A full-featured, multi-language, Gtk-based control panel targeted toward IceWM
http://icesoundmanager.sourceforge.net
http://sourceforge.net/projects/icesoundmanager/
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LATEST NEWS [4/29/2005]: These pages have just moved to a NEW SERVER. The site might be under construction for some time.
LATEST NEWS [8/18/2004]: IceWMCP version 3.2 is now available. This release patches bugs that many users of Python 2.3 experienced. Support has been added for the latest features of IceWM 1.2.14 / 1.2.15. A French translation has been added, and the Russian translation has been updated. The IceMe menu editor now saves non-English characters in the menu file correctly. A big THANK YOU to the following people: French Translation Added By - Yves Perraudin (yploglib ['at'] free.fr), Régis Décamps (decamps ['at'] users.sf.net), and Simon Gauthier (joy3k ['at'] hotmail.com). Russian Translation Updates By - Vasya a.k.a Vasiliy Leushin (basileus ['at'] newmail.ru). Thank you all for your hard work and patience with me. :-)   DOWNLOAD   List of New Features
LATEST NEWS [8/18/2004]: The following applications have just been released: IcePref2 3.4, IcePref2 Theme Designer 3.2, PhrozenClock 3.2, IceSoundManager 3.2, GtkPCCard 1.6, and IceWMCP Tray Icon Plug-in 0.2   Download

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HELP: ICE SOUND MANAGER

REQUIREMENTS
Obviously, you need IceWM and the IceSound Server (IceWM's sound server for sound events) . I suggest the most recent versions of IceWM and IceSound Server (versions 1.2.2 and above are best) . You also need to know WHERE the IceSound Server executable is located on your file system and which directories your IceSound Server is configured to look for .wav files for playing sound events . Generally, these directories are ~/.icewm/sounds/ (under your home directory) and /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icewm/sounds/ (or /usr/local/lib/X11/icewm/sounds/ ) . NOTE: You need to make sure you have the necessary permissions necessary to start and stop the IceSound Server for your username and that you have read/write permissions for the directories where you will be storing your .wav files for use with IceSound Server . (This is YOUR duty to deal with these issues) . If you cannot start and stop your server, permissions problems may be the reason . So make sure you have that worked out first . It is suggested that your IceSound Server executable be somewhere in your $PATH; however, this is should not be mandatory . You also need to be using a system capable of using OSS, ESD, or YIFF as your sound interface . If you are using OSS, you MUST know the location of your digital signal processing device, such as /dev/dsp . If you are using the ESD or YIFF sound servers, you need to know the host and port number of those sound servers . Lastly, you need some kind of sound card (this is a no-brainer: no sound card = no sound events.)

In addition, you need recent versions of Python and PyGTK . Neither TK/Tkinter nor Gnome are required to run this application . This application was designed to be low on system resource usage . So, you should not need a terribly fast computer to get good functionality from Ice Sound Manager . Here is the environment in which this application has been tested: Mandrake 8.1, SuSe 8.1, Kernel 2.4.8 / 2.4.19, Glibc 2.2.4 / 2.2.5, XFree86 4.0.1 - 4.3.0, Python 2.2 - 2.2.1, PyGtk 0.6.9/PyGtk-2 2.0.0, Gtk version 1.2.8-4-1.2.10, Gtk+2 version 2.0.6, IceWM 1.0.9 - 1.2.15, IceWM-Gnome 1.0.9 / 1.2.2, with both 'icesound' and 'icesound-gnome' sound server executables . The test computers (3) were all Pentium 1, ranging in memory from 64MB to 256MB - nothing spectacular .


WHAT IS ASSUMED
That you have all the necessary software (and sound hardware) installed . That your system meets all the requirements above . That you can troubleshoot on your own . That you have common sense . That you can tell the difference between a problem with your IceSound Server and a 'bug' in Ice Sound Manager . (A bug/problem with your sound server is NOT a bug in this software) . I also assume that you understand that Ice Sound Manager is in no way 'officially' affiliated with IceWM, IceSound Server, or its creators . Ice Sound Manager is a FRONTEND to the IceSound Server . Lastly, I assume that you have run IceSound Server before, that you KNOW what your are doing, and are simply usings this software to make your sound events management job a little easier . This application is not yet suitable for 'newbies' not ready to troubleshoot .


GETTING STARTED
The first thing you need to do is configure Ice Sound Manager to work with your IceSound Server and customize Ice Sound Manager . You can do this easily by clicking 'Options' then 'Run Setup' . This will launch the setup up program and get you on your way . You should see many 'What's This?' buttons throughout Ice Sound Manager . Click these buttons for help on specific features . I HIGHLY recommend you use ESD as your audio interface for IceSound Server, because the OSS interface has a tendency to play sounds at the wrong sample rate, and I have not personally tested the YIFF audio interface .


SOUND THEMES WITH ICE SOUND MANAGER
One of Ice Sound Manager's best features is giving the user the ability to manage sound event 'themes' , similiar to Windows (gasp!) . To save a theme, click the 'Save' button in the themes section . You can give your theme a descriptive name and specify a file for saving . I HIGHLY suggest you save your Ice Sound Manager themes with the .stheme extension . At a minimum, you should include the word 'theme' somewhere in the file name (See the section below for an explanation) .


LOADING SOUND THEMES WITH ICE SOUND MANAGER
When Ice Sound Manager is started, it will attempt to reload your last used theme, so that it can quickly reactivate your last-used sound events . In addition, when Ice Sound Manager is started, it will search the directory of your last-used sound theme for any other themes you may have created . However, Ice Sound Manager will only attempt to inspect files that have the word 'theme' somewhere in the file name (this is for the sake of speed, as directories may hold hundreds or thousands of files) . For this reason, it is suggested that you save your files with the '.stheme' extension, but you may choose another extension like '.theme' . The important thing is to place the word 'theme' (case INsensitive) somewhere in the file name to make things easier on yourself .

You may also manually load sound themes, by clicking the 'Load' button in the themes section, which will allow you to browse the file system for your desired sound theme . NOTE: If you select a previously loaded theme from the drop-down themes list, you MUST hit the 'Reload' button with the green arrows next to the drop-down list, to reload the selected sound theme .


WAV STORAGE DIRECTORY
The Wav Storage Directory is the directory where your IceSound Server will look for the .wav files for your sound events . You can configure this directory by clicking 'IceSound Server' then 'Wav Storage Directory' on the menu . IMPORTANT NOTE: As a general rule, you CANNOT specify random directories as your Wav Storage Directory . You MUST know the directories your IceSound Server is willing to look for .wav files . Generally, these directories are ~/.icewm/sounds/ (under your home directory) and /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icewm/sounds/ (or /usr/local/lib/X11/icewm/sounds/ ) . However, you should check the documentation for your particular version of the IceSound Server, as these directories may have been changed at compile-time . It is YOUR job to know where your IceSound Server looks for .wavs . If you specify your Wav Storage Directory as a random directory, such as /usr/MySounds/, you may find that your IceSound Server does not play your sound events, because it is not looking in that directory . KNOW where your IceSound Server is willing to look for .wav files . Personally, I have had NO luck specifying anything other than ~/.icewm/sounds/ and /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icewm/sounds/ as my Wav Storage Directories . NOTE: If your Wav Storage Directories are ~/.icewm/sounds/ and /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icewm/sounds/ (or /usr/local/lib/X11/icewm/sounds/ ), you may use /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icewm/sounds/ (or /usr/local/lib/X11/icewm/sounds/ ) to store system-wide sound events for all users, then use ~/.icewm/sounds/ on a per-user basis to specify personalized sound events . On my systems, user-defined sounds in ~/.icewm/sounds/ override system-wide sounds in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icewm/sounds/ . Of course, you would probably need to be 'root' to store .wav files in a place like /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icewm/sounds/ (or /usr/local/lib/X11/icewm/sounds/ ) .


RUN AS ROOT
If you have 'root' privileges and wish to configure system-wide sound events for all users, select File -> Run As Root on the IceSoundManager menu . The change may take a moment, so please be patient . This will set your Wav Storage Directory to the IceWM system-wide sounds directory (such as /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icewm/sounds/) and restart the sound server .


PREFERENCES FILES IN ICE SOUND MANAGER
Ice Sound Manager has only 2 preferences files in your home directory: .IceSoundManagerRC (basic preferences) and .IceSoundManagerAudioRC (your audio interface preferences . Under NO circumstances should you modify these files by hand . There is no need to . Should these files disappear from your home directory or become damaged, you will see Ice Sound Manager run the 'Setup' program the next time you run Ice Sound Manager .


TROUBLESHOOTING
Here are some quick answers, suggestions, and insight on some problems you may experience using Ice Sound Manager and IceSound Server . These answers are in NO way authorative, but they might be helpful to someone, somewhere in some distant galaxy .

     
PROBLEM: I've loaded a new sound theme, or changed around some sound events, and don't hear the changes taking affect in IceWM . I'm still hearing the old sounds .
      SOLUTION: Click 'Apply Sound Theme' . This should restart your IceSound Server and make your changes take effect . If you selected a theme from the drop-down theme list, be sure to click the 'Reload' button next to the drop-down list (the button with the green arrows) to reload your selected theme, then click '(Re)Start IceSound Server' .

     
PROBLEM: I can't get my IceSound Server started!
      SOLUTION: Ok . This isn't a solution, but a step towards trouble shooting the problem . Open a terminal window . Then copy and paste the text from the field 'Suggested Sound Server Command Line' into the terminal window . Run the command, and see what error messages you get . Troubleshoot those errors, then try, try again . Keep in mind that Ice Sound Manager is just a FRONTEND to IceSound Server . I am NOT the designer of IceWM or IceSound Server .

     
PROBLEM: My IceSound Server starts, but I see the following message at the console: 'Audio File Error: Unix Read Error'
      SOLUTION: I, too, have had this problem occur when using some Windows .wav files compressed with certain proprietary codecs . You'll have to do a trial-and-error thing where you disable all your .wavs, then re-enable them one-by-one until you determine which .wav is causing IceSound Server to choke . Then, I would suggest you either take the offending .wav out of your pool of sound events or convert the .wav to a standard format your system can read . NOTE: The 'Audio File Error' may be caused by other problems I am unaware of (I am NOT an expert on the 'icesound' server.) However, since I experienced this problem, I thought I would share my insight . The IceSound server seems to choke on some Windows-created .wavs and not choke on others .

     
PROBLEM: My sound events are not playing!
      SOLUTION: Make sure your IceSound Server is running, by trying 'pidof icesound' and 'pidof icesound-gnome' . If it's not running, get it running! No sound server, no sound events will be played . If the server IS running, make sure that your volume is not turned down or on mute . If you are using OSS as your audio interface, make sure you have specified the RIGHT digital signal processing device (everybody's is NOT /dev/dsp ...your job to find that out) . If you are using ESD or YIFF, make sure there is a ESD or YIFF sound server running on the host and port you have specified . You can edit these properties by clicking 'IceSound Server' then 'Audio Interface' on the menu . Third, and this is VERY important, scroll back up and read the section called 'Wav Storage Directory' in this help file . If you have specified a Wav Storage directory your IceSound Server does not accept, you are storing your .wavs in the WRONG directory and your sound events will not play . Fourth, you should MANUALLY check your chosen Wav Storage Directory to make sure that your .wav files ARE present in that directory, and that there are no dead links (if you use the linking method) . Fifth, make sure all the files you have specified for your sound events are valid .wav files . The IceSound Server may have trouble playing certain types of .wav, especially some times of Windows-created .wav files with special proprietary compression . Sixth, make sure you have all your desired sound events ENABLED . There is a checkmark in the sound events section of Ice Sound Manager for enabling/disabling the sound event . If that checkmark is NOT checked, you have it disabled . Finally, click '(Re)Start IceSound Server' to restart your IceSound Server . This will make any changes in your sound events take affect provided you have no trouble running your IceSound Server .

     
PROBLEM: My sound events were playing earlier, but now I don't hear them .
      SOLUTION: Make sure that your IceSound Server is running by clicking '(Re)Start IceSound Server' . Your IceSound Server may need to be started EVERY time IceWM is started or restarted . (It does on mine . IceSound Server shuts down when I shutdown IceWM.) Double check to make sure IceSound Server is running by typing 'pidof icesound' or 'pidof icesound-gnome' , or run a utility like KPM to see your currently running processes . If you are using the 'linking' method of setting your .wav files, make sure you haven't moved the original files . You may have dead links in your 'Wav Storage Directory' . Manually check your 'Wav Storage Directory' to make sure all your .wav files are there . Check the sound volume on your computer! Make sure your sound is not muted and that you have your sound set at an audible volume . Lastly, make sure that you didn't accidently disable your sound events by unchecking the 'Enabled' button in the sound events section .

     
PROBLEM: My sound events play, but they are scratchy or distorted .
      SOLUTION: You probably need to readjust your 'Audio Interface' under 'IceSound Server' on the menu . You may be using the wrong audio interface, or may be using the wrong DSP device for OSS . It is YOUR job to find out what audio interface your system uses

     
PROBLEM: Some of my sound events play and some don't .
      SOLUTION: Make sure that you didn't accidently disable your sound events by unchecking the 'Enabled' button in the sound events section . This button must be CHECKED for that sound event to be enabled . Also, click '(Re)Start IceSound Server' to make sure any changes you made to your sound scheme take effect . Lastly, understand that on some systems, certain sound events just don't seem to play . On my system, I can't get IceSound Server to play the 'IceWM Startup' or 'IceWM Shutdown' events at all . I don't know what causes this, as I am not the designer of the IceSound Server for IceWM . I just build the frontends 8-) .

     
PROBLEM: Some of my sound events play for the WRONG events . Example: 'Window Hidden' plays when I 'minimize' and 'Window Minimized' plays when I actually 'restored' a window .
      SOLUTION: This is not a 'bug' in Ice Sound Manager . I have a similar issue with on my system . I have checked this problem extensively and verified that Ice Sound Manager does set the 'Window Minimized' sound event to the windowMin.wav file in the Wav Storage Directory, and that Ice Sound Manager sets the 'Window Restored' sound event to the windowRestore.wav file in the Wav Storage Directory . For some reason, my IceSound Server seems to want to play windowMin.wav when I restore a window, and wants to play windowHide.wav when I minimize a window . Perhaps this is a 'bug' in the IceSound Server, or simply IceWM having a different interpretation of window 'events' .

     
PROBLEM: How do I make my sound events play every time I start IceWM?
      SOLUTION: You have to set up IceWM to start IceSound Server everytime you start IceWM . Click 'Help' then 'Sample Server Script' for a quick script you can use to do just that . There is also an explanation of how to use the 'Sample Server Script' in that section . After this, you are on your own to decide HOW you want to go about making IceWM start your IceSound server at startup .

     
PROBLEM: My sound events are not playing at the right speed, or sound distorted or 'lag' as they play .
      SOLUTION: This is a common problem if you use OSS as your audio interface . I HIGHLY recommend you use the ESD audio interface offered by IceSound Server . It appears to be more stable, and I have had few problems with it .


Exiting the Program
To exit the program, click File -> Quit on the menu, or press Ctrl+Q on your keyboard .

Checking for New Versions of the Software
To check for a newer version of the program click File -> Check for newer versions of this program.. . on the menu, or press Ctrl+U on your keyboard . This feature requires a working connection to the internet .

Launching Random Programs
You may launch a random program on your system by clicking File -> Run.. . on the menu, or press Ctrl+R on your keyboard .

Reporting Problems
You may report problems using this software by clicking Help -> Send A Bug Report.. . on the menu, or press F5 on your keyboard . You will be shown detailed instructions to guide you through the short process .