OLD: mpdPup - Simplified MPD Music Server/Jukebox - v0.9.2

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ldolse
Posts: 367
Joined: Fri 23 Oct 2009, 16:33

#101 Post by ldolse »

PET-240 wrote:re the hdd, can one use a larger CF Card and keep music files on that?
Is there any advantage to doing it this way? Only ask as the Alix has an IDE header onboard and I could run a ssd through a Sata to IDE adaptor. Not being able to update over the network is a pain, though I understand where you are coming from! But I dont want to use USB for anything but the dac. A 32gig cf isn't that expensive anymore.
Any suggestions appreciated!
The wizards don't support the boot drive and music drive on the same piece of hardware/partition - if you're comfortable editing the mpd & client configuration file yourself you could make this work though. It might also be doable with the wizards if you partition the drive on Windows with a small boot partition separate from a data partition - not sure if this will work as I haven't explored that as an option too much.

I fully understand where you're coming from though - agree that sharing a DAC and a USB hard disk on the same bus is not ideal. My answer to that at the moment is to use a separate file server/NAS, but better support for your scenario is something I'll need to put some though into.

PET-240
Posts: 74
Joined: Tue 22 May 2012, 17:38

#102 Post by PET-240 »

Hey if you can think about it I can test it.......

Also, I noticed on one of the voyage hack sites(Japan?) they are using OSS? No idea what this would do and whether it supports 24/192? Can try to send a link soon, can get there off the voyage site. May give some further ideas long term? Though I don't think you have any issues regarding ideas!
I'll set it up nas wise and we can play from there!
How hard you reckon to whack on a apple tv 1st gen?

ldolse
Posts: 367
Joined: Fri 23 Oct 2009, 16:33

#103 Post by ldolse »

I've looked into OSS before, but previous releases have required that the user actually purchase it, so it's not something that can be added into a livecd like this. Looks like they've changed their licensing recently, so I may dig into it more in the future.

Whacking it on an Apple TV would be a no-go, Apple is using ARM, this is compiled for Intel/x86 processors. ARM support is a someday way in the future thought at the moment - once I get a more formalized build system up and running it may be doable, as that's something that the Puppy Linux team is currently working on. Edit - I just saw that the first gen Apple TV is Intel - so it should be possible theoretically, but I've got no idea what it would take.

PET-240
Posts: 74
Joined: Tue 22 May 2012, 17:38

#104 Post by PET-240 »

Heya!

Have another post I thought was here but app not..... Will go find!

Good news bout apple tv, will see what can be done, there is one about with voyage, so if it can, am sure we can figure it out. Poss more you!

PET-240
Posts: 74
Joined: Tue 22 May 2012, 17:38

#105 Post by PET-240 »

Problem.........

Its too easy..........

Bought new CF card reader, formatted to Fat32, loaded unetbootin, did the point at .iso and shoot, lo and behold, it loaded.

Now I wait for the WaveIO the show up to do the first boot etc, will need to ssh to the Alix, and go from there.

Is it any issue to run off the CF Card rather than boot into RAM? What difference does it make? Too slow for the OS or something? Not have the music files as per earlier asked on the CF, Just run the OS from there. Figure frees up the RAM for playing music from........

So now I wait......but not for you!

Bloody Marvellous!

Thanks Isolde!

ldolse
Posts: 367
Joined: Fri 23 Oct 2009, 16:33

#106 Post by ldolse »

Running out of RAM will eliminate any IO on the IDE bus, which should be a good thing in terms of maximal audio quality. MPD doesn't really use any RAM besides a small buffer, so the rest of the memory isn't doing much. If you loaded tracks into a RAM disk you might be able to leverage more memory, and that's certainly possible, but not part of the way mpdPup's wizards set things up today. The main reason to run off the CF would be for systems which have very little memory, e.g. 64-256MB.

Should be fairly straightforward once you ssh in.

PET-240
Posts: 74
Joined: Tue 22 May 2012, 17:38

#107 Post by PET-240 »

Righto, think the Alix only has 256MB RAM, so will see, will try first and play later.
Going to repurpose an old pc with FreeNAS next couple of days so will use an old router for a stand alone network to play with.

Once I get the WaveIO, hopefully in the next week, I can fire it up!

Thanks again for making it easy!

Cheers,

Drew.

audiosm
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri 25 May 2012, 13:44

#108 Post by audiosm »

Post subject: Mpdpup won't play music from USB hard drive

Hello - I need some help with the mpdpup , I have an external USB drive with my music on it , but cannot seem to get mpdpup to play from it .
My system is an old DEL laptop - USB stick for mpdpup as per the instructions - USB DAC - USB external hard drive

I am a very much a beginner with linux , but did manage to get mpdpup to play from the PC local hard drive and was very happy with the sound quality , but 99% of my music is on the external USB hard drive using ntfs

The external hard drive can be mounted using xwin and mount - then the mpdpup setup sees the folders in the external drive and they can be set as the as the root for music . However after a save and restart the music directory is found not to be mounted , and mpd does not work . No music can be played from the external USB
hard drive .

what should I do next ? , I read from a previous post that a file called fstab may need to be edited , I found the file and tried to add the external hard drive (sdc1) but no luck adding the line below - probably wrong
/dev/sdc1 /music auto defaults 0 0

I am much more an audio dabbler than PC and do not understand much of linux , just learning what mount is etc

Any assistance , or direction to help , would be appreciated

PET-240
Posts: 74
Joined: Tue 22 May 2012, 17:38

SSH

#109 Post by PET-240 »

Hey Idolse,

For those of newbies to this, namely me, how do I SSH in precisely? The WaveIO showed up today and am itching to do the first boot......

Just the description on the front page makes it sound simple but I know not how! Perhaps an update there for those of us new?

Thanks,

Drew.

PET-240
Posts: 74
Joined: Tue 22 May 2012, 17:38

#110 Post by PET-240 »

Next thought.

How do I add a user so I don't always login as root?

And I seem to be doing something wrong with MPod, it doesn't connect or see the server. Nor can I really figure the correct settings.

On another note, I found the music HDD without any drama!

Thanks Idolse!

ldolse
Posts: 367
Joined: Fri 23 Oct 2009, 16:33

#111 Post by ldolse »

@pet-240, if you're not comfortable with SSH you may want to use the GUI for the initial setup, you can remove the monitor after you're done. Anyway on MacOSX you just open a terminal and type 'ssh root@tunes.local'. If you're on Windows you need to download an app called Putty:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

Putty should be pretty straightforward to figure out.

As far as logging in as root goes, Puppy defaults to root and it's a single user system, it keeps everything simple. No need to fix what isn't broken :)

MPoD won't be able to see the system until you complete the wizard and then restart the system. If that still doesn't work then maybe Avahi failed to start (which would be weird). In that case you can get the IP address from your router (or configure the static one in the Wizard) and configure MPoD to point to the IP.

@audiosm, there is a known Puppy Linux issue with NTFS drives right now - if you feel comfortable hand editing a few text files I can guide you through a fix, but I will be fixing this in the next release.

PET-240
Posts: 74
Joined: Tue 22 May 2012, 17:38

#112 Post by PET-240 »

Hey Idolse,

Hit the panic button a little early when I couldn't figure ssh on windows, after posting, google is your friend, found putty, got into the wizard, found the hdd etc, all working, question now, I do the save file command thing to save the settings I just provided, then I think that mpdpup just restarts after this? The Alix has no video capability, so ssh is it for me, just going through my voyage brain and it mentioned to add a user to avoid root, so I got off track there.
Am going to format the cf and start again, will ignore the adduser thing, question, is there a way to use the LEDs on the front of the Alix so I know when it's booted?
If I'm using putty, and it does the restart, after the initial restart where it does the file system thing, how long you reckon before I can go hunting with MPod?
Simple question I know but the answers arent clear to me!
One thing is, once we get the "manual" squared away this is as easy as Ubuntu to install!

Thanks for the efforts Idolse!

audiosm
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri 25 May 2012, 13:44

#113 Post by audiosm »

Thanks Idolse ,if puppy has a problem with ntfs that would explain my problems finding my music .
I am happy to try editing some text files. In order to learn a little about puppy I am now booting from CD to Slacko puppy ,this is a BIG improvement using my my old PC with a cluttered xp install - nearly converted .
Using slacko I can edit the USB stick just clicking on files opens an editor , where I tried to modify my fstab .
mpdpup identifies the external hard drive as
/dev/sdc1 Expansion Drive
if that is important ?
Good news you will be fixing ntfs in next release , hope I can get going before that with some editing .

PET-240
Posts: 74
Joined: Tue 22 May 2012, 17:38

#114 Post by PET-240 »

Hey Idolse,

Been hunting on the wiki's etc as I can see the Alix etc via Mpod now, can go through the artist and albums but only on the browse function, doesn't show up on the tabs at bottom of page, also all the music I loaded for testing is in WMA format, can MPD read this as I see no song titles in mpod when I browse.
I know this is my end, so if you can bear with me please......

going to try to rip one album in EAC as a flac, see if that shows up. if I switch off then on, will that update the database?

Cheers,

Drew.

PET-240
Posts: 74
Joined: Tue 22 May 2012, 17:38

#115 Post by PET-240 »

Definitely an issue regarding format, flac is happy, if ripped with EAC and the tracks are named etc it shows up ok in mpod, going to see if I can get metadata to show up later on with mpod.
After ripping in EAC/flac the album,artist and song buttons work fine in Mpod.

Possibly tomorrow, will try to hook up WaveIO to spdif input on receiver and have a listen!

It is now beauty sleep time!

Cheers,

Drew.

ldolse
Posts: 367
Joined: Fri 23 Oct 2009, 16:33

#116 Post by ldolse »

Hi, yes - I recently discovered that wma is not working on mpdPup - I've been discussing it with some other users on computeraudiophile. It's apparently related to something with my build, as wma is working with mpd on Voyage. It's something I'm going to try to fix before releasing the next version. That said, I'm not sure how well wma metadata is supported in MPD - your experience with wma in general may be hit or miss.

It slipped my mind you were on Alix - definitely need ssh then. Did you need to use the IP address or did tunes.local work the second time around? Once the system is booted you can type 'top' at the CLI to get the list of running processes - I'm curious whether you see Avahi there.

Regarding the LED lights - one of them should be blinking during bootup while the system reads everything off the compact flash - when the LED stops blinking then the system is very close to completing it's startup.

@audiosm, let me dig through my email to find the fix and I'll get post the steps for you shortly.

ldolse
Posts: 367
Joined: Fri 23 Oct 2009, 16:33

#117 Post by ldolse »

Hi audiosm, here are the instructions to fix this - note I still haven't personally tested this fix myself, another user did this investigation for me.

Enter the following command at the CLI:

Code: Select all

nano /bin/mount
Press ctrl-W after nano comes up to search the file. Type the following into the search and press enter:

Code: Select all

mount-FULL -n
and replace it with

Code: Select all

mount-FULL
You're basically deleting the -n. Once you've done that press ctrl-x to exit the file and again press Y to save the changes.

Once that's done, go through the basic setup with the mpdPup wizard. After the wizard is complete, type 'reboot' and when the system comes back online MPD should start up and find your music.

If you'd rather do this with a mouse and keyboard you can launch xwindows by typing 'startx' from the command line and then launch Leafpad which is a graphical text editor to edit the files.

edited to simplify instructions.
Last edited by ldolse on Sun 29 Jul 2012, 13:52, edited 1 time in total.

PET-240
Posts: 74
Joined: Tue 22 May 2012, 17:38

#118 Post by PET-240 »

Hey Idolse,

The WMA thing doesn't bother me, has just been thrown in through WinMC so not a quality rip, can you point to a guide that I can use to get the metadata embedded in the flac files or the library? or in which way is the best for the file/folder format or layout so it is picked up by MPod etc?
Is there a standard?
Will ask the MPod man his thoughts as If I can do it while ripping makes my life easier!

Regards Alix, I used an old modem/router with wireless and set up a mini network for config so I could get it running easy. Putty with tunes.local works fine. as a hint for others, in putty, when you have the terminal box open and a solid green rectangle cursor, it is connected, when just the outline it is not......

Only the one LED works and it is solid on all the time, will see if I can find the other guide for Voyage on Alix and see what he does as apparently he has one that does the heartbeat when booted.

Hope to try tonight via spdif to ensure the WaveIO is working, i figure if SPDIF is then the I2S converter section would be too.

Thanks Idolse! nicely done with the wizards! :shock: :lol:

PET-240
Posts: 74
Joined: Tue 22 May 2012, 17:38

#119 Post by PET-240 »

Just found your comment on the Computer Audiophile site in regards to the guide for embedding the art.

Any further thoughts?

Thanks,

Drew.

ldolse
Posts: 367
Joined: Fri 23 Oct 2009, 16:33

#120 Post by ldolse »

Since you're on Windows my recommendation would be to buy dBpoweramp:
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/
While the rip quality will be the same with EAC and dBpoweramp, dBpoweramp is much more flexible in how it rips (e.g. use burst ripping mode and only use secure ripping when AccurateRip fails), as well as better metadata support (higher quality sources, intelligent merging), and the ability to create a folder.jpg file with every rip as well as embedding the album art in the files.

If you want a really well written and thought out discussion refer to the guide on ComputerAudiophile:
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/conte ... thodology/

Following those guides will probably set things up the best to work with MPoD - the main thing you want is for all albums to each reside in their own single folder - that's how MPoD determines an album is a compilation. If you screw up the ripping settings it may group the folder structure as:
track artist -> album -> audio file
While you want one of these two structures:
album artist -> album -> all audio files for the album
compilation folder -> album -> all audio files for the album

This may require using a 'various artists' album artist while ripping for true compilations - I didn't solve that particular problem while ripping but used iTunes instead - dBpoweramp probably has a flag to flag it as a compilation as well, and that would also do the trick.

I'm not sure which discussion about folder art you mean on computeraudiophile - if you give me a link I can see if there is anything else worth mentioning.

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