Multimedia

The Multimedia Applets are a collection of applets that allow you to utilize multimedia on your system. You will find applets that control sound, video, and other multimedia.

CD Player Applet

The CD Player Applet is a simple CD player that resides in the panel.

When you have an audio CD in your CD-ROM drive you can use the Play/Pause, Stop, Forward, backward and Eject buttons to control your CD for playback. Above the buttons is a small display that shows the time remaining on the track and in between the Forward and Backward buttons is the track number.

Figure 19-5. The CD Player Applet

IMPORTANT: You must have the correct access rights to your CD-ROM drive for this applet to be successful. Some systems, will normally grant you the necessary rights automatically when you log into the console. The mechanism that does this is called the pam_console. If your system doesn't give you the necessary rights to the CD-ROM, then you will need to be given those rights. If you have the root password type the following in a terminal window.
       $ su 
       $ Password: [type  in root password] 
       $ chmod a+r /dev/cdrom
       $ exit
      
If your CD-ROM is located somewhere other than /dev/cdrom make sure you change it in the commands above.

If you want more control over your CD you can right mouse click on the CD Player Applet and select Run gtcd from the pop-up menu. This will launch the GNOME CD Player which you can read more about in Chapter 20.

IMPORTANT: When the CD Player Applet is running you will not have physical control over the eject button on your CD-ROM drive. If you wish to eject the CD you must use the Eject Button on the CD Player Applet.

Mixer Applet

The Mixer Applet is a simple applet that allows you to control the volume on your system. There are two main controls on the applet: the Volume Slidebar and the Mute button. To raise or lower the volume use the slide bar with your mouse. To mute your system press the small mute button on the bottom of the applet.

Figure 19-6. The Mixer Applet

If you want more control over your system volume you can right mouse click on the Mixer Applet and select the Run gmix menu item from the pop-up menu.