AudioLinux and NUC Troubleshooting and Tuning

[LTG2010]

5 minutes ago, mourip said:

I should add that I cloned my USB drive from a USB2 to USB3 drive...

Did you clone a drive with ramroot already enabled? sounds like it's enabled.

[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.

 

[mourip]

17 minutes ago, LTG2010 said:

Did you clone a drive with ramroot already enabled? sounds like it's enabled.

 

If I run "ramroot status" it shows as not enabled. Also the reason I know that it is not enabled is that my when I pulled my USB drive after booting up the endpoint crashed..

[mourip]

4 minutes ago, hifi25nl said:

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.

 

 

I made an ISO file from the USB2 drive and used RUFUS as DD to "clone" that to a new USB3 drive. Is that correct?

 

Sounds like a perfect time to upgrade to headless .6 ?

 

[hifi25nl]

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

[austinpop]

1 hour ago, Johnseye said:

 

I just asked Ghent to make me a JSSG360 Jager to 2.5mm cable.  A little cheaper and faster than from Paul.

 

But Paul is the only Jaeger-Meister, though.

[Johnseye]

7 minutes ago, austinpop said:

 

But Paul is the only Jaeger-Meister, though.

 

I doubt the adapter makes any difference. I'm using one now as well. I'm curious to see whether there's a difference between Paul's and the JSSG360 stuff. I am now able to run my NUC board at 12v with the SR7. That means my SR7 is also powering my server again. Thanks for that. 

 

I also updated my server to lxqt v 3.0.2, running headless (extreme 2) max cpu. 

 

I got the SOtM switch and have it connected to my REF10. I'll post in the other thread soon. 

 

I think I hit a new benchmark and am running out of tweaks to try. The only thing left is to see if the sCLK helps the NUC, something I'm very hesitant on doing 

 

[Middy]

The start of my very very basic questions... pre AL

Do i need a network switch for my celeron and I3 NUCs. I hoped it would be just an Ethernet cable between them.

Aiming for local files on I3 only.  No tidal Qubuz ect. 

Bleeding easy over bleeding edge...

My CV lacks: was data manager at Google deep mind....☹

 

[greenleo]

11 hours ago, Johnseye said:

the SOtM switch and have it connected to my REF10. I'll post in the other thread soon. 

What's the other thread?

11 hours ago, Johnseye said:

see if the sCLK helps the NUC, something I'm very hesitant on doing 

Why the hesitation?

[greenleo]

10 hours ago, Middy said:

The start of my very very basic questions... pre AL

Do i need a network switch for my celeron and I3 NUCs. I hoped it would be just an Ethernet cable between them.

Aiming for local files on I3 only.  No tidal Qubuz ect. 

Bleeding easy over bleeding edge...

My CV lacks: was data manager at Google deep mind....☹

 

Middy,

 

It depends on your configuration and the simplest is the star topology with both the Celeron and the i3 connected to a router.  You may want to check the diagram that I posted before.

 

I'm using HQP (lxqt control PC) to NAA (headless audio PC) and a direct connection could be very unstable.  I tried the config that with only 1 LAN port in each of the computers.  In principle it should work but in practice the links breaks occasionally and regularly.  I'm still trying to solve this problem.  It seems that the problem is from multicast NAA and I stand corrected.

 

If the endpoint(the audio PC) may be referenced by IP address, then you may set up the ip addresses of both of the PCs manually and correctly.  It should work.

 

Given that switches does not necessarily provide DHCP, connect both PC to a switch without the switch connected to a DHCP server (say a router, which usually provides DHCP) may give you trouble.

 

Buy a cheap router, say $15 (WiFi no need) and use the star topology may be the simplest way to go.  Even better is to ask friends for old routers that are collecting dust to save the $15?

 

[Middy]

Thanks Leo, ive been reading the complications of connection especially people buying expensive aquavox box's and additional power supplies to avoid more noise in the chain.

With people holding out for Uptones ether regen. tm

I hoped 1 Audioquest pearl 1m ethernet cable would connect both. Cheap and simple as i dont require an internet connection for streaming .

Just load my PCM flacs onto a usb and copy them to the 'NUC server i3'  Wifi looks very complicated as does most of this.

Very clever knowledgeable people are doing good work.

I want roon on 2 boxes.

Al running on both hopefully in RAM

A simple request when writing but the fear of God in me.

Plus i want to be as near as possible completed before troubling our Italian AL expert. 

A cheap router suggestion would be welcome as i think i can manage to plug it in...?

I do really know nothing and need baby steps. So i am asking the basics, think grand mother than grand master..

 

 

[Middy]

Thanks Leo, ive been reading the complications of connection especially people buying expensive aquavox box's and additional power supplies to avoid more noise in the chain.

With people holding out for Uptones ether regen. tm

I hoped 1 Audioquest pearl 1m ethernet cable would connect both. Cheap and simple as i dont require an internet connection for streaming .

Just load my PCM flacs onto a usb and copy them to the 'NUC server i3'  Wifi looks very complicated as does most of this.

Very clever knowledgeable people are doing good work.

I want roon on 2 boxes.

Al running on both hopefully in RAM

A simple request when writing but the fear of God in me.

Plus i want to be as near as possible completed before troubling our Italian AL expert. 

A cheap router suggestion would be welcome as i think i can manage to plug it in...?

I do really know nothing and need baby steps. So i am asking the basics, think grand mother than grand master..

 

 

[Forehaven]

17 hours ago, Johnseye said:

 

I just asked Ghent to make me a JSSG360 Jager to 2.5mm cable.  A little cheaper and faster than from Paul.

Hi John,  don't count on it being too much faster, I ordered a couple cables 11/1 and I still don't have it.  China mail super slow, and at least here, Chicago mail service is terribly slow too.  It's been in Chicago since 12/11.   Just a heads up

[Johnseye]

4 hours ago, greenleo said:

What's the other thread?

Why the hesitation?

 

The Novel Way thread.  Where our testing results get shared.  This one is specific to AL and NUC tuning.

 

First because it's a lot of cost for potentially little gain.  I would have to buy the SOtM switch which I have on loan, then use the clock taps from it for the NUC.  The entire effort would be in the $2500 range.  I already have a very good TLS switch and what I will share in the other thread is that while there's a difference it's small.

 

Second because I really like what I hear from the NUC and AL now.  Maybe the clocks on the NUC are very good and that's part of the equation, we don't know yet.  If I tap in new clocks from the sCLK I introduce cabling between the switch and NUC.  That has the potential to change the sound.  I could also buy a separate sCLK for the NUC itself just to make the cabling a little bit shorter.  That is an even higher cost.

[Johnseye]

6 minutes ago, Forehaven said:

Hi John,  don't count on it being too much faster, I ordered a couple cables 11/1 and I still don't have it.  China mail super slow, and at least here, Chicago mail service is terribly slow too.  It's been in Chicago since 12/11.   Just a heads up

 

Yea I know.  This trade war has had a direct impact.  Customs holds up shipments much longer than in the past.  I recently got some JSSG360 ethernet cables from Ghent and it took about 3 weeks with expedited shipping.

 

Still, even a 4 week wait is still much shorter than anything from Hynes.  Maybe cables take less time from him.

[rettib2001]

Before I place the order can I just confirm that 4gb of ram Is enough for a headless AL config that just uses roonbridge and nothing else? 

 

Cheerd

[Dutch]

13 minutes ago, rettib2001 said:

Before I place the order can I just confirm that 4gb of ram Is enough for a headless AL config that just uses roonbridge and nothing else? 

 

Cheerd

 

Yes absolutely, it uses less than 2GB of memory in that config.

[rettib2001]

5 minutes ago, Dutch said:

 

Yes absolutely, it uses less than 2GB of memory in that config.

Brilliant, thanks for the quick reply! 

[greenleo]

13 hours ago, Middy said:

Thanks Leo, ive been reading the complications of connection especially people buying expensive aquavox box's and additional power supplies to avoid more noise in the chain.

With people holding out for Uptones ether regen. tm

I hoped 1 Audioquest pearl 1m ethernet cable would connect both. Cheap and simple as i dont require an internet connection for streaming .

Just load my PCM flacs onto a usb and copy them to the 'NUC server i3'  Wifi looks very complicated as does most of this.

Very clever knowledgeable people are doing good work.

I want roon on 2 boxes.

Al running on both hopefully in RAM

A simple request when writing but the fear of God in me.

Plus i want to be as near as possible completed before troubling our Italian AL expert. 

A cheap router suggestion would be welcome as i think i can manage to plug it in...?

I do really know nothing and need baby steps. So i am asking the basics, think grand mother than grand master..

 

 

Hi Middy,

 

As stated in my post before, without knowing what software/system that you'll be using, no further concrete help may be provided because that is software and then hardware settings specific.

 

For the physical network connection, just buy a cheap router that provides DHCP (I guess now all routers do), connect your PCs to the LAN ports of the router will do.  The rest depends on your software.

 

For examples,

HQP need not internet to play local files.  Hence the above network configuration should work.  Hence the WAN port of the router may left open.

 

For ROON (up to my knowledge) Internet is needed.  Hence the WAN port of the router should connect to the Internet.  And the details depends on the hardware of your home, usually a router is connected, through the WAN port, to a modem provided by your ISP.

 

Hope this helps.

[greenleo]

8 hours ago, Dutch said:

absolutely, it uses less than 2GB of memory in that config

@rettib2001, I

 

I concur with Dutch that 4GB works and 2 GB would be enough currently.  But 4GB RAM should be used in case the size of the headless is increasing in future or the user wants to add further to his/her own headless AL.

 

[rickca]

I recently ended up with a flash drive that wouldn't boot because of a filesystem inconsistency that luckily got fixed with fsck.

I think maintaining AL on a flash drive is tempting fate.  Obviously, you always need a backup copy.

 

So, I'd like to put a bootable image on a hard drive or SSD on another machine and do my maintenance there.  When I'm happy with the changes/updates I would copy the image to a flash drive to use on my NUC.

 

Can someone explain how to do this?

 

[LTG2010]

5 minutes ago, rickca said:

 

Can someone explain how to do this?

You can use the dd tool.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dd

[BigAlMc]

Bit of an update and new question from my server endeavours.

 

I tried to follow @austinpop "live dangerously" instructions in the headless command line. But despite putting on my Big Boy pants to do so, I failed.

 

Then using @LTG2010 recommendation of creating an Ubuntu boot drive and using Try rather than Install I was able to use GParted to format the SSD. [Much easier for any other noobs pondering the same].

 

Bingo! Now was able to use the remainder of Rajivs instructions to mount the drive and set it to automount. That Nano thing was a bit of a learning curve tho ?

 

Now using Ubuntu to copy the music onto the SSD (having failed miserably in the command line!). Even had to teach myself Chmod commands in order to change the permissions on the SSD folder to allow me to write to it. Is there no stopping me! 

 

Well it turns out yes there is. I'm hitting a problem that I'm sure Larry posted about but I cannot find that post. Think it's on the mothership but can't find it for the life of me.

 

Whenever I connect the LAN cable to the NUC server then the music playing on the NUC endpoint (via my Zenith as server) starts skipping through the playlist and nothing will play. I need to remove the LAN cable from the NUC server and do a power cycle on the endpoint to restore normal service.

 

@lmitche I recall a post of yours saying that you and Peiro had a similar conflict and found out the cause was the server and endpoint sharing the same Roon ID?

 

Is that right or has my audiophile NUC mania got me dreaming up issues and posts?

 

If I didn't imagine it then can you either point me at the post or advise how I go about changing one of the devices to avoid the conflict?

 

Many Thanks,

Alan

 

PS Thanks again to all for the advice that's helped this dummy get this far!

 

[Bricki]

31 minutes ago, BigAlMc said:

Bit of an update and new question from my server endeavours.

 

I tried to follow @austinpop "live dangerously" instructions in the headless command line. But despite putting on my Big Boy pants to do so, I failed.

 

Then using @LTG2010 recommendation of creating an Ubuntu boot drive and using Try rather than Install I was able to use GParted to format the SSD. [Much easier for any other noobs pondering the same].

 

Bingo! Now was able to use the remainder of Rajivs instructions to mount the drive and set it to automount. That Nano thing was a bit of a learning curve tho ?

 

Now using Ubuntu to copy the music onto the SSD (having failed miserably in the command line!). Even had to teach myself Chmod commands in order to change the permissions on the SSD folder to allow me to write to it. Is there no stopping me! 

 

Well it turns out yes there is. I'm hitting a problem that I'm sure Larry posted about but I cannot find that post. Think it's on the mothership but can't find it for the life of me.

 

Whenever I connect the LAN cable to the NUC server then the music playing on the NUC endpoint (via my Zenith as server) starts skipping through the playlist and nothing will play. I need to remove the LAN cable from the NUC server and do a power cycle on the endpoint to restore normal service.

 

@lmitche I recall a post of yours saying that you and Peiro had a similar conflict and found out the cause was the server and endpoint sharing the same Roon ID?

 

Is that right or has my audiophile NUC mania got me dreaming up issues and posts?

 

If I didn't imagine it then can you either point me at the post or advise how I go about changing one of the devices to avoid the conflict?

 

Many Thanks,

Alan

 

PS Thanks again to all for the advice that's helped this dummy get this far!

 

"RoonBridge generates and writes out a unique id into its data directory on first run and uses that to identify itself to RoonServer. Clear out /var/roon on the second device (or hunt down and delete the RAATServer/Settings/unique_id file) and it will generate itself a new one next time it starts up."

 

I deleted /var/roon/RAATServer/Settings/unique_id and rebooted. I had to log in as root." 

 

This is a quote from the novel way thread. I used the "rm" command to delete the roon id file. But I don't know if that is the answer to your problem or not... But it solved my issue with my roon endpoint not recognised when using headless on server and endpoint 

[BigAlMc]

28 minutes ago, Bricki said:

"RoonBridge generates and writes out a unique id into its data directory on first run and uses that to identify itself to RoonServer. Clear out /var/roon on the second device (or hunt down and delete the RAATServer/Settings/unique_id file) and it will generate itself a new one next time it starts up."

 

I deleted /var/roon/RAATServer/Settings/unique_id and rebooted. I had to log in as root." 

 

This is a quote from the novel way thread. I used the "rm" command to delete the roon id file. But I don't know if that is the answer to your problem or not... But it solved my issue with my roon endpoint not recognised when using headless on server and endpoint 

 

Thanks Bricki,

 

I guess I'll start by checking the unique_id are the same before I risk messing around with them.

 

Cheers,

Alan