Snakeoil Firmware - 1.1.7 (Blind Testing Update 7)

[agent_kith]

Introduction
It's a long time between updates! We weren't slacking around.

During the past few months, I've spent/wasted a lot of time on the web site. Not going to bother you with the details, but it was a long hard slog. The web site part is mostly finished now AFAICT. And it's setup to operate smoothly for months if not years to come!

Back to Snakeoil, so what's new in this release? For activated users, the following are new:

• Ramdisk
  
• ability to do a Ubuntu release upgrade Ubuntu from the WebApp,
  
• and HQPlayer 4 (Ubuntu 18.04 only).
  

You can only install HQPlayer4 Desktop if your OS is on 18.04. I have no idea what the sound quality in 18.04 is going to be like, or if the upgrade will even work. so please report back! And ditto to RAMDISK play. You have to manually copy the music files over to the RAM disk for now, but in time I hope to create something easier to copy files right from the WebApp itself.

WRT to release upgrade, note that there is no going back to 16.04 after you've upgraded to 18.04. So if you don't like the sound, the only way back is to reinstall!

Old players will be available as modules to be installed manually as desired. This allows you to keep your favourite version of MPD/Squeezelite when upgrading firmwares.

Again I would like to thank the supporters of Snakeoil OS. And I would like more to chip in.

There is still a signficant downside to Snakeoil OS, the kernel isn't flexible enough for it to run on all computers. Some of you might have a different ethernet card, a different audio card, and so on. A customised and stripped down RT kernel is the secret to Snakeoil's quality sound. If we are to put up a kernel that will work on 99% of the computers, the magic's gone and you're better off using another audiophile software altogether. There is a way to make this easier - a web tool where you can specify your hardware, and the system will auto-generate a custom upgrade or a install ISO that's tailor made for you. Now to get this working I'll need at least USD $80 a month to run the server on the cloud. If you like the music from Snakeoil OS, do consider becoming a Snakeoil patron. It's as low as USD$1 a month, charged at the end of every month ($12 annually - cheaper than the price of a new release CD). Click that orange button to your right.

Snakeoil is and will continue to be free to use for everybody. But with more support, it'll get even better.

Downloads
  snakeoil-1.1.7-armv7l.fw (Size: 12.85 MB / Downloads: 56)
(SHA1: 4c404629f8265abdee1b1a1a773da0750ff31849)
  snakeoil-1.1.7-i686.fw (Size: 13.62 MB / Downloads: 23)
(SHA1: ed6854f0a2c7c4a1aab936e86322c3ccb630731a)
  snakeoil-1.1.7-x86_64.fw (Size: 13.61 MB / Downloads: 211)
(SHA1: d1300b7f56a0f952d760db79d78756095ac4fe51)

Read the RAM Disk documention here.

Changelog

1. 0000350: [web-app] Disable "Enable Client" checkbox automatically if a server player has supported clients but none of the clients are installed
   
2. 0000349: [players] Experimental HQPlayer4 Desktop support
   
3. 0000272: [web-app] Activated: Add a mechanism to perform release updates
   
4. 0000348: [web-app] Show ramfs/tmpfs RAM DISK in media library
   
5. 0000346: [players] Update mpd 21 to 0.21.14
   
6. 0000343: [web-app] Allow creation of RAM disk in GUI
   
7. 0000347: [web-app] Add missing check for spaces in Snakeoil priority process name fields
   
8. 0000345: [players] Reduce firmware sizes by stripping old versions of Squeezelite and MPD.
   
9. 0000344: [install] Keep custom MPD Squeezelite players on firmware upgrade
   
10. 0000328: [players] Activated: Honour uninstalled applications
    
11. 0000340: [web-app] Show a message at end of update Ubuntu to let users know install has finished
    
12. 0000341: [web-app] Change mouse cursor when it's hovering over a button
    
13. 0000351: [web-service] Use bundled curl instead of OS supplied curl
    
14. 0000352: [web-service] Monitor PHP upload size limit and change accordingly if they're too small
    

Known Issues
This is a relatively big update. So expect issues!