Snakeoil Firmware - 1.2.11 (Gear Isolation U11)

[agent_kith]

This firmware is recommended for Ubuntu 22.04 and Raspbian 11. Avoid updating if your OS is older.

Introduction
I'm around 3 weeks behind on work. Used to be on time, but I spent 4 extra weeks on something unexpected. And then caught up by 2 weeks by working from home for one week (2x efficiency!).

But last week I was helping a colleague out so I'm now 3 weeks behind.

It's a long weekend this week and I thought what a great chance to catch up on some work. Unfortunately I left the laptop battery charger at the office on Friday! This work laptop I'm using is a very powerful laptop with a 230W power supply. Meaning I don't actually have anything at home capable enough to power the laptop. Best I have is a 65W charger and the laptop is consuming power more quickly than I can charge it.

So long story short I will still be 3 weeks behind on work when I return to work next week. On the bright side, overall I have still clawed back a week.

No work means play!

With more free time on the weekend I managed to squeeze out a new Snakeoil release U11. This is just a quick update to include some new players - updated MPD, added qqmusic and JRiver MediaCenter 30.

You'll need to install the QQMusic or JRMC30 manually (Drop the deb file in the install box). QQMusic is likely only of interest to people who listen to Chinese songs. What luck I am of Chinese descent! When I was a little boy I love to listen to something called "相声". Think of this as standup comedy performed by 2 people. I don't know if QQMusic have this, but if they do I hope it's of high quality. Very interested to find out how these performances will sound in a good hifi setup.

No other functional changes other than new music players. You don't have to update to this release if you don't want to try these new players. This update also gives me a chance to verify that the build system is still working after the recent network changes to move all snakeoil services behind a cloudflare tunnel.


Changelog

• Add support for QQMusic (VNC Session)
  
• Update MPD to 0.23.12
  
• Add JRMC 30 support
  
• Fix attempt to install any additional packages after a deb file is dropped.
  
  

Downloads
  snakeoil-armv7l-1.2.11.fw (Size: 51.61 MB / Downloads: 57)
(SHA1: 823f221631ab535d18197ed80c2d786103729aff)
  snakeoil-x86_64-1.2.11.fw (Size: 57.23 MB / Downloads: 277)
(SHA1: e73eedb74569cc61e306307f0018bf6296dd5f0d)

Known Issues
Automation isn't entirely a success. Looks like QQMusic somehow failed to pass through and I missed it. Please re-download the x86_64 fw and re-apply to get QQ Music. MPD also incorrectly labelled, it's now showing up as MPD 0.23.12 now.

[hkphantomgtr]

Thanks a lot, AK!

[agent_kith]

Alright. Turns out automation has a problem. Have fixed that and rebuilt the x86_64 firmware. Please re-download if you want to test out QQMusic.

[Bromf]

230W !!!  that is the nuclear option :-)
Bet it roars along  when its going though.

[criminalzen]

Alright. Turns out automation has a problem. Have fixed that and rebuilt the x86_64 firmware. Please re-download if you want to test out QQMusic.

Just a thanks for the hard work. I appreciate it.

john

[musicnut23]

Hi there!  It's been over a year since I peeked into the Forums to check the status of everything, and even longer since I went through the install process.  Been running on 1.2.something with JRiver 27, but will be trying out the latest over the weekend.

I'm a little fuzzy on the install process.  Do I need to start with 1.2.6 and load every firmware update up-to and including 1.2.11, or does 1.2.11 include all the updates in-between?

Note:  This will be a clean install of Ubuntu 22.04LTS and SnakeOil on a seperate drive.  Not upgrading the existing setup.

[Snoopy8]

I'm a little fuzzy on the install process.  Do I need to start with 1.2.6 and load every firmware update up-to and including 1.2.11, or does 1.2.11 include all the updates in-between?

You need to do latest Install, then the latest firmware. Firmware has all the updates in between.

[musicnut23]

I'm a little fuzzy on the install process.  Do I need to start with 1.2.6 and load every firmware update up-to and including 1.2.11, or does 1.2.11 include all the updates in-between?

You need to do latest Install, then the latest firmware. Firmware has all the updates in between.

Thanks Snoopy!  Appreciated

[hkphantomgtr]

Hi there!  It's been over a year since I peeked into the Forums to check the status of everything, and even longer since I went through the install process.  Been running on 1.2.something with JRiver 27, but will be trying out the latest over the weekend.

I'm a little fuzzy on the install process.  Do I need to start with 1.2.6 and load every firmware update up-to and including 1.2.11, or does 1.2.11 include all the updates in-between?

Note:  This will be a clean install of Ubuntu 22.04LTS and SnakeOil on a seperate drive.  Not upgrading the existing setup.

If you're starting from the ordinary Ubuntu desktop distro, then please choose "Minimum Installation" for much unnecessary softwares.  

And then after successfully installed, please type a command to replace the kernel with the lowlatency kernel.  That will significantly improve sound quality in all aspects.

If you would like to further enhance the sound quality, of course the RT kernel is the best and you can directly install RT kernel from ordinary kernel, without installing Low Latency kernel.  But you need to go thru some more simple and straightforward steps.

And after everything is set, you may play around with the clocksource.  To me, HPET let me enjoy the sound much more than TSC.

Have fun!

[Snoopy8]

If you're starting from the ordinary Ubuntu desktop distro, then please choose "Minimum Installation" for much unnecessary softwares.  

OK to use minimum install of desktop version. But I had issues using minimum install of 22.04 server version. SO would not run, but no idea why.