Enable Cover-Preview for Audio Files for KDE's Dolphin in Kubuntu 13.04

Unfortunately cover art preview is still not included in KDE (see Bug-report), you can enable that feature by yourself by building and installing the Preview Plugin of RazrFalcon from kde-look.org.

So, if you ever wanted a cover art preview for audio in Dolphin, e.g. like Nautilus has, here's my guide to make it work in Kubuntu (13.04):

1. Install the necessary dependencies for building:
   
   sudo apt-get install cmake automake kde-workspace-dev libtag1-dev libqt4-dev libflac++6 libflac++-dev libtag-extras-dev
   
   
2. Get the sources of the plugin:
   
   wget http://kde-look.org/CONTENT/content-files/145088-AudioThumbs-0.2.tar.gz
   
   
3. and create a folder for it to unpack it:
   
   mkdir ~/audiothumbs;
   tar -zxvf 145088-AudioThumbs-0.2.tar.gz -C ~/audiothumbs
   
   
4. Cd into the folder with sources and create a build dir and cd into it:
   
   cd ~/audiothumbs; mkdir build; cd build
   
   
5. Now prepare building with cmake:
   
   cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=`kde4-config --prefix` ..
   
   
6. Finally compile it with:
   
   make
   
   
7. and install it with:
   
   sudo make install
   
   
8. Update KDE's settings to find the new plugin:
   
   kbuildsycoca4
   
   
9. End all open Dolphin windows and reopen it. Go to "Control -> Configure Dolphin... -> General -> Previews" and enable "Show previews for Audio files"
   
   
10. Now move to your folder with music and enable preview for the folder and enjoy the cover art in dolphin
    

Convert APE to FLAC in Ubuntu 13.04 using Libav

If you have a file in the lossless APE format and want to convert it without installing the MAC codec, you can easily do this in Ubuntu using Libav.

Just install av tools:

sudo apt-get install libav-tools

and convert the your file/s:

avcon -i inputApeFile.ape outputFlacFile.flac

That's one easy of many ways to convert APE files in Ubuntu.