Announce: CastBridge = integrate Chromecast players with LMS (squeeze2cast)

[philippe_44]

I've fixed various issues after a careful verification with vagrind that I ignored before (always listen to valgrind...). Maybe it will fix crash & lock problems

[Cali]

Hi

I installed the plugin but it won't create the castbridge.xml config file, so it keeps saying "Configuration file missing".
I run the program as an administrator.

Starting Squeeze2cast: C:\PROGRA~3\SQUEEZ~1\Cache\INSTAL~1\Plugins\CASTBR ~1\Bin\SQUEEZ~1.EXE -Z -I -f C:\ProgramData\Squeezebox\Logs\castbridge.log -d all=debug -x C:\ProgramData\Squeezebox\prefs\castbridge.xml -i C:\ProgramData\Squeezebox\prefs\castbridge.xml
[15:56:47.338] main:1267 Starting squeeze2cast version: v1.46.4 (Jan 14 2021 @ 21:59:44)
[15:56:47.338] main:1275

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ERROR LOADING CONFIG FILE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[15:56:47.354] output_init:605 success loading FLAC encoder
[15:56:47.354] register_alac:541 using alac to decode alc
[15:56:47.355] load_mad:411 loaded libmad-0.dll
[15:56:47.355] register_mad:433 using mad to decode mp3
[15:56:47.357] load_faad:626 loaded libfaad2.dll
[15:56:47.357] register_faad:647 using faad to decode aac
[15:56:47.362] load_vorbis:325 loaded libvorbisfile.dll
[15:56:47.362] register_vorbis:346 using vorbis to decode ogg
[15:56:47.362] register_pcm:339 using pcm
[15:56:47.362] load_flac:292 loaded libFLAC.dll
[15:56:47.362] register_flac:313 using flac to decode flc
[15:56:47.363] load_opus:251 dlerror: code: 126
[15:56:47.363] register_m4a_thru:307 using mp4 to aac (ADTS)
[15:56:47.363] register_flac_thru:247 using flac
[15:56:47.363] register_thru:106 using thru
[15:56:47.365] load_soxr:381 loaded libsoxr.dll
[15:56:47.365] register_soxr:394 using soxr for resampling
[15:56:47.365] Start:1036 Binding to 192.168.68.110 (http:0)
[15:57:08.710] Stop:1064 stopping squeezelite devices ...
[15:57:08.711] Stop:1069 terminate search thread ...
[15:57:08.712] Stop:1075 stopping Cast devices ...
[15:57:08.712] Stop:1080 terminate main thread ...

Retarting Squeeze2cast after crash: C:\PROGRA~3\SQUEEZ~1\Cache\INSTAL~1\Plugins\CASTBR ~1\Bin\SQUEEZ~1.EXE -Z -I -x C:\ProgramData\Squeezebox\prefs\castbridge.xml

[SamY]

Hi

I installed the plugin but it won't create the castbridge.xml config file, so it keeps saying "Configuration file missing".
I run the program as an administrator.

Are there any errors in your server log? There seems to be a permissions problem with the latest executable that I'm sure Philippe will be fixing soon. Here is the message in my server log:

[21-01-15 23:46:40.7454] main::init (388) Starting Logitech Media Server (v8.1.0, 1608700893, Wed Dec 23 12:13:04 CET 2020) perl 5.020002 - arm-linux-gnueabihf-thread-multi-64int
[21-01-15 23:47:11.7284] Plugins::CastBridge::Squeeze2cast::start (130) executable not having 'x' permission, correcting
[21-01-15 23:47:12.7151] Plugins::CastBridge::Plugin::initPlugin (57) $VAR1 = {
'uid' => 'squeezeboxserver',
'osName' => 'Debian',
'osArch' => 'armv7l-linux',
'isDebian' => 1,
'binArch' => 'armhf-linux',
'os' => 'Linux'
};

[philippe_44]

Hi

I installed the plugin but it won't create the castbridge.xml config file, so it keeps saying "Configuration file missing".
I run the program as an administrator.

It’s probably a firewall issue

[freelsjd]

Can you also try to run the static version and see if the same happens? Could you also send me your config file?

Philippe, I switched to the static-build version. I cannot see any cpu hang of any kind thus far. When I streamed a flac channel from radio paradise, the cpu got up to 70-80%, but then going back to acc-320K gets down to 10% or so. Even lower to 4% for lower bit rate channels.

I suppose the static-build will require more memory, but that is not a problem on this machine. Wish I had thought to try that earlier.

I am attaching my configuration anyway to fulfill your request. Even though the .xml file is a test file, the uploader here refuses, so I changed it to .txt file extension so it would upload.

If it hangs again, I will post back again to this thread.

Thanks so much. This plugin is great to have and use !

[philippe_44]

Philippe, I switched to the static-build version. I cannot see any cpu hang of any kind thus far. When I streamed a flac channel from radio paradise, the cpu got up to 70-80%, but then going back to acc-320K gets down to 10% or so. Even lower to 4% for lower bit rate channels.

I suppose the static-build will require more memory, but that is not a problem on this machine. Wish I had thought to try that earlier.

I am attaching my configuration anyway to fulfill your request. Even though the .xml file is a test file, the uploader here refuses, so I changed it to .txt file extension so it would upload.

If it hangs again, I will post back again to this thread.

Thanks so much. This plugin is great to have and use !

Good! That also gives me a good hint - Any chance you could try the version I've updated a couple of days ago as well?

[Cali]

It’s probably a firewall issue

I shutdown all my firewalls and rebooted the server. Nothing changed.
I turned everything back on and rebooted. Nothing happened.
I delete the log file to start clean. After reboot my Firewall asked if I wanted to make an exception for the program.
I did and now it works. Thanks.

[freelsjd]

Good! That also gives me a good hint - Any chance you could try the version I've updated a couple of days ago as well?

I realized when you pointed me to my configuration file that I had some old combinations of cast speaker setups in there. I have erased and rebuilt that file a few times now to clean up.

I had already updated to the latest castbridge plugin (v1.46.4).

Things look to be running smoothly now. I will post back if it hangs again.

Thank you so much for a great plugin !

[pete105]

Ok, the no transcode was very important, thanks. In term of sound quality, there will be absolutely zero difference between pcm and flac, I can ensure you.

Could you share with me a typical playlist that causes the crash? Maybe Spotify, Deezer, Tidal, Qobuz?

Hi Philippe,

In answer to your question, I listen to mostly 16/44 FLACs and some MP3s locally, along with BBC Sounds, Spotty and Radio Paradise (FLAC). I experienced CastBridge crashing in each of these file types/apps.

Since my last update, I experienced a crash with FLAC (Flow), so at this point I had covered all transcode options. When this happened, I decided move my LMS installation to a new NUC (something I had planned to do in future) with a fresh OS install and I reconfigured LMS/Castbridge from scratch. Having completed this, it appears the issue has now stabilised and I'm now able to play the same content via PCM (Flow) as expected. I will continue to keep an eye on this but it's looking good so far.

In terms of a root cause, this hasn't provided an answer, but the issue was clearly specific to my original LMS setup so it's probably best to draw a line under it as it isn't affecting other people. I'll come back to you if this changes in future.

Thanks for your help and continued development of CastBridge, which is such a useful plugin, and one of the main reasons I chose LMS.

Cheers,

Pete.

[Xocyah]

I am unable to get Chromecast Bridge to work on my old 2012 R2 Server, a new 2016 Server, and a clean build of Windows 10 (with no changes from default other than installing LMS). I believe I have followed the instructions to the letter, but every time Chromecast Bridge attempts to generate a config file, it fails with:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ERROR LOADING CONFIG FILE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have seen posts saying this is a firewall problem, but I have allowed the program "squeeze2cast-win.exe" in the Windows Defender firewall. I have tried disabling the firewall altogether, and also disabling all Windows Defender features, as well as adding an exclusion for the C:\ProgramData\Squeezebox folder.

I am running the latest version of LMS (recently updated to 8.1.1) and Chromecast Bridge v1.46.4.

If I create the file manually, the plugin is able to delete it, so it has permissions to the file / folder.

How can I avoid the error message and generate the required config file? Many thanks.