HQ Player

[ABQMD]

Thanks for the insight, Sevenfeet. I will make a bootable Ubuntu USB flashdrive using ubuntu-18.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso. But I'm not sure how to then add the HQPlayer networkaudiod to the then bootable USB stick.

 

[Sevenfeet]

24 minutes ago, ABQMD said:

Thanks for the insight, Sevenfeet. I will make a bootable Ubuntu USB flashdrive using ubuntu-18.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso. But I'm not sure how to then add the HQPlayer networkaudiod to the then bootable USB stick.

 

 

That’s not even necessary.  The NAA Linux software is a .img file that can be written directly to a flash drive and booted...no need to create a Linux boot volume first.

[ABQMD]

40 minutes ago, Sevenfeet said:

 

That’s not even necessary.  The NAA Linux software is a .img file that can be written directly to a flash drive and booted...no need to create a Linux boot volume first.

So all I need to do is unzip the naa-3553-x64.7z file to expose the naa-3553-x64.img and write that to a USB flash drive? Easy enough, thanks. I'll try that.

[Joaovieira]

Jussi, I am trying to put an Ifi2 micro black dsd dac to work in dsd 512 using ultrarendu.

it is just working on dsd 256.

 

any tips?

thank you

[Miska]

2 hours ago, Joaovieira said:

Jussi, I am trying to put an Ifi2 micro black dsd dac to work in dsd 512 using ultrarendu.

it is just working on dsd 256.

 

any tips?

thank you

 

Which firmware version do you have? I think they removed support for highest rates along with S/PDIF output when they added MQA support. You may need to go to 5.20...

 

[Sevenfeet]

8 hours ago, ABQMD said:

So all I need to do is unzip the naa-3553-x64.7z file to expose the naa-3553-x64.img and write that to a USB flash drive? Easy enough, thanks. I'll try that.

 

Exaxtly.  I used Win32 Disk Imager to write the flash drive since most Mac tools are looking for .dmg or .iso files.  Also, this .img image is tiny.  So pull out whatever small old flash drive that was too small for anything practical and use it for this.

 

Test it by holding the option key down when you boot and you’ll be given the choice of the flash drive.  You’ll need wired Ethernet for this.  If it likes your machine (it won’t boot all old Macs, for example it liked my 2008 iMac but not a 2010 iMac) then HQPlayer on another computer on your LAN should be able to see it.

[Joaovieira]

48 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

Which firmware version do you have? I think they removed support for highest rates along with S/PDIF output when they added MQA support. You may need to go to 5.20...

 

Thank you, Jussi. That is exactly the problem.

 

[Miska]

1 hour ago, Sevenfeet said:

Exaxtly.  I used Win32 Disk Imager to write the flash drive since most Mac tools are looking for .dmg or .iso files.  Also, this .img image is tiny.  So pull out whatever small old flash drive that was too small for anything practical and use it for this.

 

There is nowadays also cross-platform image writing tool called Etcher. I have not used it much yet, but seemed to work on Windows at least.

 

[ABQMD]

37 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

There is nowadays also cross-platform image writing tool called Etcher. I have not used it much yet, but seemed to work on Windows at least.

 

Yes, I used Etcher to create the bootable USB flash drive via my Mac. I'll let you all know how this works for me when I test it out this morning.

[ABQMD]

1 hour ago, ABQMD said:

Yes, I used Etcher to create the bootable USB flash drive via my Mac. I'll let you all know how this works for me when I test it out this morning.

Well, no luck trying NAA 3.5.5.3 or 3.5.5 or 3.5.2. The Mac Mini boots into the USB flash drive but seems to cycle " Stop Getty on tty1" followed by "Start Getty on tty1". After all the startup lines, that is where it stops on all of the NAA trials. Not sure what to try next.

[Sevenfeet]

46 minutes ago, ABQMD said:

Well, no luck trying NAA 3.5.5.3 or 3.5.5 or 3.5.2. The Mac Mini boots into the USB flash drive but seems to cycle " Stop Getty on tty1" followed by "Start Getty on tty1". After all the startup lines, that is where it stops on all of the NAA trials. Not sure what to try next.

 

Well, as even I have seen, the boot image will boot some Macs, but not all.  Probably some drivers @Miska didn't build into it.  At this point you should just take one of the linux package versions in the "linux" folder (Debian or whatever you want to use) and install that on a Linux install image you know will boot on a Mac.  Add NAA to it via a package install and you should be good to go.

[ABQMD]

10 minutes ago, Sevenfeet said:

 

Well, as even I have seen, the boot image will boot some Macs, but not all.  Probably some drivers @Miska didn't build into it.  At this point you should just take one of the linux package versions in the "linux" folder (Debian or whatever you want to use) and install that on a Linux install image you know will boot on a Mac.  Add NAA to it via a package install and you should be good to go.

That makes sense since this is essentially an ancient Mac Mini circa 2009. I know I can create an Ubuntu USB flash disk as I've already tried it successfully on this Mac Mini. Can I add the NAA to to flash drive via package install in Ubuntu and still use it as a flash boot drive? Or will I need to try a dual boot system to keep the macOS system intact?

[Sevenfeet]

Actually, I was wrong in my earlier post.  I had gotten this to work with the iMac 2010 I had for awhile but not the older 2008 iMac I use now.  I was going to make a specific boot image for the 2008 iMac based upon using a Debian image that would boot to a Mac of this vintage and then do a package install of NAA.  But I ended up installing Boot Camp on the machine, then Windows 7 and then upgrading it to Windows 10.  The reason was so I could run either Roon client, Tidal client or NAA under Windows with a recent version of Windows.  In my case, despite the age and slowness of the 2008 iMac, it still makes a decent music kiosk in my 2 channel listening room since it had a screen and it drives my DAC via USB 2.0

 

For a Mac Mini (yours is a Mac Mini 3,1?), it can operate headless.  The most support seems to be with Ubuntu so I'd start there with a recent release and Etcher to write the flash drive (lots of online documentation on this).  You should be able to copy the NAA image onto it and then boot from it, where you can add the package to the installation and work from there.  You will have to make some changes to get it to run NAA upon boot.

[ABQMD]

46 minutes ago, Sevenfeet said:

For a Mac Mini (yours is a Mac Mini 3,1?), it can operate headless.  The most support seems to be with Ubuntu so I'd start there with a recent release and Etcher to write the flash drive (lots of online documentation on this).  You should be able to copy the NAA image onto it and then boot from it, where you can add the package to the installation and work from there.  You will have to make some changes to get it to run NAA upon boot.

Yes I have a Mac Mini 3,1. I did the above and used ubuntu-18.04.2-desktop-amd64 and added NAA while booted to Ubuntu. Despite NAA being loaded on the Mac Mini, I can't get HQPlayer to see the NAA. On a different USB flash I tried ubuntustudio-18.10-dvd-amd64 and added NAA. Still no luck getting HQPlayer to see the NAA.

 

So maybe I'm missing how to make sure NAA is running on boot.

[ABQMD]

FWIW, when I boot the Mac Mini back into macOS, I have no problems using NAA  on the Mini, controlling via Roon Core and HQPlayer on the iMacPro. So it seems the network connections can physically work.

 

[Sevenfeet]

Just adding the NAA to the boot disk isn't going to launch the NAA program unless you run it from prompt or have Linux launch the program like any other daemon (you'd need to modify /etc/inet.d/ or /etc/rc.local if NAA is running from a script).

[Miska]

7 minutes ago, Sevenfeet said:

Just adding the NAA to the boot disk isn't going to launch the NAA program unless you run it from prompt or have Linux launch the program like any other daemon (you'd need to modify /etc/inet.d/ or /etc/rc.local if NAA is running from a script).

 

Packaging comes with systemd service that is enabled by default. So the daemon is started up at boot time.

 

However, if one has installed a GUI it will create a problem because in GUI setups network is managed by NetworkManager that is started once you login, while the system service is started earlier at boot time... And GUI anyway sort of negates idea of NAA.

 

So if installing Debian/Ubuntu (Server)/Fedora (Minimal) for running NAA or HQPlayer Embedded, always install minimal core system with text console. This way you end up with server-style network setup too that kicks up the network already during boot.

 

[ABQMD]

23 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

Packaging comes with systemd service that is enabled by default. So the daemon is started up at boot time.

 

However, if one has installed a GUI it will create a problem because in GUI setups network is managed by NetworkManager that is started once you login, while the system service is started earlier at boot time... And GUI anyway sort of negates idea of NAA.

 

So if installing Debian/Ubuntu (Server)/Fedora (Minimal) for running NAA or HQPlayer Embedded, always install minimal core system with text console. This way you end up with server-style network setup too that kicks up the network already during boot.

 

If I understand you correctly, in order to run a minimal Ubuntu system, I'll need to do an install onto the Mac hard drive (SSD). So I can't just create a USB flash boot drive instead. I guess I can try to do a dual boot system on the Mac SSD so I can do an Ubuntu minimal install. This is getting complicated. 🤨

[Sevenfeet]

13 minutes ago, ABQMD said:

If I understand you correctly, in order to run a minimal Ubuntu system, I'll need to do an install onto the Mac hard drive (SSD). So I can't just create a USB flash boot drive instead. I guess I can try to do a dual boot system on the Mac SSD so I can do an Ubuntu minimal install. This is getting complicated. 🤨

 

I’m an old Unix head but I can’t say I’m the best at Linux distros.  But if there isn’t a pre-done text based installer, then instead of doing an install on an SSD, I’d prototype it first in a virtual machine like Oracle’s Virtualbox.  You can tinker with it as much as you want and then when you get it right, you can do a final installation in Virtualbox straight to a mounted flash drive.

[Miska]

38 minutes ago, ABQMD said:

If I understand you correctly, in order to run a minimal Ubuntu system, I'll need to do an install onto the Mac hard drive (SSD). So I can't just create a USB flash boot drive instead. I guess I can try to do a dual boot system on the Mac SSD so I can do an Ubuntu minimal install. This is getting complicated. 🤨

 

I think you can install on any other storage media. If the bootloader is configured correctly it should work - I have not tested myself.

 

So you can have installation media as USB storage and also installation target as USB storage. And then after installation boot from the USB storage. For Mac you need to make EFI boot.

 

And I recommend to NOT create any swap space, although the installer will complain about it, but you can just tell it to continue anyway.

 

I think it is better not to touch the Mac SSD at all...

[Miska]

16 minutes ago, Sevenfeet said:

I’m an old Unix head but I can’t say I’m the best at Linux distros.  But if there isn’t a pre-done text based installer, then instead of doing an install on an SSD, I’d prototype it first in a virtual machine like Oracle’s Virtualbox.  You can tinker with it as much as you want and then when you get it right, you can do a final installation in Virtualbox straight to a mounted flash drive.

 

Ubuntu Server has text based installer as well as Debian (bootloader asks graphical vs text based). Fedora 29 Server has graphical installer and you can then choose to install just minimal system and after first boot it lands on a text console...

 

[drjimwillie]

 I have been running HQPlayer on my CAPS pipeline controlling it with Roon Server, installed on the same pipeline. 

 I just got a new HS 453DX Fanless NAS.  It has an intel Celeron quad core processor.  I installed Roon server on the new NAS,  along with my music.  I switched it over so that I can control the NAS Roon server with my tablet. To set up HQ player it says to put in the IP address. So I put in my IP V4 address. I chose that zone,  my only zone. 

Roon says that it cannot connect to HQplayer. 

 I have not uninstalled Roon from the pipeline yet. But, I do not have it running  

 What am I missing, please? 

[Miska]

6 hours ago, drjimwillie said:

 I have been running HQPlayer on my CAPS pipeline controlling it with Roon Server, installed on the same pipeline. 

 I just got a new HS 453DX Fanless NAS.  It has an intel Celeron quad core processor.  I installed Roon server on the new NAS,  along with my music.  I switched it over so that I can control the NAS Roon server with my tablet. To set up HQ player it says to put in the IP address. So I put in my IP V4 address. I chose that zone,  my only zone. 

Roon says that it cannot connect to HQplayer. 

 I have not uninstalled Roon from the pipeline yet. But, I do not have it running  

 What am I missing, please? 

 

Are you running HQPlayer Desktop? Do you have the "Allow control from network" button pressed in the toolbar? Firewall not blocking the incoming control connection?

 

[freesteve]

Still the very best for my Mac... Thanks Jussi for all that you do !

[drjimwillie]

5 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Are you running HQPlayer Desktop? Do you have the "Allow control from network" button pressed in the toolbar? Firewall not blocking the incoming control connection?

 

I do have the control from network button pressed.( although it does not look like a globe)

I have been running HQP on this computer for years, with Roon, controlled from a tablet.  The difference is that I do not have any Roon program running, at the moment. Do I need Roon bridge or Roon RATT or something from Roon running for Roon to communicate with HQP? 

 I don’t think I have a firewall issue. Would a firewall issue have kept me from communicating with Roon previously?  I thought I had turned the firewalls off because I don’t really go onto the Internet with this machine 

 

 I am running HQP desktop.