SqueezePlay for Joggler (Native, Ubuntu & SQPOS)

General discussion relating to the O2 Joggler, from the default O2 setup, to alternative operating systems and applications.
Wilberforce
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Re: SqueezePlay for Joggler (Native, Ubuntu & sqpOS)

Post by Wilberforce »

roobarb! wrote:Two good patches there, that I should include in the next release. I've not had the vanishing audio bug for some time now, but I can't see any harm in the patch if it's restarting audio after detecting an error condition.
I should mention that I haven't actually tested the patch with the native OS ( I attempted to detect it, but you may know of a better solution). I also have a patch to be applied after that first one as the X screen saver was kicking in and blanking the screen ( I noticed this on the alarm snooze screen).
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stop X screen saver kicking in (apply after patch noted two posts previous)
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mrw
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Re: SqueezePlay for Joggler (Native, Ubuntu & sqpOS)

Post by mrw »

roobarb! wrote:I've not had the vanishing audio bug for some time now, but I can't see any harm in the patch if it's restarting audio after detecting an error condition.
ditto. No signs of harm so far, and I am seeing the expected traces in the log when audio is restarted.


One thing that did emerge during testing - I was afflicted on one occasion with the 'Squeezeplay gets stuck on splash screen while starting up' bug. This is, of course, a useless condition for a user to be in, because he can do nothing but restart the Joggler.

It surprised me. I can reproduce it readily enough using the hardware plugin, but didn't expect to see it when using the intrinsically shareable dmix plugin. Basic problem, at least when using the hardware plugin, is that jive_alsa opens and uses the alsa device in blocked mode. And will quite happily block unless the device has been explicitly configured to do a non-block open. And the 'jive_alsa launcher' within jive does not anticipate this.

Possibly some sort of internal race condition exists within the dmix plugin ?

Anyway, not a good scenario to have lurking in the code under any circumstance, so I shall draft a small patch to the 'jive_alsa launcher'. At present the launcher assumes that jive_alsa will either work as intended within half a second or exit. It does not anticipate that jive_alsa might block, or that some other error condition exists, and it loops endlessly in such circumstances.
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johnnygal
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Re: SqueezePlay for Joggler (Standalone Native and Ubuntu)

Post by johnnygal »

mrw wrote:
mrw wrote:I haven't determined the cause of the 'dmix' issue. My hunch is a problem within the Alsa library, but I don't know for sure. One thing that appears to resolve it 'on the fly' is to close and reopen the relevant Alsa device. That happens every time a stream with a different sample rate is played back, or Squeezeplay is restarted. So it may be possible to do something within Squeezeplay to work around it.
Well, I still haven't determined the cause, other than it's 'broken'. But I have made a patch to jive_alsa that does seem to work around the problem.
.
.
.
It is entirely possible that my testing has been too limited in scope, and that the fix is not as generally applicable as I have assumed. If there is anyone interested in pursuing this, I can make a compiled jive_alsa binary available for installation/testing. In the meantime, I have attached the patch for anyone who may be rolling their own.
Yes please!

I often have this disappearing sound issue and would be willing to test an updated binary. One of my jogglers that is left on continuously often experiences this after a day or so. It's main use is BBC Radio streams, and occasionally music playback from local LMS music library.

Thanks.
timl
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Re: SqueezePlay for Joggler (Native, Ubuntu & sqpOS)

Post by timl »

Is there a simple way to disable dmix altogether if that is the issue? For instance if using sqpOS there is no need for an additional audio stream that I can think of.
gegs
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Re: SqueezePlay for Joggler (Native, Ubuntu & sqpOS)

Post by gegs »

I think there's an option to disable mixer in the settings, if I remember correctly. I might be getting confused with the PnPIII implementation - I use both but I don't have either to hand at the mo.
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Positivity
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Re: SqueezePlay for Joggler (Native, Ubuntu & sqpOS)

Post by Positivity »

No you are not confused - just checked mine...
Settings - Audio Settings - Interface Configuration - Software Mixer
Which raises another question - what is the difference between Internal and External Interface? Or is that irrelevant to the Joggler implementation?
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roobarb!
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SqueezePlay for Joggler (Native, Ubuntu & sqpOS)

Post by roobarb! »

Positivity wrote:No you are not confused - just checked mine...
Settings - Audio Settings - Interface Configuration - Software Mixer
Which raises another question - what is the difference between Internal and External Interface? Or is that irrelevant to the Joggler implementation?
The internal / external setting modifies the asound.conf file to use card 1 (a USB audio interface) rather than card 0 (the internal interface).

Hope to get an update out in the next couple of days with the patch compiled in.
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ilovemyjoggler
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Re: SqueezePlay for Joggler (Native, Ubuntu & sqpOS)

Post by ilovemyjoggler »

I have just added PNPIII to my joggler but had never heard of squeezeplay before. Would anyone please advise me on how to use it? I have itunes and spotify on my pc which does not have wifi. My music files are mostly in a massive file on my hard drive that I have never really linked to anything. Music files all loaded onto a 32 gig usb which I had been attaching to my joggler.... Sounds a little archaic I know. Getting spotify on my joggler would be fab. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm sorry if I have posted this in the wrong thread.
ilovemyjoggler
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Re: SqueezePlay for Joggler (Native, Ubuntu & sqpOS)

Post by ilovemyjoggler »

Not to worry. Had a play and all sorted! Cheers.
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roobarb!
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Re: SqueezePlay for Joggler (Native, Ubuntu & sqpOS)

Post by roobarb! »

ilovemyjoggler wrote:Not to worry. Had a play and all sorted! Cheers.
Good stuff!
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roobarb!
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Re: SqueezePlay for Joggler (Native, Ubuntu & sqpOS)

Post by roobarb! »

Update Time!

We're now officially at v1.49 for all devices, and v1.50 for the latest SqueezePlay OS.

I'll just point you to the changelog if you'd like to see what the latest changes have been. If you could keep an eye on whether there are any chipmunks or disappearing audio again, that would be grand. I'm hoping that a new asound.conf and the work of mrw's fancy patch will keep us running.

As I mentioned with the Reflash Tool, there's been quite a bit of work put into these updates (probably too much, if I'm honest!) so if you find them useful I hope it's not too cheeky to ask that you take a look at my contributions page. Even just a pat on the back in a thread would go down a treat. ;)
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mrw
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Re: SqueezePlay for Joggler (Standalone Native and Ubuntu)

Post by mrw »

johnnygal wrote:I often have this disappearing sound issue and would be willing to test an updated binary. One of my jogglers that is left on continuously often experiences this after a day or so. It's main use is BBC Radio streams, and occasionally music playback from local LMS music library.
Apologies, I have been occupied elsewhere for a few days, and didn't post as requested. But it does look as if roobarb! has taken it up in his current Squeezeplay distribution, so I'd suggest you source it from there.
ilovemyjoggler
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Re: SqueezePlay for Joggler (Native, Ubuntu & sqpOS)

Post by ilovemyjoggler »

I have the most current version of squeezeplay on my joggler. I have noticed a couple of odd happenings....every now and then it tells me it's playing a track but there is no sound and no movement or song length on the timebar (or whatever that bar is called). Last night 5 reboots to get it to work - the joggler had been off earlier in the day so this wasn't something that happened whilst it was idle.

Also a first for me last night was playback of perfectly normal mp3s in high speed - I haven't heard anything like it since the high speed dubbing on my old tape to tape!! Very nostalgic and really rather funny - but not quite what I was after. :)

Any ideas what might be going wrong. Having to reboot repeatedly is a bit of a faff.
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roobarb!
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Re: SqueezePlay for Joggler (Native, Ubuntu & sqpOS)

Post by roobarb! »

ilovemyjoggler wrote:I have the most current version of squeezeplay on my joggler. I have noticed a couple of odd happenings....every now and then it tells me it's playing a track but there is no sound and no movement or song length on the timebar (or whatever that bar is called). Last night 5 reboots to get it to work - the joggler had been off earlier in the day so this wasn't something that happened whilst it was idle.

Also a first for me last night was playback of perfectly normal mp3s in high speed - I haven't heard anything like it since the high speed dubbing on my old tape to tape!! Very nostalgic and really rather funny - but not quite what I was after. :)

Any ideas what might be going wrong. Having to reboot repeatedly is a bit of a faff.
What version of SqueezePlay are you running and on which operating system?
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ilovemyjoggler
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Re: SqueezePlay for Joggler (Native, Ubuntu & sqpOS)

Post by ilovemyjoggler »

Just to complicate things:

The totally missing audio error is happening in PnPIII, v3.040. I updated to squeezeplay v1.49 within PnPIII a couple of weeks ago.

The high speed helium error happened in Joli v1.9 also with squeezeplay v1.49.
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roobarb!
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SqueezePlay for Joggler (Native, Ubuntu & sqpOS)

Post by roobarb! »

Hmm. The Joli OS one is odd, as v1.49 should have put the appropriate config file in place to prevent that. Potentially if it were an upgrade from a previous version it would have played it safe and not replaced the file. It definitely wouldn't do that on a fresh install, though.

I'm afraid I can't really comment on the PnP installation as it provides many options that may interfere and I don't personally use it. It's best to ask on the PnP thread for help if you've installed using that method.
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ilovemyjoggler
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Re: SqueezePlay for Joggler (Native, Ubuntu & sqpOS)

Post by ilovemyjoggler »

Yes, it was a fresh install of latest Joli and I updated to the newest version of squeezeplay in app. Would that have made any difference? I'll keep an eye on it - you never know, it may never happen again. :) Cheers.
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hawsey
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Re: SqueezePlay for Joggler (Native, Ubuntu & sqpOS)

Post by hawsey »

Tracks not starting / playing ;
I thought i would give Squeezeplay a go on my Joggler ( i usually use xbmc mint on joggler streaming from Openelec on my Revo at the TV ) .
I booted in to W7 on my Revo last night and installed Logitech Media Server and let it scan my music library whilst i slept
Using PNP III on my Joggler i selected Squeezeplay and all of my music and artwork shows up great and it seems very responsive and nice and simple ;so i tried to play an album and the artwork shows up and looks like it is going to play but the seconds don't tick away and i get no sound .
So i tried Youtube app on PNPIII and the sound is fine .
As there are now 25 pages on this thread i am busy trawling through it and i am sure my answer will be here somewhere (probably on the first post lol)
Any ideas whilst i read the thread ?
Will post back if i find the solution
Cheers
Happy Joggling
ilovemyjoggler
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Re: SqueezePlay for Joggler (Native, Ubuntu & sqpOS)

Post by ilovemyjoggler »

Hawsey, same thing has happened to me with squeezeplay on pnpIII - a couple of times now. I have posted on pnpIII thread too. I will be very interested in any solutions.
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roobarb!
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Re: SqueezePlay for Joggler (Native, Ubuntu & sqpOS)

Post by roobarb! »

Just so you know, there are things in PnP3 that will change the asound.conf file, which is the configuration file SqueezePlay relies upon. As I mentioned above, I don't use PnP, so I can't provide support for SqueezePlay when installed via that method (there are just so many things that PnP can do, and I don't have time to learn!). It seems likely to me that the contents of asound.conf aren't what I have tested.

The settings I know work are:

Code: Select all

pcm.!default {
	type plug
	slave.pcm "dmixer"
}

pcm.dmixer  {
 	type dmix
 	ipc_key 1024
 	slave {
		pcm "hw:0,0"
		period_time 0
		period_size 1024
		buffer_size 4096
		rate 44100
	}
	bindings {
		0 0
		1 1
	}
}

ctl.dmixer {
	type hw
	card 0
}
As for the weird audio on Joli, if you upgraded from an earlier version, then I believe that the installer will have played it safe and not changed the asound.conf file. If it sees that it has been installed before, it won't mess with that file just in case you have made edits to it.

In the next version of SqueezePlay for Joggler, I'll add a reset button into the audio settings so that the asound.conf will be changed to the known-good version.
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