AudioLinux and NUC Troubleshooting and Tuning

[rickca]

5 minutes ago, hifi25nl said:

In this case is easy. The following line can be applied only if partition has not been expanded and only for headless:

OK the key is that count parameter.  After putting the .img onto the flash drive with Etcher, I have done some some updates like option 3 on the AL update menu (Update all other packages).  Does that operation automatically expand the partition if more space is required, or do you have to do something explicit to expand a partition?

[hifi25nl]

Update will not resize the partition, unless you select the new option resize

[BigAlMc]

1 hour ago, hifi25nl said:

In this case is easy. The following line can be applied only if partition has not been expanded and only for headless:

 

dd if=/dev/sde conv=sync,noerror bs=1048576 count=5990 | gzip -c  > audiolinux.img.gz

 

 

Thanks Piero,

 

And does it matter if the OS is loaded to RAM or not before you do this?

 

Cheers,

Alan

[hifi25nl]

You cannot do this "from inside", but only in ram mode or booting first to another installation.

[LTG2010]

15 minutes ago, BigAlMc said:

 

And does it matter if the OS is loaded to RAM or not before you do this?

Booting into Ram 'unmounts" the USB, then you can clone it.

[lmitche]

2 hours ago, hifi25nl said:

In this case is easy. The following line can be applied only if partition has not been expanded and only for headless:

 

dd if=/dev/sde conv=sync,noerror bs=1048576 count=5990 | gzip -c  > audiolinux.img.gz

 

Piero, if I add together the blocksize for the first two headless partitions 511705088 +  5767168000 = 6278873088 or 6278873088/1048576 = 5988 blocks.

 

You use 5990 blocks in the command above.

 

Where did the extra two blocks come from? Is there a one block overhead per partition?

[hifi25nl]

Example:

[root@archlinux audiolinux]# fdisk -l -u=cylinders /dev/sde 
Disk /dev/sde: 28.7 GiB, 30752000000 bytes, 60062500 sectors 
Disk model: Ultra USB 3.0    
Geometry: 64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 29327 cylinders
Units: cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 524A1828-2002-4187-B469-3E7A2DE53ED0

Device     Start   End  Size Type 
/dev/sde1      2   489  488M EFI System
/dev/sde2    490  5989  5.4G Linux filesystem

bs is the bytes number and count is the end of second partition +1: bs=1048576 count=5990

 

[lmitche]

18 minutes ago, hifi25nl said:

Example:

[root@archlinux audiolinux]# fdisk -l -u=cylinders /dev/sde 
Disk /dev/sde: 28.7 GiB, 30752000000 bytes, 60062500 sectors 
Disk model: Ultra USB 3.0    
Geometry: 64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 29327 cylinders
Units: cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 524A1828-2002-4187-B469-3E7A2DE53ED0

Device     Start   End  Size Type 
/dev/sde1      2   489  488M EFI System
/dev/sde2    490  5989  5.4G Linux filesystem

bs is the bytes number and count is the end of second partition +1: bs=1048576 count=5990

 

Got it. Thanks. So dd starts the count at cylinder one of course!

[Monge]

I’m trying to stream Tidal with IPeng App to my CJYH diskless with Squeezelite+LMS on this machine only.

I have installed LMS and Squeezelite and started the services and rebooted.

But then I open Ipeng on my IPAD and click PlayerName I see audiolinux for a short while and then it disappear and it says “No Players and Music Sources (Servers) found. 

I did register ny IPAD on mysqueezebox.com and added Tidal app and some radiostations here.

Do I need to add a plugin on AL headless (0.8) and how?

I have the Ipeng app, but do I need to buy Ipeng UE also?

 

[rickca]

1 hour ago, lmitche said:

So dd starts the count at cylinder one of course!

The first cylinder is at offset 0.  So we want offset 0 through offset 5989 which is a total of 5990 cylinders.  I think we're saying the same thing.

[ray-dude]

7 hours ago, rickca said:

@ray-dude thank you so much for taking the time to document those procedures in detail.  It's extremely helpful.

I was just thinking that it would be useful to find out exactly what various menu items do under the covers.  It's a very good way to learn.

 

I should have mentioned it (for future folks searching the thread), but the "what does ramsave do" example I gave wasn't an idle one.  I've been experimenting with having my music library in memory on my 7i7DNKE and lost it after an upgrade/reboot (huh).  

 

Turns out I had put the local library in /media/music (adjacent to /media/samba, which is where I mounted my music share from my Mac mini server).  Diving into the ramsave script, I saw that the /media directory is excluded from the rsync process that copies things back to the USB stick.

 

Moved my local music directory to the root directory, and problem solved (without having to pester Piero

 

[rickca]

@ray-dude there are tons of Linux primers out there.  Is there one you recommend to more fully understand what is going on under the covers of the menu items?  I don't want a reference 'bible' kind of book, but rather one that highlights the commands and procedures we are likely to use with AL without getting too sophisticated.  I have a good background in programming (started with 370 assembler and principles of operation).  I even taught undergrad Computer Science at a university.  But that was lightyears ago.

[austinpop]

1 hour ago, Monge said:

I’m trying to stream Tidal with IPeng App to my CJYH diskless with Squeezelite+LMS on this machine only.

I have installed LMS and Squeezelite and started the services and rebooted.

But then I open Ipeng on my IPAD and click PlayerName I see audiolinux for a short while and then it disappear and it says “No Players and Music Sources (Servers) found. 

I did register ny IPAD on mysqueezebox.com and added Tidal app and some radiostations here.

Do I need to add a plugin on AL headless (0.8) and how?

I have the Ipeng app, but do I need to buy Ipeng UE also?

 

 

Did you configure squeezelite by:

• running squeezelite -l to identify the name of the audio device,
• then, editing the squeezelite.conf file to match that name? 

As far as I know, this is a manual step that needs to be done.

[austinpop]

For those wanting to do a backup of their AL USB stick to a compressed img file using MacOS, here are the steps:

 

Boot AL into RAM, keep USB stick mounted

• Login to AL and run some commands

• lsbk to get the device name of the USB stick, say /dev/sde

• fdisk -l -u=cylinders /dev/sde. Example output:
   

  Disk /dev/sde: 28.7 GiB, 30752000000 bytes, 60062500 sectors

  Disk model: Ultra USB 3.0   

  Geometry: 64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 29327 cylinders

  Units: cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes

  Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

  I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

  Disklabel type: gpt

  Disk identifier: 524A1828-2002-4187-B469-3E7A2DE53ED0

   

  Device Start   End Size Type

  /dev/sde1   2   489 488M EFI System

  /dev/sde2 490  5489  5.4G Linux filesystem
   

• Note the values of Units (1048576) and the End (5489) of the Linux filesystem on the stick.

• Remove the USB stick

 

On a MacOS system

• Insert the USB stick on MacOS

• Run the Terminal app. It'll open up a command line. Run the following commands, one by one.

• diskutil list to identify the device id of the USB stick, say /dev/disk4

• diskutil unmountdisk /dev/disk4 to unmount the USB stick

• Use the Units and End+1 value from the previous section to form and run the dd command:

• sudo dd if=/dev/disk4 conv=sync,noerror bs=1048576 count=5490 | gzip -c  > AL-backup.img.gz

  • Will prompt for password. Supply your MacOS login pw. This assumes you're an Admin user.

• At this point, you have a backup file AL-backup.img.gz

• You can later burn another stick from this file, just like Piero's original image.

• I've done this and verified it works.

 

[Monge]

35 minutes ago, austinpop said:

 

Did you configure squeezelite by:

• running squeezelite -l to identify the name of the audio device,
• then, editing the squeezelite.conf file to match that name? 

As far as I know, this is a manual step that needs to be done.

No I did not. Thanks I’ll try that.

[rickca]

4 minutes ago, Monge said:

No I did not. Thanks I’ll try that.

Absolutely necessary.  Until you do that and connect your DAC, systemctl status squeezelite will show you that squeezelite is inactive.  I learned this from Rajiv!

[bobfa]

Getting setup for NUC testing.  I have the NUC7i7DNBE  board on order from SimplyNUC (I hope) and the Asaka X7D is also ordered. I have the license for AL... I wanted to ask about RAM for Headless endpoint. I have not ordered it yet. I have seen a couple of references to 4GB and some that say 16Gb.  I am slightly confused.  I also need some USB sticks just to be safe.  32gb overkill?

 

The plan is to test A/B with my UltraRendu.  I will be using my JS-2 Power supply and if I need I have an LPS-1.2.  

 

This feels like we need an AL/NUC Wiki???  I can try to host one if we need.

[rickca]

@bobfa you should probably specify what audio software you plan to run on your NUC.

[austinpop]

5 minutes ago, bobfa said:

Getting setup for NUC testing.  I have the NUC7i7DNBE  board on order from SimplyNUC (I hope) and the Asaka X7D is also ordered. I have the license for AL... I wanted to ask about RAM for Headless endpoint. I have not ordered it yet. I have seen a couple of references to 4GB and some that say 16Gb.  I am slightly confused.  I also need some USB sticks just to be safe.  32gb overkill?

 

The plan is to test A/B with my UltraRendu.  I will be using my JS-2 Power supply and if I need I have an LPS-1.2.  

 

This feels like we need an AL/NUC Wiki???  I can try to host one if we need.

 

Bob,

 

Here's the rationale about RAM:

• More memory consumes more power
  • more noise
  • more demand from PSU
• Roon Bridge seems to run fine on just 4GB RAM, even with AL booted into RAM
• I use 8GB, because it enables me to experiment with up to 4GB of buffer space for squeezelite
• I see no reason to go beyond 8GB for an endpoint for now.

As for USB sticks, yes definitely get a few spares. I have had good luck with these: https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra-Flair-Flash-Drive/dp/B015CH1JIW

 

I look forward to your findings! Please post your listening impressions comparing with the UR over on the novel thread.

 

[ray-dude]

2 hours ago, rickca said:

@ray-dude there are tons of Linux primers out there.  Is there one you recommend to more fully understand what is going on under the covers of the menu items?  I don't want a reference 'bible' kind of book, but rather one that highlights the commands and procedures we are likely to use with AL without getting too sophisticated.  I have a good background in programming (started with 370 assembler and principles of operation).  I even taught undergrad Computer Science at a university.  But that was lightyears ago.

 

I'm sure there are but I haven't looked for one.  I have a basic Unix background from 30 years ago (yikes!), so I can suss out man pages and unwind shell scripts.  For me everything else has been google, and trying stuff at the command line (and keeping a cheat sheet up to date!)

 

By convention, most Unix apps have a -h (help) flag (for example "squeezelite -h"), and/or a man (manual) page (for example, "man dd").  Most of the visible things Piero has done with AL has been with shell scripts, so you can use "more" or your text editor of choice (I use nano) to look at files.

 

A bonus when you're running in ram mode and have the USB stick removed: no matter how badly you mess up, you're a reboot away from a clean start!

 

[rickca]

2 minutes ago, ray-dude said:

By convention, most Unix apps have a -h (help) flag (for example "squeezelite -h"), and/or a man (manual) page (for example, "man dd").

Yeah I just find I lose the forest for the trees when navigating amongst man pages, and I've forgotten sed/awk and regular expressions.  No problem, I'll probaby get one of the O'Reilly series I used to have.  I never expected to need (or want) them again!

[bobfa]

1 hour ago, rickca said:

@bobfa you should probably specify what audio software you plan to run on your NUC.

Roon Bridge

[bobfa]

1 hour ago, austinpop said:

 

Bob,

 

Here's the rationale about RAM:

• More memory consumes more power
  • more noise
  • more demand from PSU
• Roon Bridge seems to run fine on just 4GB RAM, even with AL booted into RAM
• I use 8GB, because it enables me to experiment with up to 4GB of buffer space for squeezelite
• I see no reason to go beyond 8GB for an endpoint for now.

As for USB sticks, yes definitely get a few spares. I have had good luck with these: https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra-Flair-Flash-Drive/dp/B015CH1JIW

 

I look forward to your findings! Please post your listening impressions comparing with the UR over on the novel thread.

 

Rajiv,

Thanks for the info.  I am finishing up my Amazon order now. 

 

I will report over on the SQ thread.  I am excited about this.  

 

Bob

[bobfa]

I have a NUC7i7BNH that was a ROON ROCK server at one point it is now on Windows 10.  I am going to use it to build up my AL setup and test the basics.  Should help me fill the space while waiting for my NUC/Endpoint hardware to arrive.

 

I will also use it as a AL ROON server testBED.

 

Updating BIOS and Windows now....

[ray-dude]

Quick question for those that have been playing with LMS as their music server.  I'm finding it plays much nicer with the squeezelite end point vs Roon Server, but I would like to do an apples to apples comparison.

 

Which processes are folks singling out to include in /opt/rtapp/rtapp.conf to give the server process realtime priority?  It seems to be running as a daemon, with a lot of subprocesses,, but I'm getting a bit lost tracking them down to see which should have a priority boost.