Snakeoil Gear Isolation Beta Series

[agent_kith]

Thank you Agent Kith for big leap forward with 1.2 Alpha3.  I am happy enough to continue running 20.04/1.2 Alpha3.

Have done most of my listening with Mpd, but have tested LMS with Tidal, upmpdcli as client and MinimServer.  LMS low volume resolved in web player (should have looked for it!). There are some things to be resolved. 

Unsure if I can fix that default volume in LMS, but it's certainly something I'll try and look into next.

16.04/1.1.11 to 1.2 Alpha3

• TOP shows load nearly double of 1.1.11, any reason why?  My NUC has plenty in reserve, but for other people with low powered units, this may be a problem.

Give it a few minutes (or hours).. It might be trying to collate the music database (which is rather I/O intensive).. All should be good once that completes.

Text on monitor attached to NUC still saying 1.1.11 (Blind testing).  Showing 1.2.0.3 on Dashboard.

Whoops. I forgot about that.. Will see if I can fix that in the beta.

Error message in script, not finding temp folder to delete. Did not recall seeing text to reboot, but required reboot to work

I should be able to fix that in the next release

Install 20.04 & 1.2 Alpha3

• Not an issue in itself, but installing 20.04 takes some time, especially with the security updates, compared with very trim SnakeOil 16.04

This is actually an issue. Because it will be running some additional systems services which I don't really want. This will be fixed in the WebApp in the future (probably 1.2.1) as a system tweak (aka in Snakeoil menu)

No issues with script, no errors, message to reboot

Hurray!

Have to use ip address to access system, not hostname

Forgot to install avahi (Bonjour). Will fix this.

Text on monitor attached to NUC not saying anything about SnakeOil

This is related to the same problem in 16.02 showing the old version of Snakeoil. Fixing that underlying problem should fix both issues.

Have separate USB card.  Needed to manually remove hw:0,0 and add hw:1,0 to get ALSA to work

That is likely going to be the new behaviour for now. It seems even when disabling onboard audio, secondary audio cards always start as device 1.... But for some reason after a few weeks it will revert back to 0... I'm not exactly sure what happens here, but might re-tweak the whole audio setup in the future in the hope I can get rid of this.

LMS goes through setup procedure including login to mysqueezebox, lots of plugins enabled

That can't be avoided I think. But I will try and see what I can do. Perhaps copy a 'pre-set' database after LMS is installed.

Mympd not working

Can you SSH into the machine, and sudo to root. As root, run '/usr/local/bin/mympd' and tell me what it says?

For some reasons I have problems getting this to work across 14.04, 16.04 and 20.04.

TOP shows significant drop, between 30% to 80% less than 16.04/1.1.11; maybe due to optimised compile and Mympd not running?

The newer kernel 5.x is a lot better. But then it also may be due to the database scan (or playback). In general CPU load is fine as long as you don't get dropped audio.

CPUSet not installed on restore

Whoops! Forgot about that!! I suck.. I will fix this in the next installer.

Sound Quality (SQ)
One of my concerns with moving on from 16.04/1.1.11 was SQ.  It had a RT kernel, many years of optimising and setting process priority was not needed.  With 20.04, a generic kernel was being used.  My concerns were unfounded; still not using process priority.  My initial impression was, maybe a slight SQ improvement, but as everyone knows, music memory is not reliable.  I did find MPD 0.22.3 better than 0.21.25, maybe due to the compile optimisation.  Need to listen longer to draw a more definitive answer on SQ, but can say SQ is at least as good.

20.04 should be a positive step forward. 18.04 is a step (or ten) back, hence I was never really motivated to get Snakeoil to work on 18.04.. And because of that, the whole project is stuck. This move to an installer, while extremely painful, should be better for the future of the Snakeoil platform.

In Windows I think there is a program (which you have to pay heaps of money for) to run and it will optimise the PC for audiophiles. The snakeoil installer will also be doing something similar in the future (and also in the WebApp, a button that says optimise!)

[Snoopy8]

16.04/1.1.11 to 1.2 Alpha3

• TOP shows load nearly double of 1.1.11, any reason why?  My NUC has plenty in reserve, but for other people with low powered units, this may be a problem.
  

Give it a few minutes (or hours).. It might be trying to collate the music database (which is rather I/O intensive).. All should be good once that completes.

I am on 20.04! Maybe someone else should upgrade their 16.04/1.1.11 system and test this out?
 

Install 20.04 & 1.2 Alpha3

• Not an issue in itself, but installing 20.04 takes some time, especially with the security updates, compared with very trim SnakeOil 16.04
  

This is actually an issue. Because it will be running some additional systems services which I don't really want. This will be fixed in the WebApp in the future (probably 1.2.1) as a system tweak (aka in Snakeoil menu)

When I said not an issue, I meant it was working without errors. Can live with it, because it does away with your huge issue to getting various installs working.
 

• Have separate USB card.  Needed to manually remove hw:0,0 and add hw:1,0 to get ALSA to work
  

That is likely going to be the new behaviour for now. It seems even when disabling onboard audio, secondary audio cards always start as device 1.... But for some reason after a few weeks it will revert back to 0... I'm not exactly sure what happens here, but might re-tweak the whole audio setup in the future in the hope I can get rid of this.

Can live with this.
 

• Mympd not working
  

Can you SSH into the machine, and sudo to root. As root, run '/usr/local/bin/mympd' and tell me what it says?

For some reasons I have problems getting this to work across 14.04, 16.04 and 20.04.

04:27:38 INFO mympd Starting myMPD 6.11.0
04:27:38 INFO mympd Libmympdclient 1.0.5 based on libmpdclient 2.20.0
04:27:38 INFO mympd Mongoose 6.18
04:27:38 INFO mympd Parsing config file: /etc/mympd.conf
04:27:38 INFO mympd Stickers are disabled, disabling sticker cache
04:27:38 INFO mympd Setting loglevel to ERROR
04:27:48 ERROR mpdworker MPD error: sticker database is disabled (9)
04:27:48 ERROR mpdworker Update of smart playlist myMPDsmart-bestRated failed .
04:27:48 ERROR mpdworker MPD error: sticker database is disabled (9)
04:27:48 ERROR mpdworker Update of smart playlist myMPDsmart-mostPlayed failed
 

• CPUSet not installed on restore
  

Whoops! Forgot about that!! I suck.. I will fix this in the next installer.

Also: No tasks are running in (user), please file a bug report and state the music players you are using.

[agent_kith]

Hmm. Looks like I'm gonna spend more time checking out mympd. Will update u when I have something (Prob going to roll back a few versions).

Not going to do much Snakeoil stuff today... Gonna conserve my energy, and then just gonna go out and do something, anything at 6pm.. With a mask on of course.

Gotta laugh at the poor bugger who managed to get himself arrested. He will be in jail UNTIL Feb 18... We can all get to remove our masks on Feb 14. ROFL.... *touch wood* so I don't jinx things.

[Snoopy8]

After an evening of listening, I believe that 20.04/1.2 Alpha 3 is 1 to 2 dB louder than 16.04/1.1.11.   That could account for the better SQ reported by Valery.   I have not measured, but needed to adjust a volume down a bit.  Soundstage could be slightly smaller, but could also be my imagination?

Mpd 0.22.3 is better than 0.21.25.  My favourite piano piece has more body and better piano note decay with 0.22.3.  

Replying to Agent Kith's comment in this thread
https://www.snakeoil-os.net/forums/Threa...77#pid4177

And what's more.. It's still very much untweaked.. Changing the kernels, disable some services, etc will add that little bit of extra refinements, that will be mind blowing on very very good systems.

Agree.  Currently running a generic kernel, not an RT Kernel. Not using process priority and not using CPUSet (not working).  So, potential SQ upsides...

[Valery]

In my case, 20.04/1.2 Alpha is better for the following reasons: 16.04/1.1.11 works on USB FLASH with RT-kernel and the kernel version with DSD patch, but with such parameters it is not installed on NVME disk, and does not work at the maximum processor frequency of 3.6 Ghz, but only at the minimum frequency of 1.9 Ghz. 20.04/1.2 Alpha is installed on NVME disk and works at 3.6 Ghz and sounds better than 16.04/1.1.11 even without a RT-kernel. For me, the conclusion is that the speed of data processing and transmission plays a huge role, and different versions of the software can make serious adjustments.

[Eso]

Not sure if it's pilot error but I'm unable to load 20.04 on jetway board. I'm assuming it doesn't have the horsepower needed as I can load it on a mac?

[agent_kith]

Not sure if it's pilot error but I'm unable to load 20.04 on jetway board. I'm assuming it doesn't have the horsepower needed as I can load it on a mac?

Yet to try this myself, but I'm hoping to test this next week. Where are you stuck at? Do you have have a monitor connected? If yes, take a picture?

Reset your BIOS to factory default and see if that works.

[Snoopy8]

Shut down not completing. Stuck at Stopped Thermal Daemon Service

[Eso]

I think its the limitation of the cpu. I think 20.04 needs SSE4.2 chip set instruction capability?

[agent_kith]

I think its the limitation of the cpu. I think 20.04 needs SSE4.2 chip set instruction capability?

Is there a link/reference for that? I can't seem to find this info?