Snakeoil Gear Isolation Beta Series

[agent_kith]

0.22.3 was installed by Alpha3 in 20.04, but not in 16.04.

Interesting. I'll run that through my test rigs and see how it goes. I'm pretty sure I have 0.22.3 in my 16.04 setup, but then again it could already be because I have pre-installed it first. Will need to do this on a fresh setup and re-confirm.

It is a nice to have, so do not go out of the way to make it happen.

Still a good feature though.

Agree, 16.04 sounds really good. I can confirm that 20.04's sound stage is not as good in Alpha3. Trying HQPlayer (horrible interface!) was one of my motivations to push 1.2 along.

20.04 can be tweaked further, will just need to expose this more in the upcoming releases.

I think that 20.04 will sound when it receives the kernel-rt and DSD patch.

Yup.

If it is not difficult, tell me how to get the processor to work at the maximum frequency always in 16.04?
I found about 10 ways on the Internet and tried to do it. It doesn't work.

Best way to do this is to go into the BIOS and disable CPU FreqStep. Once this is disabled the CPU will always run at full speed. You can also try to over/under-clock and find a good match, or even find a Frequency that's divisible by either 48000 or 44100 (or both) and see if that helps.

Also, while trying to troubleshoot Jetway and 20.04 LTS, I had inadvertently used up my monthly Internet quota. Speed is at a crawl at this stage (1Mbps/1Mbps) so there's probably very little I can do to troubleshoot this until I get full speed back (5 days from now)... The things that can hold me back .

[Snoopy8]

0.22.3 was installed by Alpha3 in 20.04, but not in 16.04.

Interesting. I'll run that through my test rigs and see how it goes. I'm pretty sure I have 0.22.3 in my 16.04 setup, but then again it could already be because I have pre-installed it first. Will need to do this on a fresh setup and re-confirm.

I cannot get 0.22.3 onto my main music setup, but can get it on a VirtualBox instance. No idea why. Thought maybe it was because I was using Mpd, tried not using it, uninstalling it etc..  Have also re-installed 16.04/1.1.11 several times with same result,  Any chance of making Mpd 0.22.3 available as a separate upload?  Keen to compare 22 vs 21 and see whether I can reproduce the same result as 20.04.

p/s am using this download meantime
https://www.snakeoil-os.net/forums/Threa...57#pid4157
 

Agree, 16.04 sounds really good. I can confirm that 20.04's sound stage is not as good in Alpha3. Trying HQPlayer (horrible interface!) was one of my motivations to push 1.2 along.

20.04 can be tweaked further, will just need to expose this more in the upcoming releases.

Also, while trying to troubleshoot Jetway and 20.04 LTS, I had inadvertently used up my monthly Internet quota. Speed is at a crawl at this stage (1Mbps/1Mbps) so there's probably very little I can do to troubleshoot this until I get full speed back (5 days from now)... The things that can hold me back .

Yes, it will good to get a few tweaks with 20.04 to improve its SQ.  "Talk" to you next week.

[Snoopy8]

Do not know whether this is a problem or not. 

After a fair bit of going around in circles, managed to get 16.04/1.1.11 (&1.2 Alpha3) running on VirtualBox and playing music via USB.  However, with 20.04/1.2 Alpha3, have problem with network.  I do not think I had the problem with 20.04/1.2 Alpha3 install on NUC, but cannot check because I back on 16.04.  If this is a VirtualBox problem, then please ignore.

I do get an ip addresss and can SSH into instance.  But:


cs@cs-v2:~$ sudo lshw -class network -short
[sudo] password for cs:
H/W path      Device      Class       Description
=================================================
/0/100/3      eth0        network     82540EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller

cs@cs-v2:~$ ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether xxxxx ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet xxxxx brd xxxxx scope global dynamic eth0   (ip address was what I used to SSH into instance, hidden for privacy reasons
       valid_lft 85645sec preferred_lft 85645sec
    inet6 xxxxx scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

cs@cs-v2:~$ sudo ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
        Supported ports: [ TP ]
        Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                                1000baseT/Full
        Supported pause frame use: No
        Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
        Supported FEC modes: Not reported
        Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                                1000baseT/Full
        Advertised pause frame use: No
        Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
        Advertised FEC modes: Not reported
        Speed: 1000Mb/s
        Duplex: Full
        Port: Twisted Pair
        PHYAD: 0
        Transceiver: internal
        Auto-negotiation: on
        MDI-X: off (auto)
        Supports Wake-on: umbg
        Wake-on: d
        Current message level: 0x00000007 (7)
                               drv probe link
        Link detected: yes

[agent_kith]

Do not know whether this is a problem or not. 

After a fair bit of going around in circles, managed to get 16.04/1.1.11 (&1.2 Alpha3) running on VirtualBox and playing music via USB.  However, with 20.04/1.2 Alpha3, have problem with network.  I do not think I had the problem with 20.04/1.2 Alpha3 install on NUC, but cannot check because I back on 16.04.  If this is a VirtualBox problem, then please ignore.

I do get an ip addresss and can SSH into instance. 

This looks like a bug in the API backend.. I'll see if I can fix this.

Do note that the newer Ubuntu uses netplan, and it's not supported by Snakeoil just yet. But I hope to address that soonish.

[agent_kith]

I cannot get 0.22.3 onto my main music setup, but can get it on a VirtualBox instance. No idea why. Thought maybe it was because I was using Mpd, tried not using it, uninstalling it etc..  Have also re-installed 16.04/1.1.11 several times with same result,  Any chance of making Mpd 0.22.3 available as a separate upload?  Keen to compare 22 vs 21 and see whether I can reproduce the same result as 20.04.

p/s am using this download meantime
https://www.snakeoil-os.net/forums/Threa...57#pid4157

Uploading that works for your main music rig?

[Snoopy8]

Welcome back to the online world!
 

Do not know whether this is a problem or not.

After a fair bit of going around in circles, managed to get 16.04/1.1.11 (&1.2 Alpha3) running on VirtualBox and playing music via USB. However, with 20.04/1.2 Alpha3, have problem with network. I do not think I had the problem with 20.04/1.2 Alpha3 install on NUC, but cannot check because I back on 16.04. If this is a VirtualBox problem, then please ignore.

I do get an ip addresss and can SSH into instance.

This looks like a bug in the API backend.. I'll see if I can fix this.

Do note that the newer Ubuntu uses netplan, and it's not supported by Snakeoil just yet. But I hope to address that soonish.

If you get it running in Alpha4, that would be good. With both 16.04 and 20.04 running on VirtualBox on Win laptop, I should be able to test things rapidly using snapshots. I hope the virtual instances are good enough to compare relative SQ.  Otherwise, may have try VirtualBox on NUC.
 

I cannot get 0.22.3 onto my main music setup, but can get it on a VirtualBox instance. No idea why. Thought maybe it was because I was using Mpd, tried not using it, uninstalling it etc..  Have also re-installed 16.04/1.1.11 several times with same result,  Any chance of making Mpd 0.22.3 available as a separate upload?  Keen to compare 22 vs 21 and see whether I can reproduce the same result as 20.04.

p/s am using this download meantime
https://www.snakeoil-os.net/forums/Threa...57#pid4157

Uploading that works for your main music rig?

Yes, can upload Mpd 0.22.3.  Interesting that while I prefer 0.22.3 for my reference piano piece, 0.21.25 has a better sound stage for other music!   

[agent_kith]

Welcome back to the online world!

Not quite there yet. My monthly quota is going to reset tomorrow, so until then I'll still be on 1024 Kbps/1024Kbps. And to top it off my internet woes is back (after about 2 weeks of bliss). Upload speed is now back into dark ages. Glad that we have a sponsor paying for the server, and I have moved most of the services to that new server, but some stuffs are still being hosted at home (because better CPU power compared to the VPS). Slow upload from me means slow download for you guys.

This is the "cheaper, better, faster" network Australia has.

If you get it running in Alpha4, that would be good. With both 16.04 and 20.04 running on VirtualBox on Win laptop, I should be able to test things rapidly using snapshots. I hope the virtual instances are good enough to compare relative SQ.  Otherwise, may have try VirtualBox on NUC.

The kernel isn't optimised for running in a virtual environment but it will do. I'm running Promox (Another hypervisor) myself to test many things on Snakeoil.

Yes, can upload Mpd 0.22.3.  Interesting that while I prefer 0.22.3 for my reference piano piece, 0.21.25 has a better sound stage for other music!   

This will be music your way. I wouldn't be surprised when folks have a different playlist for seperate versions of the playback software. This is why moving forward every new release of MPD (and Squeezelite) will have it's own modules... The firmware will always have a newer version, but folks can upload older versions if they like their sonic signature.

This is really the biggest mystery, I still have no logical reasonings why different versions of MPD can be different. The source code is akin to the skin and bones of a body, but the soul is somehow different and there is no apparent correlation I can identify.


Edit: BTW, I installed the new alpha 3 over my existing Jetway rig (running 1.1.x), and MPD 0.22.3 shows up . Not entirely sure what's happening, but I might tweak the install script to make it more fool proof in Alpha 4.

[Snoopy8]

Welcome back to the online world!

Not quite there yet. My monthly quota is going to reset tomorrow, so until then I'll still be on 1024 Kbps/1024Kbps. And to top it off my internet woes is back (after about 2 weeks of bliss). Upload speed is now back into dark ages. Glad that we have a sponsor paying for the server, and I have moved most of the services to that new server, but some stuffs are still being hosted at home (because better CPU power compared to the VPS). Slow upload from me means slow download for you guys.

Does it mean that our downloading of the large Alpha affects your quota? Why not put it on Google Drive?

This is the "cheaper, better, faster" network Australia has.

Aussie Broadband is not cheap, but if anyone can solve your broadband issues, they will.  I have heard many stories of them resolving technical issues that other vendors could not.
 

If you get it running in Alpha4, that would be good. With both 16.04 and 20.04 running on VirtualBox on Win laptop, I should be able to test things rapidly using snapshots. I hope the virtual instances are good enough to compare relative SQ.  Otherwise, may have try VirtualBox on NUC.

The kernel isn't optimised for running in a virtual environment but it will do. I'm running Promox (Another hypervisor) myself to test many things on Snakeoil.

I know enough of VirtualBox to play around (& go round in circles!), but I am sure your knowledge of virtual environments is far superior. Once 20.04 works, I will use VirtualBox to test functionality, but at the end of the day, I will do fresh installs on NUC to test SQ of 20.04.

[agent_kith]

Does it mean that our downloading of the large Alpha affects your quota? Why not put it on Google Drive?

It's now hosted on the sponsored server, it has unlimited quota and faster bandwidth.. So it's all good. Problem is, with some of the things now offloaded to that remote server, when I don't have internet access, I can't really do some of the things I used to.. This is a vicious cycle.

Aussie Broadband is not cheap, but if anyone can solve your broadband issues, they will.  I have heard many stories of them resolving technical issues that other vendors could not.

Well, so far they havn't. Had like 5-10 disconnections since last Saturday. Couldn't stand it any more, so I caved and purchased another modem. Figured if I do go wireless I can still use this as the router. Time will tell if it's getting better, but I'm geting 30/20 instead of my 50/20.. So #FML.

[agent_kith]

Apologies for the lack of updates... I've been busy revising my CV and been on job interviews. The latter is something I'm struggling with as I'm not used to selling myself. I prefer to let my work speak for itself (like Snakeoil), which really isn't the right strategy at all for a job interview. The good thing is I'm not finanically stressed yet, so can continue to devote most of my energy on the Snakeoil project.

Back to Snakeoil. So far on tests on a real machine, MPD 0.22.3 always installs on my 16.04 instance, and myMPD is always working.. I'm sure it will break in some instances, and I suspect I know the reason for that. So will be making some changes in the next test module to see if that's the case.

All up everything seems to be working as expected, or rather better than expected. It's amazing how good sounding this thing is, but alas there is just not enough interest to increase it's popularity. Audiophile is a dying hobby I guess. It is what it is, I'm never in this for the money, hope you guys get to enjoy the music as well as I do (Or not, depending on what music you're playing. 0.22.3 is so unforgiving).

On a different note, I'm more aware of the microphone placements (techniques) now. This is in part due to Gear Isolation, and my switchbox upgrade (or rather rectification to adhere to the building code). The detail 0.22.3 can resolve is really un-canny. Be looking forward to the Pi version and see how that goes in due time.