platterpus 0.4.0

A secure, EAC-style CD ripper for Linux (FLAC, WAV, WavPack, MP3)

Platterpus

A secure, EAC-style CD ripper for Linux (FLAC, WAV, WavPack, MP3). Aims for EAC-equivalent (Exact Audio Copy) archival quality on Linux, packaged as a single-file AppImage. It drives the whipper and cyanrip ripping backends and verifies every rip against AccurateRip and CTDB.

Status: v0.3.x — public pre-release. Implemented end-to-end with 1,000+ tests (including a full-pipeline end-to-end test) at ~93% branch coverage, and validated on real Bazzite hardware: a full 16-track rip through the published AppImage, with every track's Test CRC matching its Copy CRC. Highlights since v0.1.0: no-terminal first-run setup (the AppImage adds itself to your menu; a guided wizard installs the ripping stack), read-offset auto-detect from the bundled AccurateRip drive list (no disc needed), a selectable cyanrip backend alongside whipper, multiple output formats (FLAC is always the lossless master; WavPack/MP3/WAV are derived from it), goal presets (Fast verified / Archival exact / Portable) that anchor the settings to your intent, an at-a-glance verification verdict (AccurateRip + CTDB) with a machine-readable JSON rip report written beside the log, a per-drive read-offset trust line showing where the offset came from and how confident we are, true in-app updates (download → checksum-verify → self-restart), and backend-independent cover art from the Cover Art Archive. This is an early release for wider testing — expect rough edges, and please open an issue for anything you hit.

At a glance

• Linux only. Primary target is Bazzite KDE Plasma 6; should work on any modern desktop Linux running Qt 6 (Fedora, Arch, Ubuntu, Tumbleweed).
• Runs whipper inside Distrobox. The GUI calls the host-exported whipper binary; it never bundles whipper or tries to install it. This is intentional — see PLANNING.md §8 KDD-07.
• Single-file AppImage for the GUI itself; no system-level installs required.
• Bypasses whipper's interactive prompt by querying MusicBrainz directly and passing --release-id to whipper. You never see a terminal prompt.
• Choose your output format — FLAC (default), WavPack, MP3, or WAV. FLAC is always produced as the lossless master; other formats are derived from it, so you never lose the archival copy. See Audio output.
• Distribution model: AppImage primary, pipx secondary.

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Installation

Easiest — download one file, no terminal (recommended)

You don't need the command line. Download the GUI, double-click, and it sets itself up by asking a couple of questions.

1. Download platterpus-x86_64.AppImage from the Releases page (one file).
2. Allow it to run (a one-time Linux step — a downloaded program isn't runnable until you say so):
   • KDE (Dolphin): right-click the file → Properties → Permissions → tick Is executable → OK.
   • GNOME (Files): right-click → Properties → Permissions → enable Allow executing file as program.
3. Double-click it. On first launch it will offer to:
   • add Platterpus to your applications menu (so next time you just click it in the menu), and
   • set up the ripping tool — a guided wizard installs everything ripping needs (it may ask for your password once; on Bazzite/Silverblue it's instant). No terminal.
4. Then in the app: Tools → Set up drive… — your drive's read offset is filled in automatically; click Save offset. Insert a CD and Start.

That's the whole thing: one download, a couple of clicks, answer the prompts. (Updating later = download the new AppImage and replace the old one.)

Why a wizard? Ripping runs through whipper inside a small container so it never touches your system (why). The first-run wizard sets that container up for you — the same work the scripts below do by hand.

Quickstart for testers / scripted install

Prefer one command? This installs the host stack (Distrobox + whipper) and the GUI, plus shortcuts:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rmccann-hub/Platterpus/main/install.sh | bash

Prefer to download and run it yourself? Grab install.sh from the Releases page, then bash install.sh. Useful flags: --dry-run (preview), --no-host (GUI only, host stack already set up), --appimage PATH (use a local AppImage). First run takes ~20–40 min because it builds the container.

Then, inside the GUI: Tools → Set up drive… to calibrate your drive's read offset (one time), insert a CD, and rip. To remove everything later, use the Uninstall Platterpus shortcut (or see Uninstalling).

Already have whipper + Distrobox set up (e.g. re-installing on the same machine, or installing the GUI on a second box that shares the stack)? Skip the host build and just add the GUI: curl -fsSL …/install.sh | bash -s -- --no-host (or bash install.sh --no-host).

Why two pieces under the hood? The GUI can't rip without the host stack — that's by design (why). install.sh just sets up both for you; you can still do each step by hand (below).

Supported distributions

The one-line installer works on any modern desktop Linux. It auto-detects your package manager to install Distrobox + podman; everything ripping-related runs in a Fedora container, so your host distro only needs Distrobox and a container backend.

Distro family	Auto-handled by the installer?	Notes
Fedora / Bazzite / Silverblue / RHEL / CentOS	✅ Fully	Bazzite & Silverblue ship Distrobox + podman already; nothing extra.
Ubuntu / Debian (24.04+)	✅ Fully	Installs podman too (the distrobox package only recommends it).
Linux Mint / Pop!_OS / elementary	✅ Fully	Ubuntu-based — same path as Ubuntu/Debian.
Arch / Manjaro / EndeavourOS	✅ Fully	Installs distrobox + podman via pacman.
openSUSE Leap / Tumbleweed	✅ Fully	Installs distrobox + podman via zypper.
Other / older distros	⚠️ Fallback	Uses Distrobox's official installer. Make sure podman (or docker) is present first.

If the installer can't set up the host stack on your distro, do the manual steps once — they work everywhere and are the source of truth.

The rest of this section is the long form — read it if the quickstart hits a snag or you'd rather do each step by hand.

Fast path — one command (Steps 1-4 + 7)

setup-host.sh automates the host setup: it installs Distrobox (if needed), creates the ripping container, installs whipper + flac inside it, exports the binaries to your host, then clones this repo and runs dev-setup.sh (venv + editable install + app-menu shortcut).

# From a fresh clone:
bash setup-host.sh

# …or straight from the web (no clone needed first):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rmccann-hub/Platterpus/main/setup-host.sh | bash

Useful flags: --dry-run (print every command, change nothing), --yes (skip confirmations), --no-gui (host stack only). It's idempotent — safe to re-run. It does not calibrate your drive (do that in the GUI: Tools → Set up drive…) or install Picard (the GUI offers that on first run).

Prefer to do it by hand, or the script hit a snag? The manual steps below are the source of truth.

Manual steps

There are five things to set up. Plan on 20-40 minutes the first time. Once it's done, you don't touch most of it again.

Step	What	Why
1	Install Distrobox	Provides an isolated Fedora environment for whipper
2	Create a ripping container	Where whipper actually lives
3	Install whipper + flac in the container	The tools that do the ripping
4	Export them to the host	So Platterpus can find them
5	Detect your drive's read offset	One-time calibration for accurate rips
6	Install MusicBrainz Picard (optional)	Manual tag editing for unknown discs
7	Install Platterpus	This project

If a step doesn't behave as written: skip to the Troubleshooting section near the end of this README. The common surprises — missing pkg_resources, missing whipper.conf, HTTPS clone authentication failure — all have entries there.

Step 1 — Install Distrobox

Distrobox lets you run a different Linux distribution's tools alongside your host system. It's the recommended way to run whipper on immutable distros like Bazzite.

Distrobox needs a container backend — podman (recommended) or docker. Bazzite, Fedora Silverblue, and most atomic distros ship podman already. On Ubuntu/Debian it isn't guaranteed, so install it alongside Distrobox (the commands below do this). If distrobox create later fails with "Cannot find a container manager", a missing backend is why — sudo apt install podman fixes it.

On Bazzite (already pre-installed):

distrobox --version

If you see a version, skip to Step 2.

On Fedora / Fedora Silverblue:

sudo dnf install distrobox

On Arch / Manjaro:

sudo pacman -S distrobox

On Ubuntu / Debian (24.04+):

sudo apt install distrobox podman

(Installing podman explicitly here is the Ubuntu-specific gotcha — the distrobox package only recommends it, so on minimal installs it can be absent and distrobox create then fails.)

On Linux Mint / Pop!_OS / elementary OS:

These are Ubuntu-based, so the Ubuntu command works:

sudo apt install distrobox podman

On openSUSE Leap / Tumbleweed:

sudo zypper install distrobox podman

(If your openSUSE version doesn't package distrobox yet, use the one-line installer under "older systems" below — but install podman with zypper first, since the installer doesn't pull a backend.)

On older systems:

Distrobox has a one-line installer:

curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/89luca89/distrobox/main/install | sudo sh

Verify with distrobox --version.

Step 2 — Create the ripping container

Create a Fedora-based container named ripping. The brief specifies Fedora 40; later Fedora versions also work — substitute :41 or :latest if you prefer.

distrobox create --name ripping --image registry.fedoraproject.org/fedora-toolbox:latest

Distrobox will prompt to pull the image — type Y and press Enter. The download is about 600 MB the first time. Once it finishes:

distrobox enter ripping

You're now inside the container. The prompt should change to show you're in the ripping environment. To leave at any time, type exit.

Why :latest and not :40? The brief specifies Fedora 40; newer Fedora releases (41, 42, 43, 44…) also work and ship newer security fixes. :latest resolves to whatever's current. If you specifically want to pin to Fedora 40 to match the brief exactly, swap :latest for :40.

Step 3 — Install whipper and metaflac

Inside the container (your prompt should still show you're in ripping):

sudo dnf install whipper flac python3-setuptools

The python3-setuptools package is needed because whipper imports pkg_resources from setuptools, and recent Fedora releases (44+) don't pull it in automatically. Without it you'll see a ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pkg_resources' traceback when you try to run whipper.

Verify both tools are installed:

whipper --version
metaflac --version

whipper should report 0.10.0 or newer. metaflac is part of the flac package.

You'll see a deprecation warning above the version number that looks like this:

UserWarning: pkg_resources is deprecated as an API.

That's normal. Whipper itself uses an old setuptools API; the warning is informational, the version number that follows means whipper still works. The GUI suppresses this when it calls whipper as a subprocess.

Step 4 — Export the binaries to your host

Still inside the container, export both binaries:

distrobox-export --bin /usr/bin/whipper
distrobox-export --bin /usr/bin/metaflac

This creates wrapper scripts at ~/.local/bin/whipper and ~/.local/bin/metaflac on the host (not in the container). Those wrappers transparently enter the container when called, so from the host's perspective whipper looks like a regular installed program.

Now leave the container:

exit

You're back on the host. Verify the wrappers work:

which whipper
# → /home/<you>/.local/bin/whipper

whipper --version
# → whipper 0.10.0

If which returns nothing, your ~/.local/bin isn't on $PATH. Most desktop Linux setups put it there automatically; if yours doesn't, add this to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Then open a new terminal.

Step 5 — Detect your drive's read offset

Every optical drive reads audio slightly off from where it "should" — by a positive or negative number of samples. For bit-perfect archival rips that match AccurateRip's database, whipper needs to know your drive's offset.

Before you start: insert a commercial audio CD into your optical drive (any common pressing — Pink Floyd, Beatles, Metallica, anything not a CD-R or burned mix). Both commands below need a real CD that's in AccurateRip's database — most retail discs are.

No commercial CD handy (e.g. you only have CD-Rs)? You can skip this terminal step and set the offset from inside the GUI instead: the drive-setup wizard (offered on first launch, or Tools → Set up drive…) has a manual-entry field. Look your drive's offset up at accuraterip.com/driveoffsets.htm and type it in — the GUI applies it via whipper --offset without touching whipper.conf.

The settings whipper learns about your drive live in ~/.config/whipper/whipper.conf. This file does not exist yet — it's created automatically the first time whipper writes to it (i.e., when you run one of the commands below). Looking for it before that point will turn up nothing, and that's normal.

Where ~ actually is on Bazzite/Silverblue: ~ for your user expands to /var/home/<username> (not /home/<username>). ~/.config/whipper/whipper.conf is the same as /var/home/<username>/.config/whipper/whipper.conf — just different ways of writing it. Distrobox passes your host home through to the container, so the file lives in one place visible from both sides.

The easy way — let whipper figure it out:

whipper drive analyze
whipper offset find

Both commands probe your drive and write results into ~/.config/whipper/whipper.conf automatically, creating the file (and the ~/.config/whipper/ directory) on first write.

offset find is the longer-running one (a few minutes). It will eject and re-ingest the disc several times — that's expected, not a malfunction. Don't interrupt it, and don't close the terminal until it returns to a prompt.

After they finish, confirm the file landed:

ls -la ~/.config/whipper/
cat ~/.config/whipper/whipper.conf

You should see a [drive:...] section with defeats_cache and read_offset values.

The manual way — look up your drive in the AccurateRip offset list, then create or edit ~/.config/whipper/whipper.conf by hand:

mkdir -p ~/.config/whipper
${EDITOR:-nano} ~/.config/whipper/whipper.conf

Add a section like:

[drive:PIONEER :BD-RW   BDR-209D:1.51]
defeats_cache = True
read_offset = 667

The section header is [drive:<vendor> :<model>:<firmware>]. Get the exact string (including odd spacing) from whipper drive list:

whipper drive list
# → drive: /dev/sr0, vendor: PIONEER, model: BD-RW   BDR-209D, release: 1.51

The pattern is drive:<vendor> :<model>:<release> — note the space after the vendor name and before the colon.

defeats_cache = True means your drive supports the audio-cache defeat command (essential for accurate ripping). If whipper drive analyze couldn't confirm this for your drive, leave the line off — whipper will warn but still rip.

Step 6 — Install MusicBrainz Picard (optional)

Picard is what you'll use to manually fix tags for discs MusicBrainz doesn't recognize. The GUI installs it as a Flatpak (it auto-launches it via flatpak run), and offers to do so automatically when you first need it.

Ubuntu/Debian prerequisite: the GUI installs Picard through Flatpak, which isn't installed on Ubuntu by default. Install it once and the GUI's auto-install works as-is afterwards (the GUI's install command points at a .flatpakref that adds the Flathub remote for you, so you don't need a separate flatpak remote-add step):

sudo apt install flatpak

Bazzite, Fedora Silverblue, and most KDE/GNOME spins already ship Flatpak. Picard is optional — if you skip it, the GUI simply lists it as "Optional (not installed)" and never nags; you only need it for hand-editing tags on unrecognized discs.

To pre-install Picard yourself rather than letting the GUI do it:

flatpak install --user flathub org.musicbrainz.Picard

Verify:

flatpak run org.musicbrainz.Picard --version

Platterpus will auto-launch Picard with the rip folder when you mark a disc as Unknown Album, if you enable the toggle in Settings.

Step 7 — Install Platterpus

Recommended: Method A (AppImage). As of v0.1.0 it's published as a downloadable release asset — this is the simplest path for most people. Method B (pipx from PyPI) publishes automatically on each tagged release (Trusted Publishing); if it's not on PyPI yet, install from a checkout (see Method B). Method C runs the GUI from a source clone and is aimed at developers.

Pick one of the methods below.

Method A — AppImage (recommended for end users)

Download the latest platterpus-x86_64.AppImage from the Releases page, then:

chmod +x platterpus-x86_64.AppImage
./platterpus-x86_64.AppImage

That's it — the AppImage bundles Python, Qt, and the GUI's dependencies, so there's nothing else to install on the GUI side. (You still need the host stack for ripping to work — the first-run wizard sets it up.)

Menu entry / desktop icon: you don't need to do anything — on its first run the AppImage offers to add itself to your applications menu (and copies its icon), moving itself to ~/Applications so it lives with your other apps instead of staying in Downloads. Just say yes. (The old install-appimage.sh helper still exists for scripted setups and offers an --uninstall, but it's no longer required. AppImageLauncher also works if you prefer.)

Updates: use Help → Check for updates… — if a newer release exists the app downloads it in the background, verifies it against the release's published checksum, installs it to ~/Applications, and restarts itself. (Releases also ship a .zsync file and the AppImage embeds standard update-information, so AppImageUpdate delta updates work too, for those who use it.)

On a FUSE-less host (rare on desktop Linux, but some minimal setups): run with APPIMAGE_EXTRACT_AND_RUN=1 ./platterpus-x86_64.AppImage, or see AppImage won't launch in Troubleshooting.

Method B — pipx (recommended for technical users)

pipx installs Python applications in isolated environments and adds them to your PATH.

Install pipx if you don't have it (Bazzite ships with it):

sudo dnf install pipx     # Fedora / Bazzite
# or
sudo apt install pipx     # Ubuntu / Debian

Then install Platterpus:

pipx install platterpus

Releases publish the wheel to PyPI automatically (via Trusted Publishing on each tagged release). If pipx install platterpus can't find it yet — e.g. before the first PyPI-published release — install from a local checkout instead: git clone … then pipx install . from inside the repo.

Run with platterpus from any terminal.

Method C — From source (for developers)

The repository is public, so no authentication is needed to clone over HTTPS. (If you plan to push changes, set up SSH or gh auth login — but for just running from source, a plain clone works.)

Clone and install:

git clone https://github.com/rmccann-hub/Platterpus.git
cd Platterpus

The default main branch contains the full source — no branch switch needed.

From here you have two options.

Option 1 — one-shot setup script (recommended):

bash dev-setup.sh
source .venv/bin/activate
platterpus

dev-setup.sh creates a venv, upgrades pip, and runs pip install -e . for you. Run it again later (after git pull) to refresh dependencies if anything's been added.

Option 2 — manual steps (same effect, if you want to see each one):

# Create a virtual environment. On Bazzite, Fedora 38+, Ubuntu 24.04+,
# and other distros with PEP 668 enforcement, this is required — a
# plain `pip install` against the system Python will refuse with
# "error: externally-managed-environment".
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

# pip in a fresh venv is usually outdated; upgrade before installing
# anything else. Avoids "WARNING: ... newer version of pip available."
pip install --upgrade pip

# Install the package in editable mode. From now on, anything you
# edit in src/platterpus/ is picked up the next time you run the GUI.
pip install -e .

# Run the GUI. The console-script entry point lives in .venv/bin
# (added to PATH by the `activate` line above).
platterpus

To re-enter the same environment in a future terminal session:

cd ~/Platterpus
source .venv/bin/activate
platterpus

To leave the venv: deactivate.

To build an AppImage from your local checkout:

pip install --user build "python-appimage>=1.4,<2"
bash build/build_appimage.sh

The resulting platterpus-x86_64.AppImage appears at the repo root. See build/python-appimage/README.md for details.

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Ripping backends: whipper (default) and cyanrip (experimental)

The GUI drives one of two ripping engines, selected in Settings → Ripping backend:

• whipper (default) — the engine this project was built around; everything below assumes it unless said otherwise.
• cyanrip (experimental) — an actively-maintained alternative (cyanreg/cyanrip). The practical reason it exists here: whipper's cd-paranoia has a known bug at read offsets over 587 samples that can fail tracks (e.g. the Pioneer BDR-209D's +667); cyanrip applies the offset with its own paranoia and doesn't have it. Switching the backend offers to install cyanrip into the same ripping container automatically (Fedora doesn't package it; the GUI uses a GPG-checked COPR).

The UI is the same either way — same drive picker, same track table, same naming templates, same output folder. Settings that only apply to one backend grey out (with a tooltip explaining why) instead of disappearing, and the GUI always does the MusicBrainz lookup itself, whichever engine rips. Per-track progress and cover-art fetching now work on both backends (cover art is backend-independent — the GUI fetches it from the Cover Art Archive regardless of engine). The remaining cyanrip caveat: a restart is needed after switching backends. Status lives in TASKS.md item 9.

Audio output: what you get, what you don't

Output format is chosen in Settings → Output format: FLAC (default), WavPack (.wv), MP3, or WAV. Every rip produces FLAC first — the lossless archival master — and for any other choice the GUI keeps that FLAC and creates the selected format alongside it (a quick post-rip transcode via ffmpeg). So you never lose the lossless master, whatever you pick.

Format	Lossless?	Tags	Cover art	Use it for
FLAC	✅ (verified bit-perfect)	✅	✅ embedded	The archive. The master copy.
WavPack (.wv)	✅	✅	folder cover.jpg¹	A lossless library in a different container
MP3	❌ best-quality VBR (~245 kbps)	✅	✅ embedded	Phones, cars, portability
WAV	✅	❌	❌	Raw PCM interchange only (the GUI warns)

¹ The front cover always lands in the album folder as an image file; ffmpeg can't embed art inside a .wv (a known limitation — see docs/mp3-wav-support.md). For embedded lossless art, FLAC is the choice.

The flag-by-flag detail below is about how each format is encoded.

(The encoder details for FLAC describe what the default whipper backend hardcodes; the cyanrip backend encodes FLAC through FFmpeg, also at maximum quality.)

FLAC (default — the lossless archival master)

Whipper invokes the flac binary with this exact command, once per track:

flac --silent --verify -o <outfile> -f <infile>

Flag	What it does	Archival implication
--silent	Suppress per-file progress chatter	Cosmetic
--verify	Re-decode the FLAC and confirm it matches the input	The archival-quality bit. Whipper proves every track is bit-perfect reversible.
-o <outfile>	Output path	Where the FLAC lands
-f	Force-overwrite	Required because whipper pre-creates the output file

You'll notice no -0 through -8 compression flag. Whipper relies on flac's default, which is compression level 5 (balanced — slower than -0, smaller than -0, looser than -8).

Whipper's compression level isn't configurable from whipper.conf or any whipper CLI flag — it's baked into whipper/program/flac.py upstream. So instead of trying to change how whipper encodes, the GUI offers an optional post-rip re-encode: turn on Settings → "Re-compress FLACs" (off by default) and after each whipper rip the GUI re-encodes every output FLAC at -8 --verify, equivalent to:

# What the "Re-compress FLACs" toggle does, per file, after a rip.
# -8 = max preset; -e -p = exhaustive search (a bit smaller still, much slower
# to encode, but NO extra decode cost); --verify proves it's bit-identical.
flac -8 -e -p --verify -f -o <tmp> <file> && mv <tmp> <file>

It runs in the background (never freezes the window), swaps each file in atomically (a failure leaves the original untouched), and flac preserves the tags and embedded cover art when it re-encodes, so nothing is lost. The toggle is greyed out for the cyanrip backend, which already encodes FLAC at maximum compression — there's nothing to re-compress there.

Why it's off by default — the playback-cost tradeoff. Higher compression isn't free at decode time: -8 uses a higher LPC prediction order (-l 12) than whipper's default -5 (-l 8), and the decoder applies that prediction per sample — so a -8 file costs a little more CPU/battery to play back. On a modern phone or PC that's negligible; on low-power portable music players it can matter (this was a real consideration in the ~2015 era and is the reason the default leaves files at whipper's -5). Both levels stay inside the FLAC "Subset", so it's a decode-effort difference, never a compatibility one. If your library lives on phones/portable players, leaving this off is the lighter choice; if it lives on a NAS/PC, turning it on trades that small playback cost for ~5% smaller files.

Why isn't this a bigger deal otherwise? All FLAC compression levels are lossless. -0 and -8 produce identical decoded audio — only file size (and decode effort) differ. Whipper's --verify (and the re-encode's) proves the bit-perfect property regardless of level. The choice of -5 vs -8 is purely a size-vs-playback-cost tradeoff; archival fidelity is the same.

The full FLAC encoder reference, including every flag whipper isn't using, is at xiph.org/flac/documentation_tools_flac.html.

WavPack, MP3, and WAV (derived from the FLAC master)

When you pick a non-FLAC format, after each rip the GUI transcodes the FLAC master to your choice with ffmpeg, keeping the FLAC. It runs in the background (never freezes the window), writes each file atomically, and never costs you the lossless master — a transcode failure just means you still have the FLAC to retry from. Per file:

# WavPack — lossless, tags carried over (APEv2)
ffmpeg -i <file>.flac -map_metadata 0 -map 0:a -c:a wavpack <file>.wv

# MP3 — best-quality VBR (== lame -V0, ~245 kbps), tags + embedded cover
ffmpeg -i <file>.flac -map_metadata 0 -id3v2_version 3 -c:v copy \
       -c:a libmp3lame -q:a 0 <file>.mp3

# WAV — raw 16-bit PCM (no tags or cover art — RIFF can't hold them)
ffmpeg -i <file>.flac -map 0:a -c:a pcm_s16le <file>.wav

ffmpeg is the single encoder dependency for all three (it's already present wherever the cyanrip backend is — cyanrip is built on FFmpeg), detected through the same dependency self-management subsystem as everything else — no bespoke install code. The MP3 setting follows HydrogenAudio's Recommended LAME: VBR -V0 (joint-stereo on), the highest-quality VBR. Design + the full encoder-argument rationale: docs/mp3-wav-support.md.

Compared to EAC's bit-perfect settings

The widely-cited Perfect CD Ripping to FLAC with Exact Audio Copy guide is the gold standard for archival rips on Windows. Here's how this GUI's pipeline maps to it. Full audit in PLANNING.md KDD-13.

Matches the guide today:

• Secure read mode (cdparanoia, whipper's default)
• Defeat audio cache (per-drive, set by whipper drive analyze)
• Read offset calibration (per-drive, set by whipper offset find)
• AccurateRip verification (whipper queries; we render the v1/v2 confidence)
• High error-recovery quality (cdparanoia is always at maximum)
• No normalization
• FLAC --verify (proves bit-perfect reversibility)
• .log file written after every rip
• Gap detection in "Secure" mode (cdrdao)
• Status-report checksum (SHA-256)

Not configurable from the GUI (whipper hardcodes these upstream):

• FLAC compression level. EAC's guide says -8 --best; whipper uses flac's default (-5). Archival quality is identical at any compression level — only file size differs. Turn on Settings → "Re-compress FLACs" to get -8 via an optional post-rip re-encode (see "FLAC (v1)" above); cyanrip already encodes at maximum compression.

Not possible on Linux today:

• C2 error pointers. Cdparanoia is the Linux secure-read primitive; it doesn't use C2.
• A tracker-accepted EAC-signed log. The EAC log checksum algorithm has been reverse-engineered, so a valid checksum is technically reproducible — but signing our log as if Exact Audio Copy produced it is forging the rip's provenance (a bannable "faked log" on gazelle trackers), and we won't do it. We rely on the open, tool-agnostic trust signals instead: AccurateRip + CTDB verification and an honest log. See docs/eac-log-and-repair-feasibility.md.
• AccurateRip submission (writing new entries to the database). Blocked by AccurateRip's operators, who accept submissions only from EAC and dBpoweramp. Verification (reading) works fine — see "AccurateRip" in the audit above.

Now in Settings (surfaced in the Settings dialog):

• Goal preset — Fast verified / Archival exact / Portable snaps the format/verification/quality controls to your intent; editing any of them switches the goal to Custom
• Output format — FLAC (the lossless master, always produced), WavPack, MP3, or WAV
• Cover art — fetch + embed in FLAC, save next to it, or both (defaults to embed)
• Force overread into lead-out
• Max retries per track (default 5)
• Keep going on track failure
• Re-rip until reads match — for damaged/marginal discs, re-read each track until N passes agree on the checksum (cyanrip's -Z; off by default). cyanrip-only — greyed out under whipper, which has no equivalent.
• Verify with CTDB after a rip (a second, whole-disc verification path alongside AccurateRip; experimental until the CRC is hardware-validated)
• Verify FLACs after a rip, and optionally re-compress them to -8
• Continue ripping CD-Rs
• Auto-eject after a successful rip, plus read-offset calibration via the drive-setup wizard

After a rip, the results pane shows an at-a-glance verification verdict (green = every track verified against AccurateRip, amber = partial, grey = not in the database) above the per-track table, plus the CTDB result.

See TASKS.md under "EAC bit-perfect parity gaps" for the history.

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First run

When you launch Platterpus for the first time:

1. Dependency check. The GUI verifies whipper, metaflac, and Picard are reachable. If anything's missing, it pops a dialog with one of three resolutions:

   • Auto-install (Picard): one OK and it runs flatpak install --user.
   • Pending installs: a checklist for items that need batching or confirmation.
   • Manual install: a copyable search string for items like libdiscid that need root + reboot.

2. Drive offset (first launch only). whipper can't rip until your drive's read offset is set. If none is configured yet, the GUI offers the drive-setup wizard once. You can auto-detect it (insert a commercial CD that's in AccurateRip) or enter it by hand (look your drive up at accuraterip.com/driveoffsets.htm — handy if you only have CD-Rs). It's a one-time, dismissible prompt; afterwards re-run it anytime from Tools → Set up drive….

3. Pick a drive. The dropdown at the top of the window lists everything whipper drive list returns. Click Refresh if you plug in a drive after launch.

4. Insert a CD. The GUI fetches the disc's MusicBrainz ID, looks it up, and shows the match status. If multiple releases match, a picker dialog appears (this is the GUI's substitute for whipper's interactive TTY prompt — you'll never see whipper itself ask you anything).

5. Edit metadata. The track table is editable. Fix any tags that look wrong before you rip.

6. Click "Start rip." Progress and per-track AccurateRip confidence appear as the rip runs. You can cancel mid-rip.

7. View the log. When the rip finishes, the "View log" button opens the rip log in your default text editor.

For discs MusicBrainz doesn't recognize, use the Unknown Album flow from the menu — the GUI rips with placeholder Track NN tags and optionally launches Picard for you to fix them up.

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Troubleshooting

pip install fails with "does not appear to be a Python project"

Make sure you're in the cloned repository directory (where pyproject.toml lives) and that the clone completed:

ls pyproject.toml    # should exist

Then re-run pip install -e . (or bash dev-setup.sh).

sudo dnf install gh fails on Bazzite

Bazzite is an immutable distro — the host filesystem is read-only and dnf only works inside containers. Two paths:

• Use SSH instead (recommended for one-time auth setup). See Method C in the install instructions above.
• Or install gh system-wide via rpm-ostree: rpm-ostree install gh && systemctl reboot. Requires a reboot. After the reboot, gh auth login will work.

pip install fails with "error: externally-managed-environment"

Bazzite, Fedora 38+, Ubuntu 24.04+, and other distros now ship a PEP 668 marker that blocks pip install against the system Python. The fix is to install into a virtual environment, which Method C already does for you:

cd Platterpus
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .

If you tried pip install -e . without activating a venv first, no harm done — re-run with the venv active and it'll work.

git clone fails with "Password authentication is not supported"

The repository is public, so a plain git clone https://github.com/rmccann-hub/Platterpus.git needs no authentication. If you only want to run the GUI, you don't need to clone at all — use the AppImage from the Releases page (Method A).

If you plan to push changes, GitHub deprecated HTTPS password auth in 2021, so set up auth first — either an SSH key on your account (clone via [e-mail]:…) or gh auth login (web-browser login; stores a token in your git credential helper).

I can't find ~/.config/whipper/whipper.conf

It doesn't exist until whipper writes to it. Running whipper --version or whipper drive list doesn't create the file — only commands that change settings do (whipper drive analyze, whipper offset find). Run one of those and it'll appear.

If you want to peek inside before whipper writes anything, you can pre-create an empty file:

mkdir -p ~/.config/whipper
touch ~/.config/whipper/whipper.conf

On Bazzite and Fedora Silverblue, ~ expands to /var/home/<username> (not /home/<username>). The file is the same either way.

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pkg_resources' when running whipper

Whipper imports pkg_resources from setuptools. On Fedora 44+ (Python 3.14), setuptools is no longer installed by default and Fedora's whipper RPM doesn't declare it as a dependency. Fix:

distrobox enter ripping
sudo dnf install python3-setuptools
exit

Then whipper --version should work from the host.

whipper: command not found

Your ~/.local/bin isn't on $PATH. Add this to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Open a new terminal. Verify with which whipper.

"no drives found" when launching the GUI

The Distrobox container can't see /dev/sr0. Bazzite, Fedora Silverblue, and most modern distros pass optical drives through automatically. If yours doesn't:

distrobox stop ripping
distrobox enter ripping
# inside the container:
sudo dnf install eudev

(Some minimal container bases don't include udev; this restores device-node passthrough.)

You can also confirm whipper can see the drive from inside the container:

distrobox enter ripping
whipper drive list

If whipper finds it inside but not from the host, the export wrapper isn't passing through device access. Re-run distrobox-export --bin /usr/bin/whipper from inside the container.

"MusicBrainz error: rate limited"

MusicBrainz throttles unidentified queries. The GUI already sets a User-Agent at launch; if you're still hitting limits, you're sharing an IP with a busy network. Wait a minute and try again.

AppImage won't launch

Most modern Linux distros have FUSE installed and AppImages just work. On Bazzite, no extra steps. If you see "AppImages require FUSE", either install FUSE or extract the AppImage:

./platterpus-x86_64.AppImage --appimage-extract
./squashfs-root/AppRun

The GUI launches but freezes

Check the log at ~/.local/share/platterpus/log.txt. The most common cause is whipper hanging on a defective disc — cancel from the GUI, eject, try a clean disc.

whipper offset find says my disc isn't in AccurateRip

Try a well-known commercial CD (Pink Floyd, Beatles, Metallica — anything in the top 1000 records). Mix CDs and very obscure pressings often aren't in AccurateRip's database.

"metaflac: command not found" only when ripping

You exported whipper but not metaflac. Re-enter the container:

distrobox enter ripping
distrobox-export --bin /usr/bin/metaflac
exit

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Updating

Update Platterpus

• AppImage: download the new release, replace the old file.
• pipx: pipx upgrade platterpus
• From source: git pull && pip install -e .

Update whipper or metaflac

distrobox enter ripping
sudo dnf upgrade whipper flac
exit

The host-exported wrappers don't change; they always run whatever is currently inside the container.

Update the container's base Fedora version

distrobox enter ripping
sudo dnf system-upgrade download --refresh --releasever=41
sudo dnf system-upgrade reboot   # inside the container only

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Uninstalling

Easiest — no terminal: open the app and use Tools → Uninstall Platterpus…, or click the Uninstall Platterpus entry the AppImage adds to your application menu (under System). It removes everything the app installed — shortcuts, the whipper/metaflac/cyanrip commands, the ripping container, optionally your drive calibration (whipper.conf) and the AppImage file itself, and the app's own settings and logs — with a confirmation first and per-item checkboxes. Never touched: your music, and Distrobox/podman themselves (any other containers you have keep working). The same uninstaller can be launched from a terminal with platterpus --uninstall.

Script alternative (source checkouts, or if you prefer the terminal): the uninstall.sh script tears everything down in layers, safest-first — it also covers the dev .venv/, which the in-app uninstaller doesn't (a packaged app doesn't know your checkout's location). It never removes your ripped music or a source checkout without an explicit flag.

# Interactive — removes the GUI's venv/config/logs by default, then prompts
# you about the broader stack (Picard, the ripping container, whipper.conf,
# the host-exported binaries) one at a time.
bash uninstall.sh

# Preview only — print what would be removed, change nothing.
bash uninstall.sh --dry-run

# Everything except your music files and the cloned repo, no prompts.
bash uninstall.sh --full --yes

bash uninstall.sh --help   # full option list

To remove the host stack fully by hand instead:

distrobox rm ripping            # remove the container
rm ~/.local/bin/whipper ~/.local/bin/metaflac ~/.local/bin/cyanrip  # host exports
rm -rf ~/.config/whipper ~/.config/platterpus ~/.local/share/platterpus

Your music at ~/Music/rips/ (or wherever Settings points) is never touched by any of this.

Where things live

Path	Contents
~/.local/bin/whipper	The Distrobox-exported wrapper. Don't edit.
~/.local/bin/metaflac	Same.
~/.local/bin/cyanrip	Same — present only if you've enabled the cyanrip backend.
~/Applications/platterpus-x86_64.AppImage	The app itself, after menu integration moves it out of Downloads.
~/.config/whipper/whipper.conf	Drive offsets and cache settings. Shared with the container.
~/.config/platterpus/config.toml	The GUI's own settings (output dir, templates, toggles).
~/.local/share/platterpus/log.txt	GUI log file. Check here when something goes sideways.
~/Music/rips/ (default)	Where rips land, under Artist/Album/. Configurable in Settings.
…/Artist/Album/	The rip itself: the FLAC tracks plus the .log, .cue, .m3u, and .toc whipper writes next to them (confirmed on a real 16-track rip).

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Documentation for contributors

Core project documents (in this directory):

• CLAUDE.md — project rules and conventions (read before contributing); Project operations section has current build/run/test/uninstall commands
• PLANNING.md — architecture, directory tree, per-module responsibilities, keyed design decisions (KDD-01 through KDD-21)
• TASKS.md — active task checklist. P0 (T01-T32, complete), P1.1 (install/uninstall ease), P1 (broader backlog), P2 (future), Out of scope.
• DEPENDENCIES.md — pinned versions, last upstream release dates, replacement plans, retirement-review log

Source documents and reference material (in docs/):

• docs/README.md — index of docs/ contents, the single-source-of-truth map + rebuild-from-scratch checklist
• docs/architecture.md — architecture & contributor guide: layered design, patterns & lessons, extension recipes, packaging/release/security (read before contributing code)
• docs/testing.md — testing strategy & standards; docs/test-plan.md — manual & release testing procedure
• docs/platterpus-research-brief-v2.1.md — the canonical project brief
• docs/platterpus-session-start.md — bootstrap instructions for a fresh Claude Code session (Step 0 = optional research-rerun prompt)
• docs/log-format-comparison.md — whipper-log vs EAC-log field comparison

Build / dev tooling:

• setup-host.sh — one-command full bootstrap (Distrobox + container + whipper + export + clone + dev-setup)
• dev-setup.sh — one-command post-clone setup (venv + pip + editable install + app-menu shortcut)
• uninstall.sh — tear-down counterpart (use --help for options)
• build/build_appimage.sh — produce the AppImage locally
• build/make_icon.py — regenerate the app icon
• build/python-appimage/README.md — AppImage recipe details
• CI / releases: .github/workflows/ci.yml runs the tests on every push/PR; .github/workflows/release.yml builds the AppImage and publishes it to a GitHub Release when a vX.Y.Z tag is pushed — so cutting a release is just git tag vX.Y.Z && git push origin vX.Y.Z (no local build or manual upload).

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License

GPL-3.0-only. Chosen to align with the free-software CD-ripping ecosystem this builds on (whipper, cdparanoia, CUETools) and to keep the tool and any forks open. whipper and other GPL tools are invoked as separate processes (not linked), and PySide6 is used under its LGPL-3 option — so the combined work is cleanly GPL-3.0.

See PLANNING.md KDD-10 for the rationale.