Linux Music Servers

[BNAL]

I have been doing a lot of research on building a Linux music computer and to me it looks like the Alix computers are a very good solution for the price. It is an established product that appears to work well for this function.

I know that Tom and Jim have been using the Voyage MPD verson of Linuxn but wanted to know if anyone has tried MPDpup? If so what did you think? Looks like a very light Linux build.

[Jim R.]

Brad,

I have not tried this yet, but it is a possibility.  One of the nice things about all of this is that you can have as many different builds/configs as you want, each on it's own CF card, then swap CF cards to see which works best for you.

My mini-PCI to PCIE adaptor came today and fits great, but of course I don't have the SOTM card yet (and won't for a while, but this first step is done.

-- Jim

[Jim R.]

Brad,

So, I just took a quick skim of the mpdpup stuff and it looks interesting, but it appears to be  targetted at folks who don't want to learn linux internals and such as it provides wizzards, GUI tools and other things that are really of no use to me personally.  And the playback software remains MPD.  So, while I have no interest in this personally, it could be a great place for people not comfortable with linux and device/network configuration to get going with this stuff.

The GUI stuff is not accessible to me anyway, so I apologize but I will not be able to help others through this, as much as I would like to help.

In the mean time, I've been looking at some of the options in front of me, and I see some great places for the RPi and some places for the alix, and I now really want to build a NAS based system with the alix, SOTM usbx card SOTM battery supply, and separate linear regulated supplies for the alix card and the mini-pci to pcie card.  All this looks like it will support PCM and DSD with DoP 1.0 and thus could be a really great server for my Sonore usb/dsd dac.

I also just noticed that the Voyage folks have a new usb to I2S/spdif interface card, so there is yet another possiblity for the BH dac and others with no usb, or usb 1.1 only connectivity.

I also just got, as part of a trade, a 3 meter, brand new WireWorld Starlight 3.0 usb cable -- wow, what a nice thing this is -- heavy duty comes to ind here as it is close to 3/4" wide but in the same flat-ish cable config that the other WW usb cables are.  And it's backwards compatible.  So, why the usb 3.0 if I'm only running 2.0 capable devices?  Well, because it didn't cost me anything, and at least on paper, the conductors and shielding seem to be more robust, and I don't think that can really hurt anyting, and may even be an upgrade.  Should find out this weekend.

Again, I'd really encrourage those who are curious about this stuff to look at the MPDpup distro -- it may be just what lots of folks will want.  Lots of info, including the presence of the developer, on computeraudiophile.com

-- Jim

[BNAL]

Jim,

any progress with the ALIX and Voyage MPD? I have been looking at a couple of options everything from the ALIX and a fanless Shuttle. I have not been able to get any of the MPD Linux builds to work on the computers I currently have. Not sure if it is me or the hardware. I will keep trying, but with all the agrivation it makes me want to get a Mac Mini.

Brad

[Natural Sound]

Jim,

any progress with the ALIX and Voyage MPD? I have been looking at a couple of options everything from the ALIX and a fanless Shuttle. I have not been able to get any of the MPD Linux builds to work on the computers I currently have. Not sure if it is me or the hardware. I will keep trying, but with all the agrivation it makes me want to get a Mac Mini.

Brad

Brad, Can you give some more specifics on how you are configuring MPD? Are you using 2 computers or one? Which software are you using?

I found that most of the problems I had when configuring my system was with read write permissions on the hard drive. If the hard drive that contains your music files is formatted in FAT32 or NTFS, Linux cannot [easily] change permissions. When I used a Linux friendly format such as EXT3 most of my problems were solved.

[Jim R.]

Hi Brad,

Sorry, no progress yet.  Still considering different options from basic network attached usb server, to full, stand alone server with onboard music storage, SOTM usb card, etc.  First thing is to finish rgetting my music library consolidated and working with the mac minis.  Then I can have music while I ponder and play with the various boards, distros, etc.

-- Jim

[nyc_paramedic]

Tom,

Often these SBCs have mini PCI slots for adding ethernet and sometimes even firewire interfaces.  I use one of the Alix boxes configured with Monowall as the firewall in our community's shared network and it has been running for probably 4 years now without a hitch.

They do make nice, basic music servers, but also have their limitations.  They are generally limited in memory and processing power, which although fine for straight, native rate playback of music files, can not do things like EQ, SRC, etc. so you have to have a dac that can accept up to the same maximum sample rate of the highest resolution file you have -- though they will do 24/192 no problem...
-- Jim

jim,

mpd has supported raw pcm streaming from one mpd server to another for quite some time now. this will let you have one powerful machine (in the basement?) for SRC, EQ and file storage and stream PCM audio to the small ALIX in the listening room.

it's not something i've personally tested but the details are in mpd.conf. i don't need EQ and my ayre QB-9 handles 24/192.

p.s. i'm glad to hear you like the alix. i've been using it as a music server since 2007 when i got the idea after staring at my pc engines m0n0wall firewall and realizing it would make a perfect, dead quiet music player.

[Jim R.]

Hi Nick,

Thanks, and yes, it was you and your thread on audiocircle that got me and countless others on the road to using alix boards as music servers.  You even helped me out by flashing my original CF card.

Anyway, I should soon have at least 2 or maybe 3 of these going in my house, and certainly nowadays there are far more, and generally better quality 24/192 capable usb dacs to choose from, so that does make it a bit easier.

I'm also exploring using the beagle bone black board as a streamer, and maybe using the HDMI output of the music data stream.  At this point I have no idea how well it will work or how good it will sound, but these things are so cheap now, I figure it's an easy enough experiment to do.

An awful lot of us out here owe you a big thanks for your leadership on this project.

Thanks,

Jim

[Natural Sound]

i'm glad to hear you like the alix. i've been using it as a music server since 2007 when i got the idea after staring at my pc engines m0n0wall firewall and realizing it would make a perfect, dead quiet music player.

Nick,

As Jim mentioned you were the inspiration for many of us to go the ALIX/Voyage Linux MPD route. At first I was a little intimidated but I took things one step at a time and eventually got everything sorted. My NFS server has morphed a few times. I was very interested in keeping my power consumption as low as possible. So, the first computer was a MiniITX (Intel Atom) box running Debian Linux. That dropped my power consumption from over 100+ watts on the desktop to 20 watts on the MiniITX. Then I got the idea to try running the NFS server on a Raspberry Pi. At the time there werent very many OS options available so I installed Rasbian which is a Debian distribution for the Pi. The Raspberry Pi, a portable USB drive and a powered hub only pull about 5-6 watts. As time went on more operating systems were optimized for the Raspberry Pi. One that got my attention was Arch Linux. The Arch philosophy rang a bell with me. "Arch Linux defines simplicity as without unnecessary additions, modifications, or complications, and provides a lightweight UNIX-like base structure that allows an individual user to shape the system according to their own needs. In short: an elegant, minimalist approach." And the following Da Vinci quote sold me. "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

[John EH]

How's the USB stability on Arch with Raspberry Pi?  I had a heck of a time with Squeezeplug (which is Raspian) at first until I ran an experimental kernel which seems to have fixed the crashes.  My uptime is now weeks.

John

[Natural Sound]

How's the USB stability on Arch with Raspberry Pi?  I had a heck of a time with Squeezeplug (which is Raspian) at first until I ran an experimental kernel which seems to have fixed the crashes.  My uptime is now weeks.

John

Solid as a rock so far with Arch. Same with Rasbian. Keep in mind I don't use my USB DAC on the Raspberry Pi. My ALIX computer does that duty. Getting a USB DAC to run on the Raspberry Pi has been a nightmare for me. I've tried most of the tricks online and I'm still struggling. That project has been shelved for now.

[John EH]

How's the USB stability on Arch with Raspberry Pi?  I had a heck of a time with Squeezeplug (which is Raspian) at first until I ran an experimental kernel which seems to have fixed the crashes.  My uptime is now weeks.

John

Solid as a rock so far with Arch. Same with Rasbian. Keep in mind I don't use my USB DAC on the Raspberry Pi. My ALIX computer does that duty. Getting a USB DAC to run on the Raspberry Pi has been a nightmare for me. I've tried most of the tricks online and I'm still struggling. That project has been shelved for now.

I had the same problem but found an experimental kernel.  Since I installed it my system hasn't crashed once.  I also used a wireless dongle based on the RT2800 chip that I think was problematic.

Towards the bottom of my project page are the 3 commands for the git core kernel.  I've got RPi running rock solid now.  I also wrote a file to check the squeezelite process every 5 minutes and made a cron to restart it if it wasn't running.

http://www.hagensieker.com/styled-9/index.html

[Natural Sound]

Oddly enough the [rpi-update] worked by itself. I must have been using an older version of firmware on the SD card. I'm using a VA Labs DAC on the Pi running pianobar for Pandora in my shop. Raspberry Pi > VA Labs DAC > Bottlehead Quickie > Jerry's 15 Watt x 2 Class D Audio Amplifier > Vintage Warfdales. The clicks and pops are gone for now after the upgrade. If I have any other problems in the future I'll try running the experimental firmware. I think I've made a step in the right direction. Thanks.

BTW this PI is running AdaFruit's Raspberry Pi Educational Distro - Occidentalis v0.2. Its basically Rasbian "Weezy" with some extra goodies built in.
http://learn.adafruit.com/pi-wifi-radio

[caffeinator]

Hello all,

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but a question from a linux newbie here.  I'd like to set up a linux box for a music server as well as to store other files (pictures, backup from home office computer), and wondered if there's a linux distribution that might be good for that sort of duty?

thanks,

david

[2wo]

Vortexbox is free. Vortexbox.org...John