AudioLinux and NUC Troubleshooting and Tuning

[AnotherSpin]

1 hour ago, Narcissus said:

Returning After an 8 month hiatus from everything audio, I have downloaded the latest links (headless & lxqt) from Piero but I'm struggling to copy it on the USB stick. If anyone's posted a link on how to do this (Mac specific) please point me towards it. Anyone have success copying the img with Etcher?

 

I use a Mac book pro as a server and plan on using the Celeron NuC as headless endpoint.

 

 

 

 

 

Please do as described here:

http://www.audio-linux.com/html/mac.html - just replace with your image and disk.

Etcher didn't work for me, and I am not sure it may work for you.

[Narcissus]

I tried, Piero sent me that link yesterday. But somehow I’m dragging my feet on the first step itself :(.. I’ve done it before on the  early AL 220.img file successfully but being away for 8-9 months I seem to be doing something wrong...

 

I need to get the first step right and then everything will fall into place or so I believe (fings crossed

[AnotherSpin]

I see. You should put image in the folder and make this folder accessible to Terminal. Honestly I don't remember how I did it, maybe google will help here. As a result, in folder menu you should see "open in Terminal", go from here.

[bobfa]

7 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

I see. You should put image in the folder and make this folder accessible to Terminal. Honestly I don't remember how I did it, maybe google will help here. As a result, in folder menu you should see "open in Terminal", go from here.

No it is simpler

 

Etcher does it all.  I will create a short screen video.

 

Plug in USB stick, run etcher, select download, select USB, select write....

[Narcissus]

Thanks @AnotherSpin and @bobfafor replying, that would be very helpful Bob looking forward to it.

 

Btw, Piero was able to troubleshoot  the problem e.g. the original file was 

audiolinux_350.img not audiolinux_350.img.gz, this is because unfortunately mac had decompressed the file after downloading it.

 

In any case, the latest versions of headless 1.5.0 and lxqt 3.6.0 are to be released today, so I might as well wait a few hrs & get those.

[AnotherSpin]

2 hours ago, bobfa said:

No it is simpler

 

Etcher does it all.  I will create a short screen video.

 

Plug in USB stick, run etcher, select download, select USB, select write....

 

Etcher didn't work for me on two macs... It was ok for Euphony, not for AL in my system.

[Narcissus]

What are the basic settings everyone's using on Lxqt? I have 

 

15. SET realtime priority to extreme

21. SET Cpu governor.... ( set to Intel pstate as my MBP has a 2.9ghz Intel core  i7 cpu)

 

Also In "option 4. Realtime expert config"  what is everyone using? 

 

 

[drjimwillie]

Hi - I hope everyone is enjoying the music🙂

 While we’re on the subject of formatting USB drives for AL. 

 I have yet to make a back up of my AL system on a new USB drive.    I know there is an option in the menus for a back up drive. 

 Do I have to format the drive first? Or does the menu option do everything for you? 

 

 I am also not remembering how to format the drive If required?

 

 There was also a recommendation for a minimum speed USB drive. What is the recommendation for the drive?  Is it 32GB we are using?

 

 I have a scandisk USB drive that I use and it gets very hot is this typical? 

 

Thank you

Please enjoy your day

[ASRMichael]

Hi

 

I am new to Audiolinux. My AL setup as follows;

 

Roon Server

HQPLAYER

Ramroot

3 Cores for Audio

Odd song loaded into memory.

 

So here’s my question, How do I remove/tune AL programs or services I don’t actually need? Or is best to just leave alone?

 

thanks in advance 

[bobfa]

I think you do not need to bother.  They are not “running”.

[hifi25nl]

Right, very few services are running. Installed applications that are not running have no impact on sound.

A possibility is to enable 4 "Realtime expert configuration" in expert menu because there is an option that will disable the watchdog if you remove # in front of the lines:

 

echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/watchdog
echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/nmi_watchdog

 

As a side note, most probably most of the options in that file will be set to default in the next Audiolinux version.

 

[drjimwillie]

On 8/27/2019 at 9:57 AM, drjimwillie said:

Hi - I hope everyone is enjoying the music🙂

 While we’re on the subject of formatting USB drives for AL. 

 I have yet to make a back up of my AL system on a new USB drive.    I know there is an option in the menus for a back up drive. 

 Do I have to format the drive first? Or does the menu option do everything for you? 

 

 I am also not remembering how to format the drive If required?

 

 There was also a recommendation for a minimum speed USB drive. What is the recommendation for the drive?  Is it 32GB we are using?

 

 I have a scandisk USB drive that I use and it gets very hot is this typical? 

 

Thank you

Please enjoy your day

I would like to bump this question again please. 

 When I use the AL menu function to create a back up thumb drive, do I need to format it first? 

 If I do, how do I format the thumb drive?

[hifi25nl]

No, all is done automatically

[hifi25nl]

To avoid problems in upgrading from kernel 4.19.x to 5.2.x, I suggest, when updating the kernel, to go to Audiolinux update menu and

1) System update (before was update all other packages)
2) Roon update (this is because roon is distributing the linux package without build number)
3) Update kernel
4) Select Clean on the main menu
5) Reboot

[bodiebill]

Just installed a 16GB optane m.2 drive.

I used the clone feature, and it worked smoothly (thanks to Paolo sending me an image created with a 16GB rather than 32GB stick).  

AL startup time into RAM is 1'10".

I do not expect better sound (although I could deactivate the usb ports) but it is quite convenient.

[ericuco]

New Audio Linux user here. Purchased and installed AL LXQt about two weeks ago. Sorry for the length of this but wanted to share my experience in hopes of getting advice and encourage new users that is relatively easy to do.

 

Everything has gone fairly well with a few lessons learned items along the way. I run HQP 4 Desktop and Roon Server on this server. Output is via fiber optic NIC to an opticalModule and then to microRendu (HQP NAA).

 

I used Win32DiskImager to create the USB boot flash drive. Then used my Ubuntu Studio installation for the second part of repartitioning ext4 using gparted. No problems.

 

I originally was booting from a USB flash drive until I had my music server upgraded to 16MB RAM (up from 4MB) last week so now I am successfully running in Ram Root mode. (FYI - Roon database is 3 GB). Also, removed my internal SSD so everything is booting/running off USB drive.

 

For the Roon database, I had been doing automatic backup to my NAS. I copied one of the backups to a separate USB flash drive which took some time with a 3GB database. Once AL was up and running, I used my iPad (Roon remote) to connect to the new Roon server (core). Using the Roon menus (Settings > Backups), I pointed to the backup files on the USB flash drive and everything was updated which again took some time with a 3GB file.

 

One question: I was updating the kernel and was presented with two choices, one being the BFQ. Initially I installed the non-BFQ version but when reading through the documentation, seems that I should be using the BFQ version so I installed that version. Can anyone provide suggestions as to which version I should be using?

 

Some of the lessons learned have been associated with the Realtime Priority settings.

 

Lesson 1:
Given that I use Roon as a front-end to HQP, the documentation suggested that HQP be listed first and that Roon could be removed from the RTAPP list (well that was my intreptation at least). First off, the list )see below) is not correct if you are using HQP 4 Desktop:

 

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

 

Need to replace "hqplayer" with "hqplayer4desktop".

 

I had removed RoonAppliance from the list for which Roon was NOT happy and non-responsive so I added it back in front of hqplayer4desktop and everyone seems happy now. I might swap the order of HQP and Roon at some point but for now everyone seems happy including me listening to music.

 

Lesson 2:
For the RTIRQ configuration, the fiber optic NIC is the main output device so I had changed per suggestions in the documentation:

 

RTIRQ_NAME_LIST="usb" to RTIRQ_NAME_LIST="enp3s0"

 

This made my USB ports unhappy to the point they all shutdown and became unresponsive.

 

Changed to RTIRQ_NAME_LIST="enp3s0 usb" and everyone is happy again.

 

The journey continues but that is all for now. Any and all suggestions are welcome noting that I am not looking to go to the nth degree on this and pretty happy where everything sits at least for now.

 

[bodiebill]

I am watching the temperatures in AL and see:

      temp1:           +56.0°C      
      x Package id 0:  +34.0°C  (high = +101.0°C, crit = +115.0°C)     
      x Core 0:        +27.0°C  (high = +101.0°C, crit = +115.0°C)
      x Core 1:        +28.0°C  (high = +101.0°C, crit = +115.0°C)                        
      x Core 2:        +28.0°C  (high = +101.0°C, crit = +115.0°C)                        
      x Core 3:        +28.0°C  (high = +101.0°C, crit = +115.0°C)                                             
      x Core 4:        +29.0°C  (high = +101.0°C, crit = +115.0°C)                                            
      x Core 5:        +29.0°C  (high = +101.0°C, crit = +115.0°C)                                         
      x Core 6:        +34.0°C  (high = +101.0°C, crit = +115.0°C)                                      
      x Core 7:        +30.0°C  (high = +101.0°C, crit = +115.0°C)                                     

Anyone knows what 'temp1' and 'Package id 0' temperatures refer to?

[bodiebill]

I now think 'Package id 0' is the highest core temp.

Maybe temp1 is the mobo temp?

[lmitche]

2 hours ago, bodiebill said:

I now think 'Package id 0' is the highest core temp.

Maybe temp1 is the mobo temp?

My understanding is that temp1 is the PCH.

 

Package id 0 is from the heat spreader above the cores, so it is likely to be the highest core temp.

 

On some NUCs the temp of the WiFi card will show up as well.

[bodiebill]

Thanks, in that case temperatures look fine using HQPe DSD256 with EC modulator: CPU from 35 (DSD orig.) to 60 (PCM 192 orig.) and PCH around 60. 

[lmitche]

3 minutes ago, bodiebill said:

Thanks, in that case temperatures look fine using HQPe DSD256 with EC modulator: CPU from 35 (DSD orig.) to 60 (PCM 192 orig.) and PCH around 60. 

Yep, those temps won't damage anything.

[lmitche]

On 9/9/2019 at 11:45 AM, ericuco said:

New Audio Linux user here. Purchased and installed AL LXQt about two weeks ago. Sorry for the length of this but wanted to share my experience in hopes of getting advice and encourage new users that is relatively easy to do.

 

Everything has gone fairly well with a few lessons learned items along the way. I run HQP 4 Desktop and Roon Server on this server. Output is via fiber optic NIC to an opticalModule and then to microRendu (HQP NAA).

 

I used Win32DiskImager to create the USB boot flash drive. Then used my Ubuntu Studio installation for the second part of repartitioning ext4 using gparted. No problems.

 

I originally was booting from a USB flash drive until I had my music server upgraded to 16MB RAM (up from 4MB) last week so now I am successfully running in Ram Root mode. (FYI - Roon database is 3 GB). Also, removed my internal SSD so everything is booting/running off USB drive.

 

For the Roon database, I had been doing automatic backup to my NAS. I copied one of the backups to a separate USB flash drive which took some time with a 3GB database. Once AL was up and running, I used my iPad (Roon remote) to connect to the new Roon server (core). Using the Roon menus (Settings > Backups), I pointed to the backup files on the USB flash drive and everything was updated which again took some time with a 3GB file.

 

One question: I was updating the kernel and was presented with two choices, one being the BFQ. Initially I installed the non-BFQ version but when reading through the documentation, seems that I should be using the BFQ version so I installed that version. Can anyone provide suggestions as to which version I should be using?

 

Some of the lessons learned have been associated with the Realtime Priority settings.

 

Lesson 1:
Given that I use Roon as a front-end to HQP, the documentation suggested that HQP be listed first and that Roon could be removed from the RTAPP list (well that was my intreptation at least). First off, the list )see below) is not correct if you are using HQP 4 Desktop:

 

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

 

Need to replace "hqplayer" with "hqplayer4desktop".

 

I had removed RoonAppliance from the list for which Roon was NOT happy and non-responsive so I added it back in front of hqplayer4desktop and everyone seems happy now. I might swap the order of HQP and Roon at some point but for now everyone seems happy including me listening to music.

 

Lesson 2:
For the RTIRQ configuration, the fiber optic NIC is the main output device so I had changed per suggestions in the documentation:

 

RTIRQ_NAME_LIST="usb" to RTIRQ_NAME_LIST="enp3s0"

 

This made my USB ports unhappy to the point they all shutdown and became unresponsive.

 

Changed to RTIRQ_NAME_LIST="enp3s0 usb" and everyone is happy again.

 

The journey continues but that is all for now. Any and all suggestions are welcome noting that I am not looking to go to the nth degree on this and pretty happy where everything sits at least for now.

 

The BFQ kernel sounds better here.

[bodiebill]

6 hours ago, lmitche said:

The BFQ kernel sounds better here.

 

To my ears the non-BFQ kernel sounds better. Less strident/tiring, more analogue.

[cat6man]

not sure if this was here and i missed it, but i'll note that i failed to get a USB stick working with the AL headless image when i used a 16G usb stick with my 7i7 NUC, 16G ram and 32G m.2 optane.

i kept getting caught at:

 

ERROR:  device 'PARTUUID=..............' not found, skipping fsck

 

when i used a larger usb stick, audiolinux loaded fine.

seems like 32G is minimum size USB stick needed (I used a much larger one successfully as I didn't have a 32G around)

 

objective is music tomorrow (too late tonight)

[AnotherSpin]

1 hour ago, cat6man said:

not sure if this was here and i missed it, but i'll note that i failed to get a USB stick working with the AL headless image when i used a 16G usb stick with my 7i7 NUC, 16G ram and 32G m.2 optane.

i kept getting caught at:

 

ERROR:  device 'PARTUUID=..............' not found, skipping fsck

 

when i used a larger usb stick, audiolinux loaded fine.

seems like 32G is minimum size USB stick needed (I used a much larger one successfully as I didn't have a 32G around)

 

objective is music tomorrow (too late tonight)

 

The same here, I use 32GB USB sticks with headless AL to boot NUC. Nevertheless, you may want to erase/format 16GB stick if you want to try installation again.