BIOS help to get to ASDM7EC DSD256 with HQPe & i9-9900K?

[ted_b]

Barrows,

Go here.  These are the images (HQP OS)  Latest is 4.22.0 (like 4.22.0 x64.7z )

https://www.signalyst.eu/bins/hqplayerd/images/

[Miska]

23 minutes ago, barrows said:

Jussi, I took a few minutes at Signalyst's website and could not figure this out, or even find where this would (HQP OS) be available.  Please understand, I am mostly computer illiterate when it comes to loading OSs, etc.  I am also running headless, and am not sure how I would control this, or integrate with Roon, etc.  

 

https://www.signalyst.com/custom.html go to the bottom and click "Download and installation instructions". See the section "Downloading and configuring bootable image". You need 7-Zip to decompress the archive and then you use something like Etcher to write the .img file to the boot media.

 

You can then use HQPlayer Client for example to figure out the IP address if you don't have console access. Or in good case it appears under name "hqplayer" on your network. Then you point browser to it and configure it - no different from sonicOrbiter OS.

 

From this point on it is no different from sonicOrbiter OS.

 

HQPlayer Embedded is headless, and HQPlayer OS is too.

 

You point Roon Core to the HQPlayer as usual. Unfortunately Roon doesn't support HQPlayer autodiscovery like HQPlayer Client or HQPDcontrol app do. (Roon's HQPlayer support has been left dangling on early v3 state)

 

[Account Closed]

1 hour ago, barrows said:

In Andrew's defense I must point out that this build was a special, custom project for me, done as a favor, and should not reflect on the products which offers to his normal customers, which are all optimized for the hardware he provides, and which work perfectly as advertised.  He does not normally use the i9-9900K processors.

Barrows,

 

I am not saying his other stuff isn't good because it is good (I own several SO pieces myself). What I am saying, and keep in mind that this is a public forum, is that I and probably a lot of others following this thread will conclude that on this project he let you down. At the minimum he should have updated your BIOS, configured your BIOS for a high demand app (which HQP at 7EC/256 is) and then checked and configured the HQP Embedded multi-core configuration file for the i9 9900K and then lastly tested it and made any further necessary changes. It is apparent that he assembled the pieces, loaded his stock firmware and sent it out.

 

It has been painful to see you go through this ordeal after spending a lot of time and money knowing that it could have and should have been avoided. It should have worked for you out of the box.

 

At least you know it can work and you have some options.

 

Again, good luck and we all hope you get it working soon. 7EC/256 is amazing and with your setup you should be able to get almost all the filters to work.

 

Bob

 

 

[Miska]

For troubleshooting, first thing to do is to reduce number of variables in the picture. That's why I'm proposing to try one easily bootable entire software bundle that doesn't require touching current OS or software installation, which is also something I have. Second thing is to simplify the path, by connecting DAC directly to the HQPlayer machine without a NAA - since this removes both network and one extra device.

 

Once the most simplified standard setup is working, one can start adding back the other things one by one and see at which point things begin to fail.

 

[asdf1000]

45 minutes ago, bobflood said:

At the minimum he should have updated your BIOS, configured your BIOS for a high demand app (which HQP at 7EC/256 is)

 

Just a note that all I did is update my el cheapo ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 4 BIOS to the latest but left everything in factory settings...

 

i9-9900K plus big Noctua NH-U14S has been quietly doing 7EC/DSD256 without a sweat for approaching a couple years now.

 

No need for me to fiddle with anything else in BIOS.

 

[barrows]

14 minutes ago, Miska said:

For troubleshooting, first thing to do is to reduce number of variables in the picture. That's why I'm proposing to try one easily bootable entire software bundle that doesn't require touching current OS or software installation, which is also something I have. Second thing is to simplify the path, by connecting DAC directly to the HQPlayer machine without a NAA - since this removes both network and one extra device.

 

Once the most simplified standard setup is working, one can start adding back the other things one by one and see at which point things begin to fail.

 

I fully understand and agree with the methodology you propose, excepting that the network does not need to be eliminated as a possible problem: I can easily send DSD 512 over the Network without issues, and I am sure it makes no difference to the Network which modulator I am running.  Of course with ASDM7EC I am only attempting to achieve DSD 256 anyway, so the Network capability is not at issue.

My only reticence here is that I have a lot of difficulty trying to run another OS, set up hassles, etc, due to my lack of knowledge of such-I get that for many here this easy easy stuff, but not so for me.  For example, even if I get the image loaded to a USB stick, I am in doubt as to how to get the server to boot from it, and boot up Roon which is on the M2 drive (the normal boot drive where HQPe, Roon, and SO reside).  What I really would like to know is how to set the multicore setting in HQPe from the default (you mentioned it is typically "auto") to setting 1 in my HQPe residing on the M2 drive.  Although I will attempt to trouble shoot with booting form the USB stick OS.

And of course, to all, thank you for your help.  

[barrows]

1 minute ago, barrows said:

double post... oops!

 

[barrows]

1 hour ago, bobflood said:

Barrows,

 

I am not saying his other stuff isn't good because it is good (I own several SO pieces myself). What I am saying, and keep in mind that this is a public forum, is that I and probably a lot of others following this thread will conclude that on this project he let you down. At the minimum he should have updated your BIOS, configured your BIOS for a high demand app (which HQP at 7EC/256 is) and then checked and configured the HQP Embedded multi-core configuration file for the i9 9900K and then lastly tested it and made any further necessary changes. It is apparent that he assembled the pieces, loaded his stock firmware and sent it out.

 

It has been painful to see you go through this ordeal after spending a lot of time and money knowing that it could have and should have been avoided. It should have worked for you out of the box.

 

At least you know it can work and you have some options.

 

Again, good luck and we all hope you get it working soon. 7EC/256 is amazing and with your setup you should be able to get almost all the filters to work.

 

Bob

 

 

While I would have appreciated it if Andrew had gone to the above efforts, he was reluctant to take on this project in the first place, and he reluctantly did so as a personal favor to me (we work together), at a very reduced price as well.  Considering these things, I would hate to see his reputation hurt as result of my travails.  I do not blame him at all considering these things.  For example, if I had approached someone else for this, I would have actually paid twice as much, so I really cannot fault Andrew here, he helped me out with a project which we both thought would be a bit simpler that it turned out be.

[barrows]

OK, I have a USB stick and used Balena to etch the bootable image.  Is getting the server to boot from this as simple as putting at the top of the drive list in the boot order in BIOS?

[firedog]

Not sure how relevant this is, as I'm using HQP Desktop on a Windows 10 PC with a  i7-10700K; but it has very similar performance to your i9-9900K.

 

It does DSD256 poly-sinc - ext2 ASDM7EC with no issue-even also running DRC convolution and other DSP equalization at the same time.

Total processor load is about 12%.

 

There is one scenario that does cause stuttering, and it is if I activate-check the HQP setting for "multicore DSP". Sounds counterintuitive, but that's what happens. Jussi wrote me that thatparticular setting is mainly for the non-Intel processors, and should be off for Intel (I hope I got that right).

 

Is there some similar setting active in your setup?

[asdf1000]

On 2/14/2021 at 4:02 AM, barrows said:

I know everyone will suggest trying another OS, but I do not have a lot of time for this right now, and would need to do a lot of figuring out to understand how to run another OS.

 

Booting HQP OS to a USB and booting from that USB stick takes literally less time than anything you've tried so far...

 

As mentioned last week, it eliminates several variables in one shot.

 

Just google how to boot from USB for your particular motherboard model.

[Miska]

4 hours ago, barrows said:

OK, I have a USB stick and used Balena to etch the bootable image.  Is getting the server to boot from this as simple as putting at the top of the drive list in the boot order in BIOS?

 

Yes it is, in addition most BIOS have a boot menu to select a temporary boot device. There's usually similar hot key to enter the boot menu as there is for the BIOS settings.

 

[Miska]

1 hour ago, firedog said:

There is one scenario that does cause stuttering, and it is if I activate-check the HQP setting for "multicore DSP". Sounds counterintuitive, but that's what happens. Jussi wrote me that thatparticular setting is mainly for the non-Intel processors, and should be off for Intel (I hope I got that right).

 

The check box has three states that are also shown when you hover mouse over it.

• Unchecked - all parallelizations disabled
• Checked - all parallelizations enabled
• Grayed - automatically detect which parallelizations to use

In most cases it should be set to grayed to let HQPlayer auto-configure itself.

 

1 hour ago, firedog said:

Is there some similar setting active in your setup?

 

There is, and it defaults to auto-configuration. But it is not visible in the user interface, because it is supposed to be set by the hardware manufacturer based on their knowledge and testing of the hardware. Since HQPlayer Embedded is primarily for a "device firmware" kind of use.

 

[barrows]

7 hours ago, firedog said:

Not sure how relevant this is, as I'm using HQP Desktop on a Windows 10 PC with a  i7-10700K; but it has very similar performance to your i9-9900K.

 

It does DSD256 poly-sinc - ext2 ASDM7EC with no issue-even also running DRC convolution and other DSP equalization at the same time.

Total processor load is about 12%.

 

There is one scenario that does cause stuttering, and it is if I activate-check the HQP setting for "multicore DSP". Sounds counterintuitive, but that's what happens. Jussi wrote me that thatparticular setting is mainly for the non-Intel processors, and should be off for Intel (I hope I got that right).

 

Is there some similar setting active in your setup?

Thanks for the tip, but HQPe has no such setting in the Configuration page.

[barrows]

5 hours ago, Miska said:

 

The check box has three states that are also shown when you hover mouse over it.

• Unchecked - all parallelizations disabled
• Checked - all parallelizations enabled
• Grayed - automatically detect which parallelizations to use

In most cases it should be set to grayed to let HQPlayer auto-configure itself.

 

 

There is, and it defaults to auto-configuration. But it is not visible in the user interface, because it is supposed to be set by the hardware manufacturer based on their knowledge and testing of the hardware. Since HQPlayer Embedded is primarily for a "device firmware" kind of use.

 

As the default is "auto" and Andrew says he does not change any defaults on setting up HQPe, I would assume it is at "auto" in my server.

[Miska]

2 minutes ago, barrows said:

As the default is "auto" and Andrew says he does not change any defaults on setting up HQPe, I would assume it is at "auto" in my server.

 

Likely it is...

 

[Account Closed]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

 

Likely it is...

 

Jussi, Any way that you could remote in to @barrows and fix this? I am wondering if the problem might also be the distro or kernel that SGC has used to build SO. The reason I wonder is that over time some others here have reported problems trying to do 7EC/256 on the i9 machine that SGC sells commercially. Usually those reports were when trying to run Roon concurrently but maybe it is related to this problem. It could also be that the i9 SGC uses on those machines is not a high enough spec but SGC is opaque on which i9 variant they use. This might be a problem worth looking into as something is not right here. The way he has the BIOS currently set that machine should not be having any problem at all and he should be able to also do most all filters at 7EC/256.

 

Anyway, just a thought for you to consider.

[barrows]

OK, probably need a little help here.  I have the USB drive with HQP OS on it as boot sequence 1.  This notes that it is UEFI, partition 1.  Is that correct?

 

Also, I see my copy of Fedora which is on the M2 drive-this is the normal boot drive 1 for SO OS, what do I do with this in the boot sequence?  Or will the server just ignore it after booting to the USB stick HQP OS.  I do not want to brick anything here...

[ted_b]

You won't brick anything.  Me, personally, I don't change boot order/priority in bios, I simply go to its submenu called boot menu (or whatever it is called) and click on the USB drive...it will boot to that drive as soon as you click it.

[barrows]

6 minutes ago, bobflood said:

Jussi, Any way that you could remote in to @barrows and fix this? I am wondering if the problem might also be the distro or kernel that SGC has used to build SO. The reason I wonder is that over time some others here have reported problems trying to do 7EC/256 on the i9 machine that SGC sells commercially. Usually those reports were when trying to run Roon concurrently but maybe it is related to this problem. It could also be that the i9 SGC uses on those machines is not a high enough spec but SGC is opaque on which i9 variant they use. This might be a problem worth looking into as something is not right here. The way he has the BIOS currently set that machine should not be having any problem at all and he should be able to also do most all filters at 7EC/256.

 

Anyway, just a thought for you to consider.

SGC commercial builds are i9-9900 only, not "K", so I do not think users should expect to be able to achieve ADSM7EC-DSD 256 with them.  They will do ADSM7 to did 256 and 512 with no issues with poly-sinc ext2.  These are smaller boxes with passive cooling only.

[barrows]

8 minutes ago, ted_b said:

You won't brick anything.  Me, personally, I don't change boot order/priority in bios, I simply go to its submenu called boot menu (or whatever it is called) and click on the USB drive...it will boot to that drive as soon as you click it.

Thank you Ted.  I am already in the BIOS for boot sequence, so no issues there, it seems easy enough to change it here.  I was just worried how the machine might treat my Fedora partition on the M2 drive.  So as long as the UEFI USB stick is boot sequence 1 it will be boot to that OS and be OK then, for sure? Boot drive sequence now reads:

1.  UEFI USB partitio 1

2. Fedora Intel SSD

3. P2, which is my storage HDD SATA

4. Intel SSD (M2 drive)

5. USB DISK pMAP 2.0

 

OK, to boot up like this?

 

 

[barrows]

OK, it boots into HQPe now, but Roon Core has vanished.  So I am bricked here.

[Account Closed]

1 minute ago, barrows said:

OK, it boots into HQPe now, but Roon Core has vanished.  So I am bricked here.

Can you run Roon on another machine for the test?

[barrows]

Just now, bobflood said:

Can you run Roon on another machine for the test?

No, and that would take hours and hours to configure, scan a new library, etc.  

[Account Closed]

9 minutes ago, barrows said:

No, and that would take hours and hours to configure, scan a new library, etc.  

Roon core went away because it was part of SO OS. When you booted to HQP OS/HQPe the only thing that can run on HQP OS is HQPe. You will need to run Roon on another machine and tell Roon on that machine where to find HQPe by entering the ip address of the HQPe  machine in the add HQP dialog of Roon. You can get the ip from your router. Don't worry about your library right now, just use Tidal or Qobuz for the test.

 

BTW, I can run Roon and HQP Desktop concurrently and get ASDM7EC/256/Closed Form Fast filter using Win 10/64 on a passively cooled machine with a i5 8400 and ASUS Z370I. It did take some careful BIOS adjustment and Windows tweaking to get it to work but the CPU load is about 50% and the core temps stay below 80 C.