Snakeoil Firmware - 1.1.7 (Blind Testing Update 7)

[agent_kith]

Introduction
It's a long time between updates! We weren't slacking around.

During the past few months, I've spent/wasted a lot of time on the web site. Not going to bother you with the details, but it was a long hard slog. The web site part is mostly finished now AFAICT. And it's setup to operate smoothly for months if not years to come!

Back to Snakeoil, so what's new in this release? For activated users, the following are new:

• Ramdisk
  
• ability to do a Ubuntu release upgrade Ubuntu from the WebApp,
  
• and HQPlayer 4 (Ubuntu 18.04 only).
  

You can only install HQPlayer4 Desktop if your OS is on 18.04. I have no idea what the sound quality in 18.04 is going to be like, or if the upgrade will even work. so please report back! And ditto to RAMDISK play. You have to manually copy the music files over to the RAM disk for now, but in time I hope to create something easier to copy files right from the WebApp itself.

WRT to release upgrade, note that there is no going back to 16.04 after you've upgraded to 18.04. So if you don't like the sound, the only way back is to reinstall!

Old players will be available as modules to be installed manually as desired. This allows you to keep your favourite version of MPD/Squeezelite when upgrading firmwares.

Again I would like to thank the supporters of Snakeoil OS. And I would like more to chip in.

There is still a signficant downside to Snakeoil OS, the kernel isn't flexible enough for it to run on all computers. Some of you might have a different ethernet card, a different audio card, and so on. A customised and stripped down RT kernel is the secret to Snakeoil's quality sound. If we are to put up a kernel that will work on 99% of the computers, the magic's gone and you're better off using another audiophile software altogether. There is a way to make this easier - a web tool where you can specify your hardware, and the system will auto-generate a custom upgrade or a install ISO that's tailor made for you. Now to get this working I'll need at least USD $80 a month to run the server on the cloud. If you like the music from Snakeoil OS, do consider becoming a Snakeoil patron. It's as low as USD$1 a month, charged at the end of every month ($12 annually - cheaper than the price of a new release CD). Click that orange button to your right.

Snakeoil is and will continue to be free to use for everybody. But with more support, it'll get even better.

Downloads
  snakeoil-1.1.7-armv7l.fw (Size: 12.85 MB / Downloads: 56)
(SHA1: 4c404629f8265abdee1b1a1a773da0750ff31849)
  snakeoil-1.1.7-i686.fw (Size: 13.62 MB / Downloads: 23)
(SHA1: ed6854f0a2c7c4a1aab936e86322c3ccb630731a)
  snakeoil-1.1.7-x86_64.fw (Size: 13.61 MB / Downloads: 211)
(SHA1: d1300b7f56a0f952d760db79d78756095ac4fe51)

Read the RAM Disk documention here.

Changelog

1. 0000350: [web-app] Disable "Enable Client" checkbox automatically if a server player has supported clients but none of the clients are installed
   
2. 0000349: [players] Experimental HQPlayer4 Desktop support
   
3. 0000272: [web-app] Activated: Add a mechanism to perform release updates
   
4. 0000348: [web-app] Show ramfs/tmpfs RAM DISK in media library
   
5. 0000346: [players] Update mpd 21 to 0.21.14
   
6. 0000343: [web-app] Allow creation of RAM disk in GUI
   
7. 0000347: [web-app] Add missing check for spaces in Snakeoil priority process name fields
   
8. 0000345: [players] Reduce firmware sizes by stripping old versions of Squeezelite and MPD.
   
9. 0000344: [install] Keep custom MPD Squeezelite players on firmware upgrade
   
10. 0000328: [players] Activated: Honour uninstalled applications
    
11. 0000340: [web-app] Show a message at end of update Ubuntu to let users know install has finished
    
12. 0000341: [web-app] Change mouse cursor when it's hovering over a button
    
13. 0000351: [web-service] Use bundled curl instead of OS supplied curl
    
14. 0000352: [web-service] Monitor PHP upload size limit and change accordingly if they're too small
    

Known Issues
This is a relatively big update. So expect issues!

[hkphantomgtr]

Thank you very much, Kith!!

[Snoopy8]

I have successfully updated to 1.1.7.  Thank you.



Tried updating to Ubuntu using the button System.command_upgrade_OS but still on 16.04.6 LTS



Log of update:
[snipped]
Calculating upgrade...
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
###########################################
Your Ubuntu has been upgraded. Please reboot###########################################

[agent_kith]

I have successfully updated to 1.1.7.  Thank you.

Tried updating to Ubuntu using the button System.command_upgrade_OS but still on 16.04.6 LTS

Click on the "update Ubuntu" button. Hopefully the repository is updated to point to bionic, and a apt update/apt upgrade will pull down all the packages.

Let me know how it goes.

I've managed to upgrade mine somehow.. Will experiment more and see if can improve on that.

[Snoopy8]

I have successfully updated to 1.1.7.  Thank you.

Tried updating to Ubuntu using the button System.command_upgrade_OS but still on 16.04.6 LTS

Click on the "update Ubuntu" button. Hopefully the repository is updated to point to bionic, and a apt update/apt upgrade will pull down all the packages.

Let me know how it goes.

I've managed to upgrade mine somehow.. Will experiment more and see if can improve on that.

I did Update Ubuntu before and after, in various sequences. Still on 16!

[JD1]

Thanks for the update AK. :thumbs:

I updated to 1.1.7. without problem. In Snakeoil tab I enabled RAM disk, used the default "tmpfs" and set an arbitrary 1000 MB for RAM disk size. Connecting to Snakeoil server from my Mac, I saw that a new music folder named "ram" had been created and that is where I need to paste music files to try RAMDISK play.  I could transfer music files from my Mac's HD into that folder but I couldn't transfer files from within the Snakeoil server SSD into that ram folder.  Not sure if this is expected.

To copy my favourite test track (existing on the Snakeoil server but not my Mac) into that ram folder, I had to first copy it across my network into my Mac's HD and then back across network into Snakeoil server's new ram folder.

Is that expected behaviour or a 1.1.7 glitch or perhaps something in my computer's permissions?

In any case, that track sounded great!

Cheers,

JD

[agent_kith]

I did Update Ubuntu before and after, in various sequences. Still on 16!

Must have made a mistake in my code.. I'll look into this in more details and hopefully fix this in the next update.

[JD1]

OK, my bad re transferring files to RAM folder.  Copy/Paste of files from within my Snakeoil server works fine. I must have been trying to do drag & drop before.

[agent_kith]

Thanks for the update AK.

I updated to 1.1.7. without problem. In Snakeoil tab I enabled RAM disk, used the default "tmpfs" and set an arbitrary 1000 MB for RAM disk size. Connecting to Snakeoil server from my Mac, I saw that a new music folder named "ram" had been created and that is where I need to paste music files to try RAMDISK play.  I could transfer music files from my Mac's HD into that folder but I couldn't transfer files from within the Snakeoil server SSD into that ram folder.  Not sure if this is expected.

To copy my favourite test track (existing on the Snakeoil server but not my Mac) into that ram folder, I had to first copy it across my network into my Mac's HD and then back across network into Snakeoil server's new ram folder.

Is that expected behaviour or a 1.1.7 glitch or perhaps something in my computer's permissions?

Hmm. I copied the files straight from SSH, seems to work. Havn't tried it from across a PC share, Windows sharing have some weird quirks and this is probably one of them?

Either way that will be solved in U8 when I introduced a copy feature directly into the WebApp.

In any case, that track sounded great!

That's good to know . What sort of memory are you using? R1 or R2? If you have both on hand to A/B, can you comment? R1 is faster, so it has the lowest latency possible, but does it sound better, or worse compared to R2?

[agent_kith]

OK, my bad re transferring files to RAM folder.  Copy/Paste of files from within my Snakeoil server works fine. I must have been trying to do drag & drop before.

I should really stress this. Make sure you guys copy files, and don't move files.. RAM is volatile storage, contents will be gone on reboot.. Make sure to only copy files....