3A6969%2Fannounce This includes all the files from your mirror except for the older database backups and the "latest" directory (which is just the extracted version of cddbd-1.5.2.tar.gz). jacquesm 34 days ago [-] Thank you for making this, I will seed the torrent for a couple of weeks or until it looks like nobody is downloading it anymore. Scoundreller 34 days ago [-] 4gb for the whole database (compressed). It seems like so little for artists/tracknames of every piece of music ever published (to CD), because it would take 0.1% of my disk space, while knowing it's so much data. big_chungus 34 days ago [-] It's less than 1GB; the four large archives you see that are each nine-hundred-and-change megs are dated snapshots. Just pull the latest from here (current as of 12/03/2019): http://ftp.freedb.org/pub/freedb/freedb-complete-20191203.ta... emmelaich 34 days ago [-] Thanks! It's 948Mb. 1
aussievintage Posted February 1, 2020 Posted February 1, 2020 I am grabbing a copy of the database, and I'll see what's involved. 1
aussievintage Posted February 1, 2020 Posted February 1, 2020 (edited) While waiting for the database, I grabbed the source code of the server, and it compiles successfully. There are a few ways to run it, so we'll see how it goes. I am not going to be able to host a public copy, but there should be a way to just run it locally - maybe on one of my raspberrry pi servers as well. I also noted that EAC can import data to a local database - so maybe a quick fix is to just put all the data into EAC. Will let you know if the formats are compatible etc (I expect they will be). Edited February 1, 2020 by aussievintage 2 1
soundbyte Posted February 2, 2020 Posted February 2, 2020 (edited) With EAC I cannot see a method to import all the freedb database (freedb-complete.tar.bz2) from the freedb web sites? The download expands to 6.57 GB (7,056,424,960 bytes). EAC will import a "CDDB.dat" database, seems this file needs to be a compiled version of the freedb database, which is supplied in "xmcd" text format? No other file type offered. I did successfully try setting EAC to use MusicBrainz for the on line database, instructions here https://wiki.musicbrainz.org/History:FreeDB_Gateway Relevant paragraph:- "Exact Audio Copy (EAC): To access the "FreeDB / Database Options" page either press F12 or click the toolbar button EAC and scroll down to "FreeDB / Database Options". On the FreeDB Tab you will see the entry "FreeDB server". Enter "http://freedb.musicbrainz.org:80/~cddb/cddb.cgi" and click OK. That's it! (If you use version 0.95, see additional instructions. Version 1.0b1 uses a new metadata plugin that doesn't respect the configuration entered in the FreeDB options dialog. To use the MusicBrainz FreeDB server, you must reinstall EAC and deselect the "Metadata Plugin" component in the installer.)" No mention of whether this method will work after the freedb closure though. A pi server would be a really cheap and easy way to host this. Edited February 2, 2020 by soundbyte
Decky Posted February 2, 2020 Posted February 2, 2020 Not a lot of point if the database is not being updated. What a pity.
aussievintage Posted February 2, 2020 Posted February 2, 2020 3 hours ago, Decky said: Not a lot of point if the database is not being updated. What a pity. I dunno. A lot of second hand CDs I am currently buying are in there.
aussievintage Posted February 2, 2020 Posted February 2, 2020 Some info. In fact it's all well documented. I would be surprised if getting something running locally is hard to do. I will try to look at it in my spare time. https://github.com/qyot27/libcddb/blob/master/doc/freedb.howto.txt http://ftp.freedb.org/pub/freedb/latest/DBFORMAT 2
aussievintage Posted February 2, 2020 Posted February 2, 2020 The server daemon appears to have a standalone mode i.e. you can just run it from the command line on a linux machine or similar . They list the following that it has been tested on and suggest most anything unix like will work. Cygwin 1.5.5 FreeBSD 4.10-BETA HP-UX 10.20 Linux 2.4.x (x86) Linux 2.2.20 (Alpha) Linux 2.4.21 (AMD64) MacOS X 10.x Mips-SGI-Irix 6.5 NetBSD 1.6.1 OpenBSD 3.4 Solaris 9 / SunOS 5.9 (Sparc) Solaris 9 (x86) Solaris 10 (x86) In fact, as I run Linux Mint as a desktop, I should be able to just run it on the same PC as I run EAC on, and just point EAC at my local address.
emesbee Posted February 2, 2020 Posted February 2, 2020 I guess the other option is to manually rename the tracks after ripping them. Bit of a pain if you are doing a lot of rips though.
soundbyte Posted February 2, 2020 Posted February 2, 2020 I have a Linux Mint 19.3 test bed system. Tried following the install process and part way through ran up against not having various software (one was "Sendmail"), installed. The install just fell over, no options that I am aware of that bypass those other requirements. For another day to try again.
aussievintage Posted February 2, 2020 Posted February 2, 2020 36 minutes ago, soundbyte said: I have a Linux Mint 19.3 test bed system. Tried following the install process and part way through ran up against not having various software (one was "Sendmail"), installed. The install just fell over, no options that I am aware of that bypass those other requirements. For another day to try again. Yes, I was wondering about requirements like that. I didn't strike that problem and I got the server installed. But, I just realised that EAC is looking to use the server via http by running the cgi install version of cddb (e.g. http://freedb.freedb.org:80/~cddb/cddb.cgi). If that's the only way EAC can do it, that means installing something like Apache web server, and installing cddb as a cgi program under that. This may be getting too messy. Maybe a better way would be to set up a virtual machine with the cddb server-cgi version on it, and anyone could just run the VM when they needed it.
aussievintage Posted February 2, 2020 Posted February 2, 2020 Also, the data, when in use, is held in many many tiny files. Not a true database. This can tax ANY filesystem. They even have a special Windows version because the old FAT filesystem cannot handle it at all. I read someone was working on a Java version of the server, and using a mySQL database. MUCH more sensible. We may just have to wait and see on this one. 1
anandpkumar Posted February 3, 2020 Posted February 3, 2020 Just came across this news here - unfortunate since I've been using EAC with freeDB for the past decade or so! Hopefully, the tech wizards out here can figure out a way to point EAC to a local copy, and the correct way to make a local copy. Even though the database will not be updated, we can still use whatever is already available.
ShellstaX Posted February 4, 2020 Posted February 4, 2020 (edited) Definitely sad re FreeDB ... but ... EAC can also use the free CueTools Database (CTDB). I don't remember downloading it at all (may have ... ahhh it was preinstalled from v1.1 - see http://cue.tools/wiki/CTDB_EAC_Plugin). Enable via EAC > EAC Options > ☑ CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6 Edited February 4, 2020 by ShellstaX preinstall details 2
keinesorge Posted February 5, 2020 Posted February 5, 2020 19 hours ago, ShellstaX said: Definitely sad re FreeDB ... but ... EAC can also use the free CueTools Database (CTDB). This is good. I dont have the time to rip the rest of my collection at the moment.
Dan Gravell Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 We host FreeDB ourselves for our own purposes - maybe if we created an image anyone could clone and host in the cloud it would be useful?
keinesorge Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 9 minutes ago, Dan Gravell said: We host FreeDB ourselves for our own purposes - maybe if we created an image anyone could clone and host in the cloud it would be useful? If someone could create a "how to" guide... it would be good. If it could be installed on a raspberry pi.. even better.
ThirdDrawerDown Posted February 6, 2020 Author Posted February 6, 2020 @soundbyte @aussievintage @Dan Gravell "hosting a server" frankly sounds pretty scary. Also what looks easy to people who use github often is actually quite daunting if you've never used it. For example I always get confused by which files to download. I recall spending a couple of hours once trying to learn what to do with a tarball before giving up. At the moment, I put a CD into EAC, click Alt-G and it gives me the name of the CD in several versions to choose from. I select one and the song titles get pasted against each song, and the CD is now ready to extract. Shift-F6 and extraction happens. Is there a simple way that, when I click Alt-G, it grabs from a copy of the FreeDb database held on my PC? Rather than going on-line to look up the FreeDb database I don't expect to update the database. It would just sit there on the hard drive, frozen in time, happily identifying music from 1930 to 2019. How could this be done, please? (And thank you for being interested).
Dan Gravell Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 4 hours ago, ThirdDrawerDown said: @soundbyte @aussievintage @Dan Gravell "hosting a server" frankly sounds pretty scary. Also what looks easy to people who use github often is actually quite daunting if you've never used it. For example I always get confused by which files to download. I recall spending a couple of hours once trying to learn what to do with a tarball before giving up. ... How could this be done, please? (And thank you for being interested). I totally agree, and it was just a passing idea. My proposal would make it (relatively) easy to create a server in the cloud, which you could then point EAC at, instead of freedb.org. I actually don't use EAC, but I presume this is configurable. Even if not, you can always change your hosts file to look at the alternative server. I was thinking of creating an AMI for this. You would create the server as per these instructions: https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/launch-instance-custom-ami/ It's probably massive overkill to have one server for each person - I was thinking just one person creates this. And the other thing is that running the server would cost money. In terms of compute hardware (speed, memory of the machine) it would be cheap/free, but the storage would cost.
aussievintage Posted February 7, 2020 Posted February 7, 2020 9 hours ago, Dan Gravell said: I was thinking of creating an AMI for this. You would create the server as per these instructions: https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/launch-instance-custom-ami/ Actually, creating a VM that can be run locally by Oracle's free Virtualbox would be the best way to go.
ShellstaX Posted February 7, 2020 Posted February 7, 2020 I don't see why you guys would go to so much effort ... sure, grab a copy of FreeDB by all means (for offline and/or serving your own needs / grander plans ... or a rainy day) ... but ... - initialy (/ever(?)) - your databases won't have software integration nor a community for large-scale ongoing update ... unless you write/drive it. e.g, You'd have to write a plugin for EAC and promote it. I reiterate - the CUETools DB, as per my previous post, is an active and viable alternative, that's already well down the track. It's base is MusicBrainz (hourly), and takes monthly grabs from Discogs (and currently FreeDB).
aussievintage Posted February 7, 2020 Posted February 7, 2020 12 minutes ago, ShellstaX said: the CUETools DB, as per my previous post, is an active and viable alternative, It failed to do anything when I installed it. Looking at the different versions, they are having trouble keeping the plugin working on EAC.
ShellstaX Posted February 7, 2020 Posted February 7, 2020 4 minutes ago, aussievintage said: It failed to do anything when I installed it. Looking at the different versions, they are having trouble keeping the plugin working on EAC. Oh! - Thanks for clarifying. No problems this end (at EAC 1.3, CUETools DB Plugin 2.1.6, Win 10 v1909). I have no 'need' to go to EAC 1.4 (latest) - I guess I should take a look ... but yes, the viability of CUEtools depends on their continued efforts too.
aussievintage Posted February 7, 2020 Posted February 7, 2020 3 minutes ago, ShellstaX said: Oh! - Thanks for clarifying. No problems this end (at EAC 1.3, CUETools DB Plugin 2.1.6, Win 10 v1909). I have no 'need' to go to EAC 1.4 (latest) - I guess I should take a look ... but yes, the viability of CUEtools depends on their continued efforts too. You are using the same versions as me. In case I am doing it wrong - exactly where do you find the config option to use cuetools instead of freedb?
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