Kubuntu and Audio CD troubles
Kubuntu and Audio CD troubles
I haven't used an Audio CD recently, but for smoother compatibility with KDE tools, do you have KIO AudioCD installed? https://apps.kde.org/kio_audiocd/
I typically run Linux Mint with Cinnamon as my desktop environment. The application you're using for playback is Celluloid, but I've switched it to Audacious. You can personalize this by copying files to a folder and dragging them into Audacious. If you prefer, use the first file as the default player and drag the others into its folder.
Install the gstreamer plugins for cdparanoia and cdio. If unavailable, k3b relies on cddb-lookup and cdda-reading which function without them. Strawberry is a modified version of Clementine, itself based on Amarok v1.4. Neither offers the same quality as the original, which had a superior dynamic mood playlist feature. It seems the issue may lie in power delivery—your USB port might be providing more than Ubuntu allows. Using a dual power cable could help verify this without needing to adjust sysfs or run reading tools.
Have you explored Rhythmbox? For CD ripping I use K3B as well. Also, check if it's installed by running sudo apt install kubuntu-restricted-addons kubuntu-restricted-extras. See if you can add a drive and connect it to your CD. I also purchase and rip CDs, mostly for artists and bands I enjoy, such as Taylor Swift and Eminem.
Thanks for the feedback! This version was set up right away. It worked well with Audacious and Goobox, which play the CDs I tried. Goobox has a cool design but doesn’t support gapless playback, which is a big issue. Audacious has some minor annoyances but at least it works. The loading time before playback is still a problem. For gstreamer, I used plugins but ended up causing a crash while fixing the CD issue. I might need to reset everything later. Cdparanoia and k3b were also installed but didn’t help much. USB power seems to be the problem—maybe testing on a laptop with an integrated drive would help. I tried Rhythmbox without success but will give it another shot. It appears you’d need to manually add music from an audio CD for playback, which is a bit cumbersome. Ideally, I’d just insert the disk and start listening. The packages you mentioned were installed, and I’ll review the results later. Also, the drive behaves strangely when opened in Dolphin—directly launching Audacious with a spinny boi seems faster. That makes sense.
It looks like the issue might lie with Dolphin or KIO. Audio CDs seem to function perfectly when played directly in Audacious (or similar compatible players) without any problems. No delays, smooth playback, and the drive works smoothly when you press the button. If you try to open the CD in Dolphin, it causes major issues—possibly loading errors, long waits, or distortion. It seems my earlier assumption about CD playback was wrong; I should have checked Audacious first. Thanks for the feedback!