AudioLinux and NUC Troubleshooting and Tuning

[Dev]

15 minutes ago, gsquared said:

Thanks to a lot of help from Piero, I was able to get my NUC8i7BEH running headless Al with 8 GB of RAM (diskless - running Al and Roon DB in RAM). But even sitting idle, I am getting a message that reads "Core temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 1). Then a series of lines, then NOHZ: local_softirq_pending 80. 

 

Anyone have any suggestions of a possible mis-configuration I've made?

 

Here's a screenshot:

 

 

If you running in extreme mode, you are likely to get it even when doing nothing. If not, then are you running Roonserver which is scanning a newly configured library ? If yes, then you will likely get the throttling message as well.

 

 

[Dev]

1 hour ago, gsquared said:

 

No it's the stock case until Akasa makes a case that will work with this model.

 

@Dev have you experienced this with yours?

 

Yes, when there is compute intensive work, the CPU throttles easily. Currently I am running this as an endpoint with half-extreme mode which seems to do fine but running with full extreme will start throttling again. Either the cooling seems pretty insufficient with the stock or its bug reading the temps off the die but it does sound pretty good.

 

I noted this sometime earlier:

 

 

[Dev]

29 minutes ago, greenleo said:

After knowing the sensors command, I have left my stock 7CYJH headless at standard mode for 8 hours.  The temperature stayed at less than 42C.  At this temp, leaving it on 7x24 is not a problem.

 

If you have a fanless Akasa case, it should be able to do AL extreme with the same temperature. I leave it on 24x7.

[Dev]

Is anybody using NUC/AL with Denafrips Terminator DAC ? With LMS/Squeezelite, I am hearing a pop when changing sample rate. The pops are  loud when changing from DSD to PCM. Anybody experience this and know a way to solve this ?

[Dev]

1 hour ago, sig8 said:

I just opened the NUC and Akasa case. NUC has a very good copper heat sink with fins, I don't think you will do any better with any heat sink in the available space. What they have is very good in the available space.

 

Akasa case is another story, it is a big hunk of aluminum, but they have black anodized aluminum contact surface, ..... really? I have to do some research, but that black anodizing will work as an insulator between CPU and the heat sink, meaning it would prevent heat to transfer to the heat sink. They should have left that part bare IMO. It will transfer heat to ambient due to large surface area, but if heat from CPU to contact area cannot transfer easily, what good is the larger surface area. I don't think  I am going to deploy it. 

 

But for those who are or would use it in original case, just disconnect the fan connector from board and leave that fan and the copper heat sink in place, best is to remove fan and leave heat sink in place to allow free air movement in and around the copper heat sink. 

 

The black anodized aluminum contact surface for the hear sink on Plato x7d struct me as well. Never seen one like this before. I also have their other case Newton JC that doesn't have this and have the bare aluminum exposed. However, installing it as is and have it set at balanced power mode with AL extreme (I am still running 0.5 and which is extreme2 in later version), the CPU temps hovers around 32-33C which isn't too bad.   

[Dev]

34 minutes ago, rickca said:

Piero just clarified for me that selecting Update Kernel from the menu actually downloads packages that are already compiled for the kernel.  This is brilliant because compiling the kernel on a NUC could take a really long time.  

 

This is how it should have been for all the packages, not only the kernel. I don't see any reason why we have to go the route of compiling packages like many distro does for development. Using prebuilt packages also saves space since you don't need development tools in your root filesystem, which means faster boot time if you are running ramroot ?

[Dev]

9 hours ago, hifi25nl said:

Audiolinux headless release notes

 

Version 0.8

1) Kernel updated to linux-rt-bfq-4.19.10.8-2

2) Full system update

3) Menu updated to version 084 with hard disk mount option and file-system resize in ram mode (experimental)

4) Added system time update at boot

 

You can update... almost everything from previous versions installing the new Audiolinux menu 084 and updating the system and kernel

 

Is LMS/Squeezelite included in 0.8 or do we still need to install it separately ?

[Dev]

I have been using the heat sink on x7d as is (with anodized layer on it) and as reported earlier the temps have been around 32-33C running as a streamer. This may not be the real test on how effective the heat transfer is until you push the CPU to do some work - so maybe running it as a server with some up-sampling logic over time would tell us something. Akasa has been designing fanless case for quiet sometime and I hope they might have done it with some reasoning...

[Dev]

3 hours ago, LTG2010 said:

Another surprise was my sclk-ex server as endpoint only, sounds so good I've left it at that for a while. This is direct from the motherboards USB output. Adding back the SOTM PCIE USB card, decreases the soundstage and flattens dynamics.

Anyone with an X10SBA motherboard or even an Innuos zenith might want to try it as an audiolinux endpoint, before moving on, you may be quite surprised.

 

By any chance did you compare NUC7i7dnhe to the X10SBA both as a streamer and running AL ?

[Dev]

Did anyone hear SQ differences, good or bad, between wired and wireless endpoint ?

[Dev]

For folks who are using wifi with the NUC and Akasa case - does anybody know what pigtail connector to get to fit the wifi card in NUC CJY/PJY ? This board has integrated wireless card and seems like the connector size is different (smaller) than the wifi M.2 card that comes with NUC7i7DNHE.

[Dev]

20 minutes ago, rickca said:

After you do ramroot remove, are subsequent updates written to the USB flash drive or do you need to reboot first?

 

You need to reboot for it to take effect. The ramroot remove will not switch root immediately to the USB flash drive root.

[Dev]

3 minutes ago, rickca said:

Has anyone updated AL to the latest kernel (headless version 1.1 with menu version 105)?  Any issues or noticeable change in sound quality?

 

I did a full update (kernel, packages, AL menu) last week. No issues on my side. No change in sound quality either.

[Dev]

36 minutes ago, lmitche said:

Yes, I did the update yesterday. I heard a SQ change straight away.

 

Seems there is a bug in the pstate-frequency package.  I reported this to Piero, he elevated the problem and the bug was quickly fixed by the developer at GitHub.

 

Piero suggested executing the following from a $ command prompt to install the fix:

 

You must update database
$yaourt -Syy
and reinstall to latest version
$yaourt -S pstate-frequency

 

The fix worked.

 

Did you hear the change after the pstate fix or was it before ? I think I also noticed the pstate issue with the Max vs Performance profile. I can't seem to set the max/min cpu freq and the  pstate governor is always set to performance whatever I do. Will update the package today and see if anything improves. Thanks for the pointer.

[Dev]

I also find wifi to be quiet a bit of improvement over wired connection. Both my server and endpoint are on Airport extender and I have no ethernet cables around the audio system. For those who are still on wired connection, the GigaFoil v4 is something one should look at. One of my friend is recently installed one and was very satisfied with the result. On other forums many have added a Keces P3 LPS to the GigaFoilv4 and are very happy with the results.