[Announce] Squeezelite-X

[mikeh49]

64 bit Win 7 with Classic theme.

[rgdawson]

Squeezelite aborts:

OK, Squeezelite-win.exe is failing. Now let's see why. Go to the Squeezelite-X installation directory and open a command window. and try and run squeezelite-win.exe from there.

type: squeezelite-win.exe -n "Mike" -s pinkpogo -m 70:8b:cd:53:98:19

and see if you get an error description or if it just runs.

R Greg Dawson

[mikeh49]

I think there is a problem with the sound system on the box I'm trying to use Squeezelite-X on. I tried running squeezelite-win by itself and squeezelite-win -l produces no output.


This is the output from another Win 7 box:

F:\>squeezelite-win -l
Output devices:
3 - Microsoft Sound Mapper - Output [MME]
4 - Speakers (VIA High Definition A [MME]
8 - Primary Sound Driver [Windows DirectSound]
9 - Speakers (VIA High Definition Audio) [Windows DirectSound]
10 - Speakers (VIA High Definition Audio) [Windows WASAPI]
13 - Output (ATI HD Audio rear output) [Windows WDM-KS]
14 - SPDIF Out (HD Audio digital out) [Windows WDM-KS]
15 - Speakers (VIA HD Audio Output) [Windows WDM-KS]

With

squeezelite-win -o default -n Test

on this test box, it runs and I can control it with the Squeezelite-X server interface.

When I run squeezelite-win on the main box, I get:

D:\SqueezeliteX>squeezelite-win -o default -n Mike
[16:32:05.005] output_init_pa:597 error initialising port audio: Internal PortAudio error

Other sound related apps run OK.

Update: same result as above when running from the Squeezelite-X program directory.

Thoughts?

[rgdawson]

I think there is a problem with the sound system on the box I'm trying to use Squeezelite-X on. I tried running squeezelite-win by itself and squeezelite-win -l produces no output.


This is the output from another Win 7 box:



With

squeezelite-win -o default -n Test

on this test box, it runs and I can control it with the Squeezelite-X server interface.

When I run squeezelite-win on the main box, I get:

D:\SqueezeliteX>squeezelite-win -o default -n Mike
[16:32:05.005] output_init_pa:597 error initialising port audio: Internal PortAudio error

Other sound related apps run OK.

Update: same result as above when running from the Squeezelite-X program directory.

Thoughts?

PortAudio happens to be the library squeezelite uses to access audio devices. Its a cross platform library. I have no idea why but it is returning an error on this box. SLX just executes squeezelite-win.exe and it is failing. Generally if squeezelite fails for some reason SLX will detect it and provide the error message you saw "Squeezelitewin.exe aborted...check parameters". However, SLX also uses squeezelite to return the list of output devices and I never expected that to fail and was not detecting the failure there. On startup, SLX would do this in a background thread, and since it was not detecting the failure, the thread was not returning and you got a hang. So I eliminated that in the test version 2.4.2.1. In 2.4.2.1 SLX detected the failure of squeezelite and showed you the error.

BUT, I have no idea why squeezelite is failing to initialize its PortAudio library and having an internal error. I would recommend going over to the squeezelite forum and asking there and maybe Ralphy can give you an answer.

R Greg Dawson

[mikeh49]

OK, i'll try there. I could not find any useful info on the specific PortAudio error that occurs.

[Peter Galbavy]

Is your default Windows audio device set to Mono?

I have seen a variety of issues with other players when I forgot that my default device was set to my (mono) headset.

[mikeh49]

Squeezelite-win won't start - solved

Solved Another app, Total Recorder, installed a virtual microphone device that apparently tripped up PortAudio because it disabled/replaced the sound "card" mic input. After disabling the Total Recorder microphone device, squeezelite could see the audio devices and now works. FWIW, the list of devices does not show a microphone, but does show a Total Recorder virtual speaker device. I got a clue for this from posts on other forums about Port Audio not seeing devices after a Win 10 update. The cause was a setting in Privacy that blocked (all?) app access to the microphone. So, it seems that Port Audio wants/needs full access to all audio devices on the sound card. But, subsequently disabling the sound card microphone input does not prevent squeezelite from seeing the other devices.

Thanks Peter, good clue.

If you want to know about sound drivers, you can read more here:

http://www.totalrecorder.com/tr_drivers.htm

Bottom line is that Squeezelite-X now works fine. I'll now update to the new version.

Thanks, Greg, nice app.

[rgdawson]

Solved Another app, Total Recorder, installed a virtual microphone device that apparently tripped up PortAudio because it disabled/replaced the sound "card" mic input. After disabling the Total Recorder microphone device, squeezelite could see the audio devices and now works. FWIW, the list of devices does not show a microphone, but does show a Total Recorder virtual speaker device. I got a clue for this from posts on other forums about Port Audio not seeing devices after a Win 10 update. The cause was a setting in Privacy that blocked (all?) app access to the microphone. So, it seems that Port Audio wants/needs full access to all audio devices on the sound card. But, subsequently disabling the sound card microphone input does not prevent squeezelite from seeing the other devices.

Thanks Peter, good clue.

If you want to know about sound drivers, you can read more here:

http://www.totalrecorder.com/tr_drivers.htm

Bottom line is that Squeezelite-X now works fine. I'll now update to the new version.

Thanks, Greg, nice app.

Good news. As a consequence of your troubles, I decided to dig into the squeezelite source code, and seeing it uses PortAudio, then I dug into that. As a test I have incorporated direct Port Audio calls to retrieve the device list rather than call squeezelite -l under the covers and taking its output. It's a little faster. What squeezelite does is retrieve all devices (input and output) and then outputs the ones where DeviceInfo.MaxOutputChannels > 0, thereby only retrieving output devices. Squeezelite retrieves DeviceInfo.Name and DeviceInfo.HostApi, so you see "name [HostApi]". Perhaps, though, the TotalRecorder "device", depending on which one of the three you were using, is doing something wrong. The user-mode driver seems to be described as having compatibility issues. You could try the TotalRecorder "kernel-mode" driver instead, or something.

Thanks, I hope you enjoy the app.

R Greg Dawson

[mikeh49]

I was thinking I should find out what drivers were installed with Total Recorder. I believe I installed an upgrade and don't recall being asked what drivers to use. That said, I would not have known the correct answer. I thought Linux sound was fairly complex and not documented in a way I could understand, but Windows turns out to be about the same, and Port Audio is really lacking, at least as far as I could find. I'll maybe look into this a little more and report back with anything interesting. Glad I was able to pique your curiosity.

[mikeh49]

Another observation is that Chrome really does not like downloads (or downloads of your software) from 1drive. Today it refused to keep the download of 2.4.2. I had to use another browser. Yesterday, I was able to override Chrome's concern and keep the download of the test version. Today, I could not. I could not tell if this is a blanket 1drive issue, or if there is something (imaginary or actual ) in your file. I just tried again with Chrome in my Mac laptop, and there was no problem. I can check this some more if you wish.

[th00ht]

Squeezelite-X is available in the Microsoft Store for Windows 10 (Version 1607+).

Awesome! I like the two minimized views. It shows the Sqeeuzebox server has a design that withstands the touch of time. :-)

[rgdawson]

Awesome! I like the two minimized views. It shows the Sqeeuzebox server has a design that withstands the touch of time. :-)

Welcome to the party! BTW, that first post has not been updated in a while. The Material Skin LMS plugin (by Craig Drummond) is a 3rd party plugin. It now has its own version of a Mini-Player that looks like this:



R Greg Dawson

[dolodobendan]

I was occupied these last weeks, my apologies for the late response.

Another Question, on the notebook, what is the display scale? And was there a message?

The notebook (i7) is connected to external displays, none of which has any DPI scaling. I did not try it without these displays.

The Surface Go has 150% DPI scaling by default (and that's what's used).

There were no messages (and I wouldn't have withhold them).

Tried stress testing but so far unable to reproduce startup crash. I'm also working on sleep/wake area as it pertains to squeezelite missing after waking (and also if squeezelite itself independently crashes for some reason).

I had the startup crash (two SLX versions ago) on my desktop, there was no significant CPU load.

With the latest version, I can use the mouse's back button to go to a blank white screen. The forward button reloads SLX's screen.

[dolodobendan]

SLX defaults to the player that was selected previously. In other words, it remembers the player (along with window position, size) when it closes, and then applies that the next time it starts. I completely understand the scenario you describe. Heck, I have done it myself.

Some people use SLX only as a controller, and for these remembering the player is a good thing. Maybe what I should do is default to local player if the local player is enabled, and default to remembered player otherwise.

Opinions?

R Greg Dawson

What about a toggle-thing in the settings that let's you choose between "Default player" or "Last player used (if available)" (fallback to default)?

[ralphy]

Good news. As a consequence of your troubles, I decided to dig into the squeezelite source code, and seeing it uses PortAudio, then I dug into that. As a test I have incorporated direct Port Audio calls to retrieve the device list rather than call squeezelite -l under the covers and taking its output. It's a little faster. What squeezelite does is retrieve all devices (input and output) and then outputs the ones where DeviceInfo.MaxOutputChannels > 0, thereby only retrieving output devices. Squeezelite retrieves DeviceInfo.Name and DeviceInfo.HostApi, so you see "name [HostApi]". Perhaps, though, the TotalRecorder "device", depending on which one of the three you were using, is doing something wrong. The user-mode driver seems to be described as having compatibility issues. You could try the TotalRecorder "kernel-mode" driver instead, or something.

Thanks, I hope you enjoy the app.

R Greg Dawson

Thanks for posting this. I'm not sure why squeezelite even listed mono devices as it fails to open the device requesting the required minimum of stereo.

I've changed -l to only display devices with more than 1 channel from version 1.9.4-1182.

There's a new windows build which also includes another fix for spotty ogg/vorbis tracks still skipping on occasion and native support for opus decoding.