Snakeoil Forums

(12-Nov-2020, 09:27 AM)agent_kith Wrote: [ -> ]

(21-Jun-2020, 08:57 AM)agent_kith Wrote: [ -> ]Sigh, been so tired lately i have next to no energy after my job to work on this project. Hopefully you guys are still enjoying Snakeoil as it is.. Still have a lot of things planned in the pipeline, alas just don't have the energy to execute 'em. Hopefully things will look up soon.

I can't stand it any more.

I've told the powers that be I'll simply leave if the bullying is not going to stop. They seem to see that as a challenge and I always have the feeling they are daring me to leave. so I am going to give them the satisfaction. Tendered my resignation first thing this Monday, and my last day of salary employment will be on 20th Nov 2020.

For years now I am so exhausted when I got home, I had to take a nap, and more often than not I have to sleep the whole weekend away. For a while I am honestly worried this is an early sign of depression. But at the end of the day, I'm just exhausted.

It is time for a circuit breaker. I'm not young anymore so it's time to place more focus on my general health and state of mind.

So here are some quick points

• For the foreseeable future I will be unemployed. Not going to go on welfare or jobseeker and I'll just have to rely on my savings.
  
• I have to be extra prudent with my spending as I will have zero income from Nov 20th 2020. I am 44 years now, and job prospects is no longer rosy (Australian government is encouraging young people into the workforce and pushes folks over 35 out). The Snakeoil  project is part of my expenses. Operations will cease if I can no longer afford to run it (Cost of the VPS, and the Internet connection I need to upload stuffs and communicate with you guys)
  
• Of course I do not see this happening any time soon, as I still have about $200+ left from Paypal donations.
  
• This is just me being open that I have to bunker down and I keep my finances in check (Internet access here in Australia is expensive)
  
• On the bright side I will have more time to work on the Snakeoil project
  

I've told the powers that be I'll not be looking for work at all anytime soon. But that's a lie . Obviously I have to start pimping myself out straight away Will keep you guys updated.

Hey if any of you guys are in Perth and want to hire me, let me know? I'm also happy to mover interstate to Tasmania - but you have to convince my Mrs!

Good luck with the change. It's a big one, and who knows what opportunities you may unlock now you have time and energy. I made a similar break at a similar age over a decade ago and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. You'll have time to re-set your priorities. Stepping away from a reliable income is pretty daunting, and at times it will be tough, but the freedom can be a revelation.

(12-Nov-2020, 09:27 AM)agent_kith Wrote: [ -> ]It is time for a circuit breaker. I'm not young anymore so it's time to place more focus on my general health and state of mind.

Sorry to hear about your circumstances. Strongly recommend you get this to learn more about yourself and start the next phase of your career.
https://www.amazon.com.au/What-Color-You...531&sr=8-1

So last week was my last day. And today marks the third day of unemployment.

To be honest I've been busy over the weekend, then was so tired on Monday and like before I almost slept through the whole day. My energy level was so low!

Things are looking up better yesterday and today. My energy levels are a lot better, and I have yet to feel tired. Been working on this project so far, and here's some progress reports:

1. New build system is based on Ubuntu 20.04.01 LTS
   
2. Supporting libraries all rebuilt
   
3. Snakeoil REST server working
   
4. Added automation to build music players
   
5. Music players (mpd, Squeezelite) can be custom installed as modules in the future. E.g. if you like MPD v0.21.3. Submit a request and a firmware will be made available for you to install
   
6. Still working on a new installer that you install over an existing Debian system, thereby fixing problems like network support or EFI issues.
   

Unfortunately I hit a snag. The web app frontend, simply refuse to build on the new system... I really hate NodeJS.

This is going to delay the release of the installer, but for now I will see if I can build the frontend on the old build system, and release the installer on the new build system. This will still take some time, but a lot of solid progress has been made so continue to watch this space.

@agent_kith 

If possible, it would be great if we could get TOP to show the last used CPU.

More generally, I think the ability to assign a CPU and set process priorities in Snakeoil are key features for tweaking SQ.  Any new features (or tutorials?) that made it easier for users to identify the processes potentially worthy of CPU/priority manipulation would be a great bonus.

Ultimately, perhaps more can be done to fully reserve the player CPU for only player + those processes that cannot be migrated to another CPU.

Cheers,
JD

(28-Nov-2020, 09:13 AM)JD1 Wrote: [ -> ]@agent_kith 

If possible, it would be great if we could get TOP to show the last used CPU.

More generally, I think the ability to assign a CPU and set process priorities in Snakeoil are key features for tweaking SQ.  Any new features (or tutorials?) that made it easier for users to identify the processes potentially worthy of CPU/priority manipulation would be a great bonus.

Ultimately, perhaps more can be done to fully reserve the player CPU for only player + those processes that cannot be migrated to another CPU.

Cheers,
JD

Those features are already in the SnakeOil and assigning process to different cores of CPU will produce different sound effect.  I think it's quite personal.





a psalm of life meaning

Currently TOP from the Snakeoil web interface does not show which CPU is being used for each process. For that I have to ssh in and google commands because I never remember any Linux commands. Being able to see last used CPU from within the Snakeoil web interface is what I am requesting.

Being able to pause the TOP output display would be another good feature so we can scroll down to see what else is running on the User CPU and check priorities.

When I do play around with TOP, ssh and Google-commands, I see things other than MPD running on my user CPU (3) and wonder if any could be moved to another CPU. Additionally, I try to find relevant processes that might be MPD/SQ-related; e.g. USB output; and then raise their priority.

Interestingly, I could not find an active IRQ on TOP that might represent USB output on my Pi4 (with 4xDSD music playing). On my full mobo with i7, I could always see the USB IRQ frequently popping up near the top of TOP.

(28-Nov-2020, 01:55 PM)JD1 Wrote: [ -> ]Currently TOP from the Snakeoil web interface does not show which CPU is being used for each process. For that I have to ssh in and google commands because I never remember any Linux commands. Being able to see last used CPU from within the Snakeoil web interface is what I am requesting.

Agree, last used CPU should added to TOP and @agent_kith should put it into list of enhancement requests
 

(28-Nov-2020, 01:55 PM)JD1 Wrote: [ -> ]Being able to pause the TOP output display would be another good feature so we can scroll down to see what else is running on the User CPU and check priorities.

When I do play around with TOP, ssh and Google-commands, I see things other than MPD running on my user CPU (3) and wonder if any could be moved to another CPU. Additionally, I try to find relevant processes that might be MPD/SQ-related; e.g. USB output; and then raise their priority.

Interestingly, I could not find an active IRQ on TOP that might represent USB output on my Pi4 (with 4xDSD music playing). On my full mobo with i7, I could always see the USB IRQ frequently popping up near the top of TOP.

Adding an interactive window to use TOP and pause is the same as SSH into SnakeOil and running TOP. You still need to remember things or Google commands. So, disagree we need pause for TOP within SnakeOil.

Am using CPU Set but find that process priorities make no difference to SQ on my Intel NUC.

(28-Nov-2020, 01:55 PM)JD1 Wrote: [ -> ]Currently TOP from the Snakeoil web interface does not show which CPU is being used for each process. For that I have to ssh in and google commands because I never remember any Linux commands. Being able to see last used CPU from within the Snakeoil web interface is what I am requesting.

Being able to pause the TOP output display would be another good feature so we can scroll down to see what else is running on the User CPU and check priorities.

When I do play around with TOP, ssh and Google-commands, I see things other than MPD running on my user CPU (3) and wonder if any could be moved to another CPU. Additionally, I try to find relevant processes that might be MPD/SQ-related; e.g. USB output; and then raise their priority.

I'll see what I can do on that.

(28-Nov-2020, 01:55 PM)JD1 Wrote: [ -> ]Interestingly, I could not find an active IRQ on TOP that might represent USB output on my Pi4 (with 4xDSD music playing). On my full mobo with i7, I could always see the USB IRQ frequently popping up near the top of TOP.

IRQ is a thing only on computers (running EFI or BIOS)... Don't think Raspberry Pi are interrupt driven (different subsystem).. So you can probably ignore IRQ setup in Pi.

2020 is really a bad year.. Talk to a lot of my friends in person (we can still do that in Perth Australia!), and online, a lot of employees are miserable. :( And I'm not the only person who quit.

And on a personal level... I've been unemployed since last week right? Well, last week my car horn died, this week my HT power amplifier died as well... Car horn is easy as it only took me a day of downtime...

Power amp... O.M.G. 1/2 day to remove it, half a day to pack it, 1/2 day to put my old power amp in, 1 day to send it to repairs...  At 29 Kg (package) the thing feels a lot heavier now. Havn't really thought about this before, but power amps are heavy and my back is sore again.

On a brighter note, I've made a lot of progress with the installer script. It's actually a shell installer, meaning you will need to SSH to your computer and execute the script from a BASH. Whole concept is about 20% complete. And my goal is to make it easier for existing users to transition to the new system without re-installing, and for new users to just install this and go.

My goal is to get this ready before the new year, but with the string of badluck, not totally confident I can reach that target. Will have to see how it goes.

Heard nothing about my power amp yet... Not entirely sure if I'll get it back before Christmas.. Hopefully it's a yes, anyway, now with time on my hands, here's some progress updates on Snakeoil Gear Isolation.

Improved the build automation of the Snakeoil RestAPI binary:


Same improvements, but on building the firmware file (basically this is the file to download by existing Snakeoil users)


Totally new, the new shell script based installer (file to download and run for new Snakeoil users)


And this is what it looks like when you install Snakeoil via the new Snakeoil installer.


Have done so many things in the past 2 weeks than the 4 years prior.. :/ Obviously there's still work to be done, the most important thing is to get the Angular front end build to work again. But hey, progress is progress.