Article: Geek Speak: How To Build A BeagleBone Black MPD Music Server

[Oystein]

With the risk repeating (I didn't check all pages of this thread) I guess it is important that the 'nrpacks' setting was 'fixed' years ago according to Clemens Ladisch who maintains the USB audio stack in Linux.

 

I have to disagree with you on this subject.

Playing with the nrpacks settings I could refuse my system to play at nrpacks = 50.

At 20 I had some stutters left and at 10 it plays fine again.

[Oystein]

I can't remember if somebody already mentioned a better setting for nrpack besides "1" and I am too lazy to start reading all posts.

 

Since my BBB system is up and running again this weekend I did some tests and I decided nrpacks = 1 gives best result.

No need to change the setting thinking "I know better"

;-)

[Richard Dale]

During the installation of Debian I see several times the same warning:

perl: warning: Setting locale failed.

perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:

LANGUAGE = (unset),

LC_ALL = (unset),

LC_CTYPE = "UTF-8",

LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"

are supported and installed on your system.

perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").

locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory

locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory

Could this explain why I encounter this problem with diacritical characters?

If so, where do I have to change the language settings?

 

In /etc/default/locale on my Debian based Raspberry Pi I have:

 

# File generated by update-locale

LANG=en_US.UTF-8

 

See here: https://wiki.debian.org/Locale for info about how to update your locale.

 

I think the problem with non-latin characters in filenames is more likely to be to do with how you are mounting your disk with the /etc/fstab entry. Does adding an 'iocharset=utf8' option like this make any difference?

 

 

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.

#

# Auto generated by: beaglebone-black-copy-microSD-to-eMMC.sh

#

UUID=b8d2e77b-7900-400c-b3cf-397b025f8a8b / ext4 noatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1

UUID=3C48-0567 /boot/uboot auto defaults 0 0

//192.168.1.246/Muziek /mnt/music cifs defaults,username=admin,password=admin,iocharset=utf8, 0 0

[sebassie]

In /etc/default/locale on my Debian based Raspberry Pi I have:

 

# File generated by update-locale

LANG=en_US.UTF-8

 

See here: https://wiki.debian.org/Locale for info about how to update your locale.

 

I think the problem with non-latin characters in filenames is more likely to be to do with how you are mounting your disk with the /etc/fstab entry. Does adding an 'iocharset=utf8' option like this make any difference?

 

 

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.

#

# Auto generated by: beaglebone-black-copy-microSD-to-eMMC.sh

#

UUID=b8d2e77b-7900-400c-b3cf-397b025f8a8b / ext4 noatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1

UUID=3C48-0567 /boot/uboot auto defaults 0 0

//192.168.1.246/Muziek /mnt/music cifs defaults,username=admin,password=admin,iocharset=utf8, 0 0

 

Thanks Richard. I will give it a try. As soon as I have results I will report back here.

[sebassie]

In /etc/default/locale on my Debian based Raspberry Pi I have:

 

# File generated by update-locale

LANG=en_US.UTF-8

 

See here: https://wiki.debian.org/Locale for info about how to update your locale.

 

I think the problem with non-latin characters in filenames is more likely to be to do with how you are mounting your disk with the /etc/fstab entry. Does adding an 'iocharset=utf8' option like this make any difference?

 

 

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.

#

# Auto generated by: beaglebone-black-copy-microSD-to-eMMC.sh

#

UUID=b8d2e77b-7900-400c-b3cf-397b025f8a8b / ext4 noatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1

UUID=3C48-0567 /boot/uboot auto defaults 0 0

//192.168.1.246/Muziek /mnt/music cifs defaults,username=admin,password=admin,iocharset=utf8, 0 0

 

I have also: LANG=en_US.UTF-8

When I add the 'iocharset=utf8' option I get an error message saying that line 7 is wrong. So that does not work.

[sebassie]

I have also: LANG=en_US.UTF-8

When I add the 'iocharset=utf8' option I get an error message saying that line 7 is wrong. So that does not work.

 

I made a typo. After correction no difference. All folders containing diacritical characters are ignored by ncmpc. They are shown when making a listing (cd /mnt/music ls). The diacritical characters are replaced by an '?' in that listing. ncmpc cannot handle that. My NAS is set to utf-8. When running LMS on the NAS everything is shown. NAS is ext3, should be no problem I read somewhere. So I'm stuck. For me end of story with BBB unless someone helps me here.

[lugili]

No one tried to answer my questions some time ago ... sniff ... any luck shortly before Christmas?

;-)

 

Hi all,

I am a happy mpdpup user on an Alix machine. But now I am helping someone setting a BBB up as described at the beginning of this thread. BTW, thanks Chris for doing that, it is a great how. Would have loved to have such help 3 years ago when I started going down the slippery slope of linux audio ...;-)

 

Can I ask a few questions:

- what "nice" level is mpd running on the BBB? where can I change it to -19 if necessary? anyone done that yet? we could not see mpd with "ps -axl"

- what are people using as buffer sizes in mpd.conf without dropouts and for best sound? we had dropouts with high res files

- chris set nrpacks to 1, I use nrpacks = 20 for better results on the Alix. Is there a consensus what is best here?

 

Thanks and sorry for the techy questions.

lugili

[bluesman]

BBB's still great, but I have a weird problem. As reported by someone else some time ago, my MPoD iPhone app pauses & hangs immediately when I select a track. Reboots, reinstalls etc don't fix it. But the MPDroid apps on my Android phone & tablet work fine on the same BBB. I can't find any clues in the code or logs. Any ideas out there would be gratefully tried.

[Riki Rixsta Buckingham]

Hi, I think this is great and I would also like to play FLAC file and MP3's on this. I have a question im realy hoping someone will know

I would like to connect a 1TB hard drive to this and have the songs play from that, it can be a sata preferably or IDE connection.

Does anyone know how I can mod this so I can play FLAC/MP3 from Hard drive ?

 

Thanks

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi, I think this is great and I would also like to play FLAC file and MP3's on this. I have a question im realy hoping someone will know

I would like to connect a 1TB hard drive to this and have the songs play from that, it can be a sata preferably or IDE connection.

Does anyone know how I can mod this so I can play FLAC/MP3 from Hard drive ?

 

Thanks

You could use a USB hub that would support more than one USB device. Attach a USB hard drive and USB DAC. That's the only way I know. It may not sound perfect but I think it should work. If you have a SATA drive you can always use a SATA to USB converter.

[DMM]

No one tried to answer my questions some time ago ... sniff ... any luck shortly before Christmas?

;-)

 

some answers on the previous page, by users Ronalde and Oystein

[DMM]

I made a typo. After correction no difference. All folders containing diacritical characters are ignored by ncmpc. They are shown when making a listing (cd /mnt/music ls). The diacritical characters are replaced by an '?' in that listing. ncmpc cannot handle that. My NAS is set to utf-8. When running LMS on the NAS everything is shown. NAS is ext3, should be no problem I read somewhere. So I'm stuck. For me end of story with BBB unless someone helps me here.

 

 

mpd.conf is uncommented lines:

 

filesystem_charset "UTF-8"

id3v1_encoding "UTF-8"

 

tags are encoded in UTF-8 (no filenames) ?

 

file permissions?

[niss_man]

Help please. I've just followed the v helpfull guide step by step. I got my nas connected to mpd and the song list transferred. I can even play songs using ncmpc. The problem is I have no audio output. I have done the alsa settings as in the guide. I think I may have a problem with the beaglebone not being able to talk to my cm6631A usb to coax card which is in my dac. I have read somewhere that others have said these chips don't like alsa output but I wouldn't have a clue as to what changes need to be made to any config files.

 

Another note: If I reboot the beaglebbb with the dac connected, I can see files "playing" using ncmpc (can not hear though). However if I turn off the dac and turn it on again , when trying to play music "it now goes and pauses the music straight away".

 

Anyhelp would be much appreciated.

 

Regards

 

Simon

[koushik]

I am planning to buy CubieBoard (like this one) for more processor power, bigger RAM, SATA support and 2 USB port.

Will the setup be same/similar to Beaglebone Black or I have to strike head on wall to set it up and get going?

 

Please help.

[The Computer Audiophile]

I am planning to buy CubieBoard (like this one) for more processor power, bigger RAM, SATA support and 2 USB port.

Will the setup be same/similar to Beaglebone Black or I have to strike head on wall to set it up and get going?

 

Please help.

I think you're in for a few long nights of work. If you know what you're doing it's not the difficult though.

 

Maybe start a thread in the forum here and some of us can help.

[koushik]

I think you're in for a few long nights of work. If you know what you're doing it's not the difficult though.

 

Maybe start a thread in the forum here and some of us can help.

 

Thanks Chris!

 

Okay, so let me first take your suggestion. Are you at all suggesting for this board or you think I should go for Beaglebone Black?

The Cubieboard is very tempting for its configuration.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Thanks Chris!

 

Okay, so let me first take your suggestion. Are you at all suggesting for this board or you think I should go for Beaglebone Black?

The Cubieboard is very tempting for its configuration.

Go for this board if you need the added features.

[koushik]

I don't really need the added features other than the USB or SATA connectivity. I am looking to avoid NAS, let's if I can

[The Computer Audiophile]

I don't really need the added features other than the USB or SATA connectivity. I am looking to avoid NAS, let's if I can

Have you looked at other boards like the Wandboard Quad?

 

Scroll through this site and you'll find tons more possibilities - > LinuxGizmos:  all about Linux-powered devices

[mredel]

First time here and I'm hoping someone can help...

 

I've built the BBB and everything seems to be working except it seems that the ALSA doesn't detect my DAC which utilizes a M2Tech HiFace Evo USB Interface (Eastern Electric MiniMax DAC Plus).

 

Here are the relative Tech. details:

 

root@arm:/proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0# aplay -l

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****

card 0: Black [TI BeagleBone Black], device 0: HDMI nxp-hdmi-hifi-0 []

Subdevices: 1/1

Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

 

 

root@arm:/proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0# aplay -L

null

Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)

default:CARD=Black

TI BeagleBone Black,

Default Audio Device

sysdefault:CARD=Black

TI BeagleBone Black,

Default Audio Device

 

 

root@arm:/proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0# lsusb

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 249c:932c

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

 

 

[mredel]

Update:

 

It looks like the DAC is recognized at boot:root@arm:~# dmesg | grep usb

[ 2.305171] usbhid: USB HID core driver

[ 2.405876] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 2 using musb-hdrc

[ 2.565335] usb 1-1: default language 0x0409

[ 2.567514] usb 1-1: udev 2, busnum 1, minor = 1

[ 2.567529] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=249c, idProduct=932c

[ 2.574540] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0

[ 2.582004] usb 1-1: Product: MiniMax DAC MKII

[ 2.586652] usb 1-1: Manufacturer: MiniMax DAC MKII

[ 2.622700] usb 1-1: usb_probe_device

[ 2.622719] usb 1-1: configuration #0 chosen from 1 choice

[ 2.622731] usb 1-1: config 0 descriptor??

[ 2.627177] usb 1-1: adding 1-1:0.0 (config #0, interface 0)

 

However lsmod doesn't seem to have loaded any "snd-*" modules (like snd-usbaudio):

root@arm:~# lsmod

Module Size Used by

g_multi 47670 0

libcomposite 14299 1 g_multi

arc4 1660 0

ecb 1740 0

md4 2813 0

sha256_generic 7561 1

hmac 2244 2

cifs 330636 2

[Krisbee]

mredel,

 

The Hiface evo needs a USB driver to be complied and installed on your BBB. What is relatively straightforward on a standard PC/laptop is a lot more involved when using hardware like the BBB or RPi.

 

Try posting a message under "music server" asking how to build the hiface evo snd-usb-asyncaudio module for the beaglebone black.

[Krisbee]

Mredel,

 

Which distro did you install on your BBB? The latest "BBB-eMMC-flasher-debian-7.4-2014-02-16-2gb.img" has a hiface audio module built-i,n but only for the 3.13 kernel. Yet it seems to be configured to boot a 3.8 kernel. I don't have a BBB so can't help beyond that. Best to ask in main section the forum.

[mredel]

Thanks Krisbee,

Indeed, I've imaged the BBB with the latest "BBB-eMMC-flasher-debian-7.4-2014-02-16-2gb.img" however, for the BeagleBone Black the Kernel version is still "3.8.13-bone40" , it appears the 3.13 kernel is only available on the original Beagle Board:

 

BeagleBoardDebian - eLinux.org

 

I'll enquire how to build the HiFace Drive for the BBB, but I'm also looking into Voyage MuBox:

 

BeagleBone Black | Voyage MuBox

[pooger]

Russ from Twisted Pair is rapidly developing a cape, Botic, for the BBB that looks awfully promising!

 

Building an open embedded audio applicance. - diyAudio