AudioLinux and NUC Troubleshooting and Tuning

[hifi25nl]

If you like Extreme mode, and you have temperature problems, you can configure for a little less... extreme mode removing

idle=poll

from the file /boot/loader/entries/audiolinuxEXTREME.conf

 

Probably from version 0.6 I will add this option in alconf menu.

[hifi25nl]

Sorry, it is a typo in 0.5. Not instead of now.... It will be corrected soon.

 

You can check status... rebooting

 

[hifi25nl]

Yes

[hifi25nl]

For wireless there is an how-to coming....

[hifi25nl]

Yes, you should enable it. Audiolinux has a special systemd service that will increase the max frequency of rtc0 and hpet

[hifi25nl]

3 hours ago, Dutch said:

@hifi25nl,

 

Some questions after reading: http://www.audio-linux.com/html/realtime.html

 

I’m running just Roon Bridge on my AL headless (0.6) NUC (it’s the endpoint) and I’m seeing these related processes :

 

root       544     1  0 17:41 ?        00:00:00 /bin/sh /opt/RoonBridge/start.sh

root       549   544  0 17:41 ?        00:00:01 RoonBridge --debug --gc=sgen --server RoonBridge.exe

root       590   549  0 17:41 ?        00:00:10 RoonBridgeHelper --debug --gc=sgen --server RoonBridgeHelper.exe

root       595   549  0 17:41 ?        00:00:00 /opt/RoonBridge/Bridge/processreaper 590

root       601   549  0 17:41 ?        00:00:39 RAATServer --debug --gc=sgen --server RAATServer.exe

 

In the rtapp.conf file (below) I see RoonBridge is listed but not RoonBridgeHelper or RAATServer. Since these have used more CPU time, would it be beneficial if I/we added those processes to the applications list?

 

Also I see —debug in the process list? Is that necessary or better said would it be ‘leaner and meaner’ to not use those switches?

 

Thanks in advance. If you’d like me to email you instead please tell me. It’s just that I though this might be beneficial to other users as well.

—

audiolinux@audiolinux ~]$ more /etc/rtapp/rtapp.conf

APPLICATIONS="jackd mpd hqplayer hqplayerd RoonAppliance RoonBridge mediacenter24 networkaudiod deadbeef a2jmidid ardour-5.12.0 rosegarden audacity"

 

MAX_PRIORITY="93"

 

MODE="autodec"

—

 

For closed source application with multiple threads is sometime difficult to understand what thread must have higher priority of another thread.

 

With "autodec" mode a running  application will have an higher priority than the one following it in the list. 

You can experiment with this, I am curious if you can find differences. The configuration file is there to be tweaked for the better sound.

 

Remember that MAX_PRIORITY must be lower than dac irq priority in /etc/rtirq.conf

[hifi25nl]

Never tried. 

You can modify debug flag editing as root the file /opt/RoonBridge/Bridge/RAATServer

You can try, if something goes wrong, you can always reinstall roonbridge with

yaourt -S roonbridge

 

Working on the new update menu for headless!

I have also a temporary solution for updating manually the menus. Today a pair of customers will test it.

[hifi25nl]

 

 

If you want to format a drive in headless, you must use parted.

I understand that this can be challenging for most people.

---> I suggest to make a USB stick with audiolinux and use gparted (an application with GUI). Very easy to use.

 

Please don't format in NTFS, if you can. Ext4 is a lot better for many reasons (no defrag, more solid in case of power failures, etc.)

[hifi25nl]

gparted can work onìy on a graphical Desktop, so you need lxqt version.

[hifi25nl]

Eventually you can use gparted live:

https://gparted.org/livecd.php

[hifi25nl]

Cloning is different from copying files... you cannot make from "inside" the OS you are cloning and you should use a dd command, since you must copy the files and the partitions.

 

[hifi25nl]

No, it is not correct. Please contact me at audiolinux support.

[hifi25nl]

From standard to Extreme to Extreme2 the power demand will increase. This is because the CPU sleep state time will decrease.
If you don't have a very good cooling system and a powerful enough power supply the CPU will throttle down with negative impact on the sound.

If, in addition to this, you are also reducing the number of cores the situation will get even worse, especially if you have set realtime priority to extreme. CPU will struggle in satisfying the very high priority requests and this could result in dropouts.

For people that think that a low power CPU and supply is beneficial to sound, I suggest to boot in standard mode, with standard priority. I would take also into consideration to disable manual priority assignment (the kernel is always realtime and priority will be given following the kernel rules) or... buy a more powerful supply and/or use a more powerful CPU.

 

For the question about server v/s endpoint, I would configure both of them to achieve similar CPU latency. Latency depends on the processor used, on boot mode (Standard or Extreme) and manual priority assignment. The next version of AudioLinux headless will have 3 realtime tests on menu. In previous versions you can type rttest on the command line.

[hifi25nl]

The 3 realtime tests (as root. you can use more cycles than 10000 if you want)

 

1) cyclictest -q -l 10000 -m -Sp98 -i100 -d0

 

2) hackbench -l 10000 &>/dev/null && cyclictest -q -l 10000 -m -Sp98 -i100 -d0

 

3) hwlatdetect --duration=60 --threshold=15

 

The first 2 are executed if you type

rttest

 

[hifi25nl]

I would try standalone. After you can run also when playing music, but this will load the system with a lot of realtime threads...

[hifi25nl]

Both, the variance is the important parameter, but a variance of 3 ms is very different from one of 3us

[hifi25nl]

Audiolinux 0.7 with new improved menu (now with 4 screens) and the possibility to update system, kernel and menu from inside. New web interface! Now you can connect remotely with a browser at the address http://ipaddress:8500

 

[hifi25nl]

If you want to update from last version you can install the new menu with these commands (as root)

 

pacman -S lftp sysstat
lftp -e 'mirror https://www.audio-linux.com/ftp/packages/menu /tmp; bye'
cd /tmp
tar -xvpf almenu.tar.gz
cp -prf scripts /opt/
cp -prf sudoers /etc/sudoers
ln -s /opt/scripts/alconf.sh /usr/bin/alconf
ln -s /opt/scripts/almon.sh /usr/bin/almon
ln -s /opt/scripts/alupdate.sh /usr/bin/alupdate
ln -s /opt/scripts/menu.sh /usr/bin/menu

 

If you want also the web interface (as user):
yaourt -S shellinabox-git

 

As root:

cd /tmp
lftp -e 'get https://www.audio-linux.com/ftp/temp/webinterface.tar.gz; bye'
tar -xvpf webinterface.tar.gz
cp -prf shellinabox /etc/
cp -prf [email protected] /etc/systemd/system/[email protected]
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable [email protected]
systemctl start [email protected]

 

After you can connect from a browser with
http://ipaddress:8500

 

[hifi25nl]

Manual update as reported above should work fine also in 0.5

 

[hifi25nl]

The new command for menu is...

menu

[hifi25nl]

Yes. If you are in ram mode, if possible reboot to normal mode answering N to boot prompt (recommended)

Or use the save option after updating if you cannot connect a keyboard and screen.

 

Now I am working on the mount scripts for local and remote drives!

[hifi25nl]

You cannot install AUR packages with pacman.

You must do (as user)

yaourt -S queezelite-git

 

Yes the configuration file in this case is /etc/squeezelite.conf

[hifi25nl]

If in some version the link is already there, no problem, type the other commands.

[hifi25nl]

A revision log would take some work... For kernel and packages, you can see the linux kernel release notes and the developer sites.

For manual changes I have made myself, there are the new menus options, time sync at boot and some minor changes.

 

The system is now completely upgradable from inside (menus, kernel, packages).

The sound configuration is the same as the previous versions, so people with a working system don't need to reinstall. Audiolinux is a "rolling release", you can update it continuously.

 

@Middy, for commercial questions, please contact me at the support email address.

[hifi25nl]

You cannot run Jriver in headless version.  Jriver needs xorg graphical drivers.

Yes, you could use some tricks and install xorg and a "dummy" driver in headless, but what for? It would have xorg... better to use lxqt version then.