PulseAudio and Updating

slackline

Hi,

I'm really liking RuneAudio, been meaning to try out Arch Linux for a while now (I'm a habitual Gentoo user).

I'd like to get multi-room, synchronised audio and have found instructions on how to configure MPD to do this here and thought I'd have a go at doing this with RuneAudio. I'm documenting this here (not always online as it resides on my computer which I sometimes switch off), but I don't expect anyone to read that so this is what I've done so far...

I couldn't install PulseAudio straight off as some of the packages/dependencies in the ARM archives have been updated and are no longer available.

I therefore updated the Arch install using...

pacman -Syu

Some ~114 packages updated (if I remember correctly). The system boots fine but the RuneAudio WebUI is no longer available, ngnix reports 401 Not available.

Thus I think I need to update the RuneAudio specific packages that are listed on the RuneAudio Github Repository under both the RuneOS and RuneUI repository.

Had I done this before rebooting the install that would have been a case of clicking a few buttons in the RuneUI, unfortunately I didn't, I rebooted the device and no longer have access to the RuneUI so can't update from Github so easily.

Being new to Arch Linux I had a read about configuring pacman to use additional repositories and see that this can be done either in /etc/pacman.conf or in a file within /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist but its unclear from the documentation how to configure this with repositories hosted on Github and more importantly to ensure that the packages under RuneOS and RuneUI repositories take precedence over the core packages.

If I were to add the following to /etc/pacman.conf ...

[rune]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorrune

...and then create /etc/pacman.d/mirrorrune with the following

#
# Arch Linux ARM	RuneAudio mirrorlist
#
Server =	http://github.com/RuneAudio/RuneUI
Server =	http://github.com/RuneAudio/RuneOS

This didn't work and fails because pacman can't find 'rune.db' which I'll hazard a guess is because I opted to call the additional repository 'rune' under /etc/pacman.conf

How do I got about updating directly from Github at the command line? Or do I have to download all of the packages and manually install them as described here in response to someone who updated MPD? If so are the instructions on how to do this as doing each and every file manually is not only time consuming but I'm highly likely to cock something up.

Advice and pointers very welcome.

Thanks,

slackline

hondagx35

Hi slackline,

I therefore updated the Arch install using...

As you may know (see here):

RuneAudio runs on RuneOS, a custom built GNU Linux operating system, based on Arch Linux.

It is lightweight, and it has an ultra low latency. It’s multiplatform, optimized to run on multiple devices, and it aims for the best reasonable sound quality from each device.

So it's not Arch Linux, it is based on Arch!
RuneAudio is not a rolling release distro!
There are more than a dozen packages that are specially build for RuneOS.
Tons of configurations that differ from a normal Arch Linux installation.
So it is most likely that Rune Audio breaks after a system update with "pacman -Syu".

If you like to update RuneAudio (for RP2) navigate to
http://runeaudio/dev
and select "gitpull" under "System commands".

Back to your problem:
Pulseaudio can be installed on the PI2 without updating the system.

pacman -Sy
pacman -S pulseaudio pulseaudio-alsa

The next problem you will run into is, that RuneAudio doesn't like you to modify mpd.conf manually.
One thing you can do is to make mpd.conf read only after modifying.

Frank

slackline

Hi Frank,

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

hondagx35 wroteHi slackline,

I therefore updated the Arch install using...
As you may know (see here):
RuneAudio runs on RuneOS, a custom built GNU Linux operating system, based on Arch Linux.

It is lightweight, and it has an ultra low latency. It’s multiplatform, optimized to run on multiple devices, and it aims for the best reasonable sound quality from each device.
So it's not Arch Linux, it is based on Arch!
RuneAudio is not a rolling release distro!
There are more than a dozen packages that are specially build for RuneOS.
Tons of configurations that differ from a normal Arch Linux installation.
So it is most likely that Rune Audio breaks after a system update with "pacman -Syu".

Sorry I was over-simplfying for brevity rather than accuracy.

It also confused me that the mirrorlist that pacman appears to be using http://mirror.archlinuxarm.org/$arch/$repo and that it didn't have a 'rune' repo listed.

My mistake, again sorry

hondagx35 wroteIf you like to update RuneAudio (for RP2) navigate to
http://runeaudio/dev
and select "gitpull" under "System commands".

I'll flash the image anew and do this because....

hondagx35 wrote Back to your problem:
Pulseaudio can be installed on the PI2 without updating the system.

pacman -Sy
pacman -S pulseaudio pulseaudio-alsa

Frank

...that was what I tried before anything else but I got error messages saying some packages weren't available.

I'll have another go and report back if/when I get PulseAudio and multi-room streaming working.

Thanks again,

slackline

slackline

Great everythings updated and I've installed pulseaudio and pulseaudio-alsa, thanks for your advice Frank.

I think I confused myself by mistakenly thinking that because RuneAudio was based on ArchOS I could simply use the laters repositories as I've done with some other Pi distributions such as Raspbian.

I definitely encountered errors trying to install pulseaudio/pulseaudio-alsa after ssh'ing in but before using the WebUI to upgrade.

I also realise now that there were indeed instructions for updating at the CLI from the GitHub repository as its documented here...

Alternatively, you can do this from the terminal:

cd /var/www
git pull
curl -s -X GET 'http://localhost/clear'

As final step, always remember to hard refresh the cache of your browser. (howto)

I'll have a play around setting up an RTP sink for PulseAudio as described here and see if I can get synchronised playback working between two Pi's running RuneAudio. If that works I'll have a go at writing some RuneUI to configure.

Thanks for getting me back on track and apologies for not getting things straight off,

slackline

chrisf4lc0n

Just seen your post, unluckily for me I did not see it yesterday when I issued the same command:
pacman -Syu
and it all wen tits up

Got it back only after re-installing the OS... Did not manage to work out what ended up being broken

slackline

Its as Frank wrote, RuneAudio is its own distribution with lots of its own packages. By using

pacman -Syu

...you upgraded everything (the 'u' flag). By omitting it and only using what Frank stated should be done, i.e.

pacman -Sy

...you only refresh the package database but don't perform the upgrade.

All that said its not clear to me why a refresh/upgrade using pacman doesn't use the Git sources and only has the Arch Linux ARM repositories listed/configured via /etc/pacman.conf and /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist but it could be because pacman doesn't support Git and/or that the Git repositories don't currently have .db files detailing the packages in a format that pacman understands and instead there are custom PHP/curl scripts that do the work of pacman when you use the dev WebUI or update from the command line.

On the topic of getting MPD playing with PulseAudio to synchronise music playback between Pi's I've not had much joy yet getting MPD to output to PulseAudio yet.

Placing the following in /etc/mpd.conf

audio_output {
    type            "pulse"
    name            "Chez slackline"
    sink            "rtp"
    description     "Dope beats from the vaults"
    mixer_type      "software"
}

...results in errors about lines in /srv/http/app/libs/runeaudio.php where the socket_write() call is not getting the information its expecting (currently at work and can't access the system to check the exact error message).

hondagx35

Hi slackline,

the main goal of RuneAudio is to be lightweight, and to have an ultra low latency.
It also is optimized to run on multiple devices, and it aims for the best reasonable sound quality from each device.

Like many other devices* out there it also should be usable by non computer freaks.
- download the image
- connect your cables and usb-devices
- boot the device
- make your settings via UI
- use it and forget about the underlying system.
So there is absolutely no need to update the OS (arch) until the next release.
The application (RuneAudio) can be updated via UI and in the future it will be automated.

devices*
NAS, IP cameras, routers, settop boxes, game consoles and ......
The normal user does not think about updating such devices.

If you like to use RuneAudio for a different purpose you have to know what you do, or ask for help.

All that said its not clear to me why a refresh/upgrade using pacman doesn't use the Git sources and only has the Arch Linux ARM repositories listed/configured via /etc/pacman.conf and /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

- pacman is normally used to update the OS or to install new packages.
As we learned, you have to be careful on RuneAudio with this.
RuneOS on github is only for the developers to share / save their work.
- github is the place there all the application development is hosted.
It is also used for the current update mechanism, this may change in the future.

On the topic of getting MPD playing with PulseAudio to synchronise music playback between Pi's I've not had much joy yet getting MPD to output to PulseAudio yet.

I'll take a look at this and try to guide you through the process.

Frank

hondagx35

Hi slackline,

Placing the following in /etc/mpd.conf

audio_output {
type "pulse"
name "Chez slackline"
sink "rtp"
description "Dope beats from the vaults"
mixer_type "software"
}
...results in errors about lines in /srv/http/app/libs/runeaudio.php where the socket_write() call is not getting the information its expecting (currently at work and can't access the system to check the exact error message).

This is because mpd stops running.

Aug 14 01:12:26 runeaudio mpd[15638]: fatal_error: line 61: No such audio output plugin: pulse

You have to first get pulseaudio running.

To get more infos during debugging please enable journalctl:

systemctl unmask systemd-journald

And modify /etc/systemd/journald.conf

#  This file is part of systemd.
#
#  systemd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
#  under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
#  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
#  (at your option) any later version.
#
# You can override the directives in this file by creating files in
# /etc/systemd/journald.conf.d/*.conf.
#
# See journald.conf(5) for details

[Journal]
Storage=volatile
#Compress=yes
#Seal=yes
#SplitMode=uid
#SyncIntervalSec=5m
#RateLimitInterval=30s
#RateLimitBurst=1000
#SystemMaxUse=
#SystemKeepFree=
#SystemMaxFileSize=
#RuntimeMaxUse=
#RuntimeKeepFree=
#RuntimeMaxFileSize=
#MaxRetentionSec=
#MaxFileSec=1month
#ForwardToSyslog=no
#ForwardToKMsg=no
#ForwardToConsole=no
#ForwardToWall=yes
#TTYPath=/dev/console
#MaxLevelStore=debug
#MaxLevelSyslog=debug
#MaxLevelKMsg=notice
#MaxLevelConsole=info
#MaxLevelWall=emerg

After a reboot you can see what is going on by executing:

journalctl

Frank

slackline

Thanks for taking the time to help get me started Frank. I've not migrated to systemd on my server/laptops which run Gentoo yet so your instructions are really useful (and I'm reading the Arch Linux Wiki to understand more).

I did as advised, enabling journalctl, changing the storage type to volatile for journald then rebooting.

I get a lot of output and its going to take me a while to sit down and go through it all to work out whats going on.

I did see if starting pulseaudio as user helped (since I first tried as root and was told thats usually a bad idea), but no go.

I'll likely have some time at the weekend to start understanding whats going on and will post back if I'm getting confused and/or if I get things working.

Thanks for taking the time to help,

slackline