Trying to transpose multiple files automatically

• Mar 13, 2023 - 10:20

I have a pile of charts I need to transpose for Bb and Eb instruments. Way too much work to do one file at a time. Musescore can be run from the command line and I have found the command.

Now my problem is that the charts are too new for the version of Musescore3 I have on my Ubuntu machine.

Ubuntu has a newer version that is a snap, but that one does not seem to expose the command line. There is a .deb one that does but that is too old. I tried v4 but that is an appimage, no command line again.

So I tried it on my wife's mac. It has v4 and the same problem. Or maybe I am not as familiar with macs?

Any ideas?

Comments

• Mar 14, 2023 - 15:50

Can you explain what you mean about "no command line" for the AppImage? I haven't tried transposing specifically, but certainly the AppImage support command line options.

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• Mar 16, 2023 - 20:03

Thanks for the reply.,.

I've been able to install musescore 4 using flatpac. So I have a full installation of 4. Also a 3.6 version with Snap. Also a 3.2 version with apt. And a 4.x version on my wife's mac.

22.04 Ubuntu.

Out of all that, only the ubuntu 3.2 linux version responds to the mscore or mscore3 command in a terminal. The issue with that is the files were made on 3.6. mscore3 works if I install the apt version as suggested, but that is 3.2.

The screenshot is after I removed 3.2. If it were still installed musescore would tell me the files were too new.

Attachment Size
Screenshot from 2023-03-16 15-46-53.png 25.59 KB

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• Mar 16, 2023 - 22:24

Neither flatpak, snap, nor apt are supported by MuseScore - these are all third-party builds, with who knows what sort of limitations or bugs imposed by their own build procedures that would be problems in official buikds. So I have no idea if they work with command-line or not. I can't imagine they'd have messed up badly enough to break that, but in any case, on Linux, the one and only supported build is the AppImage we provide here on this site. And it most certainly runs from the command line just fine - that's the most typical way of running it in fact.

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• Mar 16, 2023 - 23:07

P-robably you're missing something obvious, but indeed it's not clear what. Are you familiar with Linux and command line usage in general? To run the AppImage after downloading it and making it executable, "cd" to that folder, and type "./whateverthefilenameis.AppImage" followed by a space and then whatever command-line options you like. Try "-h" to get a list of available options. All of this is standard Linux / command-line stuff. If you didn't already make the AppImage executable, first run "chmod +x whateverthefilenameis.AppImage" from that folder, same as for any file you want to make executable.

If you first run the AppImage with the "install" option, it installs itself so you can not only run it from your desktop / taskbar / launcher whatever your particular window manager provides, but also, you can type "mscore4portable" to run it from any folder.

If you continue to have trouble, please say exactly which step you are encountering a problem, and what specifically goes wrong.

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• Mar 17, 2023 - 17:15

Progress...Thanks!

I am very familiar with linux and working on the terminal, at least with standard installation apps. Too familiar. I am less familiar with appimages.

Now I am running in QT issues. Musescore complains....

/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjack.so.0
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnss3.so
QEventLoop: Cannot be used without QApplication
QEventLoop: Cannot be used without QApplication
Warning: Ignoring XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland on Gnome. Use QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland to run on Wayland anyway.

export QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland or export QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb have no effect and I tried an X11 session with different errors.
Those 2 lib files are on my system.

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• Mar 17, 2023 - 22:16

Are you on the Gnome desktop (DE)? Lemme tell you, for a good 2 weeks, I've been chasing a maddening 'quirk' of Linux, multiple DEs, and MS3.6.2 (which is well-established). I've reached out to all variety of support channels, including Qt, the Budgie DE, MS developers, KDE support. The short statement of my 'quirk' is under every DE I try (EXCEPTING Budgie), when I open menu item Format->Page settings, MS freezes for 100 seconds. There is no likely resolution for my particular issue.

Except to run MS3.6.2 in the Budgie DE. Which confuses the heck outta me. I've tried Gnome, MATE, XFCE, KDE/Plasma.

Since you're familiar with Linux & the command line, I'll mention that MS (at least 3.6.2 which I'm focused on) is a strange program - in the following regard. When you start up an AppImage, it creates a multi-subdirectory "operational structure" in /tmp. MS brings along all sorts of libraries internally, and exposes them in the /tmp area while running. It ALSO points out to native /usr/lib and other non-imported libraries. Some of those "brought along" libraries appear connected with 'Qt'. Which I believe is significant terms of MS's cross-platform methodology.

Soooo, you might try running MS under the Budgie DE, if you don't mind setting that up. I did so under a newly-created user ID for a separate /home area. Good luck.

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• Mar 18, 2023 - 10:40

Interesting. I'm on Gnome. I don't think I want to spend a lot more time on this right now esp fooling with multiple desktops. Maybe a VM or flash drive live install.

I'm wondering why mscore's command line functions even require QT since nothing graphical is going on. I would guess they just run the same functions that the graphical version uses and those require qt. Probably the command line is a bit of an afterthought.

I had to do all these same conversions for a batch of lilypond files and it was quite easy since they are all plain text and can be modified with standard bash commands or simple scripts outside of lilypond.

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• Mar 18, 2023 - 11:38

Desktop options was only a suggestion. It comes to me to wonder if there's some sort of fake-keystroke macro system for Linuxes. Something that could automate repetitive tasks. Sure, a command-line option to automate repetitive tasks. Que sara. "You can't always get what you want" sings Mick Jagger...

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