Announce: Squeezelite - a small headless squeezeplay emulator for linux (alsa only)

[bernid]

Something like below must be added to /etc/security/limits.conf

# Raise permissions just to the user
squeezeboxserver - rtprio 99
squeezeboxserver - nice -10
squeezeboxserver - memlock unlimited

# Or to all members of the audio group
@audio - rtprio 99
@audio - nice -10
@audio - memlock unlimited

Thanks ralphy,
Unfortunately it doesn't work in my Ubuntu.
See my '/etc/security/limits.conf' after the change and reboot:
https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/5GK2yHnyD7/

I still have:

output_init_alsa:1003 unable to lock memory: Cannot allocate memory
output_init_alsa:1011 glibc detected using mallopt
output_init_alsa:1029 unable to set output sched fifo: Operation not permitted

See details:
https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/zq9Rgwmqsg/

[PasTim]

Thanks ralphy,
Unfortunately it doesn't work in my Ubuntu.
See my '/etc/security/limits.conf' after the change and reboot:
https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/5GK2yHnyD7/

I still have:

output_init_alsa:1003 unable to lock memory: Cannot allocate memory
output_init_alsa:1011 glibc detected using mallopt
output_init_alsa:1029 unable to set output sched fifo: Operation not permitted

See details:
https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/zq9Rgwmqsg/

I decided to raise the priority of LMS, and hence localplayer. I added this to /etc/default/logitechmediaserver:

SLIMOPTIONS="--localfile"
SLIMNICE="--nicelevel -6"

and in /etc/init/d/logoitechmediaserver, d_start now includes:

	start-stop-daemon --start --quiet \
               --chuid $SLIMUSER \
                --pidfile $PIDFILE \
                $SLIMNICE \
		--exec $DAEMON_SAFE \
                --background \
                --make-pidfile \
                -- \
                $DAEMON \
                --prefsdir $PREFSDIR \
                --logdir $LOGDIR \
                --cachedir $CACHEDIR \
		--charset=$CHARSET \
                $SLIMOPTIONS

With a similar change to d_start_direct.

I also include this in the localplayer start command:

-p 25

I did all this some time ago, so am not sure which action had the most effect (or even which are really necessary), but LMS and localplayer run well on a relatively slow cpu doing a fair bit of transcoding.


I don't get the warnings you report on xubuntu 18.04 ( as a dedicated LMS server).

[bernid]

Thanks PasTim,
I tried your way but still have 'output_init_alsa' warnings on my system:
Ubuntu server 19.10 +newest LMS+ Local Player Plugin (v.1.6.5)+ squeezelite-x86-64 (v.1.9.5-1193).
I can hear the sound but I don't know if it could be better if alsa fifo and memory allocation would work properly.

[PasTim]

Thanks PasTim,
I tried your way but still have 'output_init_alsa' warnings on my system:
Ubuntu server 19.10 +newest LMS+ Local Player Plugin (v.1.6.5)+ squeezelite-x86-64 (v.1.9.5-1193).
I can hear the sound but I don't know if it could be better if alsa fifo and memory allocation would work properly.

I've found one other tweak. I added this to the startup file, just before each 'start-stop-daemon...'

        ulimit -l unlimited
        ulimit -r 50

My notes (from some time ago, long forgotten) say:

"Now, because it runs as a daemon, it doesn’t use pam.d limits. But it can have a ‘ulimit’ set in the logitechmediaserver start-up, which it inherits. So I’ve done that (ulimit -l unlimited). That allows it to lock memory. To get it to set rt priority I had to change the start of that script from #!/bin/sh to #!/bin/bash. Then ulimit -r 50 works! Now get no warnings on local player"

I hope this now works for you!

[bernid]

I hope this now works for you!

Yes. It is.
THANK YOU PasTim.

[PasTim]

Yes. It is.
THANK YOU PasTim.

Good.

[Moonbase]

After so many years, I finally found time to play with SqueezeLite again, and I’m rather happy about it. It runs on my Linux system and since it now supports PulseAudio, I’m loving it. With only a few tweaks, I can even use it as an input to my JACK 2 audio system (i.e., IDJC), albeit not natively supporting JACK. Fantastic.

I downloaded from https://sourceforge.net/projects/lmsclients/ and had to use the version without "pulse" in the name, for some reason.

Many many thanks to Ralph Irving!