Computeraudio Primer for Linux with MPD

[vortecjr]

the sig was an attemp to combine an earlier version of a longer sig I had. I have two personal systems one a Sonore Windows PC that is firewire into the Minerva and another that is a Sonore Vortexbox Engine with AES16 into the Minerva. I can see how it's misleading, but not an attempt to mislead. The testing on the Sonore Vortexbox Engine with AES16 is done and I'm going to concentrate of finishing the firewire with ffado next. It was started and taken to about 95% of completion. So I hope (like many of you) to knock this out and open the project to firewire. We have a few errors on hand shack to resolve for know and I have high hopes that they can be fixed, but can't promise anything yet. I have to get back to you on the card we are using as I am away at the moment. As for what is supported assuming you know how to set up the requirements is posted on the ffado site. Thanks for offering to help as we need all the help we can get! Start by tesing Vortexbox:)

 

Jesus R

www.sonore.us

 

[Guest]

I think I already told your partner that I have a spare computer and a Firewire DAC available for testing.

 

I need to get another HD though, as I don't have a spare one of those...will be going out this week to get one though. Just so happens too, I was piecing together a mini computer with the exact same case you have in the Ford. It uses a VIA CPU and has Firewire also...I assume its a VIA firewire chip also. Totally fanless.

 

 

 

 

[vortecjr]

Some info:

 

This is the pci to firewire card that we are testing with on Vortexbox, but it's not working 100% yet. It does work on a pc with Windows XP, but not sure that mattters.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815287004

 

This is a pcie to firewire card that works on a pc with Windows 7, but again not sure that mattters here.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815283013

 

Jesus R

www.sonore.us

 

[vortecjr]

what dac are you thinking about? Even if it's not supported at the moment, we are laying the foundation for it to come! One of the firewire cards above has a VIA chip and it works in Windows so lets see if it works with Linux. What MB are you using?

 

FYI...nice website!

 

Jesus R

www.sonore.us

 

[Guest]

Asus motherboard but I have a PCI card with a TI chip. I am using a TC Konnekt DAC. It works fine under Windows and I got it to work via ffado under Linux, but screwed something up. I don't know if the type or brand of MB matters does it? Its all about the FW chip. But at any rate, I can test anything you have once you are ready.

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

Please if anyone is going to buy a Firewire card, make sure it has a Texas Instruments chip.

 

 

See that HUGE chip....thats the TI controller chip, shown on an RME Firewire card. This is why RME uses only that chip.

Some VIA chips will work without a problem but all TI chips will work without a hitch....due to the nature it handles data.

TI chips lets the data go through without throttling it when CPU loads increase, this allows lower latency and constant playback of audio without any problems.

 

 

 

[igolem]

@agillis, can you tell me some more about the modifications you've made to MPD? HAve you contributed those changes back to the project?

 

[agillis]

We are using the SqueezeBox server from Logitech. So we are streaming all the music to MPD. We made a few patches to mpd to support streaming better. All these changes will be in MPD .16

 

[vortecjr]

Team, I e-mailed my contact at ffado to notify him that we were going to get back on track with the project and received some good and bad news.

 

Per ffado:

The bad news is there seems to be an issue with ffado + Weiss devices in general. When I attempted it back in December before CES I noticed some issues, but I could see that ffado was communicating with the Minerva and it seemed almost ready to go.

 

The good news is that the Weiss people want ffado to work with their devices for one of their projects. This means that they are actively working on making ffado work with their devices. Not sure if this is true or speculation so I will contact Wiess and see what I can confirm.

 

Going forward:

We see some benefits in adding ffado at the moment to the Vortexbox distribution! One of the benefits is that it uses the Planet CCRMA real time kernal developed by the team at Stanford University just for audio! The great thing is that it would seamlessly work with the Vortexbox distribution and benefit all users and not just the firewire dac users. The other benefit is the list of currently supported dacs:) I'll keep an eye on the progress and report back from time to time.

 

Jesus R

www.sonore.us

 

[Guest]

Thats great for all the Weiss owners....enjoy!

 

 

 

 

[liorms]

Hi,

 

Are there any updates as for the FW driver fix for the WEISS DAC?

 

Thanks,

 

Lior./

 

 

[liorms]

Hi,

 

A new version of the SB server was presented lately.

Are there any planes to incorporate this into a new vortexbox build?

 

 

Thanks,

 

Lior./

 

 

[vortecjr]

I checked the progress with the group and they tracked down the issue and they are working on it.

 

Trust me as soon as I know it works I will post it!

 

Jesus R

www.sonore.us

 

[liorms]

Hi,

 

The new release of vortexbox was released yesterday (V1.2).

Already installed it - looking to see what is new...

 

Lior./

 

 

[vortecjr]

Anyone using the system should update via the web gui or type yum clean all then yum update from command line to get the latest version!

 

Jesus R

ww.sonore.us

 

[liorms]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the note.

I know how to use these tools, still I was interested in re-installing as in the 1st install I've used only 1 spindle on the system & I wanted to change this.

In the new install I've striped both disks to allow more capacity for the music library.

In any case it's just a pilot - as I'm having problems to get the Origen M10 locally, It seems like a big deal to get this specific model here in Israel.

I'm in contact with the importer and he seem to be very slow on this.

Not sure where I can get it online, etc.

 

Lior./

 

 

[vortecjr]

This case is closer to you and has some advantages.....the card fits in the slot so no need for an adapter or special back plate:)

Check it out

 

 

Do you know how to program the ldc screens in Linux?

 

Jesus R

www.sonore.us

 

[vortecjr]

Just heard from my contacts that Weiss has the two-channel devices working:) Hang tight and I'll keep you posted on the next step!

 

Jesus R

www.sonore.us

 

[liorms]

Hi,

 

In the case of linux, there's usually no need to write everything from scratch as almost everything is done and free.

You could try looking at:

http://lcdproc.omnipotent.net/download.php3

or

http://ssl.bulix.org/projects/lcd4linux/

or

http://lcd-linux.sourceforge.net/

 

And I'm there are many more, all you need to do is to compile on the local machine and run it (all sites include massive documentation).

 

BTW - The support for Weiss Minerva is under which driver/os/FW card?

 

Lior./

 

 

[vortecjr]

thanks for the info on the LCD. The Wiess Minerva will be supported by any os including FFADO in the distro. However, Vortexbox will add FFADO by default so that it will work. I have to get back to you on the card.

 

Jesus R

www.sonore.us

 

[vortecjr]

Lets get Vortexbox up and running. I'm using one of my spare fanless cases that has a single core cpu, 1Gbs of ram, 1Tb HDD and a slot load cd/dvd.

 

You’re going to download Vortexbox into your computer from http://vortexbox.org/downloads/

 

Then you need to burn a cd or dvd image of the program. You need some kind of dvd burning software though like Roxio or Clone DVD or Nero to burn the image on the cd/dvd. Remember this is not the same as copy/paste the file into the cd/dvd.

 

Before you begin connect an ethernet cable from your home network with internet to the network port of the unit

 

Drop the disk into your machine and restart it. The Vortexbox installation guide should start up at boot. If it does not start up then either something went wrong with your download and burn or the cd/dvd is not in the boot list in your cmos.

 

The first option in the installation menu should work for most people. The installation goes pretty quick and will ask you some simple questions like time zone and to enter a password. Need I say don't forget the password you enter!

 

When the installation reaches the end it will reboot and you can remove the install disk. When it starts you can rip a cd by just putting one in and closing the tray. When it's done it will open the tray automatically. Simple!

 

More to follow on the Votexbox-Player web based client for MPD that comes with the software.

 

Jesus R

www.sonore.us

 

[vortecjr]

You can install other clients as noted above, but we wanted to give you an out of the box solution:)

 

First, access the web GUI from any computer on the home network from within your web browser. From your web browser enter the word Vortexbox (just the word Vortexbox and nothing else) and press enter. The Vortexbox web GUI should just open. The tabs to the left of the web GUI allow you to navigate the GUI.

 

The speaker with Vortexbox icon (near the bottom) takes you to your unit's configuration page. From this page you can configure MPD to output the ALSA devices. No need to edit the mpd.conf file anymore!

 

The speaker icon (near the top) takes you to an application called Squeezebox Server (SBS). We have modified SBS to act as your web based client for MPD and it controls playback through the unit. SBS also controls playback via the family of Logitech (AKA Slim Devices) networked players. If you have Sonos don't feel left out we have an app for you as well.

 

Jesus R

www.sonore.us