Request For Comments: Snakeoil 1.2.0 (Gear Isolation)

[agent_kith]

Added something extra in RAM Disk panel - a quick feedback to let you know if the RAM disk mount is OK or not. Next up, going to add a link to go to the wiki for troubleshooting tips if there's a failure.

[luiswu]

The new storage systems work great, would it be possible to work with Snakeoil?
This is an example of an SSD, an impressive speed, the RAM disk is almost missing!
And...Would it be possible to extend the compatibility with the different DAC´s of the market in order to have a native DSD output?

PCIE SSD 512GB AORUS AIC PCIE X4





 Gigabyte AORUS 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD

[agent_kith]

The new storage systems work great, would it be possible to work with Snakeoil?
This is an example of an SSD, an impressive speed, the RAM disk is almost missing!

From a fresh install yes, you can use the NVMe install kernel.

And...Would it be possible to extend the compatibility with the different DAC´s of the market in order to have a native DSD output?

The way the new DSD kernel is designed, it'll work with most DAC. The only issue here is the Amanero USB receiver. It's a hard nut to crack as it doesn't appear to work well in Linux yet. If you get the original board (not copy or fake), and the right firmware version, then it'll likely work.

This is a hardware restriction and is unlikely be solvable by Snakeoil. When looking for a DAC, look for one with a XMOS receiver. That seems to work the best, but as with everything these days - your mileage may vary.

[luiswu]

The new storage systems work great, would it be possible to work with Snakeoil?
This is an example of an SSD, an impressive speed, the RAM disk is almost missing!

From a fresh install yes, you can use the NVMe install kernel.

And...Would it be possible to extend the compatibility with the different DAC´s of the market in order to have a native DSD output?

The way the new DSD kernel is designed, it'll work with most DAC. The only issue here is the Amanero USB receiver. It's a hard nut to crack as it doesn't appear to work well in Linux yet. If you get the original board (not copy or fake), and the right firmware version, then it'll likely work.

This is a hardware restriction and is unlikely be solvable by Snakeoil. When looking for a DAC, look for one with a XMOS receiver. That seems to work the best, but as with everything these days - your mileage may vary.

My dac is normal and the chip it contains is the most frequent.
These are its characteristics:

Name: TAGA Harmony DA-300 V.3
Receiver: USB Receiver 
DAC:high-resolution 32bit / 384kHz PCM, DSD USB-DAC (ESS Sabre32 Reference ES9018K2M with patented Time Domain Jitter Eliminator and SA9227 chip)
Async: YES
Tested Versions and Platforms:Work perfect in DSD 64,128,256 with Windows7, 10, drivers ASIO and Foobar2000
Comments: It does not work in DSD mode, it goes to PCM and in DoP mode.
Buying Link: https://www.tagaharmony.com/en/product/1166/da-300-v-3!

[agent_kith]

With the new server and new web services out of the way now, it's time to get back on Snakeoil OS proper. One of the top complaints with Snakeoil is the complexity of adding/deleting music files. It doesn't help when Windows 10 stop supporting SMBv1. So, I'm now working on a prototype file manager:
 

So the idea is you can select whether to look at the music share, or the playlist. Contents of the shares will be displayed in the big blank box.

And buttons at the botoom allow you to:

1. Create new folders (first button from left)
   
2. Add files to your Snakeoil PC (2nd button)
   
3. Delete files from your Snakeoil PC (3rd button)
   
4. Copy files to RAM disk (4th button)
   
5. Delete existing files on RAM disk and copy selected files (last button)
   

With 4 and 5. If you select a playlist and copy it to RAM, the contents of the playlist will be copied and not the playlist itself.

The usual Linux file permissions still applies though. So if you mount a NAS share that's RO, obviously 1-3 will not work.

What's the point of all this? Well, currently it's pretty difficult for me to evaluate RAM play. This new widget will fix that. When this is working I can easily select the songs I want to copy to RAM, and so will you. :)

Coming to the activated edition, eventually.

[agent_kith]

A bit of an update. Didn't get to do much this morning as we get NBA on free TV here in Australia now.

General file browsing works now. Here is an example of a sub directory. Took a while to figure out how to get the unicode to work properly but glad it's resolved.
 

The row of buttons at the bottom turns on/off depends on the situation. e.g. in the above, you can create a new folder, or add files to the current folder. If you select some files, then the first 2 buttons will be disabled, and the latter 3 will turn on. Allowing you to delete the selected files, or copy them to the RAM disk if RAM disk mode is on.

At the top (titled File Manager) you can swap between the music and playlist folders. And the path will tell you your exact location. I expect this path to take up some space so will probably truncate it a little to make it fit (in the todo lislt).

And here's the UI when you click "ADD", allowing you to upload files to folder (/a). Currently working on this code and working out the best ways to make this work. Hopefully it'll work the same way as upgrading firmware - just drag and drop the files in to here and it'll upload. If this works it'll make it so much easier to copy and manage files now, and you can even stop Windows File Sharing to improve latency.
 

It's important to make sure this change is not going to break the existing firmware upgrade and software install mechanisms.

Once this code is complete, I'll release Blind Testing U9. And after which I'll spin up a new ISO for 1.2.0 - Gear Isolation for early next year.

[agent_kith]

Creating a file browser in the WebApp is kindda difficult. Getting the upload to work is the worst, just couldn't figure out a way to do multiple uploads. So had to devise some stupid work around. But it's almost finished now.

Notable addition is the RAM Disk status at the top - tick means your RAM disk is working properly, cross means something is wrong and you're not using the RAM disk.
Here is an example screenshot of me trying to copy files to the RAM disk. The GUI is complete, just need to finish up the backend.
 

And that's still not over. Only worked on the media view so far. There's still playlists to do, as well as documentation...

[Bromf]

U8 is looking to be fantastic !  Well worth waiting for....
Thanks for the updates...

[agent_kith]

 

Made some changes on file upload(s). The view above is gone now. You simply drag and drop a file straight into the directory contents to upload. The contents will be updated on every upload. The add button still exists, this is basically that Browse label in the above picture. So this cuts a step when uploading files, making it more intuitive overall.

Read the documentation on how this new experimental module will work.

[seafoodlover]

looking forward to 1.2, hope it can resolve my memory leaking problem when using MPD 21.x.
just curious, am i the only one have this issue?