Ideal WIFI Playback setup?

fongalv

Hi again,

I've previously been able to stream(via network mount) all quality up to DSD64 smoothly without issues, this is using a USB 150M "N" dongle with a +2dbi antenna. During that time, the RPI2 wifi strength is as below:

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"a&a"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.417 GHz  Access Point: 72:02:71:4A:08:CB
          Bit Rate=65 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=59/70  Signal level=-55 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:50  Invalid misc:90   Missed beacon:0

Being the avid tinkerer, I have been trying to get the system to stream DSD128 and have tested several high gain antennas, and have recently added another router to boost the base signal strength(original router had built in antennas). I have since been able to get the below report for wifi strength:

[root@runeaudio ~]# iwconfig wlan0
wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"a_NAS"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: F0:B4:29:1B:97:D6
          Bit Rate=72.2 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=70/70  Signal level=-35 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:2876  Invalid misc:2264   Missed beacon:0

Shouldn't this be the best I can achieve with wifi(since signal strength is improved, and "link quality" is 70/70)? Unfortunately, that isn't the case, and now I am experiencing sporadic skips even when playing 44.1kHz tracks. I have tried switching back to the previous router(with built in antenna) but wasn't able to improve things much.

I have locked the router to channel 11(as it was the strongest), and also bandwidth to 20M, which I believe should be ideal.

Did I miss anything? Does anyone have any advice on what else can be done to improve wireless performance?

fongalv

Tried almost everything I can think of, I have near perfect WIFI signal strength, but still getting very frequent stuttering when playing 24/96 files...

Changed wifi channels, routers, dongles, etc. I'm now just short of reinstalling the image, though a little sceptical how that might help...

Assuming I haven't been tinkering, how would you guys advise to fix frequent stuttering?

I've pasted my debug below in case anyone can help take a quick look:

        
###### System info ######
Linux version 3.18.7-3-ARCH (builduser@leming) (gcc version 4.9.2 20141224 (prerelease) (GCC) ) #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Feb 13 06:23:21 MST 2015

system time:	Sat Oct  3 16:45:23 CEST 2015

system load:	0.91 0.25 0.08 1/123 1158

HW platform:	RaspberryPi2 (08)

playerID:	08b26fff2ac4ddac6fee7fbbc1890504ae


###### System load statistics (procinfo -H) ######
sh: procinfo: command not found


###### Active processes (pstree) ######
systemd-+-2*[agetty]
        |-avahi-daemon---avahi-daemon
        |-cmd_async---sh---debug_collector---sh---pstree
        |-dbus-daemon
        |-devmon---udevil
        |-dhcpcd
        |-ifplugd
        |-mpd-+-{decoder}
        |     |-{io}
        |     |-{output:xCORE US}
        |     `-{player}
        |-nginx---nginx
        |-nmbd
        |-ntpd---{ntpd}
        |-php-fpm---3*[php-fpm]
        |-redis-server---2*[{redis-server}]
        |-rune_PL_wrk
        |-rune_SY_wrk
        |-smbd---smbd
        |-sshd
        |-systemd-network
        |-systemd-resolve
        |-systemd-udevd---systemd-udevd
        |-wpa_actiond
        `-wpa_supplicant


###### Audio backend ######
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version k3.18.7-3-ARCH.

Card list: (/proc/asound/cards)
--------------------------------------------------
 0 [ALSA           ]: bcm2835 - bcm2835 ALSA
                      bcm2835 ALSA
 1 [x20            ]: USB-Audio - xCORE USB Audio 2.0
                      XMOS xCORE USB Audio 2.0 at usb-bcm2708_usb-1.4, high speed


PLAYBACK devices: (aplay -l)
--------------------------------------------------
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA], device 0: bcm2835 ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA]
  Subdevices: 8/8
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
  Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
  Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
  Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
  Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
  Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
  Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 0: ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA], device 1: bcm2835 ALSA [bcm2835 IEC958/HDMI]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: x20 [xCORE USB Audio 2.0], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0


PCM devices: (aplay -L)
--------------------------------------------------
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default:CARD=ALSA
    bcm2835 ALSA, bcm2835 ALSA
    Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=ALSA
    bcm2835 ALSA, bcm2835 ALSA
    Default Audio Device
default:CARD=x20
    xCORE USB Audio 2.0, USB Audio
    Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=x20
    xCORE USB Audio 2.0, USB Audio
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=x20,DEV=0
    xCORE USB Audio 2.0, USB Audio
    Front speakers
surround21:CARD=x20,DEV=0
    xCORE USB Audio 2.0, USB Audio
    2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=x20,DEV=0
    xCORE USB Audio 2.0, USB Audio
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=x20,DEV=0
    xCORE USB Audio 2.0, USB Audio
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=x20,DEV=0
    xCORE USB Audio 2.0, USB Audio
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=x20,DEV=0
    xCORE USB Audio 2.0, USB Audio
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=x20,DEV=0
    xCORE USB Audio 2.0, USB Audio
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=x20,DEV=0
    xCORE USB Audio 2.0, USB Audio
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output


Simple mixer controls: (amixer scontrols)
--------------------------------------------------
card 0:
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0

card 1:
Simple mixer control 'Analogue 1',0
Simple mixer control 'Analogue 1',1


Mixer controls: (amixer controls)
--------------------------------------------------
card 0:
numid=3,iface=MIXER,name='PCM Playback Route'
numid=2,iface=MIXER,name='PCM Playback Switch'
numid=1,iface=MIXER,name='PCM Playback Volume'
numid=5,iface=PCM,name='IEC958 Playback Con Mask'
numid=4,iface=PCM,name='IEC958 Playback Default'

card 1:
numid=7,iface=MIXER,name='Analogue 1 Capture Switch'
numid=8,iface=MIXER,name='Analogue 1 Capture Switch',index=1
numid=9,iface=MIXER,name='Analogue 1 Capture Volume'
numid=10,iface=MIXER,name='Analogue 1 Capture Volume',index=1
numid=3,iface=MIXER,name='Analogue 1 Playback Switch'
numid=4,iface=MIXER,name='Analogue 1 Playback Switch',index=1
numid=5,iface=MIXER,name='Analogue 1 Playback Volume'
numid=6,iface=MIXER,name='Analogue 1 Playback Volume',index=1
numid=2,iface=PCM,name='Capture Channel Map'
numid=1,iface=PCM,name='Playback Channel Map'


MPD audio outputs status: (mpc outputs)
--------------------------------------------------
Output 1 (xCORE USB Audio 2.0) is enabled
Output 2 (bcm2835 ALSA_1) is disabled
Output 3 (bcm2835 ALSA_2) is disabled


###### mpd.conf ######
###################################
# Auto generated mpd.conf file
# please DO NOT edit it manually!
# Use RuneUI MPD config section
###################################

state_file	"/var/lib/mpd/mpdstate"
zeroconf_enabled 	"yes"
zeroconf_name 	"runeaudio"
bind_to_address "/run/mpd.sock"
bind_to_address 	"any"
port 	"6600"
max_connections 	"20"
user 	"mpd"
group 	"audio"
db_file 	"/var/lib/mpd/mpd.db"
sticker_file 	"/var/lib/mpd/sticker.sql"
pid_file 	"/var/run/mpd/pid"
music_directory 	"/mnt/MPD"
playlist_directory 	"/var/lib/mpd/playlists"
follow_outside_symlinks 	"yes"
follow_inside_symlinks 	"yes"
auto_update 	"no"
filesystem_charset 	"UTF-8"
id3v1_encoding 	"UTF-8"
volume_normalization 	"no"
audio_buffer_size 	"30000"
buffer_before_play 	"10%"
gapless_mp3_playback 	"yes"
mixer_type 	"disabled"

input {
	plugin 	"curl"
}

decoder {
	plugin 	"ffmpeg"
	enabled "no"
}

audio_output {
	name 		"xCORE USB Audio 2.0"
	type 		"alsa"
	device 		"hw:1,0"
	dsd_usb 	"yes"
	auto_resample 	"no"
	auto_format 	"no"
	enabled 	"yes"
}

audio_output {
	name 		"bcm2835 ALSA_1"
	type 		"alsa"
	device 		"hw:0,0"
	dsd_usb 	"yes"
	auto_resample 	"no"
	auto_format 	"no"
}

audio_output {
	name 		"bcm2835 ALSA_2"
	type 		"alsa"
	device 		"hw:0,0"
	dsd_usb 	"yes"
	auto_resample 	"no"
	auto_format 	"no"
}


###### Kernel optimization parameters ######
hardware platform:	RaspberryPi2
current orionprofile:	ACX


kernel scheduler for mmcblk0:			[noop] deadline cfq bfq 
/proc/sys/vm/swappiness:			0
/proc/sys/kernel/sched_latency_ns:		18000000
/proc/sys/kernel/sched_rt_period_us:		1000000
/proc/sys/kernel/sched_rt_runtime_us:		950000
/proc/sys/kernel/sched_autogroup_enabled:	1
/proc/sys/kernel/sched_rr_timeslice_ms:		10
/proc/sys/kernel/sched_min_granularity_ns:	2250000
/proc/sys/kernel/sched_wakeup_granularity_ns:	3000000


###### Kernel module snd_usb_audio settings ######
Module = "snd_usb_audio"

  Attributes:
    coresize            = "122707"
    initsize            = "0"
    initstate           = "live"
    refcnt              = "0"
    srcversion          = "ECF2455A216CC0AEC4AD7FD"
    taint               = ""
    uevent              = 

  Parameters:
    autoclock           = "Y"
    device_setup        = "0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0"
    enable              = "Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y"
    id                  = "(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null)"
    ignore_ctl_error    = "N"
    index               = "-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1"
    pid                 = "-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1"
    vid                 = "-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1"

  Sections:
    .ARM.exidx.exit.text= "0xbf1bf530"
    .ARM.exidx.init.text= "0xbf1bf528"
    .ARM.exidx          = "0xbf1c1c08"
    .ARM.extab          = "0xbf1c1be4"
    .alt.smp.init       = "0xbf1c1bd4"
    .bss                = "0xbf1c4e7c"
    .data               = "0xbf1c2194"
    .exit.text          = "0xbf1bc9c0"
    .gnu.linkonce.this_module= "0xbf1c4d04"
    .init.text          = "0xbf1ce000"
    .note.gnu.build-id  = "0xbf1c2170"
    .rodata             = "0xbf1bc9d0"
    .rodata.str1.4      = "0xbf1bf538"
    .strtab             = "0xbf1d3aac"
    .symtab             = "0xbf1ce01c"
    .text               = "0xbf1af000"
    __param             = "0xbf1c1b54"


###### Systemd active startup scripts (ls -lah /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/) ######
total 8.0K
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Oct  3 07:48 .
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 4.0K Feb 23  2015 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   44 Feb 15  2015 avahi-daemon.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/avahi-daemon.service
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   38 Feb 14  2015 dhcpcd.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/dhcpcd.service
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   39 Feb  8  2015 haveged.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/haveged.service
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   44 Oct  3 07:48 netctl-auto@wlan0.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/netctl-auto@.service
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   47 Feb 22  2015 netctl-ifplugd@eth0.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/netctl-ifplugd@.service
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   37 Feb 14  2015 nginx.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   36 Feb 15  2015 ntpd.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/ntpd.service
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   39 Feb 14  2015 php-fpm.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/php-fpm.service
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   37 Feb 14  2015 redis.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/redis.service
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   51 Dec 18  2014 remote-fs.target -> ../../../../usr/lib/systemd/system/remote-fs.target
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   43 Feb 14  2015 rune_PL_wrk.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/rune_PL_wrk.service
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   43 Feb 14  2015 rune_SY_wrk.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/rune_SY_wrk.service
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   45 Feb 14  2015 rune_shutdown.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/rune_shutdown.service
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   36 Feb  8  2015 sshd.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/sshd.service
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   48 Feb  8  2015 systemd-networkd.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-networkd.service
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   48 Feb  8  2015 systemd-resolved.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-resolved.service


###### Filesystem mounts ######
rootfs / rootfs rw 0 0
/dev/root / ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 0
devtmpfs /dev devtmpfs rw,relatime,size=375548k,nr_inodes=93887,mode=755 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime 0 0
securityfs /sys/kernel/security securityfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000 0 0
tmpfs /run tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev,mode=755 0 0
tmpfs /sys/fs/cgroup tmpfs ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,mode=755 0 0
cgroup /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd cgroup rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,xattr,release_agent=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-cgroups-agent,name=systemd 0 0
cgroup /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu,cpuacct cgroup rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpu,cpuacct 0 0
cgroup /sys/fs/cgroup/net_cls,net_prio cgroup rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,net_cls,net_prio 0 0
cgroup /sys/fs/cgroup/bfqio cgroup rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,bfqio 0 0
cgroup /sys/fs/cgroup/perf_event cgroup rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,perf_event 0 0
cgroup /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer cgroup rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,freezer 0 0
cgroup /sys/fs/cgroup/devices cgroup rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,devices 0 0
cgroup /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset cgroup rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpuset 0 0
cgroup /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio cgroup rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,blkio 0 0
mqueue /dev/mqueue mqueue rw,relatime 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs rw,relatime 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs rw 0 0
systemd-1 /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc autofs rw,relatime,fd=29,pgrp=1,timeout=300,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct 0 0
logs /var/log tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,size=5120k 0 0
configfs /sys/kernel/config configfs rw,relatime 0 0
rune-logs /var/log/runeaudio tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,size=5120k 0 0
/dev/mmcblk0p1 /boot vfat rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=ascii,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro 0 0
//192.168.1.19/d /mnt/MPD/NAS/Media\040Centre cifs ro,relatime,vers=1.0,sec=ntlm,cache=none,uid=1000,forceuid,gid=92,forcegid,addr=192.168.1.19,file_mode=0755,dir_mode=0755,nounix,rsize=16384,wsize=17408,actimeo=1 0 0


###### Filesystem mounts - free space (df -h) ######
Filesystem        Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/root         1.7G  1.4G  255M  85% /
devtmpfs          367M     0  367M   0% /dev
tmpfs             371M     0  371M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs             371M  348K  371M   1% /run
tmpfs             371M     0  371M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs             371M     0  371M   0% /tmp
logs              5.0M   16K  5.0M   1% /var/log
rune-logs         5.0M  140K  4.9M   3% /var/log/runeaudio
/dev/mmcblk0p1    100M   12M   88M  12% /boot
//192.168.1.19/d  401G  265G  136G  67% /mnt/MPD/NAS/Media Centre


###### Loaded kernel modules ######
Module                  Size  Used by
ecb                     1858  0
md4                     3342  0
nls_utf8                1296  1
cifs                  458034  2
ctr                     3415  1
ccm                     7208  1
arc4                    1703  2
rt2800usb              17721  0
rt2800lib              77178  1 rt2800usb
rt2x00usb              11369  1 rt2800usb
rt2x00lib              43985  3 rt2x00usb,rt2800lib,rt2800usb
mac80211              515096  3 rt2x00lib,rt2x00usb,rt2800lib
cfg80211              455144  2 mac80211,rt2x00lib
snd_usb_audio         122707  0
snd_hwdep               6083  1 snd_usb_audio
snd_usbmidi_lib        19629  1 snd_usb_audio
crc_ccitt               1576  1 rt2800lib
snd_rawmidi            20803  1 snd_usbmidi_lib
snd_seq_device          6535  1 snd_rawmidi
snd_soc_hifiberry_dacplus     2990  0
snd_soc_hifiberry_dac     2746  0
snd_soc_pcm512x_i2c     1969  0
snd_soc_bcm2708_i2s     7027  0
snd_soc_pcm512x         8181  1 snd_soc_pcm512x_i2c
regmap_mmio             3157  1 snd_soc_bcm2708_i2s
regmap_i2c              2538  1 snd_soc_pcm512x_i2c
snd_soc_core          167408  4 snd_soc_pcm512x,snd_soc_hifiberry_dac,snd_soc_hifiberry_dacplus,snd_soc_bcm2708_i2s
leds_gpio               3530  0
i2c_bcm2708             5646  0
led_class               4035  2 leds_gpio,rt2x00lib
sch_fq_codel            7252  8
snd_compress            8186  1 snd_soc_core
snd_pcm_dmaengine       5351  1 snd_soc_core
uio_pdrv_genirq         3281  0
uio                     8710  1 uio_pdrv_genirq
snd_bcm2835            20881  0
snd_pcm                86661  5 snd_bcm2835,snd_usb_audio,snd_soc_core,snd_soc_hifiberry_dac,snd_pcm_dmaengine
snd_timer              19608  1 snd_pcm
snd                    60836  10 snd_bcm2835,snd_usb_audio,snd_soc_core,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_seq_device,snd_compress
bcm2708_rng             1143  0
rng_core                5666  1 bcm2708_rng
ipv6                  342650  0

fongalv

Last resort was to reinstall the original image I had, the file was a 0.3 beta(dated 4th March 2015), but for some reason after installation, the version showing under runeaudio webui's "credits" says im running 0.4beta(dated 20141216). And I still have quite bad stuttering when streaming anything above 16/44.1.

So, did I somehow inadvertently instal an older "nightly" build that refuses to go away even after a clean format and fresh install?

After quite abit of readup, it seems like I might have the old USB issue?