Cisco open peak Squeezeplay control

[ramymounir]

I bought a cisco openPeak planning to install squeezePlay on it, then connect it to russound as a music source.. i will be using internet music, and i will control the russound and squeeze play by homeseer.. The OpenPeak device will be laying somewhere in the house unseen and all its purpose is to play the music content which will be distributed to the different rooms in the house..

i will be able to use home seer to create events to play music.. but while listening the to music in the house,.. how do i control the squeeze play when i want to forward a song or rewind, or choose a different station, etc..

i need a client to control the squeeze play for manual use..

[dwl99]

If you're on Android you can use the Logitech Squeezebox Controller app https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... eboxremote (free, works only for Android versions up to 5.0) or Squeeze Ctrl https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... queezectrl (paid for, also compatible with Android Wear).

[pete]

Personally (and have done this before with the Openpeak 2 devices) start here first:
Go very slow with endeavor; baby steps. Be careful as you can brick your device if you are not careful with step #1.

1 - Create a USB boot stick and rewrite the current booting OS on the device using the birds like wires reflash system.
References are here: http://birdslikewires.co.uk/openframe-flash
A - write the reflash image to a USB stick
B - download most current firmware
C - copy it over to the USB reflash stick
D - write it to the MMC flash on the Cisco device.

2 - I would then recommend you create a boot Squeezeplayer USB stick and then boot from it.

[ramymounir]

Personally (and have done this before with the Openpeak 2 devices) start here first:
Go very slow with endeavor; baby steps. Be careful as you can brick your device if you are not careful with step #1.

1 - Create a USB boot stick and rewrite the current booting OS on the device using the birds like wires reflash system.
References are here: http://birdslikewires.co.uk/openframe-flash
A - write the reflash image to a USB stick
B - download most current firmware
C - copy it over to the USB reflash stick
D - write it to the MMC flash on the Cisco device.

2 - I would then recommend you create a boot Squeezeplayer USB stick and then boot from it.

I am having 2 issues

the cisco open peak i bought is used, and i think it has an issue with the internet connectivity. i tired to connect wirelessly, and wired with ethernet cable.. it connects, and it says IP address acquired, then goes to a "testing internet connectivity" screen and stays on this screen forever.. if i click the home icon and try to use the internet, it says check your connection.. any idea what is this?

also, in the birds like wires guide.. i use the Mac guide..

it says on the first step go to terminal and type: sudo umount -f /dev/diskX*

i replace the diskX with my usb device name, but i get this error: umount: /dev/AHLY: not currently mounted

[pete]

@Ramy

Here is the primary issue and why you want to rewrite the built in MMC OS right away.

If the service is still running in the cloud there could be a redundency built in to the EFI boot rom that calls home and repairs itself.

That can lock you out of trying to change anything.

You do not really want it to reconfigure itself.

Keep it simple.

You want to make a reflash stick and install MMC OS stuff V.30300 it will work with the Cisco Device. I have already done this.

Once this has completed it will automatically shut down the Cisco device. Walk away from it for a bit.

After it shuts down restart it and you will see a base OpenPeak OS. Then leave it alone.

You can then create a Squeezeplayer bootable USB stick and boot to Squeezeplayer there.

You can also just write the SqueezePlayer OS directly to the MMC such that you do not need to use a USB stick if you want.

Baby steps.

[castalla]

@Ramy

Here is the primary issue and why you want to rewrite the built in MMC OS right away.

If the service is still running in the cloud there could be a redundency built in to the EFI boot rom that calls home and repairs itself.

That can lock you out of trying to change anything.

You do not really want it to reconfigure itself.

Keep it simple.

You want to make a reflash stick and install MMC OS stuff V.30300 it will work with the Cisco Device. I have already done this.

Once this has completed it will automatically shut down the Cisco device. Walk away from it for a bit.

After it shuts down restart it and you will see a base OpenPeak OS. Then leave it alone.

You can then create a Squeezeplayer bootable USB stick and boot to Squeezeplayer there.

You can also just write the SqueezePlayer OS directly to the MMC such that you do not need to use a USB stick if you want.

Baby steps.

By 'install MMC OS stuff V.30300'do you mean the image at http://birdslikewires.co.uk/download/op ... eak.img.gz

[ramymounir]

Pete I don't think you have confirmed my concerns


1. It connects to the Internet and grabs an ip
Then it stays stuck at "testing Internet" connectivity" forever

Is this because I need to reflash or not?

I need to know if I should return it and buy another one or not??


2. Please have a look at my post above

It gives me an error where I try to unmount I can't complete the setup.. Do you know why and what PRECISELY I should do??

Sorry man I am not a native speaker, and I don't understand what you said! But from the little I understand I think you have not replied to my questions

Thanks

[pete]

Is this because I need to reflash or not?

When you first boot it up sans touching it; the device will try to connect to the network either via the ethernet port / wireless.

By 'install MMC OS stuff V.30300'do you mean the image at hxxp://birdslikewires.co.uk/download/op ... eak.img.gz


Yes.

Typically they are both DHCP. It then tries to call the Cisco Telco mothership and there it might hang as I do not think it is there anymore.

So what you want to do is replace the OS (operating system).

The OS resides on the 2Gb MMC partition which is just a chip soldered on to the motherboard.

You have tested it to boot and really that is all that matters. Now you have to rewrite the OS.

1 - Write this image to a USB stick 4 Gb or larger. Not that it is a gz file and you have to extract it to make it an image file.
Use your favorite image file to USB stick program. The stick is just fat formatted such that you can see the contents with any PC.

http://birdslikewires.co.uk/download/op ... _of.img.gz

2 - Download this image:

http://birdslikewires.co.uk/download/op ... eak.img.gz

and this file

http://birdslikewires.co.uk/download/op ... img.gz.md5

3 - plug in the previously made USB stick to your computer

4 - copy the two files mentioned in #2 above to the directory on the USB stick called reflash. Leave the file names as you have downloaded them.

5 - check the reflash directory for the two files.

A - of1_30300_openpeak.img.gz.md5
B - of1_30300_openpeak.img.gz

6 - unplug the power from your Cisco Device.

7 - Plug in your new USB stick to the back port on the Cisco Device

8 - plug in the power

9 - watch it and it will write an new OS to the Cisco.

10 - walk away

11 - It will power off the Cisco when it is done

12 - Unplug the power from the Cisco device

13 - unplug the USB stick from the Cisco device

14 - plug in the power to the Cisco Device

15 - the Cisco device will power up with a custom modified O2 operating system

16 - tell me when you get to this point and we will continue.

[ramymounir]

Hi Pete

Unfortunately, i followed all the steps, and the device ignores the usb as if it is not connected!

please have a look at the photos below

here is the mounted USB and the directories, and files in it..







here is when i connected the USB

[pete]

The key to using your Cisco device for anything right now is related to the device booting from the USB stick. I do not think that the USB port is disabled on it.

I am not familiar at all relating to utilizing the MAC to creating a USB boot stick and see that there is detailed information relating to creating a boot stick with a MAC over here:

http://birdslikewires.co.uk/openframe-flash

I have a few (> 10) of the OpenPeak 2 devices here (like your Cisco) and have had no issues replacing the OS on any of my test boxes. (I have a few still in boxes that have not been utilized or played with).

There is a "blind typing" way to boot from the USB stick. I would first though validate that the device can boot from a USB stick. Have you ever previously made a boot stick with your MAC?

Might be faster to try doing this in Windows or Linux. Do you have a Windows or Linux computer? You can boot your laptop in to Linux using a live Ubuntu ISO if you want.

Create a Buzz Ubuntu boot stick using this image:

http://jwills.co.uk/files/joggler/xubun ... xt4.img.gz

Note the gz extension means that it is compressed. Decompress image and write it to a USB stick.

This image too should boot up right in to Ubuntu from the USB stick. Try it. Note too there sometimes is some pickiness relating to the type of USB sticks you are using.

[ramymounir]

i failed in doing the boot stick from my mac, ther terminal gives error, i have parallel desktop , which is windows on mac, and thats what i used to make the stick using the win32disk manager or something like that if i remember correctly.. it looks like it is right.. should the file in the stick be .gz, or .img?
on the guide in birds like wires says make sure you put the stick while the system is turned on, and you said turn it off, i thought thats the problem, but i tried both, and nothing,




you mentioned another way..

if i fail, do you mind selling me a ready made one?

[ramymounir]

i have an ubuntu linux under the mac i will try it

[pete]

Yes make it easy on yourself. The key to this stuff is being able to create USB sticks that boot in Linux.

The Cisco device's base OS is Openpeak. The Openpeak OS was a linux / flash based OS.

With Ubuntu you can just right click on the image and tell it to write it to a USB stick.

Then use GParted and look at the USB stick image and check the image to make sure it is bootable.

Once you have validated this then shut off your Cisco device. Plug the USB stick in and power on the Cisco device.

Try the Ubuntu image first if you want.

I may be able to do this remotely for you from hear if I could get to your desktop. That would probably be the fastest way.

[castalla]

I just reflashed my Cisco. Fairly straight-forward. Used a UPS for the reflash just in case the power went down!

The only 'scary' moment is when I restarted the 'new' firmware - seemed to take quite a while before the Openpaek splash screen appeared.

[pete]

That is the part mentioned above relating to walking away from it.

The built in MMC's do eventually get worn out if that makes any sense.

With the Cisco booting EFI ROM stuff I would also write another ROM to the flash like maybe the original Openpeak ROM.

Here have settled on that one or the Avaya ROM. I do not know what Cisco did with the boot EFI ROM on that device.

The majority of Openpeak 2 devices I have came new and were labeled Openpeak and they came with Openpeak DECT telephones. I am guessing these came directly from Openpeak and are not vendor labeled.

The ones I am using/playing with are US telco / energy company ones and none of them are Cisco.

[castalla]

That is the part mentioned above relating to walking away from it.

The built in MMC's do eventually get worn out if that makes any sense.

With the Cisco booting EFI ROM stuff I would also write another ROM to the flash like maybe the original Openpeak ROM.

Here have settled on that one or the Avaya ROM. I do not know what Cisco did with the boot EFI ROM on that device.

The majority of Openpeak 2 devices I have came new and were labeled Openpeak and they came with Openpeak DECT telephones. I am guessing these came directly from Openpeak and are not vendor labeled.

The ones I am using/playing with are US telco / energy company ones and none of them are Cisco.

Well, it'll never be booted from anything other than the sqpOS usb, so I'm leaving it as is from now on!

[pete]

You could actually install Squeezeplayer right on the 2Gb MMC so you do not need a USB for it.

Not sure though relating the the RW's on the MMC.

That said though putting a new base OS on it does check the internal MMC and installs something easier to tweak; well and it will not keep trying to get to the internet if the OS is replaced.

[ramymounir]

i made the stick, it says in the disk utility Format : MS-DOS (FAT16)

is this ok?

[castalla]

You could actually install Squeezeplayer right on the 2Gb MMC so you do not need a USB for it.

Not sure though relating the the RW's on the MMC.

That said though putting a new base OS on it does check the internal MMC and installs something easier to tweak; well and it will not keep trying to get to the internet if the OS is replaced.

All my Jogglers run from usb. Much easier to mess around with, and easily fixed if something goes wrong!

The Cisco seems very well made, although the speakers are not too brilliant. The power brick is almost industrial compared to the neat UK plug used on the O2s!

[castalla]

i made the stick, it says in the disk utility Format : MS-DOS (FAT16)

is this ok?

Yes