Linux alternative to SqueezePlay?

[lauret]

I solved the sound problem in SqueezePlay by disabling pulseaudio while squeezeplay runs. The following works for me on Ubuntu 11.10.

I first copied /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf to /usr/share/alsa/alsa-nopulse.conf, so that is reads:

sudo cp /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf /usr/share/alsa/alsa-nopulse.conf

Then I commented the line with "/usr/share/alsa/pulse.conf" (line 11) in alsa-nopulse.conf:

# "/usr/share/alsa/pulse.conf"

Then there is a squeezeplay.sh script in the bin directory of squeezeplay which you can use to start squeezeplay. Edit the last line so it reads:

ALSA_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/share/alsa/alsa-nopulse.conf ./jive

I also edited the file ~/.squeezeplay/userpath/settings/DesktopJive.lua as described in http://forums.slimdevices.com/showpo...48&postcount=3 to select the right audio device. I had to choose another device for the alsaEffectsDevice because it claims the output device and then alsaPlaybackDevice can't use it anymore. I have (I replaced the mac and uuid with x's):

settings = {mac="xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx",uuid="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",alsaSampleSize=24,alsaPlaybackDevice="plughw:0,0",alsaEffectsDevice="plughw:0,1"}

The server now also transcodes 352.8kHz flacs correctly to 176.4Hz!

[brjhaverkamp]

Got it! BTW, Is there any reason why the MAC with -m isn't the actual MAC of the network device?
I created a little shell script to make the MAC the actual MAC. now it for sure is unique:
root@winebox:/etc# more /usr/local/bin/squeezeslave.sh
set - `ifconfig | grep -B 1 inet | head -1`
MAC=$5
/usr/local/bin/squeezeslave -F -m "$MAC" -M /var/log/squeezeslave.log

While squeezeslave now works beautifully on my laptop, I still have a challenge on the mediacentre. (a mythtv box). squeezeplay doesn't show all devices. I want it to output to the optical output (iec958), but squeezeplay refuses. See below the output of aplay -L and squeezeslave -L. Any suggestions anyone?

Bert

P.S. that's good news on the squeezeplay front! So it seems to be an incompatibility between portaudio and pulseaudio. Time for some googling!

Bert
root@winebox:/etc# aplay -L
null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default:CARD=Intel
HDA Intel, ALC889A Analog
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC889A Analog
Front speakers
surround40:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC889A Analog
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC889A Analog
4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC889A Analog
5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC889A Analog
5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC889A Analog
7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC889A Digital
IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, HDMI 0
HDMI Audio Output
dmix:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC889A Analog
Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=Intel,DEV=1
HDA Intel, ALC889A Digital
Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=Intel,DEV=3
HDA Intel, HDMI 0
Direct sample mixing device
dsnoop:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC889A Analog
Direct sample snooping device
dsnoop:CARD=Intel,DEV=1
HDA Intel, ALC889A Digital
Direct sample snooping device
dsnoop:CARD=Intel,DEV=3
HDA Intel, HDMI 0
Direct sample snooping device
hw:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC889A Analog
Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=Intel,DEV=1
HDA Intel, ALC889A Digital
Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=Intel,DEV=3
HDA Intel, HDMI 0
Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC889A Analog
Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=Intel,DEV=1
HDA Intel, ALC889A Digital
Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=Intel,DEV=3
HDA Intel, HDMI 0
Hardware device with all software conversions

root@winebox:/etc# squeezeslave -L
Output devices:
* 1: (ALSA) hdmi (11/46)

[lauret]

While squeezeslave now works beautifully on my laptop, I still have a challenge on the mediacentre. (a mythtv box). squeezeplay doesn't show all devices. I want it to output to the optical output (iec958), but squeezeplay refuses. See below the output of aplay -L and squeezeslave -L. Any suggestions anyone?

Maybe an open door, but when I have an audio-app open, squeezeslave doesn't show all devices like aplay. Are you sure all applications that make sound are closed?

[brjhaverkamp]

No, not an open door at all. Good point. But a disappointment nevertheless.
I had planned to run squeezeslave in the background without interfering with my mythtv box. So they should be able to access the same sound device simultaneously. With pulseaudio/alsa that shouldn't be a problem technically, right? But given the state of the other squeezeplayers on linux, I'm not surprised squeezeslave is lagging behind a bit in this field. One day though..

[lauret]

No, not an open door at all. Good point. But a disappointment nevertheless.
I had planned to run squeezeslave in the background without interfering with my mythtv box. So they should be able to access the same sound device simultaneously. With pulseaudio/alsa that shouldn't be a problem technically, right? But given the state of the other squeezeplayers on linux, I'm not surprised squeezeslave is lagging behind a bit in this field. One day though..

This situation is certainly not squeezeslave's fault, the audio device handling of squeezeslave is very good, with support for JACK, ALSA and OSS on linux.

My situation is this: if the first audio application uses hw:0,0, then pulseaudio doesn't have any access anymore to the audio device, but if the first audio-app uses pulse, then squeezeslave can also use pulse. So maybe you can select another device in MythTV (if you use a hw device that is)?

[simonl]

if the first audio application uses hw:0,0, then pulseaudio doesn't have any access anymore to the audio device, but if the first audio-app uses pulse, then squeezeslave can also use pulse. So maybe you can select another device in MythTV (if you use a hw device that is)?

If this is what's happening, from my (limited) understanding of ALSA, you should be able to set other audio apps to use plughw:0,0 instead of hw:0,0 - the plug variety is shareable between several apps and so should not block pulseaudio. Worth a try anyway...

[brjhaverkamp]

I can confirm that squeezeplay works perfectly when pulsaudio is disabled.
(for which I simply did an apt-get remove pulseaudio) ABBA is now playing happily. (no discussions on my taste please. Its simply the first artist under "A":-)
Question now is how to fix the pulseaudio interworking.

On my squeezeslave problems, I see random behaviour. My sound device should be sharable, its a plughw device. But sometimes it is not listed, sometimes it is. Sometimes when I start squeezeplay first, mythtv refuses to produce sound, but when I start mythtv first, squeezeplay is working fine.
I have to play a bit more with it to make sense of it all. But theoretically this might one day work;-)

[brjhaverkamp]

Just stumbled upon this post
http://forums.slimdevices.com/archiv...p/t-83636.html
Apperently it is an older and known issue.

[giulio]

It probably does not function very well
on all systems at this point, because I only started writing it yesterday,
but it works right here. Also, if there are any python programmers here,
please take a look and provide comments, suggestions, or patches please.

You are an ace! I have been looking for something like this for ages.

First, it sounds very good. On the level of squeezeplay and squeezeslave. There are a few minor issues to sort out. I am going to keep testing it. For the time being, I can report

1) some kind of intermittent static noise which suggests too small a buffer.
2) loud buzz when you pause the player in the squeezebox web interface
3) a buzz and the following error when you switch from a lower sampling rate (e.g. 96k) to a higher sampling rate (e.g. 192K) file.
------------------------------------
Exception in thread Thread-2:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python2.6/threading.py", line 532, in __bootstrap_inner
self.run()
File "/root/slim/modules/SlimProto.py", line 74, in run
self.recv_command()
File "/root/slim/modules/SlimProto.py", line 102, in recv_command
self.parse_command(cmd_header, cmd_data)
File "/root/slim/modules/SlimProto.py", line 112, in parse_command
self.get_http_header(cmd_data[18:])
File "/root/slim/modules/SlimProto.py", line 120, in get_http_header
self.parent.start_buffering(http_header, server_port, server_ip, self.pcmsamplesize, self.pcmsamplerate, self.pcmchannels)
File "./slimpy.py", line 163, in start_buffering
self.BufferThread.connect(http_header, server_port, server_ip, pcmsamplesize, pcmsamplerate, pcmchannels)
File "/root/slim/modules/Buffer.py", line 170, in connect
self.conn.putrequest(http_header_request[0], http_header_request[1], skip_host=True, skip_accept_encoding=True)
AttributeError: 'Buffer' object has no attribute 'conn'
------------------------------------------------------------

All the above in the latest Voyage linux both standard and with a realtime kernel (3.0.9-rt25) kernel.

But it has great potential and as, I said, it already sounds very good.

I think you should start a new threat dedicated to slimpy.

Many thanks
Giulio

[aubuti]

I solved the sound problem in SqueezePlay by disabling pulseaudio while squeezeplay runs. The following works for me on Ubuntu 11.10.
<snip>

Hey, thanks for this! Works great for me on Ubuntu 10.04.