Starting bruteFIR automatically

[Michael Boeckling]

I spend all day setting up a Pi Zero W with shairport-sync and bruteFIR. It works fine using the alsa loopback method, but I still have to start bruteFIR manually. This is my unit file, is there anything wrong?

[Unit]
Description=BruteFIR

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/brutefir /home/brutefir/brutefir_config
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=1

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

 

[soundcheck]

Some ideas.

Do you want to run it as user brutefir ?

Once you start brutefir it'll look for the default config in ~

In your case it would be /root

But I guess you'd have it in /home/brutefir

IC 2 potential ways out.

Either you add all config parameters to your customized config and start brutefir with
"-nodefault" . Then you can run it as whatever user. The paths references in the customized config file must be accessible though.

or you add e.g.

[Unit]
Description=BruteFIR

[Service]
User=brutefir
Group=audio
ExecStart=/usr/bin/brutefir /home/brutefir/brutefir_config
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=1

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

As far as I recall running brutefir standalone with aloop doesn't work. brutefir needs an audio input.

Perhaps you also need to add

After=shairpoint-sync

if shairpoint-sync would be a service.

shairport sync would then keep brutefir alive.


All just some wild ideas. I might try to set it up myself on a PI4.

Could you share your config?

Let us know if and how you made it work.

 

[Michael Boeckling]

Still doesn't work, I have to login and restart the brutefir service, then it works. Posting my full config below.

/etc/systemd/system/brutefir.service:

Description=BruteFIR
After=shairport-sync.service

[Service]
User=brutefir
Group=audio
ExecStart=/usr/bin/brutefir /home/brutefir/brutefir_config
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=1
WorkingDirectory=/home/brutefir

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

/etc/asound.conf:

# Run the following commands as root to load the ALSA loopback-device on boot automatically:
#
#	echo 'snd-aloop'								> /etc/modules-load.d/brutefir-alsa-loopback.conf
#	echo 'options snd-aloop id=BruteFIR enable=1 pcm_substreams=1 pcm_notify=1'	> /etc/modprobe.d/brutefir-alsa-loopback.conf
#
#


# Create an ALSA default audio-device for the ALSA loopback-device.
pcm.!default {

    # Use the ALSA plug-in "plug" for rate-/format-conversion.
    type plug

    # Forward the audio stream of OSMC/KODI to the ALSA loopback-device
    slave {
	pcm {

	    # Direct hardware access
	    type	hw

	    # Loopback card name
	    #
	    # Has to match "id" in the options of the snd-aloop module
	    card	"BruteFIR"

	    # Loopback device ID
	    device	0

	    # Number of audio channels
	    #
	    # Has to match the number of channels in OSMC/KODI (e.g. 7.1 -> 8)
	    # and "channels" in the BruteFIR input configuration
	    channels	2

	    # Format of audio stream
	    #
	    # Has to match the format defined in the "sample"-tag
	    # of the BruteFIR input configuration
	    format	"S16_LE"

	    # Sampling-rate of audio stream
	    #
	    # Has to match the sampling-rate defined in the global "sampling_rate"-tag
	    # of the global BruteFIR configuration
	    rate	44100
	}
    }
}


# Create an ALSA default control-device for the ALSA loopback-device.
ctl.!default {

	# Direct hardware access
        type	hw

	# Loopback card name
	#
	# Has to match "id" in the options of the snd-aloop module
        card	"BruteFIR"
}

/home/brutefir/brutefir_config:

## DEFAULT GENERAL SETTINGS ##

float_bits: 32;             # internal floating point precision
sampling_rate: 44100;       # sampling rate in Hz of audio interfaces
filter_length: 8192,16;       # length of filters
#config_file: "~/.brutefir_config"; # standard location of main config file
overflow_warnings: true;    # echo warnings to stderr if overflow occurs
show_progress: false;        # echo filtering progress to stderr
max_dither_table_size: 0;   # maximum size in bytes of precalculated dither
allow_poll_mode: false;     # allow use of input poll mode
modules_path: ".";          # extra path where to find BruteFIR modules
monitor_rate: false;        # monitor sample rate
powersave: true;           # pause filtering when input is zero
lock_memory: true;          # try to lock memory if realtime prio is set
sdf_length: -1;             # subsample filter half length in samples
safety_limit: -0.01;           # if non-zero max dB in output before aborting
convolver_config: "~/.brutefir_convolver"; # location of convolver config file

## COEFF DEFAULTS ##

coeff "c-l" {
#   filename: "/home/brutefir/Cor1L44.dbl";
   filename: "dirac pulse";
   format: "FLOAT64_LE";
};

coeff "c-r" {
#   filename: "/home/brutefir/Cor1R44.dbl";
   filename: "dirac pulse";
   format: "FLOAT64_LE";
};

## INPUT DEFAULTS ##
#
input "left_in", "right_in" {
        device: "alsa" { device: "hw:BruteFIR,1"; ignore_xrun: true; };
	sample: "S16_LE";
	channels: 2;
};

## OUTPUT analog
#
output "left_out", "right_out" {
        device: "alsa" { device: "hw:2,0"; ignore_xrun: true; };
	sample: "S16_LE";
#	dither: true;
};

## FILTER DEFAULTS ##

filter "drc_l" {
   from_inputs: "left_in";
   to_outputs: "left_out";
   coeff: "c-l";
};

filter "drc_r" {
   from_inputs: "right_in";
   to_outputs: "right_out";
   coeff: "c-r";
};

 

[phofman]

Have you enabled the brutefir.service with systemctl? systemd: how to enable a service automatically from the first boot? - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange

 

[Michael Boeckling]

Have you enabled the brutefir.service with systemctl?

That was it, goddamnit, thanks!

I didn't manage to run brutefir as non-root, it wouldn't start despite adding "LimitRTPRIO=infinity", and with that it wouldn't run as realtime which doesn't work. I also didn't manage to start the service via shairport using the "run_this_before_entering_active_state" directive, but luckily I don't need that anymore.

 

[soundcheck]

please run

systemctl status brutefir.service

 

[janho12345]

I found daemon tools to work quite well. It automatically restarts BruteFIR if buffer overruns or underfund occur. And of course start on boot up.

 

[Michael Boeckling]

Alright, so my TOSLINK interface arrived (JustBoom Digi Zero pHAT), connected to my KEF LSX - works!

I created brutefir filters via UMIK-1 and REW, but the result is a lot worse than just running "dirac pulse". Not yet sure why, but its a start. Thanks for the support so far!