Announce: piCorePlayer 8.0.0

[Fahzz]

thx

[CJS]

thx

By the way, I see that the Allo Boss 2 Player has an OLED screen. I don't know if this screen is also supported by pCP. Maybe somebody else knows?

EDIT: Just found this post that says that the OLED display works with pCP 7.0 32-bits. So then I suppose the display will also work with pCP 8.2.0.
I would go for the 32-bit version of pCP anyway, since it is more thoroughly tested and I don't think that there is a benefit in using the 64-bit version.

[Viragored]

I'm also experiencing the LMS stopping itself issue. The last full reboot was after a power cut a few weeks ago; since then LMS has again stopped overnight, while not being actively used. Going to the pCP LMS page and restarting LMS worked as it should. LMS server log attached.
As suggested above I've changed the power supply (new RPi official one), swapped ethernet cables and sockets in the network switch it's connected to, and pings are normal. It's too soon to tell if the changes have got rid of the issue.
Any further suggestions I could try?

There's a separate issue which may or may not be related - when Spotty is playing a Spotify "Artist radio" playlist of 200 songs, the playback will sometimes stop and not go on to the next song. Clicking "next" on the web interface immediately resumes playing the list. Often the playlist is somewhere between 40 and 80 songs in when the pause happens. Unless anyone can see a connection to LMS stopping itself, I'll raise the question in a different forum.

[zubenubi]

Could be something to do with Spotty as I have recently installed it. Any way to tell from logs?

[paul-]

We have seen some issues with LMS creating too many temp files, and holding them open filling file handle memory. But that should not be the issue if you are on the current release.

What model pi are you using? your log file is pretty generic, so you should check available memory when it locks up. Is the LMS process using 100% of the cpu, or is it idle.

[Viragored]

We have seen some issues with LMS creating too many temp files, and holding them open filling file handle memory. But that should not be the issue if you are on the current release.

What model pi are you using? your log file is pretty generic, so you should check available memory when it locks up. Is the LMS process using 100% of the cpu, or is it idle.

Hi - I'm using a Pi 3B+ with a HiFiBerry DAC, external hard drive with my music, and ethernet connection to my home network. (It's a while since I posted in the forum and I didn't notice the signature block isn't there any more - that info was part of my signature!)
This is from LMS web page information: "Logitech Media Server Version: 8.3.1 - 1676361197 @ Fri 17 Feb 2023 06:42:42 AM CET"
On the pCP LMS page "Set Branch" is set to "Release: Select this to only only update when there is a new release" (the default?)
Shortly after my recent post there was a power cut (we get lots where I live) so the Pi was rebooted not long ago and has played steadily all day today.
When LMS stops working, pCP main page reports that LMS is not running - the green tick is replaced by something else (red cross?). I presume that means LMS is idle - but if you can point me to how to check that, and the amount of available memory, - and any other helpful information - I'll keep a note by the Pi for when LMS next stops.

zubenubi asks if there's any log to check the Spotty behaviour when that hangs up. Good question!

[CJS]

(It's a while since I posted in the forum and I didn't notice the signature block isn't there any more - that info was part of my signature!)

Off topic: You can enable display of signatures via User Settings => Account tab. See screenshot below:

[CJS]

When LMS stops working, pCP main page reports that LMS is not running - the green tick is replaced by something else (red cross?). I presume that means LMS is idle - but if you can point me to how to check that, and the amount of available memory, - and any other helpful information - I'll keep a note by the Pi for when LMS next stops.

I don't run LMS on pCP. But I know that you can check the amount of available memory in an SSH session.
Help page that explains how to open an SSH session on your pCP => Access pCP via ssh | piCorePlayer documentation

In an SSH session, you can get information about available memory by typing:
free

Alternative command is:
cat /proc/meminfo

[zubenubi]

Thanks for the suggestion paul-. Ill take a top snapshot the next time this occurs. FWIW, here is one when things appears to be working without issue:

Mem: 602248K used, 3334144K free, 27224K shrd, 9180K buff, 268484K cached
CPU: 0.4% usr 1.8% sys 0.0% nic 97.6% idle 0.0% io 0.0% irq 0.0% sirq
Load average: 0.03 0.05 0.02 2/100 25724
PID PPID USER STAT VSZ %VSZ CPU %CPU COMMAND
19873 1 tc S 202m 5.2 0 2.2 {slimserver.pl} /usr/bin/perl /usr/local/slimserver/slimserver.pl --daemon --user tc --group staff
25723 25682 tc R 3412 0.0 3 0.0 top
13 2 root SW 0 0.0 0 0.0 [ksoftirqd/0]
25676 2 root IW 0 0.0 3 0.0 [kworker/3:1-eve]
8186 1 tc S 75704 1.9 1 0.0 /usr/local/bin/pcpmdnsd -h piCoreLMS -i 192.168.20.20
25678 1899 root S 6120 0.1 3 0.0 sshd: tc [priv]
25681 25678 tc S 6120 0.1 0 0.0 sshd: tc@pts/0
1899 1 root S 5988 0.1 0 0.0 sshd: /usr/local/sbin/sshd[listener] 0 of 10-100 startups
1808 1 root S 5364 0.1 1 0.0 /usr/local/sbin/rngd

[paul-]

When LMS stops working, pCP main page reports that LMS is not running - the green tick is replaced by something else (red cross?). I presume that means LMS is idle - but if you can point me to how to check that, and the amount of available memory, - and any other helpful information - I'll keep a note by the Pi for when LMS next stops.

If pCP is showing a red check, then LMS has stopped. I would expect something in the logs if LMS stopped internally, You might go to the performance setting in LMS and turn down LMS's memory usage setting.

[Viragored]

If pCP is showing a red check, then LMS has stopped. I would expect something in the logs if LMS stopped internally, You might go to the performance setting in LMS and turn down LMS's memory usage setting.

Thanks, Paul. I've changed the "Database memory config" option from High to Normal. I don't think I've been into that setting before so presumably "High" is the default.

In case it's a factor, I've got my LMS data stored on the 32GB SD card.

And thanks also to CJS for the SSH info. At this moment, "free" returns:

total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 996096 200112 521548 15764 274436 760176
Swap: 238564 0 238564

[paul-]

Yes, high is default. Which really should be okay. But lets see what happens at normal

[Viragored]

Yes, high is default. Which really should be okay. But lets see what happens at normal

Thanks, Paul. Fingers crossed! And if I'm not back on here for a while, that should mean all is well.

[Viragored]

Yes, high is default. Which really should be okay. But lets see what happens at normal

LMS is still running with no stops, but today Spotty has hung up twice while playing a 200-song "artist radio" playlist. The first was at 15.56, and again at 20.05 (NZST). The LMS log has only 2 entries, neither from today:

[23-04-09 23:00:25.1213] main::init (377) Starting Logitech Media Server (v8.3.1, 1676361197, Fri 17 Feb 2023 06:42:42 AM CET) perl 5.032001 - arm-linux-gnueabihf-thread-multi-64int
[23-04-11 20:02:00.6787] main::init (377) Starting Logitech Media Server (v8.3.1, 1676361197, Fri 17 Feb 2023 06:42:42 AM CET) perl 5.032001 - arm-linux-gnueabihf-thread-multi-64int

I guess whatever issue is causing this, it's either the Spotty plug-in, or Spotify itself. I'll get this question going in another forum (and if I remember, I'll edit this post to add a link to wherever the discussion takes place).

[sckramer]

Does anyone else use 5G Home Internet and have this problem? The Internet basically works in all other areas except these, it's probably this basic ping check... Reading that 5G messes with ICMP ping packets
...any hack or way around this, or fix?

Frustrating, also I try once in a while over the last few months... always the same for all installs. Have to fresh install, and can't install LIRC.

From SSH DNS lookups work, pinging 8.8.8.8 (and others) is weird, drops, and slow... otherwise normal and fast. Same on PC/Mac fast except ping.

Thanks!

FYI... this magically works now?! Didn't touch a thing yet on my network. Thanks!