piCorePlayer = piCore Linux + Raspberry Pi + Squeezelite

[Emmanuel in Paris]

Hi Greg & Steen,

Apologies for not having replied earlier, I was away for a few days.
I will pursue my trials following your inputs and come back to you.

In the mean time, let me wish you a very happy New Year.

Emmanuel

 

[Greg Erskine]

14 January 2016

Hi all.

We are ready to release a major update to piCorePlayer - so we decided to call it version 2.00.

The major changes are:

• Only one version of piCorePlayer, but it can now run on all known Raspberry Pi boards. So you can use the same piCorePlayer image for all your players.
• Shairport-sync is supported and can be enabled from the "tweaks" page. It will automatically show on your iDevice (iPad or iPhone) with the name you have given your piCorePlayer. This means that you now can stream from your iDevices to piCorePlayer. It will automatically switch from squeezelite to shairport and vice versa. Just stop/pause either squeezelite or Shairport.
• piCorePlayer menu applet in Jivelite. This means that you will have a specific piCorePlayer menu in Jivelite. From here you can reboot and save eventual changes from within Jivelite. This menu is installed from your running LMS server. At the bottom of the Plugin page in LMS you will need to add piCorePlayer repo: http: //picoreplayer.sourceforge.net/repo.xml Save.
  • Then you go to Jivelite on the piCorePlayer. Settings - Advanced - Applet installer - piCorePlayer menu - Install.
  • Next use the arrow in the top left corner to get to the main menu. Choose "quit" in the bottom of the screen (this will restart Jivelite - so the piCorePlayer menu is visible).
  • Go to Settings - choose piCorePlayer and select "Save settings to SD-card"
• Kernel updated to 4.1.13 and piCore to version 7.0.

IMPORTANT: Because this version is so different from the others it is not possible to use the "In situ" upgrade/downgrade system to go down from version 2.00 to a previous version. If you for some reason want to use an older version you will have to download the previous version and burn it to your SD-card.

Please try it out. For this version Ralphy has been a tremendous help and he build the shairport-sync with all its dependencies. Kolossos made the piCorePlayer menu script.

Download

https://sites.google.com/site/picoreplayer/home/download

Regards
Greg, Ralphy and Steen

 

[bambadoo]

Thanks. Will try it today. However I have being all over trying to mount either nfs or cifs mount with the former version. Any tips?
Unable to find fileutilz that work in the reposatory. And also nfs-utils.

Best regard

 

[bambadoo]

Sorry short update.
With the new version (Kernel 4.1.13) I was able to install "filesystems-4.1.13-piCore_v7+.tcz" .. (There were none of those packages that could be installed on the former version).
And "cifs-utilz.tcz"..

Suddenly it works 🙂

Thanks for the new version.

A simple
sudo mkdir /mnt/folder
sudo mount -t cifs -o guest // xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/folder /mnt/folder

And it works like a charm.

Now I will make it persistent by editing /opt/bootlocal.sh and opt/.filetool.lst
Then make a backuo of it. "filetool.sh -b

Or perhaps do it in fstab?

Thanks again for this version.

BTW: I have one issue.
With ralphys ffmpeg codeks installed and playing .ape files. I am unable to "fast forward" in songs. Like skip to the middle of songs. Is that normal?
I am just using the LMS webpage for the job.

 

[Greg Erskine]

Sorry short update.
With the new version (Kernel 4.1.13) I was able to install "filesystems-4.1.13-piCore_v7+.tcz" .. (There were none of those packages that could be installed on the former version).
And "cifs-utilz.tcz"..

Suddenly it works 🙂

Thanks for the new version.

A simple
sudo mkdir /mnt/folder
sudo mount -t cifs -o guest // xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/folder /mnt/folder

And it works like a charm.

Now I will make it persistent by editing /opt/bootlocal.sh and opt/.filetool.lst
Then make a backuo of it. "filetool.sh -b

Or perhaps do it in fstab?

Thanks again for this version.

BTW: I have one issue.
With ralphys ffmpeg codeks installed and playing .ape files. I am unable to "fast forward" in songs. Like skip to the middle of songs. Is that normal?
I am just using the LMS webpage for the job.

Hi bambadoo,

That's good news. What were the chances of things falling into place for you so quickly.

FYI, you seem to be getting the hang of piCore, just remember to make some notes of your modifiications.

We can't guarantee that your enhancements will persist after an upgrade and keep an eye out for free space.

We have addded some CLI shorcuts, for example "$ pcp bu" for a buackup, "$pcp br" for a backup and reboot.

regards

 

[bambadoo]

Upgraded from v2.0 to v2.0.1
Maybe its like it should be but I have some extensions installed. After upgrade I am unable to start them.
minicom.tcz
cifs-utilz.tcz

For instance:
trying to run minicom
"sudo: minicom: command not found"

Trying to install again:
"minicom is already downloaded."


Any suggestions?

 

[Greg Erskine]

Upgraded from v2.0 to v2.0.1
Maybe its like it should be but I have some extensions installed. After upgrade I am unable to start them.
minicom.tcz
cifs-utilz.tcz

For instance:
trying to run minicom
"sudo: minicom: command not found"

Trying to install again:
"minicom is already downloaded."

Any suggestions?

Hi bambadoo,

You need to reinstall your extensions.

So you can delete them, then install again, or if the extensions are still in the optional directory, manually add them to /mnt/mmcblk0p2/tce/onboot.lst then reboot.

regards

 

[hallodeletue]

Hi,

I just tried to install my new official 7" touchscreen panel to my piCorePlayer (I tried different versions, 1.22, 2.00 and 2.01), and to my surprise Jivelite can't detect a player, i.e. I can select language, resolution, and then I get the message "searching for players....." and that's about it.

Interestingly enough, this only happens when connecting to the network via WLAN. When Ethernet is plugged in, everything is working OK. I have to mention, that my network is based on a ipfire firewall/router, which divides WLAN and ethernet into seperate subnets (i.e. 192.168.1.xxx for cable based, 192.168.2.xxx for WLAN; the LMS server is in the 192.168.1.xxx cable based subnet). The "normal" installation without touchscreen/jivelite works fine with WLAN connection, however, because access from one subnet to the other is enabled via firewall rules .....

Any ideas on that, anyone?

best regards,

hallodeletue

 

[Greg Erskine]

Hi,

I just tried to install my new official 7" touchscreen panel to my piCorePlayer (I tried different versions, 1.22, 2.00 and 2.01), and to my surprise Jivelite can't detect a player, i.e. I can select language, resolution, and then I get the message "searching for players....." and that's about it.

Interestingly enough, this only happens when connecting to the network via WLAN. When Ethernet is plugged in, everything is working OK. I have to mention, that my network is based on a ipfire firewall/router, which divides WLAN and ethernet into seperate subnets (i.e. 192.168.1.xxx for cable based, 192.168.2.xxx for WLAN; the LMS server is in the 192.168.1.xxx cable based subnet). The "normal" installation without touchscreen/jivelite works fine with WLAN connection, however, because access from one subnet to the other is enabled via firewall rules .....

Any ideas on that, anyone?

best regards,

hallodeletue

hi hallodeletue,

I am surprised that piCorePlayer works either.

What is the mask? 255.255.255.0 or something else. ($ ifconfig)

So the firewall rules can overwrite normal operation?

BTW: This sounds like it could be a jivelite issue, so it might get better attention on the Squeezebox forum.

regards

 

[phofman]

Do I understand correctly that the squeezebox server is on a different network segment (xxx.1.xxx vs. xxx.2.xxx). If that is the case, the autodiscovery is likely to fail.

Look at Jivelite for Windows which talks about configuration of the server IP address.

 

[hallodeletue]

Hi and thanks for the replies,

yes, the particular player and the server are on different subnets, so multicast is bound to fail. I did not realize that Jivelite had its own network connectivity, I thought it was merely a GUI talking to the piCorePlayer on its back, so to speak ...

Thanks for the hint to the manual network config, but unfortunately it didn`t work out. I can add the library IP, and it gets stored in the config file, but I cannot connect to the library...
Methinks that the IpFire router will be sacrificed on the altar of effortless multiroom sound system ;-) This whole business with different subnets for LAN and WLAN has been a nuissance ever since...

Keep on the great work on this magnificent piece of software, I donated a small amount to support your efforts.

Best regards,

hallodeletue

 

[Greg Erskine]

Thanks hallodeletue 🙂

 

[Greg Erskine]

29 February 2016 - piCorePlayer 2.02

Please try the new version piCorePlayer 2.02. Download.

IMPORTANT: Because of changes at sourceforge you will have problems updating using insitu-upgrade - so you need to apply the Sourceforge fix which is described here: Squeezebox forum before being able to update to piCorePlayer2.02.

Changes:

• Sourceforge fixes.
• Enhanced alsaequal sliders with number, and more robust selection of card number and selection of "equal".
• Jivelite piCorePlayer applet update.
• Improved insitu_update, so now it won't overwrite user customization.
• Updates for Raspberry Pi Zero (not tested).
• Support for “official” wifi adaptor.
• Support for raspidac3 and rpi_dac (not tested).
• Added "fix minor bugs" feature.
• Changed to tick and cross for indicators (colour blind issue).
• Automatically start of Squeezelite can be enabled/disabled from Tweaks page.

 

[maestroji]

The 2.02 version works very well indeed.
I have two pieces of RPi B, one with the ES9023 daughter card and the other with the Wolfson Audio Card. It is the one with the ES9023 which works very well.
Unfortunately there seems to be no way whereby I am unable to use the Wolfson as the DAC.
Greatly appreciated for any advice on how the Wolfson can be used with piCore 2.02.
Thank you.

 

[johnvb]

Question: Will this program work with the new Raspberry Pi 3 (with a HiFiberry Digi+ piggy backed on)?

 

[Greg Erskine]

The 2.02 version works very well indeed.
I have two pieces of RPi B, one with the ES9023 daughter card and the other with the Wolfson Audio Card. It is the one with the ES9023 which works very well.
Unfortunately there seems to be no way whereby I am unable to use the Wolfson as the DAC.
Greatly appreciated for any advice on how the Wolfson can be used with piCore 2.02.
Thank you.

Hi maestroji,

Support of the Wolfson Audio Card will only happen once they make their software available in Raspbian like the other hardware manufacturers do. It has not happened in the last couple years, so I don't really ever expect it to happen.

regards

 

[Greg Erskine]

Question: Will this program work with the new Raspberry Pi 3 (with a HiFiberry Digi+ piggy backed on)?

Answer: no.

piCore is in beta for RPi3 support. Once that process has completed then we can include support in piCorePlayer.

regards

 

[johnvb]

Thanks Greg. For a simple squeezebox replacement, (in my case the older "classic"), I'm assuming the raspberry 2 is sufficient.

 

[Bas Horneman]

Even the pi 1 is sufficient

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[maestroji]

Thank you very much Greg for the advice.
I came across the following link "https://www.element14.com/community/thread/42202/l/cirrus-logic-audio-card-working-on-the-raspberry-pi-2?displayFullThread=true"
some time ago by Ragner Jensen and it crossed my mind whether a similar approach could be used to enable the Wolfson to work on the piCore.
Thank you again.