Snakeoil Installer - 1.2.0 (Gear Isolation)

[koko6969koki]

Congratulations!
This is a big step forward.

​​​​​I'm still using the older 1.1.8 Snakeoil version on an older Intel NUC. Sound quality is great and everything is rock solid.
I'm using LMS + Squeezelite with some tweaks that are available in the activated version.
 
I'm tempted, but I'm not sure should I upgrade to 1.2.0 or not?

Since my system is stable and functioning Ok, improvements regarding wider hardware compatibility and newer Ubuntu version are not of a big interest to me.

I'm only interested in improvements in the sound quality department, and I'm always very wary with the upgrades of this magnitude.
While I was using MacMini as a digital transport, I was very surprised that some newer versions of OSX had lower sound quality than the older ones.

So I'm very anxious to hear what are the impressions regarding the sound qualiy of the latest Snakeoil release!

[Snoopy8]

Congratulations!
This is a big step forward.

​​​​​I'm still using the older 1.1.8 Snakeoil version on an older Intel NUC. Sound quality is great and everything is rock solid.
I'm using LMS + Squeezelite with some tweaks that are available in the activated version.
 
I'm tempted, but I'm not sure should I upgrade to 1.2.0 or not?

Since my system is stable and functioning Ok, improvements regarding wider hardware compatibility and newer Ubuntu version are not of a big interest to me.

I'm only interested in improvements in the sound quality department, and I'm always very wary with the upgrades of this magnitude.
While I was using MacMini as a digital transport, I was very surprised that some newer versions of OSX had lower sound quality than the older ones.

So I'm very anxious to hear what are the impressions regarding the sound qualiy of the latest Snakeoil release!

If you do not feel the need to upgrade, you do not have to.  However, should you have a disk failure, you may have issues re-installing from scratch. Ubuntu 16.04 has reached end of life, with no updates and the repositories will disappear.  To be safe, you should take an image of your system, say with Clonezilla.

Found that 1.2.0 provides as good sound quality (SQ) as 1.1.11.  I use LMS as my way to connect to Tidal & Spotify and SQ was the same.  However, SQ did improve slightly with Mpd 0.22.3 in 1.2.0.  Also, one of my reasons for going to Ubuntu 20.04 was to test JRiver and HQPlayer.

[agent_kith]

I'm only interested in improvements in the sound quality department, and I'm always very wary with the upgrades of this magnitude.
While I was using MacMini as a digital transport, I was very surprised that some newer versions of OSX had lower sound quality than the older ones.

I'm wary myself.

In the midst of getting enough funds to get a second computer so I can do a side-by-side comparison. A cheap/easy way is to get a second SSD and install the new OS and see how it goes.

[Evach]

Just for your information, i installed a low latency kernel "liquorix" (https://liquorix.net/) on snakoil. Result is quite better in terms of SQ (better transparency, expand sound image and quickness improved), but the boot is really slow: i have to wait aprox. 3 minutes before the player appear in ipeng. I think there is many drivers' errors with this kernel, nothing critical because all works correctly afterward.

After first comparisons, with this low latency kernel on my goldmund setup, snakoilOS 1.2.2 outperformed innuOS 1.4.7!  And this is just the beginning of optimization. Well done guy!

[koko6969koki]

If you do not feel the need to upgrade, you do not have to.  However, should you have a disk failure, you may have issues re-installing from scratch. Ubuntu 16.04 has reached end of life, with no updates and the repositories will disappear.  To be safe, you should take an image of your system, say with Clonezilla.

Thanks for the tip!

I thought that everything needed for the fresh install was already included,
and If I have the original Snakeoil ISO - 1.1.0 and the later firmware updates I'm OK if I want to reinstall everything?

I come from the Windows and Apple world, so I do not know how things are working in the Linux world, and I was not aware that the repositories are still needed?

[Snoopy8]

I thought that everything needed for the fresh install was already included,
and If I have the original Snakeoil ISO - 1.1.0 and the later firmware updates I'm OK if I want to reinstall everything?

I come from the Windows and Apple world, so I do not know how things are working in the Linux world, and I was not aware that the repositories are still needed?

I am not a Linux man either! But I think the install reference repositories, especially for the music players and these will go out of date and may not be available. But best if Agent Kith confirms this.

[koko6969koki]

Just for your information, i installed a low latency kernel "liquorix" (https://liquorix.net/) on snakoil. Result is quite better in terms of SQ (better transparency, expand sound image and quickness improved),

This was my next question!

If I understand correctly, the older SnakeOil versons prior to 1.2.0 all used the custom tweaked RT kernel,
and the new 1.2.0 version is just installed on top of the regular Ubuntu, without any kernel tweaks?



 

That's great to hear. There are two major obstacles that may hinder the SQ:

1. Unnecessary services/processes running
   
   
2. Kernel
   
   

The first release of Gear Isolation is focused on getting the infrastructure and the new design up and working. Although early, great to see positive results so far. With this out of the way now, I can then focus on the above two. Now that will require more work to the WebApp, and a new website for kernel building. Unsure how long that'll take though.

It is reassuring to hear that, at some point in the future, there are plans for a custom kernel like in the previous versions, together with further system/processes optimizations.

[patricia1066]

I am listening to Angela Hewitt on Snakeoil 1.2 (Ubuntu 20.04) and LMS Material skin. The ultra fast boot and immediate recognition of the Music external Drive has to be due to the synergy of Snakeoil and LMS. It is interesting to compare the sound to commercial streaming systems, but I am very happy with this combination. Does Innuos provide security updates and when will it's streamers be EOL?

Sound is great, but I cannot say it is better than before, not on my system anyway. 

What is better is the fresh install with UEFI and secure boot. That is an incredible achievement, well done AK! This makes it easy to install on intel computers which are locked down to UEFI. 

Ubuntu 20.04 and Snakeoil .sh installed without incident.

I originally tried to upgrade via ssh to Ubuntu 20.04 - but something always breaks, so it is better in my experience to start with a new install of Ubuntu (or Raspbian if installing on RPI) and ssh Snakeoil onto that. 

The 1.2 .fw file installs reliably on Ubuntu 18.04 on the web interface.

[patricia1066]

This morning 59 packages can be installed [apt list --upgradable]. I imagine this could occur every day - how do I know when to update for security etc? Does the script remove packages that are unnecessary after the download?

[agent_kith]

I am not a Linux man either! But I think the install reference repositories, especially for the music players and these will go out of date and may not be available. But best if Agent Kith confirms this.

Software makers like HQPlayer, JRiver and Spotify will drop support of their software on older distributions fairly quickly.

Canonoical (Ubuntu) will support updates (and more importantly security patches) until the end of life. E.g. Ubuntu 16.04 is officially stopped in April 2021. There will be no more updates, and I'm almost certain those repositories will go as well (but you can find mirror sites).

As late as last year IIRC I can still find and download 12.04 or 14.04 packages.