The window title does not display non-ascii characters
======================================================

... everything look like: "Solfege \x{0414}\x{0438}\x{0442}..."

This is because your window manager does not display unicode fonts. Try a window manager that can handle unicode fonts, for example metacity.

The program crashes at startup!
===============================

Try to start the program with the --no-sound. If the program starts, then you probably has to check the sound setup for your kernel. If you for example have a Soundblaster 32 and unloads the awe_wave module, Solfege will crash when it tries to open /dev/music.

Solfege still crashes!!
=======================

Are you running Ximian (aka Helix) GNOME? Some (all??) versions of the "monkeytalk" package are known to make pygtk apps crash. Try to remove the package.

ValueError: invalid literal for float():
========================================

If you want translated messages, you should only set the LC_MESSAGES environment variable, not LC_ALL or LC_NUMERIC. If your window manager set these variable, you can avoid the problem by running solfege like this:

LC_NUMERIC=C solfege

You can run the locale command to see what environment variables controlling locales are set.

Some menu entries are blank when I use language other than english.
===================================================================

If you are running Debian with glibc > 2.2, try to rerun locale-gen as root, and maybe edit /etc/locale.gen.

I get a lame piano sound in the rhythm exercise!
================================================

From the preferences window, on the config page, change the number in the spin button, and click 'Apply'. Some sound cards have several synths, and not all behave the same. For example, on my SB Live using ALSA I have to select number 2.

Also if you use the standard OSS sound driver and /dev/sequencer instead of  /dev/music you might be missing the percussion sounds. If you have a Soundblaster AWE32/AWE64/pnp32, you must select that option.