SqueezeLite up and running

[Gerrelt]

Hi all,

edit: This thread describes how to install squeezelite on wheezy soft float, which is not the most common OS. The most common is Wheezy hard float, and I've now got it running on hard float to. See this tutorial for that installation: http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... 38&t=25778.



After installing squeezeslave on my raspberry, I had a great squeezebox client which worked pretty good. See this thread: Squeezeslave up and running thread
But, I had some problems with certain internet radio streams. Squeezeslave only works with 44100 Khz streams. Some radio stations stream in other frequencies, so the sound was too slow or too fast. I tried correcting it on my logitech media server (running on my Nas), but converting the streams was too cpu intensive for my nas.

Then forum user Stoker suggested using SqueezeLite . And that was a great suggestion! SqueezeLite supports different streaming frequencies, and is also very light weight.
See more about Squeezelite: Thread: Announce: Squeezelite - a small headless squeezeplay emulator for linux (alsa only)
On page 5 there is allready somebody that had squeezelite installed on the Raspberry (see LINK).

Now, my Squeezeslave client ran on Hard-Float Raspian Wheezy, but the SqueezeLite executable is only offered for Soft-Float Debian Wheezy. Which is a bit more work to set up.

But I got it working now, and it's working brilliant, very stable and good sound.
Here are the steps I took to get it working, I did everything without a monitor using SSH.

First create a SD card with the Soft-Float Debian Wheezy image on it. Connect it to a network cable and log in using SSH (Putty is my favorite SSH client).

Run the config tool:

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sudo raspi-config

Enlarge the SD card, enable SSH (probably not necessary), set locale and timezone to your liking and run the update (takes a long time).

Then to get Wifi working (I have a Logilink WiFi dongle which is RTL8188CUS based), I used the excellent script from forum user MrEngman, provided in this thread: Automatic setup for RTL8188CUS based wifi adapters.
Of course, this is not necessary if you want to use the raspberry wired, then go directly to Installing Squeezelite.

These were the steps I took to get WiFi working:

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mkdir wifi
cd wifi
sudo wget http://dl.dropbox.com/u/80256631/install-rtl8188cus.sh
sudo chmod u+x install-rtl8188cus.sh

Then run the script, and follow the instructions. It will probably reboot and then you will run the sript again. I also ran the update at the end, I don't know if that is really necessary (it took a long time).
Run the script:

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sudo ./install-rtl8188cus.sh

At the end I rebooted and disconnected the network cable, and I had a wireless network connection!
The reboot command:

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sudo shutdown -r now

Installing Squeezelite

First create a "work" directory:

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mkdir squeezelite
cd squeezelite

Install some libs:

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sudo apt-get install libflac-dev

(answer Y to the question)

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sudo apt-get install libfaad2

Did this too, but it turned out it was allready installed on Debian:

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sudo apt-get install libmad0 

Now get squeezelite:

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wget http://squeezelite.googlecode.com/files/squeezelite-armv6

Move it to the usr directory, and make it executable:

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sudo mv squeezelite-armv6 /usr/bin
cd /usr/bin

chmod u+x squeezelite-armv6

I use a USB soundcard, so I had to tell squeezelite which sound device to use.
First list all the devices:

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squeezelite-armv6 -l

The result:

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Output devices:
  null                           - Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
  default:CARD=ALSA              - bcm2835 ALSA, bcm2835 ALSA - Default Audio Device
  sysdefault:CARD=ALSA           - bcm2835 ALSA, bcm2835 ALSA - Default Audio Device
  default:CARD=Set               - C-Media USB Headphone Set, USB Audio - Default Audio Device
  sysdefault:CARD=Set            - C-Media USB Headphone Set, USB Audio - Default Audio Device
  front:CARD=Set,DEV=0           - C-Media USB Headphone Set, USB Audio - Front speakers
  surround40:CARD=Set,DEV=0      - C-Media USB Headphone Set, USB Audio - 4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
  surround41:CARD=Set,DEV=0      - C-Media USB Headphone Set, USB Audio - 4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
  surround50:CARD=Set,DEV=0      - C-Media USB Headphone Set, USB Audio - 5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
  surround51:CARD=Set,DEV=0      - C-Media USB Headphone Set, USB Audio - 5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
  surround71:CARD=Set,DEV=0      - C-Media USB Headphone Set, USB Audio - 7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
  iec958:CARD=Set,DEV=0          - C-Media USB Headphone Set, USB Audio - IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output

I wanted to use the default audio device (Logilink USB soundcard with a C-Media chip), so I had to tell squeezelite to use " default:CARD=Set" .

Now to start Squeezelite I had to run (ip address is the address of the LMS server):

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./squeezelite-armv6 -o default:CARD=Set 192.168.2.4

And it worked!

Starting without the IP address for the LMS server:

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./squeezelite-armv6 -o default:CARD=Set

Without the IP address squeezelite uses auto discovery to determine the IP address of the LMS server.

It was working well, so now I wanted to have it started on startup. So, to automate things, I butchered the daemon start script from squeezeslave to get it to start Squeezelite.

I made the script available through my website, it's my very first Debian daemon script, so use at your own risk!
Do the next commands to automate startup:

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cd /home/pi/squeezelite
sudo wget http://www.gerrelt.nl/RaspberryPi/squeezelite.sh
sudo mv squeezelite.sh /etc/init.d/squeezelite

cd /etc/init.d
chmod u+x squeezelite

sudo update-rc.d squeezelite defaults

In the script the name of the squeezelite client is set to "Framboos" which is the dutch word for Raspberry.
To change it, run:

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sudo nano squeezelite

Search for the word "Framboos" and change it to your liking, save and close.

This is how you test the script:

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sudo ./squeezelite start

The command prompt should return immediately. Now check if the squeezelite process is up:

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ps -A |grep squeeze

It should return something like this (the number will be different):

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2324 ?        00:00:01 squeezelite-arm

To stop squeezelite:

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sudo ./squeezelite stop

And that's it, if you now reboot the raspberry (sudo shutdown -r now), squeezelite should be started automatically.

I want to thank the creator of Squeezelite for creating this create squeezebox client!

Greetings,

Gerrelt.

[Gerrelt]

I just noticed the Squeezelite creator uploaded a Hard-Float version yesterday!
See: squeezelite download page
I am going to try it on Hard-Float Raspian wheezy again.

[peteS]

I've also made the move from squeezeslave to squeezelite on the hf version and found it to be rock solid - just happily sitting there serving music to my main av system via hdmi, controlled from a variety of clients such as ipeng, the squeezebox controller, or squeezebox rc on a windows phone. It just works really well and is by far the cheapest way to add a new squeezebox device.

[Gerrelt]

Yeah, squeezelite works great!

My squeezelite player is now "back to the eighties", see topic: Radio Raspberry

[G_P]

Does squeezebox server transcodes say FLAC to mp3 for Squeezelite client?

I'm asking that because I can see FLAC files being transcoded to mp3 while streaming to soft clents (SqueezePlay, or just http://squeezeboxserver-ip:9000/stream.mp3 via VLC)

on Squeezebox server:

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121       3409     1  0 20:50 ?        00:00:00 /usr/share/squeezeboxserver/Bin/i386-linux/flac -dcs -- /media/Elements/AUDIO/Mike Oldfield ---ALBUMS---/Mike Oldfield - Voyager (FLAC)/4.Women Of Ireland.flac
121       3410     1 18 20:50 ?        00:00:03 /usr/bin/lame --silent -q 0 -v -B 320 - -

[Gerrelt]

It could very well be that the squeezebox transcodes for it's clients.
I am not a squeezebox server expert, maybe you should ask your question on this forum: Squeezebox forum

I played around with transcoding trying to work around the 44.1 khz limitation squeezeslave has. I got some information from this thread: Link
My NAS couldn't handle the transcoding, so I switched to squeezelite when I was told about it.

[djfake]

Any idea on how to get Squeezelite to connect to a remote LMS? I'd love to be able to listen at work to my home LMS, which I can do by portforwarding via ssh. But would be nice to do this "headless".

thanks

[Gerrelt]

If you add an IP address to the start command of squeezelite, it will connect to that IP address instead of doing auto discovery.

If you are using my script do:

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cd /etc/init.d
sudo nano squeezelite

and change this

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SLOPTIONS="-o sysdefault:CARD=Set -n Framboos"

to:

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SLOPTIONS="-o sysdefault:CARD=Set -n Framboos 127.0.0.1"  

I used localhost 127.0.0.1 as an example IP address, so change it to your IP address.

I just found this page for making your LMS server accessable through the internet, might be interesting too: Slimdevices Wiki page

[djfake]

Yes, that's it... thank you!

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ssh -L 9000:<lan ip>:9000 -L 3483:<lan ip>:3483 <user>@<wan address>
sudo squeezelite-armv6hf -o sysdefault:CARD=ALSA -n Framboos 127.0.0.1

Music plays!

[djfake]

I notice that FLAC decoding is very choppy compared to MP3. Anyway to mitigate this?

[truehl]

I notice that FLAC decoding is very choppy compared to MP3. Anyway to mitigate this?

I never had any problems playing FLAC with Squeezelite! It simply runs great!

[djfake]

But this is remotely playing, over the internet, not inside a subnet.

To fix, I can go into the player settings for "Framboos" and change the Bitrate Limiting from "unlimited", which resolves the issue.

[bricolodu13]

Hello Gerrelt,

I've successfully made squeezelite-armV6hf running thanls to your nice "How To".

However, trying to have it started on startup with your script i get a permission error with the prompt :
chmod u+x squeezelite

any idea ?

Best regards,
Jean

[eklem]

Would I be able to play music from my Spotify-account with SqueezeLite and Debian Softfloat?

[Gerrelt]

I've successfully made squeezelite-armV6hf running thanls to your nice "How To".

However, trying to have it started on startup with your script i get a permission error with the prompt :
chmod u+x squeezelite

any idea ?

Hi Jean,

Yes, there seems to be an error in my how-to...

It should be prefixed with "sudo", like this:

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sudo chmod u+x squeezelite

The Pi user is not allowed to change the script to an executable in the init.d directory, I think. So it should be done under "sudo" rights.

Greetings,
Gerrelt.

[Gerrelt]

Would I be able to play music from my Spotify-account with SqueezeLite and Debian Softfloat?

I don't really know, I don't use Spotify. But according to the Squeezelite thread, it should work. See: Post 1 of Squeezelite thread.

[bricolodu13]

Hi Gerrelt,

Yes, there seems to be an error in my how-to...

It should be prefixed with "sudo", like this:

Ok Thank you, I'll try that.
But in the meantime I've edited your Script with nano and need to modify it at least as I'm using the hard float version of squeezelite.

Looks like I can't save it as I don't have the permission.

Sorry but I'm absolutely newbie with linux.
Yesterday night was my very first steps...

Best regards,
Jean

[Gerrelt]

Hi Jason,

No problem, we all started somewhere.

To modify the script, also add "sudo", like this:

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cd /etc/init.d
sudo nano squeezelite

Sudo is a bit like "Run as administrator" on Windows.

To save in text editor nano, press Control + X, answer "Y" and then press the Enter key.

But I didn't have to modify the script for Wheezy Raspbian hardfloat, which I am running now.
I am planning a how-to for squeezelite on Hardfloat too, I just have to find the time..

Greetings,

Gerrelt.

[bricolodu13]

Ok, Gerrelt,

I succeeded in modding your script for hf
and the script is running on start up as I can see from the LMS web browser the Squeezelite name "Framboise" (I'm French, sorry )

However I have no sound although I also changed the ouput to "-o pulse" as it was the one working for me.

Any idea ????

Best regards,
Jean

[bricolodu13]

Hi Gerrelt,

Just for info, when I do after login :
ps -A |grep squeeze

I get

1719 ? 00:00:01 squeezelite-arm

So beside no sound (which is sad) it works.
But I would like to understand why i get no sound.
By the way the Squeezelite "Framboise" from the LMS browser is somewhat eratic

best regards,
Jean

[Gerrelt]

Hi Jean,

What's the output of this command?:

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./squeezelite-armv6 -l

Or, if you are using the correct squeezelite for HF, it's:

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./squeezelite-armv6hf -l

Greetings,

Gerrelt.

[bricolodu13]

Hi Gerrelt,

Thanks a lot for helping.

Here is a screen copy :
Output devices:
null - Discard all ....
pulse - Playback/recording through the PulseAudio spund server
sysdefault:CAED=ALSA -bcm2835 ALSA, bcm2835 ALSA -Default Audio Device

Best regards,
Jean

[bricolodu13]

OK Gerrelt,

I Changed the ouput option to ALSA and it is working

Thank you
Jean

[truehl]

I have some massive problems with the Squeezelite init-script running under the updated Raspbian version. Squeezelite works on start, but only with a very strange sound. Killing Squeezelite and start by hand (without any options) runs great!

Did someone also saw this?

[Gerrelt]

Are you using the Raspbian hard float executable? This thread is for Debian Soft Float.
For hard float issues, please use this thread.

The hard float version of the executable ends with "hf".