[mikuhf]

Does Ubuntu support mt-daapd and afpd? I've been using Gentoo on my home audio and file server, but I can't stop upgrading the damn thing -- I really should find a stable OS and leave it alone.

EDIT -- let me rephrase that question -- does Ubuntu have a simple package deployment mechanism for additional software like mt-daapd and afpd? Or does it come with Apple and iTunes support in the base distribution? I find emerge quite a nice installation package, and rpm's were good too, although rpm's sometimes got stale, whereas Gentoo keeps pretty well up to date.


M

 

[Schalldampfer]

Mmm, and as for the BitHead, I don't really know what to do. And I'm not using Ubuntu. PCLinuxOS is working fine, and I'm thinking of sticking with it.

 

[pedxing]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikuhf /img/forum/go_quote.gif Does Ubuntu support mt-daapd and afpd? I've been using Gentoo on my home audio and file server, but I can't stop upgrading the damn thing -- I really should find a stable OS and leave it alone.

Ubuntu uses apt-get. You can find the front-end gui in the administrative or system section on the desktop menu. I think those programs are created by community volunteers, so you will have to subscribe to the "universe" channel. Ubuntu's web site also has a list of available packages ( I would google for them using ubuntu and the package name as the search words ).

Whether or not if the Ubuntu packages are kept up to date depends on the maintainers. I sometimes find recently released packages to have problems because they were compiled with stale libraries.

 

[kingsqueak]

Bithead on Ubuntu Edgy, it 'just works'.

A few tips...

In my case it's my second sound device so as far as ALSA is concerned it is hw:1,0 for the usb sound device.

In xmms you need to select that or 'usb sound device' depending on what output plugin you are using.

With Amarok, I had issues where it would run fine until I switched to 'next track' then xine would bitch about not finding the sound device.

This was because I didn't setup dmix for the usb device and had crossfade enabled in Amarok. If you disable crossfade, this will go away. If you really want to fix it, you need to enable dmix for the usb device. The ALSA project wiki is where I figured it out.

I created a ~/.asoundrc file that looks like this

pcm.dac {
type dmix
ipc_key 1024
slave {
pcm "hw:1,0"
period_time 0
period_size 1024
buffer_size 4096
}
}

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

ctl.mixer0 {
type hw
card 1
}


Then in Amarok's ALSA config for the sound device entries, I put 'plug:dac' in all four boxes. Crossfade now works as it should, no more errors.

If you get noise while the system is busy, take that buffer size and try increasing it one step at time by a factor of two each time. If 4096 doesn't work, try 8192 and so on. You need to restart Amarok if you make changes to ~/.asoundrc .

 

[Schalldampfer]

Okay, so... is there anyway to disable my soundcard short of ripping it out of the motherboard? I think the Total BitHead will be plugged in the majority of the time the computer is on, so I would like to just designate it as the primary sound device. Oh, and please keep in mind that I'm not using Unbuntu, rather PCLinuxOS, although it shouldn't matter much when you get to the kernel level.

 

[kingsqueak]

If you're lucky, you just go into the BIOS and disable it, then the system won't see it.

If it's a separate card though and not onboard, you just pull the card.

The ~/.asoundrc file is a generic thing, not distro specific, just ALSA specific. You could just create that file with what I suggested and see if it works. It basically makes the dac the default soundcard for that particular user login, effectively what you want without disabling the option of the other card.

 

[Schalldampfer]

Eh... just ripped out the sound card. It's working fine, now. Just need to fix this display problem, now...

 

[Schalldampfer]

One more question: What do you guys use to rip CD's to FLAC?

 

[Schalldampfer]

Augh! Amarok keeps updating its database! Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but since this computer is really old, it needs every hertz cycle to keep the music playing smoothly.

 

[steevc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schalldämpfer /img/forum/go_quote.gif One more question: What do you guys use to rip CD's to FLAC?

I've been using the feature in Konqueror where you can browse a music CD as folders with WAV, MP3, OGG and FLAC as described here

I just drag the FLAC files to where I want them, but I'm not sure how good the engine behind this is. I've not noticed any glitches in tracks I've ripped.

 

[steevc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by krrm /img/forum/go_quote.gif I had to try Amarok when I got home and I had none of your issues. I can change position within tracks and the songs last as long as they should. I used Amarok 1.4.4/KDE 3.5.5 on OpenSuse 10.2(64bit). I use xine as engine as well, maybe there are some settings somewhere that has gone wild?

I'm on Amarok 1.4.3 as that is what is current in Ubuntu just now. Perhaps you have a more recent Xine as well. I'm a little wary of installing more recent versions in case it causes problems with the Ubuntu upgrades.

 

[kingsqueak]

I use 'grip', takes some fiddling to get it all setup for your ripping preferences, might be a bit too detailed for you to deal with, dunno. It's nice though as it allows for a ton of options as to how you want things structured in the filesystem, how you want the ID3 tags done, how you want filenames etc.

It also allows you to just start it, insert a CD and it just runs until it finishes and just ejects. You can get through a stack a bit quicker that way.

As for Amarok updating it's db, did you ever let it do a full initial update? If you start playing it and continue adding files all the while it will confuse it sometimes.

Once you've done the initial db setup and update, it will automatically update each re-start and it's very fast unless you add more tracks...then it has to add them to the db of course.

I tend to rip masses of tracks into ~/music which isn't my main library, that way if any errors happen or I want to rename the parent 'artist' dir I can, before I move them into the library. Also, that way I'm not having Amarok seeing the changes album by album and constantly trying to catch up.

If all the glitz of Amarok isn't something you are really using, there's always xmms or bmp (beep media player), or alsaplayer. or totem, there's many others. They are file based players. Rythmbox is another one like Amarok that has more features than these do, maybe try that one.

That's one thing for sure, the amount of options is always large for a linux user.

 

[Schalldampfer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kingsqueak /img/forum/go_quote.gif I use 'grip', takes some fiddling to get it all setup for your ripping preferences, might be a bit too detailed for you to deal with, dunno. It's nice though as it allows for a ton of options as to how you want things structured in the filesystem, how you want the ID3 tags done, how you want filenames etc. It also allows you to just start it, insert a CD and it just runs until it finishes and just ejects. You can get through a stack a bit quicker that way. As for Amarok updating it's db, did you ever let it do a full initial update? If you start playing it and continue adding files all the while it will confuse it sometimes. Once you've done the initial db setup and update, it will automatically update each re-start and it's very fast unless you add more tracks...then it has to add them to the db of course. I tend to rip masses of tracks into ~/music which isn't my main library, that way if any errors happen or I want to rename the parent 'artist' dir I can, before I move them into the library. Also, that way I'm not having Amarok seeing the changes album by album and constantly trying to catch up. If all the glitz of Amarok isn't something you are really using, there's always xmms or bmp (beep media player), or alsaplayer. or totem, there's many others. They are file based players. Rythmbox is another one like Amarok that has more features than these do, maybe try that one. That's one thing for sure, the amount of options is always large for a linux user.

Wow... thanks for thath detailed explanation. The community here is great.

 

[thubble]

One thing to note when using dmix is that you have to specify the sample rate (usually 44100 for CD audio) by adding a "rate 44100" line (see below). Otherwise, dmix will resample to 48000 khz using a low-quality algorithm (much like the Windows kmixer). You may also want to add "format S32_LE" as otherwise dmix uses 16-bit mixing.

pcm.dac {
type dmix
ipc_key 1024
slave {
pcm "hw:1,0"
period_time 0
period_size 1024
buffer_size 4096
rate 44100
format S32_LE
}
}

Also, ALSA unfortunately enables dmix by default in recent versions, so you have to either manually disable it (via .asoundrc) or change the sample rate as above (also using .asoundrc).

 

[kingsqueak]

Hey, thanks for the pointers. I hadn't had a chance to really dig into the ALSA docs and absorb more of it.

I've changed my .asoundrc around a bit to the following.

Code:

[left]pcm.dac { type dmix ipc_key 1024 slave { pcm "hw:1,0" period_time 0 period_size 1024 buffer_size 4096 format S16_LE rate 44100 } bindings{ 0 0 1 1 } } ctl.dac { type hw card 1 } pcm.dsp0 { type plug slave.pcm "dac" } ctl.dsp0 { type hw card 1 } ctl.mixer0 { type hw card 1 } pcm.!default { type plug slave.pcm "dac" } ctl.!default { type plug slave.pcm "dac" }[/left]

I setup some OSS emulation and other devices I didn't have defined. Set the format to the best supported by this DAC as well.