Boost Native Joggler Volume

[oggie]

I'm running SqueezePlay on the native Joggler OS and am interested in finding if the audio volume can be increased in a config setting?

Even with the Joggler volume and the SqueezePlay volume at maximum it is still too quiet. When using Ubuntu the audio is output much louder, but I do prefer using the native OS.

I've read that one way around this is to buy a USB soundcard and modify the asound.conf file, but I'd rather not go down this route if possible (I've got a young daughter who would love playing "pull the USB soundcard out of the Joggler" game!).

[markmiles]

IMHO stay away from boost the native volume, i recommend you to buy a cheap USB soundcard and play with it, you will find that is the perfect match for your joggler if you are going to use it for play music most of the time.

Otherwise if you want to add more volume assuming you are doing it through the earphone conection, try a headphone amplifier like the FIIO e3 e5 or e6.

Right now in my setup I have an USB soundcard and i can tell you that you are going to ear the difference.

best Regards

[oggie]

Thanks for your response.

I'm still feeling torn on what to do... I use my Joggler primarily for music (SqueezePlay), so a USB sound card seems like a good solution. Although I don't really want an ugly USB device sticking out of the side of my Joggler (as I keep it in the lounge, and also use it as a digital photo frame), and prefer to conceal all wires at the back of the device.

The FIIO headphone amp (such as this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FiiO-E3-Headp ... 1696wt_927) could do the trick as I'll be able to conceal it behind the Joggler, although I don't like the fact that I'll need to keep replacing the battery in it, and the audio quality wouldn't be as good as a USB sound card.

If I do go down the USB sound card route can anyone suggest a suitable one to buy? Will a cheap one be adequate (I'll only be using the 3.5mm jack)?

Would you hear any noticeable difference between this (£2.19):
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-2-0-3D-Vi ... 041wt_1037

and this (£13.76):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001EHG7DM/r ... B001EHG7DM

Thanks

[oggie]

Is anyone successfully using a USB sound card with a USB hub? I'm thinking this would be the best of both worlds - I'll get the improved sound and the sound card will be hidden behind the joggler.

[pete]

I have tested the "el cheapo" ebay $5 USD dollar USB sound cards with optical out et al and they work just fine. I did find a short right angled USB to mini USB 6" cable just right for the Joggler; to make it look a bit nicer. You could also take the audio out via Bluetooth audio device audio jack to Bluetooth transmitter. I did have issues with early attempts at USB to Network devices for audio with a bit of the digital clipping. I then tried a newer type Lantronics USB to NIC; works fine.

Sound out goes either to the whole house multizone amplifier - Russound or the family room MM receiver. My all in one mini Patriot Box Office "ch rooted" has more features and is actually smaller than the Joggler with a 2.5" 1TB drive in it and HDMI out and streaming UPNP player and or server works fine too. It also has optical and analogue audio and analogue video out; just doesn't have its own display and probably has a tiny CPU and much less RAM/ROM in it than the Joggler.

[mrmonkington]

If you have SSH access to your joggler, this will max the volume (which is by default at 72%)

/usr/bin/amixer sset 'Master',0 25

(volume goes from 0-25)

HTH

[mrmonkington]

Just to clarify, this controls the internal ALSA mixer volume, which is independent from the squeezeplayer app volume control.

[earthski63]

That was damn handy and dealt with one of my only complaints about the stock OS - thank you! Can anything be done to boost the squeezeplayer volume?

[cbredfred]

Is there any way to make this setting permanent so that it survives a reboot?

[joh]

Thank you for the volume tip, it works!

@cbredfred: Log in to the joggler via telnet/SSH,

Code: Select all

vi /etc/init.d/rcS 

Go to the end of the file, add the entry:

Code: Select all

/usr/bin/amixer sset 'Master',0 25 2>/dev/null

Save the file, reboot. Should work now.

[cbredfred]

Thank you for the reply Joh,

I have tried your suggestions and can't get it to work.
I even reflashed the Joggler and installed Roobarb's SSH and nothing else, then applied the changes that you listed and it still doesn't get any louder after a reboot.
But if I give it "/usr/bin/amixer sset 'Master',0 25" via SSH it sounds much louder.

Anyone else tried it and if so did it work?

[joh]

hmm, the init system on the Joggler is sometimes strange, I had various problems and made a lot of work arounds.

If it is for SqueezePlay you could try to add this command to the file squeezebox.sh

You could also look in the directory /etc/init.d/boot.d and edit a SXX file and try to add this command to a existing init script.

[cbredfred]

Joh,

Thank you for your suggestions. I haven't tried them yet because I'm not sure what the effect would be in just selecting "a SXX file" (whatever one of those is?) and adding to it.
Is it possible that PnP II might conflict with it or overwrite that file at some time in the future???
I was wondering if the following might be possible, although I know very little about Linux so what I'm going to suggest might not even make sense, could the command "/usr/bin/amixer sset 'Master',0 25" be added to the asound.conf file? That way all the audio tweeks would be in the same place and easier to keep track of for users and also for developers.

[cbredfred]

So I plucked up the courage to edit the Sxx files as per Joh's instructions, I did all 7 of them and it didn't make a difference.

Anyway to have an icon on the desktop in Tango, like the one's for switching off the screen, that would issue the command to max the sound?
I for one wouldn't mind tapping on an icon each time I boot my Joggler.

[joh]

The init system can be quite nasty. I had many problems with it. Because I use the PnP II mod my system is different. But I looked into the stock OS files. You could try to open the file
/openpeak/tango/run

after the line #!/bin/sh add the amixer command. Another position you could try is at the bottom of the file:

Code: Select all

/usr/bin/amixer sset 'Master',0 25
# default run loop
while true ; do
   xinit /openpeak/tango/xinit.sh -- -br
done

Of course you could try to add a own icon for that command, but I have never tried to create own apps. I found this http://knolleary.net/2010/05/31/creatin ... der-linux/ guide, I do not know if there are better tutorials.

[cbredfred]

Thank you for your patience Joh.
Have you got it to work on your system?
I have tried your latest suggestion and they didn't work.
So there is no Linux equivalent of an autoexec.bat file that we can stick the command in?

[joh]

no problem. The equivalent of autoexec.bat is the init v system. The flles are located inside /etc/init.d directory. The main startup file is /etc/init.d/rcS and the files inside the /etc/init.d/boot.d directory are being called during startup according their number.

From my experience the init system on stripped down linux joggler system is problematic. I had troubles to get my modifications running. Regarding the amixer stuff, I just put the command at the end of the file /etc/init.d/rcS, as described above. The difference between my Joggler is that I use the PnP II modification.
But I don't understand why it doesn't work, because the rcS file is also used on the default install.

[cbredfred]

The "/usr/bin/amixer sset 'Master',0 25" also works on Buzz's Ubuntu 11.10 v1.2 btrfs when entered in to a terminal session.
I was under the impression that the volume limiting had been done by Openpeak due to the crap speakers on the Joggler, so I'm surprised that it made it in to the Joggler builds of Ubuntu.
I understand that it's still the same speakers, but when using the headphone jack it would be nice not to be limited.
Now I need to figure out how to make it survive a reboot. Any ideas where it would be safe to insert the command, Buzz?

[mrmonkington]

I would try putting the command I suggested in this file:

Code: Select all

/etc/init.d/boot.d/S99boot.hacks

In this function where it says:

starthacks()
{
# enable telnet
/usr/sbin/telnetd

# add your hacks here
}

I do note, however, that something occasionally resets the volume to 17 (perhaps a module is reloaded) in which case I did as somebody suggested above and also added the amixer command to

Code: Select all

/media/opt/squeezeplay/bin/squeezeplay.sh

...just before the last line so it says

Code: Select all

/usr/bin/amixer sset "Master",0 25
./jive

So that it maximises the volume each time you start squeezeplayer. If you're using some other music app, I can't help you

[cbredfred]

Thank you MrMonkington, the Squeezeplay part of your instructions just worked.
The Joggler that I just tried it on has been reflashed with Roobarbs Reflashing Tool and has his version of the Telnet/SSH hack, Squeezeplay and that is it. So it doesn't have a S99boot.hacks file to modify.
But having your Squeezeplay hack means that as soon as I boot the Joggler all I have to do is tap the Squeezeplay icon, then quit Squeezeplay which results in the sound for all the other Apps still being louder.
This should also work on Buzz's Linux builds because they also suffer from the same volume limiting.