Linux for the Audiophile - Snakeoil OS

[ds2k]

The current maintainer of rEFInd boot manager surely understands a lot about EFI boot. You can ask for supports

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[a.dent]

The latest pre-release of Snakeoil OS is available. v0.1.5-pre-release-20160801

 

A few bugs are fixed and sound quality remains excellent.

[Gogi]

is it possible to run Pandora plugin on snakeoil squeezelite player?

[zackthedog]

Thanks for the positive comments. Making Linux easy out of the box for most people to play music almost straight away is one of the key design goals of Snakeoil OS (SQ of course is the primary goal).

 

Now if only I can make the ISO file itself boot in UEFI mode (or UEFI-CSM or whatever it's called). That feature will make it so much easier for other people to try Snakeoil (e.g. with Mac Minis, NUCs etc). I have installed Snakeoil manually on a Mac mini a while back so the underlying OS already works (grub2 works with UEFI).

 

But understanding the UEFI boot sequence so far still eludes me. So far managed to get grub2 to load in a UEFI system, however, booting seems to fail with a blank screen (Will try and enable serial console to debug this later this weekend if I have time).

 

If there's anybody around this woods who have created UEFI ISOs from scratch before and know how the procedure actually works please point me to the right direction. Thanks .

 

Yes, this is my experience. Tried to boot on a CherryTrail mini-PC and no luck. It would be great to solve this!

[snakeoil.os]

Yes, this is my experience. Tried to boot on a CherryTrail mini-PC and no luck. It would be great to solve this!

Told myself I wouldn't post on CA until I cracked EFI. And I finally did, so here I am!

Before I release a ISO beta, can you guys tell me the network chipsets on your EFI machines? Be it NUC or Macs.

So far this is what I have:

 

• Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM57765 Gigabit Ethernet
  
• Realtek 8196 (Tulip)
  
• Intel E1000E
  

Are there any other network chips? Will release the ISO once I get more information on what other network chips are out there.

There are some caveats though:

 

1. No console after installation, so you'd be running this headless with the stock kernel (hence the network question above)
   
2. I have heard reports of people installing Snakeoil and get their original OS wiped out (even after doing manual partitioning). And yet I have people who managed to get multi OS working. So until I have time to figure out where my instructions is wrong, if you plan to do multi-OS, please disconnect your existing OS HDD, and install this on some fresh medium or test PC, and then connect your original OS back.
   
3. 64 bit support for now (Both EFI and CPU instruction set). Some machines have 32 bit only EFI but 64 bit CPU. Unfortunately these machines will not be supported.
   

 

I would really like to say this is a very difficult thing to do. But when I finally figured all this out, in reality it's not that difficult after all. Sorry it took this long.

 

Second, and more importantly. I'm testing Mytek Stereo 192 in Snakeoil in USB 2.0 mode. I need more testers who has this DAC so can fine tune the instructions properly. You'd need to update your DAC to the latest firmware though. Please let me know if you can help. As per the point 2 above, please try this on a spare computer just in case.

 

After you get Snakeoil installed, follow this walkthrough. Please comment on any issues you encountered so I can refine the process.

 

 

Cheers.

[snakeoil.os]

New ISO (now based on Ubuntu 16.02), with a Angular web interface that's works better with mobile devices. You can try the demo of the new web interface here: Link.

If you are interested to try Linux, but find it difficult to install and set it up. SnakeoilOS may be the solution for you. To download go here.

 

[zackthedog]

Thank you!  It sounds great, a little more detail and snap than the older version.

[snakeoil.os]

1 hour ago, zackthedog said:

Thank you!  It sounds great, a little more detail and snap than the older version.

Thanks.

 

I'm surprised with the perceived SQ improvements myself too. Not sure if it's due to good planning or a fluke. A bit of both I guess.

 

This new version is a complete overhaul so I'm just glad things are going relatively smoothly... Hopefully this round of testing will only involve minor bug fixes and nothing major.

[Sal1950]

On 3/25/2016 at 0:04 AM, Paul R said:

 

Some versions of Linux are dead simple to install, like Ubuntu.

I ran PCLinuxOS support for over 7 years.

The problems enter with the real "Joe Sixpacks" who just don't understand terms like partitions, boot loaders, etc.

He has the exact same problems if he has to handle such chores in Windoz or Frapple.  But he reads on the net about some kool new OS and wants to give it a try.  Then of course they blame the OS for being too difficult. You do have to do a bit of homework and be willing to read a bit if you want to do something with a computer a bit more technical than sending an email.   LOL

[SoundSea]

I'd like to try out Snakeoil but I'm having a little trouble with a networking issue. I'll probably give too much information here but I don't know what's important.

 

I've been running Daphile headless on an old machine for a few years with a static local IP. I recently bought an upgraded computer for it, swapped the SSD with Daphile on it into the new machine and all went smoothly. So now I have my old machine with the new machine's HDD installed to try out different headless programs and compare.

 

Yesterday I installed Snakeoil from Live USB to the old machine's HDD using the same ethernet cable I usually use for Daphile, which is wired to a Wi-Fi range extender. It came up with the same static IP I use for Daphile, though it was listed as DHCP in the Snakeoil web interface. Before getting things set up enough to actually play anything, I switched the ethernet cable back to the Daphile machine to check my NAS settings and when I entered the IP address to access Daphile the Snakeoil interface came up from my browser's cache. It failed to connect as I had unplugged the Snakeoil machine, but I had a moment of panic I that was going to lose my access to Daphile at that IP address. I erased my past hour of browsing history in Chrome, got back into Daphile at its usual address and abandoned Snakeoil for the time being.

 

I then installed Volumio to the same machine but this time I grabbed a new ethernet cable and plugged it into a different jack on my router. Volumio came up with a different IP and all went fine with testing that. 

 

Today I created a new Snakeoil Live USB and installed it to the test machine using the same cable and jack I'd used for Volumio and once again it came up with the IP I use for Daphile. Why would that be and how can I fix it? Honestly, I only learn as much as I have to with these setups. It took me longer than is probably normal to get Daphile set up, networked to my NAS, and accessible remotely and I really don't want to mess with something that's working while I experiment with other options.

[snakeoil.os]

Hi SoundSea.

 

You may have DHCP reservation set up on your router for your old machine's network MAC. Can you check your router DHCP settings and see if any reservations are set? If yes, adjust the reservations accordingly in line your new environment. (i.e. update that reservation to point to the new Daphile MAC).

Now, when you run Snakeoil OS again, it should pick up another IP address. You can find what that is is by looking at the router DHCP settings. Or try the zeroconf name: 'snakeoil.local'.

 

 

[SoundSea]

5 hours ago, snakeoil.os said:

Hi SoundSea.

 

You may have DHCP reservation set up on your router for your old machine's network MAC. Can you check your router DHCP settings and see if any reservations are set? If yes, adjust the reservations accordingly in line your new environment. (i.e. update that reservation to point to the new Daphile MAC).

Now, when you run Snakeoil OS again, it should pick up another IP address. You can find what that is is by looking at the router DHCP settings. Or try the zeroconf name: 'snakeoil.local'.

 

 

Yep, you are exactly right. I think the new machine inherited the same IP because it was set up as static on the Daphile settings. Snakeoil is now rolling on a new IP. Curious Volumio wouldn't have the same issue running from that machine but it's resolved.

 

The name is hilarious, btw, and I'm not even Australian. My only problem with it is snakeoil is such a common term among audio junkies that any Google search just brings up forum discussions about expensive audio products being called snakeoil. I suppose that will change as you take over the world.

 

Thank you! Looking forward to playing around with it.

 

 

[snakeoil.os]

9 hours ago, SoundSea said:

Yep, you are exactly right. I think the new machine inherited the same IP because it was set up as static on the Daphile settings. Snakeoil is now rolling on a new IP. Curious Volumio wouldn't have the same issue running from that machine but it's resolved.

 

The name is hilarious, btw, and I'm not even Australian. My only problem with it is snakeoil is such a common term among audio junkies that any Google search just brings up forum discussions about expensive audio products being called snakeoil. I suppose that will change as you take over the world.

 

Thank you! Looking forward to playing around with it.

 

 

Volumio may have changed the MAC of your network card - hence it did not get back the same IP. Or there may be a bug in the DHCP server in your router? Either way not that big of a problem as long as you don't have two IPs sitting on the same network.

That's the plan - but without the letter L. i.e. just take over the word.

 

The previous Snakeoil releases were: Schumann Resonance (0.1.0), Ethernet (0.1.2), Cable Lifter (0.1.3), Cryo Treament (0.1.4), and Power Cable (0.1.5).

Current release is Golden Ears (1.0.x) and the next will be Blind Testing (1.1.x).

[snakeoil.os]

A quick heads up. Snakeoil OS 1.1.0 (code name blind testing) is now officially released. From the first release (PHP and ancient HTML) to now (RESTful + Angular). It's been quite a journey development wise, and I hope it is now easier for new comers to get acquainted with Linux.

 

You can get the ISO here:  https://www.snakeoil-os.net/forums/Thread-Snakeoil-ISO-1-1-0-Blind-Testing

 

Any questions, feel free to ask.

[Ben-M]

On 8/6/2018 at 6:31 PM, snakeoil.os said:

A quick heads up. Snakeoil OS 1.1.0 (code name blind testing) is now officially released. From the first release (PHP and ancient HTML) to now (RESTful + Angular). It's been quite a journey development wise, and I hope it is now easier for new comers to get acquainted with Linux.

 

You can get the ISO here:  https://www.snakeoil-os.net/forums/Thread-Snakeoil-ISO-1-1-0-Blind-Testing

 

Any questions, feel free to ask.

Congrats on finally releasing Blind Testing. That's a big leap from Cable Lifter and I'll have to try it out soon. 

 

Thanks a lot. 

[snakeoil.os]

19 hours ago, Ben-M said:

Congrats on finally releasing Blind Testing. That's a big leap from Cable Lifter and I'll have to try it out soon. 

 

Thanks a lot. 

It's my pleasure really. In my opinion Linux is a great platform for music playback. Hoping I have managed to make it easy enough for people who are new to Linux to give this OS a try.

 

The only downside is the somewhat complicated process to install Snakeoil OS onto the computer. Initially I wanted to make this easy by making this install a one click process. However, the thought of people clicking on that button and find out that action has wiped out their existing OS (and data) really scares me.

 

For the next best thing, have decided to do a Raspberry Pi version instead. This is still in testing stage at the moment and hopefully it'd will be ready in a few weeks..

 

 

[Sal1950]

7 hours ago, snakeoil.os said:

The only downside is the somewhat complicated process to install Snakeoil OS onto the computer.

Wondering why you haven't looked into the livecd/usb type process? Download the ISO, burn it to a CD or USB.  You can boot the media to a fully functional desktop and investigate how it interfaces with your hardware and personal preferences. If you like they have pretty simple installation GUI routines that anyone capable of installing Windows can accomplish. All fully open sourced. The one I'm most familiar with is PCLinuxOS.

http://www.pclinuxos.com/

[zackthedog]

4 hours ago, Sal1950 said:

Wondering why you haven't looked into the livecd/usb type process? Download the ISO, burn it to a CD or USB.  You can boot the media to a fully functional desktop and investigate how it interfaces with your hardware and personal preferences. If you like they have pretty simple installation GUI routines that anyone capable of installing Windows can accomplish. All fully open sourced. The one I'm most familiar with is PCLinuxOS.

http://www.pclinuxos.com/

 

You can boot Snakeoil-OS from a live USB to try it.  The installer gives you that option.

[tp1]

On 4/24/2018 at 10:59 PM, SoundSea said:

The name is hilarious, btw, and I'm not even Australian. My only problem with it is snakeoil is such a common term among audio junkies that any Google search just brings up forum discussions about expensive audio products being called snakeoil. I suppose that will change as you take over the world.

 

Thank you! Looking forward to playing around with it.

 

 

I think you will find that the name "Snakeoil" is a product of the developer's wry sense of humour.  Releases such as "cable -lifter" seem to be an extension of that.

[Sal1950]

6 hours ago, zackthedog said:

 

You can boot Snakeoil-OS from a live USB to try it.  The installer gives you that option.

Didn't sound like it from the various discussions I've heard here though I haven't researched it deeply..

 

 

[jabbr]

On 8/6/2018 at 6:31 AM, snakeoil.os said:

A quick heads up. Snakeoil OS 1.1.0 (code name blind testing) is now officially released. From the first release (PHP and ancient HTML) to now (RESTful + Angular). It's been quite a journey development wise, and I hope it is now easier for new comers to get acquainted with Linux.

 

You can get the ISO here:  https://www.snakeoil-os.net/forums/Thread-Snakeoil-ISO-1-1-0-Blind-Testing

 

Any questions, feel free to ask.

 

Yeah does this simply use a standard Ubuntu kernel, or a custom kernel? If custom, where is the code?

[snakeoil.os]

1 hour ago, Sal1950 said:

Didn't sound like it from the various discussions I've heard here though I haven't researched it deeply..

 

It's a LiveCD.. Stated in the first post, point 1..

 

 

1 hour ago, jabbr said:

 

Yeah does this simply use a standard Ubuntu kernel, or a custom kernel? If custom, where is the code?

It's using the RT kernel... The kernel and RT code are all stock. You can find out what the version is from the filename itself, or via uname.

 

The config used to build the kernel are included in the kernel, although they are not exposed as config.gz, you can extract it via a script (iextract-config if memory serves).

 

It'd be nice to get a movement going where people can experiment with different kernels and find out if they all sound the same, or different. To get this running I need to simplify the process further - not a lot of Snakeoil users know how to do this yet.

 

 

[snakeoil.os]

2 hours ago, tp1 said:

 

I think you will find that the name "Snakeoil" is a product of the developer's wry sense of humour.  Releases such as "cable -lifter" seem to be an extension of that.

Give this latest version a go (Remember to enable CPUSet).. It's still not to the level of your transport/DAC combo can provide, but I reckon it's a step forward when compared to the 0.1.x series.. Especially when you choose MPD-20 as the player...

 

And the graphics.. Check it out. A lot more tablet friendly.. This new UI will make more sense when I eventually get to work on the player remote.

[jabbr]

6 hours ago, snakeoil.os said:

It's using the RT kernel... The kernel and RT code are all stock. You can find out what the version is from the filename itself, or via uname.

Ok, I thought I saw a kernel name with DSD in it, so was asking. No problem — NB: I need 4.18 and use both amd64 and arm64 so...

[snakeoil.os]

12 hours ago, jabbr said:

Ok, I thought I saw a kernel name with DSD in it, so was asking. No problem — NB: I need 4.18 and use both amd64 and arm64 so...

That name is just a config option in the .config file. Having said that, the DSD kernel actually requires custom mods to the quirks.c file. The source code for that is not in a public respository yet, but it can be made available on request...

 

4.18 is the latest version of the tree. What's new in there you're insterested in? It's not really difficult to release a custom kernel for that version. Ditto for the ARM version, for Pi at least  (armv7l).