mp32ogg

[danroth]

Hey folks! I'm new here (obviously) and to Linux (also probably pretty obvious), though I've been lurking for a little bit, and making MASSIVE usage of the forum's search function.
However, I found nothing on mp32ogg, which I'm having trouble with right now...
I need to convert my mp3's to ogg, so that I can play them on rhythmbox. I found this site telling me pretty much what to do, but cannot for the life of me figure out what I'm doing wrong.
The help file in mp3ogg says:

Useage: /usr/bin/mp32ogg [options] dir1 dir2 file1 file2 ...

The [options] are listed below that, and I've figured out that usr is probably my username (right?), but I can't get bin, or the dir and file parts of it. I'm guessing dir1 is the directory of the files I want to convert and dir2 is the new directory, but then what are file1 and file2?
Also, how exactly do you write out a directory? Would it be like

dan@ubuntu: home/dan/Music

or would it be just how it is when you pwd (i.e. what I wrote above, but without dan@ubuntu)?

Or am I just doing it completely wrong?

By the way, if you need to know--I'm currently running Ubunto 8.10 from wubi with Vista. I'm doing it like this to get used to Linux so when I switch for real I don't lose too many files due to my inexperience

Thanks!

[Touchtecservers]

Welcome dan

I assume you are used to windows then, more than linux. One of the main differences between Windows and Linux is the filesystem - how it is laid out, and how it is accessed.

To use a good example: linux is accessed with a forward slash (like with websites), not with a backward slash (like in windows C:\).

Also with linux, there are no "drive letters". The file system of a linux computer is like a big "tree". And to access all of the drives (CD,DVD,Memory Stick, etc) - you have to basically put them somewhere on this tree to access them - this process is called "mounting".

Anyways, this means that the file paths are different too. For instance, in windows to access a file, you may type C:\Windows\System32\somefile.dll or so forth - which means get this file in the Directory System32 inside Windows directory on the C drive. With linux only having one "tree", you have no need for letters, and also considering that linux uses forward slash instead of backslashes you have a difference. Why do I say all this?

Well: When you see /usr/bin/mp32ogg, that is the File Path to the executable.

Also, I should add - linux executable files (.exe) do not need any file extension, so they can be mp32ogg.exe or mp32ogg.hello or anything you desire. So, to explain the Usage line:

It is saying:

Usage: *full path to the program mp3 2 ogg* *program options (see below)* *file lists*

A good command if you are new to linux is the "man" command:

dan@ubuntu: man mp32ogg

if you type that you should get up a manual page that explains the [options] that you can use (q to quit it btw). Then finally a list of the files that you wish to convert - anyway, the manual page should cover the options needed for mp32ogg.

I suggest though that you take a google for some getting started guides on linux - maybe howtoforge would be a useful place.

Best of luck

[danroth]

Thanks for the help!
I'm fairly familiar with the tree concept (though I'm still working on it); I've been using Unix commands and programs with X11 for some research (specifically, image analysis for astronomy) that I'm doing at school--it's actually what got me interested in Linux

What I don't get, though, is the syntax for the *file lists*--where does the tree start?

And I did take your advice on the Google: found this to be helpful, and htf looks like it has a ton of info!

EDIT: never mind, I got it figured out--thanks for the help!

[i92guboj]

I need to convert my mp3's to ogg, so that I can play them on rhythmbox.

I am not a rhythmbox user, but if possible I would try to concentrate my efforts in getting mp3 working in it if it's possible at all.

Converting from one lousy format to another lousy format means that the quality of the audio will degrade even more, not a good thing.

[reed9]

Isn't hard to install what you need for mp3 support: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/MP3