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Audiolinux Server configurations, Software, Hardware, and Listening Impressions


lmitche

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7 hours ago, hifi25nl said:

Thank you, to be honest I have no PCI cards, no extra devices at all, no updates on the BIOS were made, but something might have been detected by the system. I added a rule, this is a PC with no video card, on a different part of the house and fixing it takes some time, relocating parts etc. so I just tested it and works

 

In my case

 

echo "SUBSYSTEM==\"net\", ACTION==\"add\", ATTR{address}==\"8c:c6:81:f0:eb:0a\", NAME=\"wlp6s0\"" > /etc/udev/rules.d/10-network.rules

 

Does it

 

Thanks

 

 

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Could you please advise if 16Gb Optane Card is sufficient for the following?:

- Audiolinux headless,

- Roon Rock (currently 1.500 albums, which will increase to 2.000-2.500 in the following 1-2 years),

- HQPlayer (desktop or embedded, not sure which version).

 

I would use 16 GB RAM and probably run Audiolinux in RAM root mode.

 

Thank you for your advice. 

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21 hours ago, Csaba said:

Could you please advise if 16Gb Optane Card is sufficient for the following?:

- Audiolinux headless,

- Roon Rock (currently 1.500 albums, which will increase to 2.000-2.500 in the following 1-2 years),

- HQPlayer (desktop or embedded, not sure which version).

 

I would use 16 GB RAM and probably run Audiolinux in RAM root mode.

 

Thank you for your advice. 

My 2 cents on the Optane sizing question of 16gb or 32 gb, is that 32 gb is always used here.

 

You may be able to squeeze everything into 16gb, but it is close to the edge. For the $30 price differential for the 32gb version, it doesn't seem worth the risk of running out of space.

Pareto Audio aka nuckleheadaudio

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Last NEWS:

 

LAST DAY of SPECIAL OFFER for users with active suscription. 60$ for unlimited subscription instead of 30$ for extra year!

All subscribed users should have received new passwords. Old passwords will be removed tomorrow.

Now it's easy to remember the end of subscription. If your user  for example is alnov19, you should renew in December 2020.

 

23/11/2020 Menu 246 with a change in menu update script. Please update as soon as possible, since the new imminent password system will not work with previous one.

 

15/11/2020 Fix to MPD configuration script. Now you should give the full path of your music directory

 

13/11/2020 Menu 244 with new kernel update script. Now you can install Linux realtime kernel LTS (long time support). This kernel is recommended for Roon users, since there are some Roon bugs not resolved yet using 5.9.x 

AudioLinux --> https://www.audio-linux.com

developer of AudioLinux realtime OS

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hi folks,

 

i'm thinking of an end of year project for a car-based audio music server to run AL on a raspberry pi 4 w/ 8GB of ram.

i'd like to use usb out to a small high quality DAC (starting with usb to my current Fiio portable music player that currently provides music in my car)........maybe something like an iso-regen in between, good LPS to RPi and accessories.

 

based on my home system optimization, i'm planning on using audio-linux wtih LMS/squeezelite using a large buffer and running in ramroot and a large attached usb HDD............another alternative is hqplayer embedded + NAA.  control will be via squeezer app (or hqpd controller) via a wifi connection to the RPi.

 

has anyone attempted something like this yet?  i don't see anything on AS so links to elsewhere would also be appreciated.

 

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progress report:

i now have LMS and squeezelite running under A-L on a RPi-4 (w/8GB ram), output to a GeekOut DAC and music stored on a 8GB usb stick.  RPi powered by standard ac wall wart.

 

next steps: 

1.  add large 4-5GB usb HDD for music storage (can RPi power it?)

2.  replace wall wart with portable battery backup capable of 5v @ 3A

3.  listening and squeezelite buffer optimization (**)

5.  run A-L in ramroot (more listening)

6.  add iso-regen between RPi and DAC (more listening)

 

** i ran into a problem setting up.  when selecting DAC and setting buffer for squeezelite setup, there was about 5+GB shown as free, so i set up the buffers with 2G each.   then, even though both LMS and squeezelite were nominally working fine, LMS was unable to find the squeezelite client.  when i changed the buffers to 1G each, LMS could see the squeezelite and, voila, music happened. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, cat6man said:

progress report:

i now have LMS and squeezelite running under A-L on a RPi-4 (w/8GB ram), output to a GeekOut DAC and music stored on a 8GB usb stick.  RPi powered by standard ac wall wart.

 

next steps: 

1.  add large 4-5GB usb HDD for music storage (can RPi power it?)

2.  replace wall wart with portable battery backup capable of 5v @ 3A

3.  listening and squeezelite buffer optimization (**)

5.  run A-L in ramroot (more listening)

6.  add iso-regen between RPi and DAC (more listening)

 

** i ran into a problem setting up.  when selecting DAC and setting buffer for squeezelite setup, there was about 5+GB shown as free, so i set up the buffers with 2G each.   then, even though both LMS and squeezelite were nominally working fine, LMS was unable to find the squeezelite client.  when i changed the buffers to 1G each, LMS could see the squeezelite and, voila, music happened. 

 

 

Funny, I have had a NUC running in my car. The center console has a container with 12 volt and USB power along with analog RCA inputs into the factory head-end. With a IFI Black label DAC, SDcard storage, and Roon remote on the phone all is good. SQ is crazy good. Costs of second Roon license sucks.

Pareto Audio aka nuckleheadaudio

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1 hour ago, lmitche said:

Funny, I have had a NUC running in my car. The center console has a container with 12 volt and USB power along with analog RCA inputs into the factory head-end. With a IFI Black label DAC, SDcard storage, and Roon remote on the phone all is good. SQ is crazy good. Costs of second Roon license sucks.

 

interesting........i hadn't thought of running a nuc with 12v in the car........may have to play with that too! (and compare it to the RPi)

 

i've had a few versions over the years, including a first gen RPi, then an odroid based system, even a logitech touch based car music server, all with with GeekOut external dac.  i've also had a few of those self contained wifi/hdd music players from seagate.  i currently have a fiio m7, that is for use with air/train travel (not likely soon), as my current source to aux in of the car system.  i've also used the fiio m7 to stream from 4TB western digital passport wireless pro (hdd + wifi) but that is sometimes iffy for some reason.

 

i'd like to keep wifi out of this setup if possible.  i plan to give the RPi a fixed IP address, and use squeezer app on an old android phone (fixed iP) with a usb<==>ethernet adapter to connect the two directly.

 

by the way, i totally bypass my car's factory head-end and use the aux input on a mosconi controller.  the high level audio output of the head-end unit also feeds into the mosconi so i can use built in radio, apps, etc.  the mosconi is a great solution for getting great sound in the car without disabling or interfering with the head-end unit in the dash.

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On 12/8/2020 at 2:17 PM, lmitche said:

Funny, I have had a NUC running in my car. The center console has a container with 12 volt and USB power along with analog RCA inputs into the factory head-end. With a IFI Black label DAC, SDcard storage, and Roon remote on the phone all is good. SQ is crazy good. Costs of second Roon license sucks.

 

"have had a NUC running in my car", as in past tense?

SQ crazy good....................

if so, what did you replace it with?

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14 hours ago, cat6man said:

 

"have had a NUC running in my car", as in past tense?

SQ crazy good....................

if so, what did you replace it with?

I mostly listen to news and sometimes books in the car. A bluetooth DAC was simpler for this purpose.

 

Nevertheless, it was a fun experiment.

 

 

Pareto Audio aka nuckleheadaudio

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On 12/8/2020 at 12:57 PM, cat6man said:

progress report:

i now have LMS and squeezelite running under A-L on a RPi-4 (w/8GB ram), output to a GeekOut DAC and music stored on a 8GB usb stick.  RPi powered by standard ac wall wart.

 

next steps: 

1.  add large 4-5GB usb HDD for music storage (can RPi power it?)

2.  replace wall wart with portable battery backup capable of 5v @ 3A

3.  listening and squeezelite buffer optimization (**)

5.  run A-L in ramroot (more listening)

6.  add iso-regen between RPi and DAC (more listening)

 

** i ran into a problem setting up.  when selecting DAC and setting buffer for squeezelite setup, there was about 5+GB shown as free, so i set up the buffers with 2G each.   then, even though both LMS and squeezelite were nominally working fine, LMS was unable to find the squeezelite client.  when i changed the buffers to 1G each, LMS could see the squeezelite and, voila, music happened. 

 

 

 

update: 

1.  the addition of a usb3 500MB 2.5" HDD to the RPi was not successful as it clearly, together with the geekout dac, draws too much power.  therefore, a small powered usb3 hub was added and both dac and hdd are powered off of the hub.

2. once the hub was added, running the RPi off of a charger capable of 5v @ 3a works fine.  of course the hub requires the same, so i'll need a battery charger with dual usb3 charging output connections and capable of 6a total...tbd

3.  compared the geekout 2a dac (on RPi) to my FiiO x7II dac (on its own) with the same music tracks on the HDD and the SD card of the FiiO.  with ph15 headphones in balanced mode on both, the FiiO wins.  it makes no sense to take a step backwards from the SQ i already  have in the car, so.......

4.  what about the FiiO as usb DAC, fed by RPi?  with the same reduced buffer of 1G that worked with the geekout, i have the same problem of not being able to see squeezelite from the LMS.  when reduced to 0.5G, it worksedintermittently, with the player sometimes locking up after the first track.  in order to have reliable operation, i left the buffer command off completely (using whatever squeezelite does as default) and it works reliably, but i've lost the sonic advantages of buffering for now (hence no buffer optimization possible)

5.  ramroot is next on my list of tasks tbd.  first i'll make of a copy of the a-l SD card in case i screw something up later

6.  iso-regen:  have to find it, must be somewhere in the house :)

 

so, it looks like squeezelite and various dac have different buffering and data flow interactions.

once i squeeze(!) the best out of the RPi/DAC setup, perhaps i'll try my NUC based server to compare.

 

so far, audio-linux (other than hosting LMS and squeezelite for all cases) has had no horse in this part of the race............ramroot mode is next

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update:  i'm going to put this on hold and see about using a nuc wth audio-linux in the car, which should bring enough horsepower and ram to eliminate the bottlenecks i've been seeing with the RPi.  the RPi will be put aside and brought out for some other project next year.

 

so the new issue will be supplying 12v to both a nuc and a 6-8TB hdd.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Is there anyway to check if the latest drivers have been downloaded and are in use, for the USB Controller in my pci usb card that I connect my dac too ?

25:00.0 USB controller: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM2142 USB 3.1 Host Controller (prog-if 30 [XHCI])
        Subsystem: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM2142 USB 3.1 Host Controller
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 25, IOMMU group 14
        Memory at f7500000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd
        Kernel modules: xhci_pci

 

 

https://linux-hardware.org/index.php?id=pci:1b21-2142-1458-5007

 

2.6.0 - 2.6.39 drivers/usb/host/uhci-hcd.c CONFIG_USB CONFIG_USB_EHCI_HCD CONFIG_USB_OHCI_HCD CONFIG_USB_SL811HS CONFIG_USB_UHCI_HCD * 0c0300

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I recently have gone through some HW testing and finally when over, I am now concentrating on optimizing my AL installation. Am far from being super comfortable with Linux, but have been getting a bit better (and many thanks for the patience of Piero who answered all questions even when errors appeared due to silly mistakes made by me 🙂).

 

My AL server runs Roon core and is also an end point. It is running in Ramroot as this is, at least in my case, bringing a massive improvement in SQ. I know that some people here have been doing much more tweaking to the config, and would like to attempt some tweaks in expert mode if other users can share what worked best for them? 

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  • 2 weeks later...
18 minutes ago, Crom said:

I just wanted to thank Piero for some great support that I received, last week and over the weekend, whilst trying to update my systems recently (I've been too busy this past year). I bought unlimited upgrades to the various versions of audiolinux I use a while back and his availability to his customers is quite amazing - thank you!

 

Incidentally, if anyone hasn't upgraded to the latest version of headless AL then I can report it is well worth doing.

 

Best,

Crom

Totally agree 

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