Snakeoil Firmware - 1.0.11 (Golden Ears Update 11)

[agent_kith]

Introduction
And here we are with the 11^th update for Golden Ears. This release addressed several issues (mostly tied to MPD), discovered while I was working on native DSD . This update include support for Minimserver (You can install this from the Snakeoil menu, users on Free edition can SSH into the machine and install manually).
 

Running Minimserver will turn your Snakeoil OS computer into what is known as a 'UPnP AV music server'. This allows you to stream music to any 'UPnP media renderer' in your network (e.g. Chromecast, Sonos, etc). Unfortunately Golden Ears do not support both UPnP server and renderer in one. This feature will be added in the Blind Testing - where you can run both Minimserver and upmpdcli on one Snakeoil OS computer, making your CAP a 'all in one' UPnP box.

Donations
I would also like to take this chance and make something clear about donations.

Right now the donated money is used to fund the web hosting for Snakeoil OS, and to buy supporting gear. As an example my DAC (DC-37) do not support native DSD, so I had to buy one that does. Without the donations I would never have got native DSD to work.

There are still problems with UEFI, it's not something I can fix because my UEFI computer have no problems booting the ISO. The donations will eventually fund for one, and when that happen I can finally get to the bottom of this.

Quite frankly, nothing will happen without the generosity of audiophiles, and while I am humbled by the support received so far, there is always a line I have to draw. These are my baselines when I decided to release Snakeoil OS to the public:

1. Except for the first round, I will not spend any of my own money for domain, web hosting and ancillary equipment costs
   
2. Except for some quick support, I will not do anything Snakeoil during my working hours (that's from 8 am to 5 PM weekdays).
   
3. My support time is free (i.e. anybody can contact me via various methods to get support)
   
4. My development and documentation time are free. I am happy to use my free time to code and to write.
   

And this project takes up a lot of my free time - time I could have used to listen to music. To give you an idea just how big this project is, here're just two samples:

The 'Average per day of 0 commits' is a bug. I can tell you this is a lot of work involved. There are a lot of modules involved (called projects in Gitlab), and within each project, there are branches. And this is just development.

There's also the computer infrastructure to get all this working. A total of 6 virtual machines (think of this like 6 computers) is required for Snakeoil OS development, build and test. This 6 VM cluster took up more than 60% of my homelab resources (in terms of CPU and RAM).

Last but not least - documentation. Where else can you find a audiophile software with an in depth manual the likes of Snakeoil OS?

All this takes up a lot of my time, and I am doing it for free, because for some strange reason I like doing so. Unfortunately because this is free - the people expectations are different. Some of you may feel I am running a con here. Some of you may have the perception that I am deceptive and somehow managed to trap you into installing Snakeoil, and then extort you into 'paying'.

I am bewildered that a person can be so negative over $AUD 1. What makes me angry that this same person may well not hesitate to spend thousands on his hifi gear. For me that is an insult - as he felt disgusted about a $1 donation, but happy to spend thousand times more on other things.

This sort of people deserves none of my time. Let me make it clear. Snakeoil OS is completely free and unlocked. You can already do everything in the free edition - just SSH into your machine and do whatever you want. The activated edition only makes things easier, that is all. The activation code is also not that difficult to crack, any semi-competent hacker can reverse engineer the code and create a key generator in 10 minutes .

For the people who have donated multiple times, I really do appreciate it. And really, you don't have to donate multiple times . People who knows me personally - you don't have to donate. Just listening to music is more than enough .

Everybody else, if you are considering a donation, I am introducing a second system - Patreon. And that's the orange button you see whenever you hit the 'Snakeoil' menu (see below).
 

At the end of the day, Snakeoil is not about me, it's about us. And the crowdfunding ideal fits this model. Right now I have two tiers setup:

1. Big fan: If you like Snakeoil OS, you can contribute $1 to this project per month. This is actually a win win situation as #1 it works out cheaper for you. The typical $AUD20 donation if done via the Patreon method will spread your money over 20 months instead of just 1 transaction.
   
   #2 I get a big fan . Oh you have no idea how I love this pun (Call it great Aussie humour!). Seriously though because Snakeoil is free - increased exposure is far more rewarding than increased donations.
   
   #3 with enough patrons I can be real adventurous and take this project on full time. Dedicating all hours to Snakeoil OS means I can put all my concentration and creativity into this. This is simply a pipe dream and I don't see this happening (I'd need a minimum of 7000 patrons and unfortunately there aren't this many audiophiles on this planet). But hey, one can dream. If I have the time, Snakeoil OS would already be working on Raspberry Pi and other Arm boards by now.
   
2. AWS: This is the big one. For the future of the Snakeoil OS project, it's a good idea to move to VPS. This tier is limited to 75 people for now. When this threshold is met I will move the blog, the forum to Amazon Web Services. The advantage of this is increased speed and better security.
   
   This setup also gives me more flexibility in terms of systems administration. And I can better integrate everything (from bug tracking, to forum, to blog).
   
   If the budget allows, I will also move the development tools to AWS too. This means I can finally make Snakeoil OS fully open source, a move that will ensure the future of this project. Note that AUD 150 per month is only an estimate - The final figure will be adjusted if needed be.
   

Choose whatever tier that fancies you. And hope I can convince at least one of you to be my first Patron.

Now back to our regular programming - music.

Changelog

• 0000210: [web-app] Clean up tmp directory after a kernel install
  
• 0000202: [players] Add minimserver to Snakeoil
  
• 0000209: [players] Keep MPD database after firmware upgrade
  
• 0000208: [players] Add native DSD support for Squeezelite-Ralph
  
• 0000203: [players] Fix problem where you cannot switch between MPD players in Snakeoil without a reboot
  
• 0000206: [web-app] Tweak donation tab - clarify Snakeoil is not locked down and added Patreon logo
  

Downloads

• 32 bits firmware: 
    snakeoil-1.0.11-i686.fw (Size: 19.11 MB / Downloads: 18)
  (SHA1: 87811be8480281cf3015d63a03fbd11eb75c3cce)
  
• 64 bits firmware: 
    snakeoil-1.0.11-x86_64.fw (Size: 19.16 MB / Downloads: 154)
  (SHA1: faada823c966749136e9a2f4438c92e8c38bb34c)
  

[traver02]

Hi AK,
i have just updated to 1.0.11

before i was using the M2tech kernel
now i cannot switch to the standard Kernel anymore

64 bit version
- select kernel
- reboot
- kernel is always the m2tech
- cleared cache
- switched off and on again.....
- kernel is m2tech

- no way
- should i physically delete the m2tech kernel? is it accessible? do not think so

thanks
luca

[agent_kith]

Hi AK,
i have just updated to 1.0.11

before i was using the M2tech kernel
now i cannot switch to the standard Kernel anymore

64 bit version
- select kernel
- reboot
- kernel is always the m2tech
- cleared cache
- switched off and on again.....
- kernel is m2tech

- no way
- should i physically delete the m2tech kernel? is it accessible? do not think so

thanks
luca

Hi Luca, I tried to switch kernels using 1.0.11 and have no problems. Are you sure you have rebooted? For now, can you SSH into your SnakeoilOS computer and edit the boot loader manually. Once log in, run the following command:
 

Code:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Enter your user password again when prompted. Look at the contents of the file, and you should find the following two lines. Note your second line might be different

Code:

#GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_DEFAULT="1>Ubuntu, with Linux 4.4.9-rt17-amd64-m2tech"

Change it to:

Code:

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
#GRUB_DEFAULT="1>Ubuntu, with Linux 4.4.9-rt17-amd64-m2tech"

Now save the file, and run the following command:

Code:

sudo update-grub

If there are no errors, reboot the computer and see how it goes.

[agent_kith]

Everybody else, if you are considering a donation, I am introducing a second system - Patreon. And that's the orange button you see whenever you hit the 'Snakeoil' menu (see below).
 

And there are now two patrons on Patreon supporting the Snakeoil OS project.


Unfortunately, you will not get your activation code in 3 minutes when you become a patron. I'd try and work on that once I finished Blind Testing. Patreon is still something new to me so please bear with me for the ride.