Archive for July, 2024

Play Audio Music CDs in Linux console / terminal in the 21 Century mission hard but possible

Tuesday, July 30th, 2024


Compact discs (CD's)
ain't dead yet but there easy straigh use on free operating systems Linux / FreeBSD / OpenBSD is starting to deteriorate. That is quite normal I guess, as CDs are no longer officially produced or sold for few years in America and there is no Audio CD bookstores, neither in europe and perhaps there are just few in europe, perhaps CD are used somewhere in Africa and Asia, but most modern world has officially buried them.

However as I love old stuff and I had the opportunity, I bought an old Audio CD (fake copy one 🙂 of Judas Priest Screaming for Vengence and the famous Jimi Hendrix  (Best Complilation) Experience an improvised shelf-book store selling books by a half deaf aging guy who sells books for years in Dobrich in the center.
And to remember the young years of Rock Roll wanted to play it on my very old but still kicking Lenovo Thinkpad R61 notebook (that is now 16 years old but thanksfully it still works and kicks ass with a Debian GNU / Linux 10 Buster.)

The task is very easy and as I have a Window Maker (Wmaker) on it in order to save myself an extra loading of this a kind of "archaic machine" and tried to play my CDs with everything at hand thus I tried first to play the CD in console with the good old but gold cdplay with which I have played a dozens of Audio CDs back in the days … 

# cdplay

just to find out the CD got red and started to roll but I get no sound via the Sound Card 🙁

Next thing, i assumed was the problem might be the pulseaudio process blocking the sound card to be used, preventing cdplay to be able to properly channel the sound to the sound card, that used to be quite of classical problem, if you remember, thus I tried to run the cdplay via the aoss (Wrapper script to facilitate use of alsa oss compatibility library.)

Before using oss of course i've loaded the snd-pcm-oss kernel module, to make the sound blaster be able to use the old obsolete Open Sound System.

# modprobe snd-pcm-oss

# aoss cdplay

Though that aoss trick worked for some programs that used old Open Sound System scheme to output sound, it doesn't unfortunately, at that case.
 

Strange enough my sound card is properly identified by the Debian Linux and I can play MP3 songs, as well browse videos in youtube and other Internet resources in Firefox and even the pulseaudio process that is running in the background is spitting sounds out of the Notebook Speakers.

The laptop doesn't seem to have any sound driver or Sound Card issues, as I can normally play my old .XM and .MOD  sound extension files with the good old mikmod

 

# mikmod

as well as I can even normally play MIDI audio files by using the timidity tool as well as with playmidi

# timidity HitTheLights.mid

# playmidi HitTheLights.mid


Just to proove the MIDIs can be played normally via the Sound Blaster (for a more on the topic check my previous article talking in depth about Linux and MIDI – Play Midis on Linux / Make Linux MIDI Ready for the Future – Enable embedded MIDI music to play in a Browser, Play MIDIs with VLC and howto enjoy Midis in Text Console.

Next logically to make sure, something is not wrong with audio drivers, I tried to play some music normally with, the standard console players I have played with for years on Linux mpg123 / mpg321 for reference check my Listening music in text mode in Linux console but this was no luck again …

I tried even to install the opencubicplayer ( Linux port) music player and tried to open the CD, but even though the CD can be heard to be rolling in the CD drive no sound was outputed out of the laptop speakers.

 

open-cubic-player-screenshot-on-linux

Thus to resolve tried everything at power starting from increasing any missing volumes via the aumix command, as often in the past I remember the problem in such situations is the sound volume is decreased to zero percentage or completely muted.

# aumix


aumix-with-linux-htop-screenshot-animated-gif

as well as with 

# alsamixer


Alsamixer-control-sound-volume-linux-screenshot

Nevertheless, every possible volume up volume was raised and everything looked cool as I could play normally music on machine or in a browser, the AUDIO CD Music refused to play out of the Speakers.
 

Playing the Audio CD via success with mplayer

The work around to make it play was up to a one liner with mplayer

# mplayer -cdrom-device /dev/cdrom cdda://

To easify the play of CDs I've created for my self a tiny one liner script to run it.

 

#!/bin/bash
mplayer -cdrom-device /dev/cdrom cdda://

I've called the script playcd.sh, made it executable and placed it under /usr/local/bin

# vim /usr/local/bin/playcd.sh
#!/bin/bash
mplayer -cdrom-device /dev/cdrom cdda://


# chmod +x /usr/local/bin/playcd.sh

 

Playing Audio CDs with VLC (VideoLAN Media Player)

I've vlc client installed on my Linux box, if you don't have it, do:

# apt install –yes vlc

Then roll on the CD with vlc with passing it the location to the CD, usually one of the down two pointers should work:

# vlc vcd:///dev/sr0

# vlc vcd:///dev/cdrom

If you want to loop the Tracks to play forever

# vlc –loop vcd:///dev/cdrom

By the way vlc can do much more than you think as you can even play youtube with it, for example you can try it with the Axel Folly classics Mod file, by running it like this.

# vlc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlyK_elUmIw


Cheers and Enjoy CD audio on Linux  ! 🙂

The Church Rejoices + Daniil Metropolitan of Vidin chosen and Enthroned as Head of Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Dostoin / Axios !

Wednesday, July 3rd, 2024

The Church Rejoices + Daniil Metropolitan of Vidin chosen and Enthroned as Head of Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Dostoin / Axios !

Patriarch_Daniil-the-new-canonically-and-officially-elected-Patriarch-of-Bulgaria-and-Metropolitan-of-Sofia

Metropolitan Daniil is our Officially and canonically elected Patriarch of Bulgaria and Metropolitan of Sofia (the choice was made in a complex selection system) during a Church national Assembly on 30th of June 2024.

The whole Church rejoices as a dark cloud was over the Church as people were scared, un-worthy patriarch might be selected.

The procedure of selection of new patriarch depends on matching, certain criterias for the candidate.

According to the Ustav of Bulgarian Orthodox Church (Establishment Law document, Church established rules statues)

New Patriarch Candidate should match following criterias:

  • To have been on a cathedra as metropolitan and have governed a diocese for at least 5 years
  • To be not be younger than 50 years of age (should be 50+ years old).
  • To be distinguished within the Church to have right thoughts on the Orthodox faith and the exact observance of church order and laws.
  • To enjoy a good and honorable name both before the people and before the government of the country

Procedure for electing a patriarch

On 20th of June of 2024, after internal voting in the Holy Synod, following the Church statuses, after 42 turns of votes of individually each Bishop and Metropolitan voting for his favorite, the 3 candidates for patriarch were emitted.

1. In the first round, the candidate who collected 2/3 of the votes of the voters present wins
2. If this does not happen, a second round is reached with the two candidates who received the most votes in the first round
3. In the second round, the candidate with a simple majority wins.

The results out of the elections on the Patriarchical choice National Church assembly results were as so:

Three Patriarchical Candidates

 

Three-candidates-for-Patriarch-na-Bulgaria-as-of-20-June-2024.
 

Name Candidate 1st voting 2nd voting
Daniil Metropolitan Vidinsky 51 votes 69 votes
Grigoriy Metropolitan Vrachanski 64 votes 66 votes
Gavriil Metropolitan Lovchanski 19 vote does not qualify


Patriarch Daniel (Bulgarian: Патриарх Даниил, romanized: Patriarh Daniil) has received his monk name after Saint Daniil the Stylite, one of the most notable Stylites in the Church history.

Early life and Education

Secular name Atanas Trendafilov Nikolov (Bulgarian: Атанас Трендафилов Николов; born 2 March 1972) in a town of Smolyan. He was born in a good and healthy family, his father Trendafil Nikolov is born in a small village near Smolyan (Kremene) and served as a police officer, his mother Zlatka Nikolova used to be a  teacher in the field of Informatics in Economy scohol in Smolyan.

He completed his primary and secondary education in his hometown and later served in the military. In 1996, he began studying English Philology at Sofia University, but being grown in the spirit of love for history and the motherland Bulgaria, he soon found out field of Philosophy does not provide enough to match his wide interests in history of the world and history of Bulgaria. Being touched by Gods love and having a desire to learn more about Christianity and his homeland orthodox christianity and learn more about philosophy but from the perspective of the Orthodoxy obviously guided by Gods provide, the following year during the hard years of national financial catastrophe and church schism in 1997 he transferred to the Faculty of Theology of the same university Saint Kliment Ohridski

In 1997 he also become candidate for monk novice in the notorious monastery of Hadji Dimovo (in honour of Saint Great Martyr George)  which was at that time of Spiritual Leadership of Metropolitan Natanail of Nevrokop, where he graduated in 2002 and which was one of the best monasteries capable of giving a solid basis for true and high standard spiritual life.

Becoming a Monk

On August 7, 1999, he was ordained a monk by him and the next day he was ordained as a hierodeacon. On July 21, 2004, he was sent for obedience to the Nativity of the Virgin Monastery (Rojenski Monastery) in Rozhen, and on November 27, he was ordained a hieromonk by his diocesan bishop.
On June 1, 2006, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite.

Daniil-as-vicar-Bishop-of-Metropolitan-Joseph-of-America-of-Bulgarian-Orthodox-Church


Recognized as exceptional choosen person and Levereged to a Bishop by metropolitan Natanail Nevrokopski
Note: Nevrokov Eparchy is the eparchy in which Saint John of Rila Monastery belongs to, Metropolitan Natanail was among the most loved person in Bulgarian Church

On January 20, 2008, he was ordained as a Bishop with the title of Dragovitski and was appointed vicar of the Metropolitan of Neurokop Natanail

Nevrokopski-Metropolitan-Natanail
Metropolitan Nathanail Nevrokopsky (titled as the consience of the Bulgarian Church)

His ordination was carried out by Patriarch Maxim (the previous patriarch before Patriarch Neofit) in collaboration with Metropolitans + Ioanikiy of Sliven, + Dometian Vidinsky, + Kyril Metropolitan of Varna and Veliko Preslav, Grigoriy of Velikoturnovsky, Neofit of Rusensky, Natanail of Nevrokopsky, Gavriil Lovchansky and bishops Evlogius of Adrianople, Abbot of the Rila Monastery, Naum Stobiyski at that time Chief Secretary of The Holy Synod, Theodosius of Devol, Constantine of Marcianopol and John of Znepol (currently Metropolitan of Varna and Veliko Preslav chosen after decease of Metr. Kiril).

Hadji Dimovski monastery become also famous also for being the spiritual school for  Metropolitan Serafim of Nevrokop (chosen after's Metropolitan Natanail Nevrokopsky pass away to Christ).

On 15 June 2010, Daniel was appointed vicar of the diocese in the US, Canada and Australia of the Bulgarian Patriarchate. On 2 December 2011, the Holy Synod "took note of the letter from Metropolitan Joseph of the USA, Canada and Australia, notifying that permission had been received from the American emigration authorities to fulfill the obedience assigned by the Holy Synod to Bishop Daniel of Dragovitski who can already leave and take on responsibilities, as metropolitan vicar of the USA, Canada and Australia".
He was considered the most likely successor to Metropolitan Joseph of America (Bosakov).

Served as vicar bishop in the American, Canadian and Australian dioceses from 2011 until February 4, 2018 (for 7 years).
He was chosen to become the Metropolitan of Vidin (after the decease of Metr. Dometian) from February 4, 2018 to June 30, 2024.

In December 2018, Metropolitan Daniel condemned the Unification Council in Kyiv, calling it uncanonical. In his opinion, the actions of Patriarch Bartholomew are non-canonical, since he encroached on someone else's canonical territory.

Daniil is the originator of the introduction of religious education in the Bulgarian school and for many years worked for it to be included as a subject in the curricula.

On 21 July 2004, Daniel was sent for obedience to the Rozhen Monastery of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On 27 November of the same year he was ordained hieromonk by his diocesan bishop. On 1 June 2006, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite. On 20 January 2008, he was consecrated Bishop of Dragovitia and vicar of the diocese of Nevrokop diocese.

Metropolitan of Vidin 4 February 2018 – 30 June 2024

Metropolitan-Daniil-in-times-as-a-Metropolitan-of-Vidin

On 4 February 2018, he was elected by the Synod to the post of Metropolitan of Vidin. Vidin was the last city that fall under the Ottoman hordes, and perhaps his zeal for truthfulness and orthodoxy and the Bulgarian nation was the reason Gods providence in that hard times to have chosen him to be head of this small but historically rich and important eparchy.

In December 2018, Metropolitan Daniel condemned the Unification Council in Kyiv, calling it uncanonical. In his opinion (based on Church Canons of Ecumenical Councils), the actions of Patriarch Bartholomew are non-canonical, since he encroached on someone else's canonical territory.

https://pc-freak.net/images/Patriarch-Daniil-Bartholomeow-patriarch-of_Constantinople-guest-on-patriarhical-enthronement

Perhaps for the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the selection by the Gods providence for Daniil to be the next patriarch of Bulgaria, was quite a shock as the expected patriarch to choose was Gregory who if chosen should have been titled Gregory the II-nd as we already had a patriarch with this name , during the Second Bulgarian Kingdom  (saying this by memory), but mans thoughts are very different from Gods thoughts as the Holy scriptures says.

After the death of the former Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church Neophyte in March 2024 and respective mourning period, then Metropolitan of Vidin, Daniel was one of the three shortlisted candidates to ocuppy the patriach position together with Metropolitan Gregory of Vratsa and Metropolitan Arsenius of Sliven.[7] On 30 June 2024, at the patriarchal electoral Church-People's Council in Sofia, Metropolitan Daniel was elected the new Patriarch of Bulgaria, Metropolitan of Sofia.

Patrirach-Daniil-of-Bulgaria-Blessing-soon-after-his-selection
Picture of Patriarch Daniil Blessing, right after his selection and his "radiation" with Patriarchal Ensignias, the Patriarchical Wand stick, The Cross, Panagias …

Daniil-Metropolitan-of-Sofia-and-Patriarch-of-Bulgaria

Pre-selected moments of the enthronization of new Bulgarian Patriarch Daniil of Bulgaria by Sonya Ankova

Currently he is the canonical 4th Patriarch of the new History of the Bulgarian  Orthodox Church, currently serving as Patriarch of All Bulgaria since June 30 !

His choosing and Enthroning was surprise for many influential people in the history and was just another proof the Church of Bulgaria is Governed by Jesus Christ and the selection was made by the Holy Spirit of God itself !

 

Daniil the New Bulgarian Patrhiarch, the Forth Patriarch by Bulgarian National TV (BNT) Chapter I

Lets all say Достоин / Axios !!!, just like many has proclaimed during the official introduction of Daniil as Patriarch with a special enthronization Ceremony.
The selection day 30 of June this year was by God's providence on the Sunday of All Saints, this year this day coincided also with the Assembly of All Holy Apostles day commemoration dedicated to All Apostles of Christ (the 12, the 70th of desciples and the rest of rings of desciples  of Christ who have done apostolic mission sent by him). The Assembly of Apostles feast is always celebrated  in the Church always 1 day after the Great feast of Saint Apostle Peter and Apostle Paul's day. 
The day after on the day the first Holy Liturgy was served by tradition by the new Patriarch and it was the Summer Feast of Saint Cosmo and Damianos  and  one of the 3 major feasts of Saint John of Rila (The Return of the Holy Relics of Saint John of Rila into Bulgaria) .

Patriarch Daniil  is the youngest patriarch of Bulgaria in our history of the Bulgarian Church, currently aged 51, since its establishment in year 870 (1154 years ago) and a lot of hope by many, that his Church rulership will be mostly beneficial for the whole Church and nation and will raise up the confidence and self-esteem of the nation, and shed light on the nation and attract more of the youth, that is living a life away from the Church even though baptized,  back in the Church.

Lets pray and wish the new Patriarch Daniil, a lot of increasement of Health, Love and Faith for everyone and Wisdom to guide the flock of Christ through the hardships of current turmoiled times of desperation and confusion as well as good health to serve as a Patriarch for Many Years !

For Many and Blessed Years his Holiness Patriarch of Daniil ! Metropolitan of Sofia and Patriarch of All Bulgaria !