IceS 2 is a source client for a streaming server. It records audio from an audio device (sound card) and/or from audio output of a computer application, like a media player.

Ices2 encodes in the ogg/Vorbis format, and is able to send the encoded stream to an IceCast 2 streaming server.

Ices2 is available for GNU/Linux OS and Macintosh OS. You can download it from the Icecast homepage.

IceS v2 is not a graphical application, it's purpose is to stream whatever it is given into a stream for feeding to the Icecast streaming server. It does however require the following to be correctly installed on a GNU/Linux OS:

• libogg available at www.vorbis.com
• libvorbis available at www.vorbis.com
• libxml2 available at xmlsoft
• libshout 2 available at The Icecast site

Several inputs currently exist, but some maybe dependant on certain platforms or if certain drivers or libraries are available.

• OSS - Open Sound System. Typically used on linux based systems to get live input from a soundcard.
• ALSA - Advanced Linux Sound Architecture. Like OSS but with various improvements for linux based systems.
• stdinpcm - Uses standard input to receive PCM audio.
• playlist - Uses a playlist to read audio files for processing.
• sun - like OSS, but for Sun Solaris, also works for OpenBSD

The configuration of IceS is done via an XML based config file. Which you supply as an argument to the program at invocation time. For example:

user@host:~$ ices /home/user/ices.xml

Ices 2 has a single configuration file, written in XML format. You can directly choose your settings editing this file, sving it and then launching it.

There are different variables that you can change in the ices2 XML configuration file; a minimal configuration however requires proper settings for the following variables:

• <name>
• <module>
• <hostname>
• <port>
• <password>
• <mountpoint>
• <quality>
• <samplerate>
• <channels>

You can find here a fully commented version of the ices2 configuration file, based on ALSA settings, where, with ant text editor, you can simply change the settings to meet your requirements, and save to the hard disk and finally launch with:

open with a text editor the ices-alsa.xml file, fully commented.

• Further in the topic

First of all, you'll have to install Darwinports on your Mac. You can download the package at the Darwinports homepage.

Once installed, update the ports so that they are current on your Mac. To do this, open a terminal window and check the project out of the CVS repository with the following command and enter the root password when prompted:

% sudo port -d selfupdate

Password:

Now that Darwinports is installed and functional, we can go further with the Ices2 install. In a terminal window and while online, type the following and hit return:

% sudo port install ices2

Password:

You will then be prompted for your root password, which you should enter. You may have to wait for a few minutes while the software is retrieved from the network and installed for you. Y ou should see something that looks similar to:

---> Fetching ices2

---> Verifying checksum for ices2

---> Extracting ices2

---> Configuring ices2

---> Building ices2 with target all

 

---> Staging ices2 into destroot

 

---> Installing ices2

Be sure not ot close the terminal window while Darwin Ports is working. Once the software has been installed, you can find further information about using ices2 with these commands:

% man ices2

% apropos ices2

% which ices2

% locate ices2

Ices2 is present in all the major GNU/Linux distributions. If you want to self compile the software, you can download the source code from the Ices2 home page.

If you are a Debian (Ubuntu, Knoppix, ...) user, you can simply open a terminal, as root or with sudo, and write:

root@host:~$ apt-get update

root@host:~$ apt-get install ices2

Similary, with a Gentoo distribution you can directly download the "emerge" packet, or the ".rpm" packet for a Red Hat distribution.