mpdPup - Simplified MPD Music Server/Jukebox - v0.9.3

For talk and support relating specifically to Puppy derivatives
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luisb
Posts: 25
Joined: Sun 30 Sep 2012, 13:52

#331 Post by luisb »

Hi cmiu
Is it possible to post your fstab changes and the script file, i have the same setup you have.
Regards

cmiu
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri 15 Mar 2013, 10:40

#332 Post by cmiu »

luisb wrote:Hi cmiu
Is it possible to post your fstab changes and the script file, i have the same setup you have.
Regards
it's not pretty but it does the job
/etc/fstab

beware that if you run mpd configurator you need to manually remove the entry below hashes
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts gid=2,mode=620 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,rw 0 0
//192.168.2.100/d$ /mnt/htpc_d cifs username=xxxx,password=yyyyy,iocharset=utf8 0 0
//192.168.2.100/e$ /mnt/htpc_e cifs username=xxxx,password=yyyyy,iocharset=utf8 0 0
//192.168.2.101/g$ /mnt/games_g cifs username=xxxxx,password=yyyyy,iocharset=utf8 0 0
#MPD Config Wizard#######################################
# Any content beyond this line will be rewritten when the wizard is run##########
/etc/init.d/01.firstboot
add at the beginning

#! /bin/bash
mkdir /mnt/htpc_d
mkdir /mnt/htpc_e
mkdir /mnt/games_g

mount /mnt/htpc_d
mount /mnt/htpc_e
mount /mnt/games_g


ln -s /mnt/htpc_d/Music /mnt/music/htpc_d
ln -s /mnt/htpc_e/Music /mnt/music/htpc_e
ln -s /mnt/htpc_e/Clasica /mnt/music/htpc_e_cls
ln -s /mnt/htpc_e/torrents/hdd7 /mnt/music/htpc_e_torr
ln -s /mnt/games_g/_SACD /mnt/music/games_g

luisb
Posts: 25
Joined: Sun 30 Sep 2012, 13:52

#333 Post by luisb »

Thanks cmiu
So you mount 3 drives. Added adicional symlinks to 3 directories in one drive........
I am going to digest all that and get back to you
thank you alot again
luis

cmiu
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri 15 Mar 2013, 10:40

#334 Post by cmiu »

luisb wrote:So you mount 3 drives. Added adicional symlinks to 3 directories in one drive........
luis
I added the symlinks in /mnt/music, which is has no mount on top of it, but it is the default folder for mpd server. Usually on /mnt/music the share provided in mpdwizard is mounted.

You can start by figuring out the differences between original fstab and the ones that I've post.

DenisP
Posts: 56
Joined: Mon 25 Mar 2013, 22:17
Location: Croatia

Ordinary LCD 16x2 (hd44780 compatible) works!

#335 Post by DenisP »

I can report that I successfully attached an LCD display (hd44780 compatible) to the parallel port, and using mpdlcd, it shows song info, etc.

There was some soldering involved on a spare LPT (printer) cable, and the whole shebang is temporarily wired through a breadboard, but the thing works! No extra packages required, nothing! Just edit the /etc/LCDd.conf file for the type of display and wiring (hd44789 and "winamp" wiring),start LCDd (LCDd -d hd44780), and start mpdlcd (just type "mpdlcd" on command line), and there it goes - showing info on the external 16x2 LCD :)
Now for some kind of DIY IR remote sensor, an old remote control, and that's it :)
Once again, thanks to Idolse for a very nice distro - you thought of everything :)
And I also learned a lot about puppy linux in general :)
Image

DenisP
Posts: 56
Joined: Mon 25 Mar 2013, 22:17
Location: Croatia

#336 Post by DenisP »

Another thing regarding the LCD display....

Does anyone know if mpdlcd can show any other information besides the name of the song and time playing/remaining?

The help file for "mpdlcd" is very sparse, and after looking at the source, I don't see any command line options I could use to show anything else...

Namely, I'd like the LCD to show the volume bar when I change the MPD volume, like the photo in the link below shows.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/downl ... .php?id=54

So, I'm OK with it displaying the track which is playing (artist, title, time), but when anything esle happens (e.g. when I press "Stop" or change volume), I'd like to have the display show immediately what's going on, e.g. when the track is stopped, it should say "Stopped" or something like that, and when the volume is changed, it should show some kind of feedback (volume bar changing, or even some kind of text, like "Volume: xx %" or similar).

Can this be done using mpdlcd?
If not, is there any other client I could use for this purpose (showing more detailed info on external 16x2 LCD display)?

ldolse
Posts: 367
Joined: Fri 23 Oct 2009, 16:33

#337 Post by ldolse »

Nice work Denis!

Regarding mpdlcd, I believe it is customizable, but I haven't played with it much - there is a 'patterns' section in /etc/mpdlcd.conf that can be tweaked, but I'm not sure of all the details. I don't think Volume is an option this time. The author for mpdlcd has been quite responsive, you just need to go to his Github site and open an issue there.

All the other lcd clients I tried are unmaintained/buggy.

DenisP
Posts: 56
Joined: Mon 25 Mar 2013, 22:17
Location: Croatia

Minimum space requirements for mpdPup?

#338 Post by DenisP »

Another question for Idolse...

What are the absolutely minimum space requirements for mpdPup to work properly?

Namely, I'm installing on a thin client with CF card instead of a hard disk, and I have a bunch of 128MB CF cards, which I'd like to use for several such "thin client" systems I'm preparing for a couple of friends....

I've noticed that mpd stores its music library database on disk, and wonder how big it can grow?

In short, would it be safe to do a frugal install to 128MB CF card, use the smallest .2fs save file size (which is ... 32MB?), and have the system operate normally with fairly large music library (15.000 - 20.000 tracks) on an external USB disk?
I've done this, and I have about 9MB left free on CF card, but don't know what will happen if a user has e.g. 3-4 large external USB disks with music, each with 20-30 thousand tracks... Would the mpd database grow too large - and thus mpd would not be able to save it on CF card, and throw errors (and consequentially, not start automatically, requiring manual intervention or deletions, etc.)?

DenisP
Posts: 56
Joined: Mon 25 Mar 2013, 22:17
Location: Croatia

Re: Minimum space requirements for mpdPup?

#339 Post by DenisP »

Again I'm replying to myself - at least saving Idolse the trouble.... :)
DenisP wrote: I've noticed that mpd stores its music library database on disk, and wonder how big it can grow?
I've just tried attaching an external USB HD, with about 15.000 tracks in a "music" subdirectory.

I did an "update library" from ncmpp (which took a while....) - after a couple of minutes all tracks were added to the library, and after checking the "database" file in "mpd" directory, it has grown to about 3.2MB.

So, for about 15.000 tracks, the database library can thus be something between 3.2 and 3.5MB (I guess it depends on the tags etc...).

- which answers most of my questions above :)

ldolse
Posts: 367
Joined: Fri 23 Oct 2009, 16:33

#340 Post by ldolse »

Those sizes sound about right - if you're really worried about the database growing you could just stick the MPD home folder on the NAS - you just need to edit mpd.conf to point there.

DenisP
Posts: 56
Joined: Mon 25 Mar 2013, 22:17
Location: Croatia

#341 Post by DenisP »

ldolse wrote:Those sizes sound about right - if you're really worried about the database growing you could just stick the MPD home folder on the NAS - you just need to edit mpd.conf to point there.
That sounds interesting...

So, basically, I could have separate MPD home folders for each external USB disk - each on its own disk?
That way I could avoid a new mpd library update each time the user swaps external storage (swaps existing USB disk with another... one of my friends has 3-4 LARGE USB disks with HQ flac files)

However, I guess that requires the same folder and mount structure for each of the external disks used, as stated in mpd.conf

Am I on the right track?

Basically, I'm trying to make swapping USB storage transparent for the (linux-ignorant) end user :)
If such a user needs to initiate a new mpd library update each time he/she connects another large USB external disk, it's not going to work without my extensive phone support :)

ldolse
Posts: 367
Joined: Fri 23 Oct 2009, 16:33

#342 Post by ldolse »

DenisP wrote:So, basically, I could have separate MPD home folders for each external USB disk - each on its own disk?
That way I could avoid a new mpd library update each time the user swaps external storage (swaps existing USB disk with another... one of my friends has 3-4 LARGE USB disks with HQ flac files)

However, I guess that requires the same folder and mount structure for each of the external disks used, as stated in mpd.conf

Am I on the right track?

Basically, I'm trying to make swapping USB storage transparent for the (linux-ignorant) end user :)
If such a user needs to initiate a new mpd library update each time he/she connects another large USB external disk, it's not going to work without my extensive phone support :)
Hmm... if you're looking at a disk swapping solution it could be done theoretically. The MPD DB and music folders would indeed need the same folder structure on each disk as you note. You should mount the disks read-only to the same mount path to facilitate safer swapping, and you would ideally want a udev rule to launch the mpd init script to restart MPD automatically when the disks were swapped so it would change to the new database.

lugili
Posts: 16
Joined: Sun 24 Feb 2013, 21:07

Listening to DSD

#343 Post by lugili »

Hi all,
I received new firmware from DCS to be able to listen to DSD files over USB. But with my mpd 0.16.8 installation of mpdpup it does not seem to work at the moment, mpd does not recognize DSD files.

Question to people who have expercience with mpdpup and DSD files:
- Is there an easy way to change to mpd 0.17.2 from 0.16.8 in mpdpup when already installed (I think you can choose when you set it up for the first time)?
- Is there any other things to do (I read somewhere in this threat that entries in mpd.conf have to be changed)?

Thanks for help.

lugili
Posts: 16
Joined: Sun 24 Feb 2013, 21:07

#344 Post by lugili »

I tried to change the MPD version and I was actually able to do it in the mpdwizard - that was easy.
Adding dsd_usb "yes" to the mpd.conf file made it all work. I can listen to DSD now! Great.

Although I am having dropouts playing high resultion files now. Anyone having experience in optimizing the settings (buffersize, etc.) in mpd.conf for DSD?

ldolse
Posts: 367
Joined: Fri 23 Oct 2009, 16:33

#345 Post by ldolse »

lugili wrote:Adding dsd_usb "yes" to the mpd.conf file made it all work. I can listen to DSD now! Great.

Although I am having dropouts playing high resultion files now. Anyone having experience in optimizing the settings (buffersize, etc.) in mpd.conf for DSD?
Not sure if you're seeing something DSD specific or just hi-rez specific. Some users find they need to unplug and re-plug the USB DAC after the system has been booted for Hi-rez (176Khz & 192Khz) to play correctly. DSD might be in the same boat.

luisb
Posts: 25
Joined: Sun 30 Sep 2012, 13:52

#346 Post by luisb »

@cmiu
Works very well :D
Just one diference on fstab, i use mapped drives names instead of drives letters
"//192.168.2.100/d$ ....." for //192.168.2.100/backup .....
@idolse
I think having this option posted by cmiu on mpdwizard, if possible, would be a great improvement in server database management

ldolse
Posts: 367
Joined: Fri 23 Oct 2009, 16:33

#347 Post by ldolse »

My plan for the next release is to move the default music folder location to something like /var/music, and then all the different mounted locations will be sym-linked to that directory. This will allow numerous mountpoints to co-exist easily. Updating the wizard to allow a user to define multiple mountpoints might take a bit longer, but I'll get there eventually.

luisb
Posts: 25
Joined: Sun 30 Sep 2012, 13:52

#348 Post by luisb »

That's good news :D

wlowes
Posts: 49
Joined: Fri 08 Jun 2012, 02:30
Location: Toronto, Canada

Tuning for sound quality

#349 Post by wlowes »

Hi all
I have been away for a while building amps. MPDPUP was working well, so I have not checked in for a while.

I just got caught up and it looks like there was a bit of a rally to tune for sound when Dynobot came in. Jrling was on some good paths, but it appears to have dropped.

Have you given up or gone underground.

Any update on which threads to prioritize?

What about a list of things to delete?

We need to form an organized effort at sound quality. Not just take other people's wild ideas. Need to test on MPDPUP and then report to Ildose what works so he has a list of priority items to put in 9.4.

I played around with buffer size. I had been using 8192 and load 100% before start. I tried larger sizes and seemed to loose air getting that congested sound. So I went the other extreme and tried smaller and smaller. If I am not mistaken, I believe I am getting detail and air at 512 buffer size and very small 1% load before play. Running Alix 3d2.

Anyone else running Alix care to try this? Takes only a moment. Am I imagining this? Let me know.
Walter

wlowes
Posts: 49
Joined: Fri 08 Jun 2012, 02:30
Location: Toronto, Canada

Sound tweaks

#350 Post by wlowes »

From my experience with CMP minimizing threads and processes that are not needed does help. MPDPUP is already very lean, but clearly there are system specific items that can be killed.

Alix users, with just a quick glance it is clear we can kill off bluetooth, video, line printer etc. As a teaser try the following. You'll see a nice relaxed clarity in the highs.

killall avahi-daemon
modprobe -r btusb
modprobe -r r8169
modprobe -r uvcvideo
modprobe -r ppdev
modprobe -r lp
modprobe -r videodev
modprobe -r ath9k
killall lxmd-binary

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