Yet Another AlienBBC release (v0.5)

[Jules Taplin]

Hey folks.

Right then. A new version available - incorporating Peter's Fixes (thanks Peter!).

This solves (I believe), all the lock-up and dangling alienstream problems remaining, as well as a couple of others.

So... the current issue list now looks like the following:

Issue 5(a): Incorrect Separation between multiple players - I think this is just my problem. Need to get off my arse and look at it.
Issue 9: Pressing the power button aborts the play, but doesn't power the player off. This is a _LOT_ better than the old behaviour, but clearly not ideal yet.

With those caveats in mind... I pretty much think this is stable, in as far as it goes... I've spent a good while playing with it, and have failed to make it collapse. So... grab it while it's hot: - http://www.mrtickle.org

As ever... if you manage to make it fall over...don't keep it to yourself... let me know. If it's a specific stream that you have trouble with... let me know about that as well - you never know when the BBC will slip another curve-ball on us *grin*.

Best Regards,


Jules

[Martin Little]

Jules Taplin wrote:
> Hey folks.
>
> Right then. A new version available - incorporating Peter's Fixes
> (thanks Peter!).
<CUT>

First off, Jules and Peter, REALLY good effort on Alienstream and AlienBBC.

I've spent today getting everything installed to give it a shot, but I
seem to have hit a problem somewhere. After installing and verifying
Alienstream v3 was working, as per Peter's page, I upgraded my
slimserver to the latest nightly and installed the Alienstream and
AlienBBC plugins. Both appeared in the plugins section and I restarted
my SliMP3 for good measure.

When I started the AlienBBC plugin, it did connect and I was able to see
the headings and programmes, but when I tried to play anything, it
crashed my slimserver and made my SliMP3 go blank. Any thoughts on what
I'm not doing correctly?

Thanks
Martin

SliMP3, Fedora Core 1, slimserver latest nightly


--
martinlittle.com | mobitopia.com

[Jules Taplin]

*gulp* - Ok. That's not supposed to happen.

Two things to check: When it's crashed, take a look in /tmp/slimserver.log,
and see if there's anything revealing at the bottom of that.

Secondly... if it's not cooperating, stop slimserver (/etc/init.d/slimserver
stop), and run it from the command line directly. This works best if you've
su to the 'slimserver' user first. Do that, and do:

cd /usr/local/slimserver
../slimserver.pl

That way, all the debugging general nonsense that AlienBBC throws out will
turn up on that screen. And if it's not totally obvious what it means, and
what to do about it, drop me a note, and we'll work it out


-- Jules

PS. It's possible you're the first SliMP3 user that's tried this... but I'd
be very surprised if that has anything to do with it




----- Original Message -----
From: "Martin Little" <lists (AT) martinlittle (DOT) com>
To: "Slim Devices Discussion" <discuss (AT) lists (DOT) slimdevices.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2004 8:20 PM
Subject: [slim] Yet Another AlienBBC release (v0.5)


> Jules Taplin wrote:
> > Hey folks.
> >
> > Right then. A new version available - incorporating Peter's Fixes
> > (thanks Peter!).
> <CUT>
>
> First off, Jules and Peter, REALLY good effort on Alienstream and
AlienBBC.
>
> I've spent today getting everything installed to give it a shot, but I
> seem to have hit a problem somewhere. After installing and verifying
> Alienstream v3 was working, as per Peter's page, I upgraded my
> slimserver to the latest nightly and installed the Alienstream and
> AlienBBC plugins. Both appeared in the plugins section and I restarted
> my SliMP3 for good measure.
>
> When I started the AlienBBC plugin, it did connect and I was able to see
> the headings and programmes, but when I tried to play anything, it
> crashed my slimserver and made my SliMP3 go blank. Any thoughts on what
> I'm not doing correctly?
>
> Thanks
> Martin
>
> SliMP3, Fedora Core 1, slimserver latest nightly
>
>
> --
> martinlittle.com | mobitopia.com
>

[Martin Little]

Jules Taplin wrote:
> *gulp* - Ok. That's not supposed to happen.
>
> Two things to check: When it's crashed, take a look in /tmp/slimserver.log,
> and see if there's anything revealing at the bottom of that.

Hi Jules

I'm replying here in the first instance, in case others have similar
problems and find this thread in the future. :-)

There were two problems I found immediately:

1. lame was not in /usr/bin but in /usr/local/bin , so I made a symbolic
link and the error went away
2. alienstream was not in /usr/local/bin , but some other random
directory, so I copied it in there and verified it worked again using
the test on Peter's page

Still the problem returned...

This is what my slimserver.log files says:

Trying to understand an 'aod' stream (/radio/aod/drama.shtml?archers)
Retrieved: rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/archers/archers_friday.ra

Going to pass: rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/archers/archers_friday.ra
Going to call exec with: /usr/local/bin/alienstream,
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/archers/archers_friday.ra
mrl: 'rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/archers/archers_friday.ra'
Buffering... [0%]
Message from Xine: Buffering... [2%]
Buffering... [4%]


It seems to freeze at this point, my SliMP3 goes blank and requires a
power cycle to get it going again and slimserver has to be restarted.

If I try to execute the command ./alienstream
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/archers/archers_friday.ra from the command
line, I do get the same result. Does that mean I haven't properly
installed alienstream?


> Secondly... if it's not cooperating, stop slimserver (/etc/init.d/slimserver
> stop), and run it from the command line directly. This works best if you've
> su to the 'slimserver' user first. Do that, and do:
>
> cd /usr/local/slimserver
> ./slimserver.pl
>
> That way, all the debugging general nonsense that AlienBBC throws out will
> turn up on that screen. And if it's not totally obvious what it means, and
> what to do about it, drop me a note, and we'll work it out
>
> -- Jules
>
> PS. It's possible you're the first SliMP3 user that's tried this... but I'd
> be very surprised if that has anything to do with it

Always good to be bleeding edge. ;-)

Thanks for your help
Martin

>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Martin Little" <lists (AT) martinlittle (DOT) com>
> To: "Slim Devices Discussion" <discuss (AT) lists (DOT) slimdevices.com>
> Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2004 8:20 PM
> Subject: [slim] Yet Another AlienBBC release (v0.5)
>
>
>
>>Jules Taplin wrote:
>>
>>>Hey folks.
>>>
>>>Right then. A new version available - incorporating Peter's Fixes
>>>(thanks Peter!).
>>
>><CUT>
>>
>>First off, Jules and Peter, REALLY good effort on Alienstream and
>
> AlienBBC.
>
>>I've spent today getting everything installed to give it a shot, but I
>>seem to have hit a problem somewhere. After installing and verifying
>>Alienstream v3 was working, as per Peter's page, I upgraded my
>>slimserver to the latest nightly and installed the Alienstream and
>>AlienBBC plugins. Both appeared in the plugins section and I restarted
>>my SliMP3 for good measure.
>>
>>When I started the AlienBBC plugin, it did connect and I was able to see
>>the headings and programmes, but when I tried to play anything, it
>>crashed my slimserver and made my SliMP3 go blank. Any thoughts on what
>>I'm not doing correctly?
>>
>>Thanks
>>Martin
>>
>>SliMP3, Fedora Core 1, slimserver latest nightly
>>
>>
>>--
>>martinlittle.com | mobitopia.com
>>

[Martin Little]

Martin Little wrote:
> Jules Taplin wrote:
>
>> *gulp* - Ok. That's not supposed to happen.
>>
>> Two things to check: When it's crashed, take a look in
>> /tmp/slimserver.log,
>> and see if there's anything revealing at the bottom of that.
>
>
> Hi Jules
>
> I'm replying here in the first instance, in case others have similar
> problems and find this thread in the future. :-)
>
> There were two problems I found immediately:
>
> 1. lame was not in /usr/bin but in /usr/local/bin , so I made a symbolic
> link and the error went away
> 2. alienstream was not in /usr/local/bin , but some other random
> directory, so I copied it in there and verified it worked again using
> the test on Peter's page
>
> Still the problem returned...
>
> This is what my slimserver.log files says:
>
> Trying to understand an 'aod' stream (/radio/aod/drama.shtml?archers)
> Retrieved: rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/archers/archers_friday.ra
>
> Going to pass: rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/archers/archers_friday.ra
> Going to call exec with: /usr/local/bin/alienstream,
> rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/archers/archers_friday.ra
> mrl: 'rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/archers/archers_friday.ra'
> Buffering... [0%]
> Message from Xine: Buffering... [2%]
> Buffering... [4%]
>
>
> It seems to freeze at this point, my SliMP3 goes blank and requires a
> power cycle to get it going again and slimserver has to be restarted.
>
> If I try to execute the command ./alienstream
> rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/archers/archers_friday.ra from the command
> line, I do get the same result. Does that mean I haven't properly
> installed alienstream?

As an update, I thought I should check out whther just Alienstream
worked. I saved the 'program stream' from http://www.npr.org/ and then
restarted my slimserver. Trying to listen to it, my SliMP3 goes to
Connecting... and then blanks, with the same type of error as above.
Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks
Martin

--
martinlittle.com | mobitopia.com

[Dave Scott]

On 4 Jul 2004, at 18:56, Martin Little wrote:

>
> mrl: 'rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/archers/archers_friday.ra'
> Buffering... [0%]
> Message from Xine: Buffering... [2%]
> Buffering... [4%]
>
>
> It seems to freeze at this point, my SliMP3 goes blank and requires a
> power cycle to get it going again and slimserver has to be restarted.
>
> If I try to execute the command ./alienstream
> rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/archers/archers_friday.ra from the
> command line, I do get the same result. Does that mean I haven't
> properly installed alienstream?
>

Interesting - so I am getting the same error as well though each time I
try the command I seem to get a bit further

Running from the command line:

../alienstream
rtsp://rmlivev8.bbc.net.uk/farm/*/ev7/live24/radio4/live/r4_dsat_g2.ra

mrl:
'rtsp://rmlivev8.bbc.net.uk/farm/*/ev7/live24/radio4/live/
r4_dsat_g2.ra'
Buffering... [0%]
Message from Xine: Buffering... [2%]
Buffering... [4%]
Buffering... [6%]
Buffering... [8%]
Buffering... [10%]
Buffering... [12%]
Buffering... [16%]
Buffering... [18%]
Buffering... [20%]
Buffering... [22%]
Buffering... [24%]
Buffering... [26%]
Buffering... [30%]
Buffering... [32%]
Buffering... [34%]
Buffering... [36%]
Buffering... [38%]

Taken approx 4 minutes to get to this stage

Slimp3 / Slimserver 5.2 / MAC OSX 10.3.4

Haven't been able to play the stream yet - I also get the lock up
problems, though a re-start of the computer fixes that

Definite progress but not too sure what wrong at this stage ..

Cheers

Dave Scott

[Jules Taplin]

Ok. This is a bit of a worry. What you're saying... I'd have expected that
to work. Normally... if it gets to buffering, it's all going to complete.

This is a long shot... but can you guys try using SoftSqueeze as the player,
rather than a slimp3? It takes quite a while to buffer enough RA for the
player to start, and I wonder if the SliMP3's get bored of waiting, so to
speak.

Failing that... we need to dig a little further, but I'm not sure where to
direct efforts at the moment.

-- Jules

----- Original Message -----
From: "Martin Little" <lists (AT) martinlittle (DOT) com>
To: "Slim Devices Discussion" <discuss (AT) lists (DOT) slimdevices.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 04, 2004 1:01 PM
Subject: [slim] Yet Another AlienBBC release (v0.5)


> Martin Little wrote:
>> Jules Taplin wrote:
>>
>>> *gulp* - Ok. That's not supposed to happen.
>>>
>>> Two things to check: When it's crashed, take a look in
>>> /tmp/slimserver.log,
>>> and see if there's anything revealing at the bottom of that.
>>
>>
>> Hi Jules
>>
>> I'm replying here in the first instance, in case others have similar
>> problems and find this thread in the future. :-)
>>
>> There were two problems I found immediately:
>>
>> 1. lame was not in /usr/bin but in /usr/local/bin , so I made a symbolic
>> link and the error went away
>> 2. alienstream was not in /usr/local/bin , but some other random
>> directory, so I copied it in there and verified it worked again using the
>> test on Peter's page
>>
>> Still the problem returned...
>>
>> This is what my slimserver.log files says:
>>
>> Trying to understand an 'aod' stream (/radio/aod/drama.shtml?archers)
>> Retrieved: rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/archers/archers_friday.ra
>>
>> Going to pass: rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/archers/archers_friday.ra
>> Going to call exec with: /usr/local/bin/alienstream,
>> rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/archers/archers_friday.ra
>> mrl: 'rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/archers/archers_friday.ra'
>> Buffering... [0%]
>> Message from Xine: Buffering... [2%]
>> Buffering... [4%]
>>
>>
>> It seems to freeze at this point, my SliMP3 goes blank and requires a
>> power cycle to get it going again and slimserver has to be restarted.
>>
>> If I try to execute the command ./alienstream
>> rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio4/archers/archers_friday.ra from the command
>> line, I do get the same result. Does that mean I haven't properly
>> installed alienstream?
>
> As an update, I thought I should check out whther just Alienstream worked.
> I saved the 'program stream' from http://www.npr.org/ and then restarted
> my slimserver. Trying to listen to it, my SliMP3 goes to Connecting...
> and then blanks, with the same type of error as above. Anyone got any
> ideas?
>
> Thanks
> Martin
>
> --
> martinlittle.com | mobitopia.com
>

[Dave Scott]

On 4 Jul 2004, at 23:02, Jules Taplin wrote:

> Ok. This is a bit of a worry. What you're saying... I'd have expected
> that
> to work. Normally... if it gets to buffering, it's all going to
> complete.
>
> This is a long shot... but can you guys try using SoftSqueeze as the
> player,
> rather than a slimp3? It takes quite a while to buffer enough RA for
> the
> player to start, and I wonder if the SliMP3's get bored of waiting, so
> to
> speak.
>

Hmmm - not even attempting to use Slimp3 at the moment - solely trying
from the command line

Started the Radio4 stream again - after 2.5 hours up to 68% :-)

Dave S

[Jules Taplin]

Ah. Ok.

Curious, though.

What's the address of the stream you're trying to make cooperate?


-- Jules

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Scott" <kiwidave (AT) starhub (DOT) net.sg>
To: "Slim Devices Discussion" <discuss (AT) lists (DOT) slimdevices.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 04, 2004 4:37 PM
Subject: [slim] Yet Another AlienBBC release (v0.5)


>
> On 4 Jul 2004, at 23:02, Jules Taplin wrote:
>
> > Ok. This is a bit of a worry. What you're saying... I'd have expected
> > that
> > to work. Normally... if it gets to buffering, it's all going to
> > complete.
> >
> > This is a long shot... but can you guys try using SoftSqueeze as the
> > player,
> > rather than a slimp3? It takes quite a while to buffer enough RA for
> > the
> > player to start, and I wonder if the SliMP3's get bored of waiting, so
> > to
> > speak.
> >
>
> Hmmm - not even attempting to use Slimp3 at the moment - solely trying
> from the command line
>
> Started the Radio4 stream again - after 2.5 hours up to 68% :-)
>
> Dave S
>
>

[Dave Scott]

On 5 Jul 2004, at 1:54, Jules Taplin wrote:

> Ah. Ok.
>
> Curious, though.
>
> What's the address of the stream you're trying to make cooperate?
>
>
> -- Jules
>

Should be familiar:

rtsp://rmlivev8.bbc.net.uk/farm/*/ev7/live24/radio4/live/r4_dsat_g2.ra

Cheers

Dave S