AudioLinux and NUC Troubleshooting and Tuning

[hifi25nl]

2 hours ago, Aberrant-Decoder said:

hi,whenever i assign a cpu to roon appliance, does that include the roon server,or is there a way to assign  cpu specifically to roonserver.  my setup is 1 pc as roon server,seezelie player out by usb to my dac.

thanks

The names of Roon processes are

/opt/RoonServer/RoonMono/bin/RoonServer
/opt/RoonServer/RoonMono/bin/RoonAppliance
/opt/RoonServer/Server/processreaper
/opt/RoonServer/RoonMono/bin/RAATServer

My choice some time ago was to choose RoonAppliance for priority and core assignment but this can change on future menu releases.

For core assignment maybe all process above will be transferred to the selected core.

For priority the choice is more difficult but it seems from a post at RoonLabs that "RoonServer.exe is very very lightweight, and all it does is watchdog RoonAppliance.exe"

I guess is the same on linux.

[mourip]

 

Yesterday I updated all of my devices to Roon 1.8. My Audiolinux endpoint still shows in Roon as being version 1.7 and “Up to Date”.

 

Does anyone know if there a Linux update to 1.8 and if so, should I just go into the Audiolinux menu on the endpoint and manually run the update?

 

Thanks!
Paul 
 

[hifi25nl]

You should go to to UPDATE menu to install new version. I have uploaded packages yesterday morning.
Note that roonserver is version 1.8 and roonbridge 1.7.
There is not a correspondence between roonserver and roonbridge version. For example when roonserver was 1.8, roonbridge was version 1.0

[mourip]

14 minutes ago, hifi25nl said:

You should go to to UPDATE menu to install new version. I have uploaded packages yesterday morning.
Note that roonserver is version 1.8 and roonbridge 1.7.
There is not a correspondence between roonserver and roonbridge version. For example when roonserver was 1.8, roonbridge was version 1.0

Thanks Piero. Much appreciated.

[mourip]

51 minutes ago, hifi25nl said:

You should go to to UPDATE menu to install new version. I have uploaded packages yesterday morning.
Note that roonserver is version 1.8 and roonbridge 1.7.
There is not a correspondence between roonserver and roonbridge version. For example when roonserver was 1.8, roonbridge was version 1.0

 

I went to the update menu and chose Roon. When I initiated the update there was an immediate reply that my "audio applications had been updated" but there was no installation that happened.

 

In Roon the version on my NUC shows 1.7 build 571.

 

Is that correct and the most current?

[hifi25nl]

Be sure that you are on menu 260

 

To check version

yay -Q roonserver

yay -Q roonbridge

First is 1.8, second is 1.7

 

To see errors, install it from console

yay -Sy roonserver

For roonbridge

yay -Sy roonbridge

 

If you see errors about some file that already exists in filesystem, before updating Roon, delete the application directory

sudo rm -rf /opt/RoonServer

sudo rm -rf /opt/RoonBridge

and after install Roon with the commands reported above.

 

This problem can happen if you tried to update from a control point in smartphone or another PC

You should update roon ONLY from Update menu

[luisma]

Hi Piero:

Have you experienced (or someone) that after configuring and getting ready AL 2.9, enabling RAMROOT, booting successfully, all the sudden you cannot longer boot from the USB flash drive, if I mount /dev/sdb2 on some other Linux box it shows the contents as normal but if I mount /dev/sdb1 there is nothing there, it just stopped booting, I can of course redo the install but don't want to fail again, could it be related to the RAMROOT config? just curious

 

[hifi25nl]

If you have another linux system the content for example of the headless version should be

 

[audiolinux@archlinux ~]$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for root:  
Disk /dev/sde: 28.64 GiB, 30752636928 bytes, 60063744 sectors
Disk model: Ultra USB 3.0    
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 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  Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sde1     2048  1001471   999424  488M EFI System
/dev/sde2  1001472 27813887 26812416 12.8G Linux filesystem

 

If you have the same output as above, I need to see the error messages at the first stages of boot on a screen, if possible.

 

[luisma]

I'll send you the fdisk output from the other system, there is no boot at all, just that the device is not bootable, I am using UEFI of course, and it worked initially even after enabling ramroot but just suddenly went into that, I just build another system but would like to troubleshoot the failing one

 

[luisma]

5 hours ago, hifi25nl said:

If you have the same output as above

Disk /dev/sdb: 57.3 GiB, 61530439680 bytes, 120176640 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 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   Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sdb1     2048   1001471    999424  488M EFI System
/dev/sdb2  1001472 120174591 119173120 56.8G Linux filesystem

 

 

Same output but like I said there is no boot error or message, just no boot at all

[luisma]

Piero for prioritizing the enp1s0 adapter before the file to be edited was rtirq.conf adding the adapter on the RTIRQ_NAME_LIST, is this still the case?

or should the rtnet.conf file be used adding INTERFACE="enp1s0"

 

RTIRQ_NON_THREADED has "rtc snd" this basically instructs these processes to use all cores but not threads or does it limit the rtc and snd apps to be single core?

[hifi25nl]

1 hour ago, luisma said:

I'll send you the fdisk output from the other system, there is no boot at all, just that the device is not bootable, I am using UEFI of course, and it worked initially even after enabling ramroot but just suddenly went into that, I just build another system but would like to troubleshoot the failing one

 

I would check first http://www.audio-linux.com/html/boot.html

 

Note that the last ramroot version is 2.0.1-2

It should be updated by updating menu, exit from menu, restart it but you can update with

yay -Sy ramroot --noconfirm

The last menu will also set initramfs compression to gzip. See

IMPORTANT: since the new mkinitcpio package will use a new compression format, installations with linux-rt-lts kernel will not boot  if you make a system update.
If you are using instead the last linux-rt or linux-rt-bfq-dev kernels the system should boot normally.

Please be sure that in the file /etc/mkinitcpio.conf you have

COMPRESSION="gzip"

not

#COMPRESSION="gzip"

 

 

30 minutes ago, luisma said:

Piero for prioritizing the enp1s0 adapter before the file to be edited was rtirq.conf adding the adapter on the RTIRQ_NAME_LIST, is this still the case?

or should the rtnet.conf file be used adding INTERFACE="enp1s0"

 

RTIRQ_NON_THREADED has "rtc snd" this basically instructs these processes to use all cores but not threads or does it limit the rtc and snd apps to be single core?

Now there is the option 1 "REALTIME MANUAL ASSIGNMENT configuration" in Expert menu where you can set priority without manually edit the files that are

/etc/rtirq.conf

/etc/rtnet.conf

/etc/rtapp/rtapp.conf

 

Note that RTIRQ_NON_THREADED should have the same values as RTIRQ_NAME_LIST and that rtc should be removed (suggestion by rtirq developer - rtapp will not work correctly with rtc included) and snd should be removed also if you are using a USB DAC;

 

A little guide:

 

The logic of prioritization lies in this rule:
Priority must increase from upstream to downstream

Let's take for example a computer with the DAC connected directly. The audio stream goes this way:
audio application (rtapp) -> output (USB or other, rtirq)
In an APPLICATION / OUTPUT / NETWORK scheme, i.e. RTAPP / RTIRQ / RTNET, some possible values are these:
90/95 / -
85/90 / -
80/85 / -
Where it is noted that rtnet, ie the network priority is not defined. It would be absurd in this case to give Internet traffic a high priority.
I note that the operating system will perform the operation with the highest priority first. This is an important constraint. If it fails to do so within a reasonable time, the system will begin to produce errors or go into total lockdown.
Because of this it is not necessarily true that higher values are better. It depends on the processor power, motherboard latency etc.

Now let's take a system with the server sending the signal over Ethernet to a second computer to which the DAC is connected. On the first computer configured as a Bridge, an Ethernet output is connected to the router, while the second is connected directly to the Ethernet socket of the second computer. The second computer is obviously NOT configured in Bridge mode.
In this case it would not make sense to prioritize the USB output on the server, so on the server the configuration could be:
SERVER CONFIGURATION
90 / - / 95
85 / - / 90
80 / - / 85
-> These values are somewhat arbitrary. If you are having problems, it is recommended that you disable rtnet.
On the second computer (endpoint) instead:
ENDPOINT CONFIGURATION
90/95/85
85/90/80
80/85/75
As you can see the network has the lowest value since the stream is now ETHERNET -> APPLICATION -> IRQ / DAC
-> These values are somewhat arbitrary. If you are having problems, it is recommended that you disable rtnet.

If, on the other hand, both computers are connected to the router, you must disable rtnet, since in this case the Internet traffic would also pass through the endpoint. This is precisely the reason for using the Bridge on the first computer, which serves to prevent internet traffic from traveling on the same cable used by the signal.
 

[luisma]

8 minutes ago, hifi25nl said:

I would check first http://www.audio-linux.com/html/boot.html

Piero I was able to boot initially, update menu, update kernel, update system, then customize a few things like realtime processes and such, then ramroot, after ramroot I was able to boot, did a clean up, saved the system and then I wasn't able to boot anymore, I think you are assuming I cannot boot the image, of course I could, it is just after that for no apparent reason the system stopped booting

 

12 minutes ago, hifi25nl said:

Now there is the option 1 "REALTIME MANUAL ASSIGNMENT configuration" in Expert menu where you can set priority without manually edit the files that are

/etc/rtirq.conf

/etc/rtnet.conf

/etc/rtapp/rtapp.conf

Thank you for the detailed explanation, now I get it ...

 

[hifi25nl]

You should check the content of mkinitcpio.conf as suggested in the post and be sure that you have the right value before updating system kernel or enabling ramroot.

This problem is not a bug but a decision from archlinux to change default compression to zst. 

...But linux-rt-lts 5.4.x cannot support this.

No problem with kernel 5.10 5.11

 

 

 

 

[luisma]

27 minutes ago, hifi25nl said:

You should check the content of mkinitcpio.conf as suggested

1. Update Menu

2. Update to later RT 5.11 kernel

3. Update system

4. I have COMPRESSION="gzip"

 

That was not the issue something else was, if you are interested I still have the USB flash and it is accessible, but I'm already running another install so I'm fine

[pranabindu]

Is it possible to span multiple HDDs into one volume in audiolinux?

 

Luxury question: If it IS possible to span, is it possible to do it in a way where failure of one of the drives will not kill the entire volume?

 

I'm asking, because I want to install audiolinux onto a desktop and use the spanned volume as one part of a redundant backup solution for my music.  Thanks much!

[hifi25nl]

You can read this:

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

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LVM#Snapshots

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

 

Personally for backup I am using rsync to a separate drive.

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

General Backup wiki:

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

 

[mourip]

Hi,

 

Has anyone here successfully connected Audiolinux with a Denefrips Terminator using a USB connection?

 

If so, what version of AL were you using and did it require any manual configuration?

 

Thanks!

[Armsan]

Hello mourip,

Can you be more specific, please? Do you want to connect mpd or HQPlayer, for instance, by USB to your DAC? Audiolinux is an OS, not a player/transport.

[elan120]

1 hour ago, mourip said:

Hi,

 

Has anyone here successfully connected Audiolinux with a Denefrips Terminator using a USB connection?

 

If so, what version of AL were you using and did it require any manual configuration?

 

Thanks!

I run this setup for sometimes already, and there is no special manual configuration.  I am still in 29x menu, will update to the 30x soon, but don't think it will make any difference in terms of how AL work with Terminator.

 

[hifi25nl]

You should go to console and type

aplay -l

and see if DAC is recognized.

 

Please be aware that the DAC must be on before starting Audiolinux.

[mourip]

On 8/2/2021 at 9:23 AM, Armsan said:

Hello mourip,

Can you be more specific, please? Do you want to connect mpd or HQPlayer, for instance, by USB to your DAC? Audiolinux is an OS, not a player/transport.

 

Audiolinux to T2 using USB. I have been running AL in ramroot on a NUC for several years as my Roon endpoint. You can click on my sig file link to see how I am configured.

 

Currently I am feeding the T2 via AES/EBU from a Mutec USB but I wanted to see if AL would recognize the T2 using USB directly. If so I am thinking of getting a Denefrips Hermes so that I can feed it I2S.

 

Do you have a Terminator DAC?

[mourip]

On 8/2/2021 at 10:21 AM, hifi25nl said:

You should go to console and type

aplay -l

and see if DAC is recognized.

 

Please be aware that the DAC must be on before starting Audiolinux.

Thanks Piero. That was a big help.

[mourip]

On 8/2/2021 at 10:21 AM, hifi25nl said:

You should go to console and type

aplay -l

and see if DAC is recognized.

 

Please be aware that the DAC must be on before starting Audiolinux.

 

Just an update. Audiolinux was able to automatically recognize my Denefrips Terminator 2. Later I inserted a Denefrips Hermes DDC ahead of the T2 and it was automatically recognized also. I believe that they both use the same USB hardware and config.

 

You can add these to your list :-)

 

BTW. What is the command for returning the AL version?

[Boomboy]

Ok .. having a bit of trouble mounting my remote drive in mpd . Just updated to 3.1 AL .. all good . Mpd now working . But can't mount the remote drive . I can mount local drive ok and that works .. bit failing with remote .. what have I done wrong.  Do I need to put in address in mpd config file ?

Also I just put folder name and ip address when mounting.  These rest I press enter