Snakeoil 1.4.3 (High End U3)

[miksi]

I followed the instructions for RT kernel and I got:

uname -a
Linux SnakeOil-RPi4 6.8.0-2019-raspi-realtime #20-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_RT Thu Feb 27 14:16:18 UTC 2025 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux

pro status | grep realtime
WARNING: this output is intended to be human readable, and subject to change.
In scripts, prefer using machine readable data from the `pro api` command,
or use `pro status --format json`.

realtime-kernel* yes                enabled               Ubuntu kernel with PREEMPT_RT patches integrated

But is not reflected in SnakeOil OS:
   

[hkphantomgtr]

I followed the instructions for RT kernel and I got:

uname -a
Linux SnakeOil-RPi4 6.8.0-2019-raspi-realtime #20-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_RT Thu Feb 27 14:16:18 UTC 2025 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux

pro status | grep realtime
WARNING: this output is intended to be human readable, and subject to change.
In scripts, prefer using machine readable data from the `pro api` command,
or use `pro status --format json`.

realtime-kernel* yes                enabled               Ubuntu kernel with PREEMPT_RT patches integrated

But is not reflected in SnakeOil OS:

Rebooted yet?  And what's your SnakeOil version now?

[miksi]

Rebooted twice. Version is 1.4.3, on experimental...

[emptor]

@hkphantomgtr , I misunderstood you then when you said "Yet I found hpet and multi-cores still suit me the best."

What do you mean by multi core? 🙂

[hkphantomgtr]

Rebooted twice. Version is 1.4.3, on experimental...

I'm also 1.4.3..........

---

@hkphantomgtr , I misunderstood you then when you said "Yet I found hpet and multi-cores still suit me the best."

What do you mean by multi core? 🙂

ic.  Let me explain my IT layman thought.   

From the wiki for TSC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Stamp_Counter, 

The Time Stamp Counter was once a high-resolution, low-overhead way for a program to get CPU timing information. With the advent of multi-core/hyper-threaded CPUs, systems with multiple CPUs, and hibernating operating systems, the TSC cannot be relied upon to provide accurate results — unless great care is taken to correct the possible flaws: rate of tick and whether all cores (processors) have identical values in their time-keeping registers. There is no promise that the timestamp counters of multiple CPUs on a single motherboard will be synchronized. Therefore, a program can get reliable results only by limiting itself to run on one specific CPU. Even then, the CPU speed may change because of power-saving measures taken by the OS or BIOS, or the system may be hibernated and later resumed, resetting the TSC. In those latter cases, to stay relevant, the program must re-calibrate the counter periodically.

therefore, I suspect, even I've already disabled all power saving setting and speed changing setting in BIOS, I still need to limit the CPU to use ONE core only to make the TSC works as supposed to be.  If so, then CPUset is not needed as all the system and user process are using the same single CPU core.

(FYI, HPET is designed to solve this multi-core clock problem, with much higher resolution and even more precise time-keeping registers.)

From my test, under such setting the sound is better than using TSC with multiple cores, to my ears.  And the sound stage and focus are quite different from using HPET.  So I have to move the speakers to accommodate the change in sound........

I've used this setting almost half year to tune and test.  Also using single core for HPET.  

Eventually I found my system only can make me contended with HPET.

[emptor]

Thanks @hkphantomgtr . I've used chatgpt to help further fine tune some other os settings in grub.

Which DAC are you using? Are you using USB to connect?

If you're open to trying some of the OS settings, let me know.

[hkphantomgtr]

Thanks @hkphantomgtr . I've used chatgpt to help further fine tune some other os settings in grub.

Which DAC are you using? Are you using USB to connect?

If you're open to trying some of the OS settings, let me know.

You're welcome, @emptor.  I don't know how to tweak the OS in grub.  I just set the cpuset, and the priority to some processes only.

For the DAC, I'm using the previous version of Rockna WaveDream DAC (the one without network function, purely a DAC).  My SO music server/player is a tweaked fanless NUC 10, and then USB to a Denafrips GAIA DDC to reclock the data, and then send to the DAC thru i2s.

[Snoopy8]

Finally got onto 1.4.3 on a Pi5, installed from scratch.  I was playing around with music players (for the Wiki updates), installing and uninstalling LMS in particular.  Previously, it was "bullet proof" in that when LMS was unistalled, even while it was running, the unistall process stopped the player and did a clean install.  The software status updated itself, with Squeezelite V2 showing OK. 

It appears that 1.4.3 may not be stopping LMS first because I noticed errors in the uninstall, causing Squeezelite to error.  Maybe I didn't need a reboot, but it cleared the Squeezelite error.

When I re-installed LMS, it appeared to use its old settings.  Not sure this was the case previously?

[agent_kith]

Finally got onto 1.4.3 on a Pi5, installed from scratch.  I was playing around with music players (for the Wiki updates), installing and uninstalling LMS in particular.  Previously, it was "bullet proof" in that when LMS was unistalled, even while it was running, the unistall process stopped the player and did a clean install.  The software status updated itself, with Squeezelite V2 showing OK. 

It appears that 1.4.3 may not be stopping LMS first because I noticed errors in the uninstall, causing Squeezelite to error.  Maybe I didn't need a reboot, but it cleared the Squeezelite error.

When I re-installed LMS, it appeared to use its old settings.  Not sure this was the case previously?

Those are probably warnings, not errors. e.g. you might say lines that say directories are not removed.

I'm using "apt remove" which just remove the program but keep the settings, in the old days it's "apt purge" which will also remove the settings. This is to just make things consistent, and also save time if you want to re-install LMS. Made this change because on slower machines (with only 2 cores), scanning the database will take at least half a day and the machine will be inoperable while it's scanning...

[Snoopy8]

 

Code:

sudo apt remove snakeoil
sudo apt update
sudo apt install snakeoil

Just upgraded both my NUCs, one running LMS, the other Squeezelite. Both were on 1.4.0

User error! Got confused by your instructions and did the above first! "sudo apt install snakeoil" gave an error message that package not found. Had to use the install command
wget -qLO - \
https://install.snakeoil-os.net | sudo sh
Everything appears OK.

Am suggesting that for the 1.4.4, please provide instructions for:

• If you are on 1.4, this is what do
  
• If you are on 1.3, this what you do
  
• If you are on Ubuntu 22.04 or lower, you need a fresh install ???