Nevertheless, I’ve produced debs for a packaged version of squeal.  This is pre-alpha.  It’s got bugs,  and there are missing features that need to be present in a release version.  The package works on Ubuntu Karmic (9.10) and looks ok on Lucid (10.04) too I think, although I’ve not tested so much on that.

It’s usable though – it plays music from spotify reliably on my squeezebox.

Things it doesn’t do:

• Support multiple squeezeboxes
• Have lots of UI sugar – the UI is pretty good, but it needs more work
• Support every squeezebox ever made – I can only test with what I have
• Do everything the existing squeezecenter does.  It doesn’t scrobble, it doesn’t support internet radio, it doesn’t do loads of things.  There’s a plugin architecture though, and adding new features like this should be easy – anyone who wants to add these sorts of features, let me know and I’ll point you in the right direction.

You are welcome to use it and try it out, and if you have issues with it please raise tickets on the github project issues page.

To install the package, follow these installation instructions.

UPDATE: The repository index got buggered somehow, so you won’t have got a package if you followed those instructions.  It’s working now.

It’s approaching being useful, but until it’s packaged it’s not something we can support, and we don’t want to waste time with support issues on something that isn’t supportable.

Hang on in there and I hope we’ll get a release out soon with minimal but useful functionality and a passable installation system.

The software works (we have music!) but it’s not ready for the prime time yet.

Watch this space for more information.  You can follow us on Twitter too!