AudioLinux and NUC Troubleshooting and Tuning

[rickca]

This thread is for troubleshooting and tips for optimal tuning of NUCs and AudioLinux.

[look&listen]

Maybe @greenleo repost AF install & setup guide here?? Nice for start of thread 

[Middy]

Simple tips also, i have nothing against any geeky tips for those who can, anything that furthers a development should be encouraged.

Id love a custom low latency stock trading server blade.

To me though its as useful as a half built  ikea coffee table..

 

Greenleo's on the fly guide is a great contibution. Always there are many tiered groups in a thread, we have an evil twin thread already to cater for the analysis, debunking and electrical attributes. This should be a great companion  to the main thread.

Thanks @rickca

Good luck..

[Middy]

Have you asked the boss Chris C for OP editing rights..?

[davide256]

If you try AL/RPI3 as I did, you may run into limitations. I could only get the 32 bit version to work for Roonbridge with greater than CD quality by using the overclocking config

remarked out in config.txt. The 32 bit AL image sounds great but you can hear "graininess" on cymbals and massed strings, an area where the better hardware of a microRendu

sounds cleaner.  In email with Piero he advised that 64 bit did not have overclocking support, and that for AL faster processor improves sound so I intend

to pass on getting the 64 bit client working, moving on next to a Celeron or Pentium NUC for endpoint.

[greenleo]

5 hours ago, look&listen said:

Maybe @greenleo repost AF install & setup guide here?? Nice for start of thread 

Hi L&L and other CAers,

 

A new version of AL lxqt is coming.  This version will greatly simplify the basic operations of the AL in GUI mode.  I'm testing it and also trying thing that CAers here or CAers in the "mother" thread may find interesting.  Will report if new things come up and produce a walk through with images if possible.

 

Regards.

[Middy]

Thanks Greenleo, good news.

You convinced to to go for it and just won a second fanless i3 NUC for the server. Still more clueless than fanless..

 

[seeteeyou]

Some settings should be universally applicable for many distros, though there are others hardware-specific ones and obviously we've gotta get the matching motherboard / server etc. in order to apply those corresponding settings

 

Low Latency Performance Tuning for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
https://access.redhat.com/sites/default/files/attachments/201501-perf-brief-low-latency-tuning-rhel7-v1.1.pdf

 

Linux on Power – low latency tuning
https://developer.ibm.com/linuxonpower/docs/linux-on-power-low-latency-tuning/

 

Configuring and tuning HPE ProLiant Servers for  low-latency applications
https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c01804533

 

How to Enable Dell Processor Acceleration Technology
https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/mvbsdt1/sln156702/how-to-enable-dell-processor-acceleration-technology

https://vinfrastructure.it/2017/09/dell-processor-acceleration-technology-pat/

 

Analysis: Inside Supermicro's Hyper-Speed HFT Server
https://intelligenttradingtechnology.com/blog/analysis-inside-supermicros-hyper-speed-hft-server

 

New Generation Servers Optimized for Extreme Low-Latency Trading
https://www.supermicro.com/white_paper/white_paper_Low_Latency_Server.pdf

 

Low Latency/Jitter Optimization  User’s Guide
https://www.supermicro.com/products/nfo/files/Hyper-Speed/low_lat_jitter_opt_guide.pdf

 

Basically they're optimizing each system to suit the requirements of high-frequency trading, therefore it's a just matter minimizing the number of active cores while maximizing the the clock speed of CPU. Of course we've gotta find out if that kinda settings would also work for Roon / LMS / HQP or otherwise.

[afrancois]

As most AL users strive to have AL in RAM it would be nice to have AL started using Netboot. Thus booting over ethernet.

It will be somewhat harder to configure, but this way you will not have to manually remove the USB thumb drive (or in my case the USB SSD drive)

I've done this a long time ago, to load an entire OS from the network. The bootloader and the drives were on my NAS. I did configure a LUN and some iSCSI drives if memory serves me.

[austinpop]

40 minutes ago, afrancois said:

As most AL users strive to have AL in RAM it would be nice to have AL started using Netboot. Thus booting over ethernet.

It will be somewhat harder to configure, but this way you will not have to manually remove the USB thumb drive (or in my case the USB SSD drive)

I've done this a long time ago, to load an entire OS from the network. The bootloader and the drives were on my NAS. I did configure a LUN and some iSCSI drives if memory serves me.

 

Agreed, that would be an elegant solution. I’d love to know how to configure this...

[rickca]

I used etcher (on Windows 10) rather than rufus to create my bootable USB thumb drive with AL.  Just download the .gz file, use 7-zip to extract the .img, and point etcher to the .img and your USB thumb drive.  It works perfectly.  I booted the USB thumb drive on my Macbook Pro just to make sure it worked. 

[Narcissus]

The Mac’s are on a roll ?

[Narcissus]

4 hours ago, seeteeyou said:

Some settings should be universally applicable for many distros, though there are others hardware-specific ones and obviously we've gotta get the matching motherboard / server etc. in order to apply those corresponding settings

 

Low Latency Performance Tuning for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
https://access.redhat.com/sites/default/files/attachments/201501-perf-brief-low-latency-tuning-rhel7-v1.1.pdf

 

Linux on Power – low latency tuning
https://developer.ibm.com/linuxonpower/docs/linux-on-power-low-latency-tuning/

 

Configuring and tuning HPE ProLiant Servers for  low-latency applications
https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c01804533

 

How to Enable Dell Processor Acceleration Technology
https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/mvbsdt1/sln156702/how-to-enable-dell-processor-acceleration-technology

https://vinfrastructure.it/2017/09/dell-processor-acceleration-technology-pat/

 

Analysis: Inside Supermicro's Hyper-Speed HFT Server
https://intelligenttradingtechnology.com/blog/analysis-inside-supermicros-hyper-speed-hft-server

 

New Generation Servers Optimized for Extreme Low-Latency Trading
https://www.supermicro.com/white_paper/white_paper_Low_Latency_Server.pdf

 

Low Latency/Jitter Optimization  User’s Guide
https://www.supermicro.com/products/nfo/files/Hyper-Speed/low_lat_jitter_opt_guide.pdf

 

Basically they're optimizing each system to suit the requirements of high-frequency trading, therefore it's a just matter minimizing the number of active cores while maximizing the the clock speed of CPU. Of course we've gotta find out if that kinda settings would also work for Roon / LMS / HQP or otherwise.

CTU, I’m really impressed the way you dig out data. I’m sure “Jack Bauer” too.. ?... freakin good, mate, Bravo..

[Middy]

Half man half google really good detail..

???‍?

[davide256]

If you are using an older non UEFI PC with AL you will need to run LXQT version 2.19. In this case you can use Rufus to image a USB connected SSD drive

then connect the drive normally as internal SATA.

[davide256]

On 11/29/2018 at 6:30 PM, greenleo said:

Hi L&L and other CAers,

 

A new version of AL lxqt is coming.  This version will greatly simplify the basic operations of the AL in GUI mode.  I'm testing it and also trying thing that CAers here or CAers in the "mother" thread may find interesting.  Will report if new things come up and produce a walk through with images if possible.

 

Regards.

It would be nice if LXQT had a reboot option that switched  headless <> GUI. Far easier to make/save changes in GUI mode than to do it all through command line

in headless, than switch back to headless/no GUI.

[greenleo]

1 hour ago, davide256 said:

It would be nice if LXQT had a reboot option that switched  headless <> GUI. Far easier to make/save changes in GUI mode than to do it all through command line

in headless, than switch back to headless/no GUI.

Headless and lxqt are different things.  Larry mentioned in the "mother" thread that it's very difficult to make an lxqt a headless.  I asked him there and that's his reply.

 

Anyway, headless is used as an endpoint and the lxqt used as an control PC.  In this case, there is no reason to switch back and and fro.

[greenleo]

CAers,

 

I've just learnt how to make a network bridge.  It took Piero and me a long time, many thanks for Piero.  Hope that a walk through may be produced in a few days.  Lots of command has been used.  I need to organize my thoughts and think the screen captures needed.  Hope that it can be done in a few days.

[davide256]

1 hour ago, greenleo said:

Headless and lxqt are different things.  Larry mentioned in the "mother" thread that it's very difficult to make an lxqt a headless.  I asked him there and that's his reply.

 

Anyway, headless is used as an endpoint and the lxqt used as an control PC.  In this case, there is no reason to switch back and and fro.

All headless means is that there are no drivers for input/output peripherals... you access the OS remotely over IP connection. WIth LXQT you do have

the added overhead of more drivers loaded  but you can just physically unplug the input devices and you can disable the GUI from loading. 

I'm running LXQT as Roon endpoint on Raspberry Pi and I have the same option with PC.

The main disadvantage of LXQT is it requires more RAM... my RAM disk consumes 8gb of RAM for OS and Roon database. You have to jettison the peripherals

driver database (headless)to get AL to run on only 8GB of RAM

[austinpop]

Random Tips and Tricks

 

Here are some random tips and tricks for AL headless. Since these are for system changes, don't run this in ramroot mode. ssh into the system, and run as root. Finally, make sure the USB stick is inserted. Been burned by this before!

• First, disable ramroot
  • ramroot remove
     

• Fix the time zone:

  • timedatectl set-timezone America/Chicago (pick yours - look in directory /usr/share/zoneinfo)
     

• Start NTP daemon (to keep the system time in sync)

  • Edit the file: /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf

    • Change previous [Time} stanza to:
      [Time]
      NTP=0.arch.pool.ntp.org 1.arch.pool.ntp.org 2.arch.pool.ntp.org 3.arch.pool.ntp.org
      FallbackNTP=0.pool.ntp.org 1.pool.ntp.org 2.pool.ntp.org 3.pool.ntp.org

  • Run timedatectl set-ntp true

  • It may take a few minutes for the sync to occur, after which your system date and time will be accurate.
     

• Set hostname

  • hostnamectl set-hostname <NAME> 
     

• List detailed system HW info

  • (pop out of root to run yaourt)

  • yaourt -S inxi

  • Once installed, run: inxi -Fc0
     

• Reducing the size of the RAM root partition
  You might want to do this for a couple of reasons - to reduce boot time, and to increase free memory - for example, to run squeezelite with larger -b buffer. As you do each step, monitor the used space on the / filesystem with command df.

  • Uninstall unwanted packages

    • List all installed packages: pacman -Qe

    • For each package you want to uninstall, e.g. in my case, I don't use HQPlayer.

      • pacman -R hqplayer-network-audio-daemon hqplayer-embedded

      • Warning: don't go nuts here. Most of the packages are there so you can build any new packages you may want to install. I would just focus on the audio packages like Roon and HQPlayer.

  • Delete pacman temp files

    • clean

  • Clean up journal

    • Check current journal size: journalctl --disk-usage

    • Pick a max size you’re comfortable with, say 32M

    • Trim journal down to that size: journalctl --vacuum-size=32M

    • Set threshold for future growth:

      • Edit /etc/systemd/journald.conf

      • Uncomment (remove #) and change line to SystemMaxUse=32M

  • Delete core dumps

    • rm -rf /var/lib/systemd/coredump/core*

    • rm -rf /run/systemd/coredump/core*
       

• Once you're done making changes:

  • ramroot -F enable
     

• Monitor free memory at run time

  • Monitor memory in use with free and/or top

  • After RoonBridge has been running for a long time, when you run free, you'll notice that the size of the FS cache - see the buff/cache column in the output of free - has grown quite large. If you want to reclaim this space and make it free again, say to run squeezelite with large -b values, run:

    • echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

[simonklp]

9 hours ago, greenleo said:

CAers,

 

I've just learnt how to make a network bridge.  It took Piero and me a long time, many thanks for Piero.  Hope that a walk through may be produced in a few days.  Lots of command has been used.  I need to organize my thoughts and think the screen captures needed.  Hope that it can be done in a few days.

 

Hi greenleo, the procedure for setting up the network bridge in AudioLinux lqxt and headless had already been stated in the AL website. A detailed guide can also be found in the following web link in the website:

http://www.audio-linux.com/html/bridge.html

 

Piero had already stated the procedure quite explicitly there. But you may probably want to elaborate on it or share your experience, if you wish. Cheers.

[greenleo]

12 hours ago, davide256 said:

All headless means is that there are no drivers for input/output peripherals... you access the OS remotely over IP connection. WIth LXQT you do have

the added overhead of more drivers loaded  but you can just physically unplug the input devices and you can disable the GUI from loading. 

I'm running LXQT as Roon endpoint on Raspberry Pi and I have the same option with PC.

The main disadvantage of LXQT is it requires more RAM... my RAM disk consumes 8gb of RAM for OS and Roon database. You have to jettison the peripherals

driver database (headless)to get AL to run on only 8GB of RAM

You may login to headless directly and change the options.  Not necessarily remote.  I do this often.

 

The beauty of headless as an endpoint is that electrial noises may be reduced as far as possible.  I do not use Roon, hence no further input.  I use HQP in the lxqt, the control PC to the headless, the audio PC that runs the NAA and find the SQ very satisfying.

[greenleo]

4 hours ago, simonklp said:

 

Hi greenleo, the procedure for setting up the network bridge in AudioLinux lqxt and headless had already been stated in the AL website. A detailed guide can also be found in the following web link in the website:

http://www.audio-linux.com/html/bridge.html

 

Piero had already stated the procedure quite explicitly there. But you may probably want to elaborate on it or share your experience, if you wish. Cheers.

Thank you Simon.  

 

My walk through intended would be more verbose, with more checking or images illustrated.  To me, wordy things for laymen (like me) are very scary.  Piero helped me a lot and I promised that I'll share the knowledge with the CAers as a feedback.

 

As a matter of fact, I didn't know that a guide already exist.  I'll withdraw my walkthrough now as it's no longer necessary. 

 

Cheers

[simonklp]

52 minutes ago, greenleo said:

Thank you Simon.  

 

My walk through intended would be more verbose, with more checking or images illustrated.  To me, wordy things for laymen (like me) are very scary.  Piero helped me a lot and I promised that I'll share the knowledge with the CAers as a feedback.

 

As a matter of fact, I didn't know that a guide already exist.  I'll withdraw my walkthrough now as it's no longer necessary. 

 

Cheers

 

Hi greenleo, you have a great idea of providing a detailed procedure with more checking and images illustrated. Kindly please feel free to do so.

 

It had also taken me (layman as well) quite some time to pick up the wordy procedure.

 

It would be a pity if you withdraw your walkthrough now, since it could be a nice contribution to the other followers.

 

Thanks and regards,

Simon

 

[Solid-State]

16 hours ago, davide256 said:

It would be nice if LXQT had a reboot option that switched  headless <> GUI. Far easier to make/save changes in GUI mode than to do it all through command line

in headless, than switch back to headless/no GUI.

you can boot a LXQT in Cli mode "command Line Mode"

 

CHANGING BOOT DEFAULT

* In audiolinux lxqt you have 2 more options:
audiolinuxclBFQ (headless command line boot)
audiolinuxclEXTREME.conf (headless command line boot, extreme mode)

For changing boot default you can edit as root the file
/boot/loader/loader.conf
and change the line
default audiolinuxBFQ
to
default archlinux (standard archlinux kernel, if installed)
default audiolinux-fallback (realtime kernel bfq, if you have problems at boot because of missing drivers)
default audiolinux  (standard rt kernel, if installed)
default audiolinuxEXTREME (realtime kernel bfq with some parameters that prevent cpu sleep. In