Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[ldolse]

Just checking in, things have been busy but still thinking about priorities for the next release.

@Dynobot, I took a look at the Soundcheck script, which overall looks like a nice resource, thanks for pointing it out. From a renicing perspective most of the items look Squeezebox specific - mpdPup doesn't seem to have audio specific IRQ processes that can be directly touched. I'm not certain the softirq's relate to audio. The kernel and TCP parameters should mostly apply though, so I'll do some more testing there.

@bonalux, what you're asking for is possible, but doing it from an RS-232 will take a bit of work. The empcd daemon, which is built into mpdPup, is a daemon which monitors a keyboard device and converts those keyboard commands to MPD commands. It's set up to work with a Soundgraph iMon out of the box. For RS-232 you need something which will make serial input look like a keyboard. This probably requires LIRC. I've actually got all the pieces to solder my own infra-red sensor for RS-232 to explore this further, but I haven't had a chance to break out the soldering iron and really dig into it. PM me if you're really interested in digging into it and I can help further, but I suspect a fair amount of work will be requred.

@luisb, I haven't done a lot of testing here - interesting that option one was so far ahead. Too bad SSD isn't a realistic option for large libraries. My wifi network works fine for HD files though - my music server is connected via ethernet but the audio is transferred across a wifi bridge. What buffer settings were you using? Ideally I'd like to find a way to minimize the differences between the scenarios.

[luisb]

Idolse
I use buff size=51200 and buff before play 100%. Maybe my cable wifi router doesn't have enough bandwith to transmit HD files. But, even in cd quality, the sound is not cristal clear and causes discomfort in a long run listening.

jrling
I believe we agree but great capacity SSD are still expensive. Option 4 is the more flexible one. As my linux knowledge is very limited i have a usb pendrive for each system configuration i want to test, no system installed on the player, just reboot, change pendrive and you are ready for another setting. Really a nice OS

[Dynobot]

@Idolse

Any interest in making a Fork of MpdPUP??

Triode, the guy behind the USB output of the Squeezebox Tough "EDO" mod created a version of Squeezebox that can be installed on any OS. Its called Squeezelite.

Essentially it turns any computer "appliance" into a Squeezebox Touch. People use the normal Squeezebox client and server just like Squeezebox Touch as well.

[jrling]

[RoxGsm]

Here are the things I've been thinking about:

• final fix for unmute, nrpacks
  
• 0.17 by default, remove 0.16 (my personal issue was finally isolated to a bad power supply)
  
• Renicing/priority tweaks discussed over the last few pages, enable mmap
  
• fix albumbler so that it can finally be used from remote control on bootup
  
• update mpd, mpdlcd, hiface drivers
  
• CIFS credential handling suggestion
  
• add playlist/radio hotkey programming to empcd (this might be a stretch, I need to learn a bit more C to do this right)
  
• Add libexiftool and start working on scripts to extract album artwork from metadata as well as automatically fixing filenames based on metadata

[/quote]

Hi Idolse
I'm following your great job and will be very happy have mpdPup perfect functionallly on my machine: but something is going wrong!!!
After first setup, my Hiface Two transported audio to DAC and I listened sound Test OK. After reboot no more sound from Hiface: mute!
I know about sound issue in mpdPup... but not regarding Hiface....
what can I do to listen sound by your wonderfull job, help me please. Regards

[ldolse]

@Dynobot, Not really sure what you're getting at as to creating a fork - for myself my hands are full maintaining the main release. Are you saying you want Squeezelite support?

@luisb, I think the most flexible option is to have all the audio on a separate server so that you can use a normal OS to take care of library management over a network share. That's why this is the most well supported methodology, though attached storage can be made to work. I believe you when you say you're getting the best sound from attached storage, but what I would like to find is a solution to get remote storage sounding identical to local storage. Those buffer settings should be giving you ~5 minutes of audio played back directly from RAM. Sounds like the buffer settings aren't really doing much though.

@RoxGsm, Sounds like you're running into the same unmute issue. It's not WaveIO specific actually, it could affect a number of different components, it's just most common with the WaveIO. The root cause is that devices with a space in the name aren't unmuted. The simplest way to unmute it is to type 'alsamixer' at the CLI. Then highlight the output with the arrow keys, and press 'M' to unmute. Exit by hitting escape, then type 'alsactl -f /etc/asound.state store', finally type 'save2flash' to commit the changes.

[willemoes]

luisb and jrling:

When You recommend option "1-Local storage with SSD, just usb DAC connected" as the best sounding way to use MpdPup

- do you run this configuration Headless (playback controlled from client on another pc on network) or with keyboard/Video/mouse connected to Mpd-machine?

regards, Finn

[luisb]

Idolse
I do have 5 m with cd-quality, but only ~30 sec with 192/24 as i should expect. The test i did was with hardware limitations, maybe with more ram SQ would be similar to the local storage. In the server issue i agree with you, a big storage capacity server would be better (after experiments that's the next project). Once more i don't know if the use of SSD storage is better than moving part HD. Besides wifi, i find SQ really satisfying on the other settings. Here, wifi can be a limitation. Hardware inherent noise could be a factor, notebooks are noisy. In DIY we easly fall in audience interference, so i seek other judgments to fine tune mines.
Regards

[luisb]

willemoes
I do it headless. I take control with putty in the windows server notebook. Only linux command line control, but i got used to it. Its easy with ncmpc or ncmpcpp.
Regards

[jrling]

[willemoes]

luisb and jrling

Thanks; I don´t have an ssd (yet) but will try with 500Gb Hitachi 2.5" drive as local storage

- will check out the use of WinSCP

Regards, Finn

[luisb]

jrling
Thanks for the tip on winscp, very usefull
happy listening

[Jean-Louis P]

Hi all

I am not sure I fully understand the latest post. If I may wrap it up with my words
- is it possible with Mpdpup to use RAM as a local cache, feeding all music from the local or remote HDD to fast memory, as CMP does. If yes, how must the system be customized ?
- same question with an additional cache level with a small SDD ? It would not have to be so big : just the content of the current album.

In the second option, if would be quite straightforward for the ones like me who use an old laptop/netbook to replace former HDD with SDD as all the OS is on the CF card.

BR
Jean-Louis

[Magellan]

[Andovai]

mpdPup is great...but i want acpid...Is it possible??

Thanks
Sorry english