Lightweight music player?

[malspa]

I've played around with a bunch of music players. I ended up using VLC for some years, then switched to Audacious. Now mostly using DeaDBeeF. All on machines that have only 2 GB RAM (I still have 3 of them). I don't recall having any problems with any of the music players I've tried on those machines. But really, just install one and try it out. Not that big of a deal to switch to something else if you don't like what you're seeing.

[seaken64]

Audacious is very good on memory. I use it on all my low powered systems. It does support "Libraries" through the file system. If you want more of a manager like Clementine than I would suggest Cantata.

Here is a thread from a couple of years ago on this subject:
viewtopic.php?f=108&t=49355&hilit=music+player

You should consider using memory better in general. If you want to stay with a memory hungry browser you will have fewer choices. But if you learn to use browser settings that use your memory better you can achieve better results. You can tweak your settings or use different browsers that use less memory. Many have the same features as FF or Chrome or use the same plugins.

If you try Fluxbox you'll be ahead of the game as far as initial memory use. Then you can tweak from there to get even less memory in use and then launch your browser and music player. I do this all the time on equipment much more limited than your's. Two core and 2GB of RAM is more than enough if you set it up right. I use Audacious or Cantata and SeaMonkey or Otter on old P-III systems with 512MB or less. On your equipment I would use MX Fluxbox and Slimjet or Chromium with Audacious.

Seaken64

[LionelZaylan]

What about writing one ourselves ?
We can use mpg123 , ogg123 etc., as backends and just develop the interface.

[kobaian]

Qmplay2 - you can think of it as a "lighter VLC" with an easy internet radio browser.

[wdscharff]

That was maybe once with QMPlay2 "easier than VLC."
My primary player is Pragha, which of course only plays music and no videos, Ram requirement around 100 mb.
VLC with the same playlist around 130mb and qmplay2 around 160mb.
It's even easier with cmus in xterm (around 50mb), cmus in xfce4-terminal is already around 80mb, the difference to Pragha would be too small for me to do without a nice GUI ;-}

Whereby the values fluctuate quite a bit >+/-10% with VLC and QMPlay2, depending on what is being played (mainly videos).

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

[radonrose]

What about writing one ourselves ?
We can use mpg123 , ogg123 etc., as backends and just develop the interface.

Is there really the need for another media player though?

As for QMPlay2, installation from the stable repos gives this error message:

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qmplay2 : Depends: libva-glx2 (>= 1.0.3) but it is not going to be installed

Which in turn won't be installed because:

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libva-glx2 : Depends: libva2 (< 2.4.0.1) but 2.6.1-1mx19+1 is to be installed

An AppImage can be found here, but this probably beats the "lightweight" criterion. I'm giving a go on most players suggested here, and QMPlay2 seemed promising.

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System:    Host: <filter> Kernel: 4.19.0-6-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.19.0-6-amd64 
           root=UUID=<filter> ro splash quiet 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2 tk: Gtk 3.24.5 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm4 dm: LightDM 1.26.0 
           Distro: MX-19.4_x64 patito feo October 21  2019 base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) 
Machine:   Type: Laptop Mobo: INTEL model: CRESCENTBAY serial: <filter> 
           UEFI [Legacy]: American Megatrends v: 5.6.5 date: 09/22/2015 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i7-5550U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Broadwell 
           family: 6 model-id: 3D (61) stepping: 4 microcode: 2F L2 cache: 4096 KiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 15961 
           Speed: 798 MHz min/max: 500/3000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 879 2: 853 3: 951 4: 902 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: Split huge pages 
           Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable 
           Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: spec_store_bypass 
           mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, 
           STIBP: conditional, RSB filling 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 6000 driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
           chip ID: 8086:1626 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
           compositor: compton v: 0.1~beta2+20150922 resolution: 1360x768~60Hz, 1360x768~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 6000 (Broadwell GT3) v: 4.5 Mesa 18.3.6 
           compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Broadwell-U Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:03.0 
           chip ID: 8086:160c 
           Device-2: Intel Wildcat Point-LP High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel 
           v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:9ca0 
           Device-3: Tenx type: USB driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid bus ID: 2-4:4 
           chip ID: 1130:1620 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-6-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet driver: r8169 
           v: kernel port: e000 bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8168 
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Ralink RT3090 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe vendor: AzureWave 
           driver: rt2800pci v: 2.3.0 port: e000 bus ID: 03:00.0 chip ID: 1814:3090 
           IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 1.82 TiB used: 1.00 TiB (55.0%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST1000LX015-1U7172 size: 931.51 GiB block size: 
           physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s rotation: 5400 rpm serial: <filter> 
           rev: SDM1 temp: 37 C scheme: GPT 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: HGST (Hitachi) model: HTS 541010B7E610 
           size: 931.51 GiB block size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B serial: <filter> 
           rev: 0204 scheme: GPT 
Partition: ID-1: / raw size: 181.64 GiB size: 177.79 GiB (97.88%) used: 41.14 GiB (23.1%) 
           fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda4 
           ID-2: /home raw size: 181.64 GiB size: 177.79 GiB (97.88%) used: 159.35 GiB (89.6%) 
           fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5 
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 22.35 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap swappiness: 15 (default 60) 
           cache pressure: 100 (default) dev: /dev/sda2 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 49.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/atom.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://debian.noc.ntua.gr/debian/ buster-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://debian.noc.ntua.gr/debian/ buster main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates main contrib non-free
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/dropbox.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://ftp.cc.uoc.gr/mirrors/linux/mx/mx/repo/ buster main non-free
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/skype-stable.list 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list 
Info:      Processes: 227 Uptime: 29m Memory: 7.70 GiB used: 2.36 GiB (30.6%) Init: SysVinit 
           v: 2.93 runlevel: 5 default: 5 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 alt: 8 clang: 7.0.1-8+deb10u2 
           Shell: quick-system-in running in: quick-system-in inxi: 3.0.36 

[tony37]

@radonrose in your case you have libva packages from the MX test repo, and you would first need to install libva-glx2 from there

[ceeslans]

Audacious is very good on memory. I use it on all my low powered systems. It does support "Libraries" through the file system. If you want more of a manager like Clementine than I would suggest Cantata.
<snip>

+1
Audacious memory consumption (private+shared RAM) comes to a little under 30 Mb only

[LU344928]

Another vote for Audacious. As others have stated it's quite lightweight and I particularly like the Winamp interface option as that was my preferred player while on that other OS.

In one way it performs better than Clementine. There's one mp3 which plays normally on Audacious but when Clementine encounters it an error message is displayed and it skips to the next track. It's just this one mp3, all others it plays no probs. The only way this track differs from the rest is that it was ripped from a video using VLC, though I'm not sure if that's the cause. There's probably an easy fix with a wave editor but I just haven't got around to trying that yet.

However, Clementine is still rather appealing and I continue to use it, just not as much. I like the (default) option to fade out when you stop before the end of a song, easier on the ears than an abrupt halt. If Audacious had that then it would be near perfect.

[pianokeyjoe]

I will concur that Audacious is the best choice for a light weight multi format MUSIC player with built in library and playlist functions that blends in perfectly with the OS, and the GUI interface. It works great on your Netbook. I respun my MX 19.3 32bit to only have Audacious as the only media player for a HP T5740 thin client machine that ONLY uses flash disk as the main hard drive BUT that device can accept a regular laptop HDD with an add on and it can also accept 4GB ram which is more than enough for a 32bit OS. But my HP netbook that is like yours, has that 32GB built in flash disk and built in 2GB ram. Without a swap space, the OS will run out of ram after playing so many files.. So the lighter the GUI and apps that run concurrently are, the better off you are. Finding the lightest MP3 player is all well and good and mpg123 with a script is as light as you can get, but the hardware limitation of the NETBOOK, is the main hurdle. In the end, you will also run into issues with the built in BATTERY too. Like with modern Apple Macbooks and ipads, this too will be limiting factor. But for the mean time as a fin project for listening to music while you work, it will do fine with MX 19.3 and audacious in fluxbox as is suggested here. I am just throwing that warning for later issues with the hardware, not the software..