Streaming & ao output - Airtime Support Discussions on Sourcefabric Forum

VE4PER / Andy

First time running Airtime.

I discovered my original problem of missing svstat and FAILED AUDIO was missing install packages liquidsoap and daemon-tools.
Those problems corrected, I would appreciate some help with the areas below:

where <------------ exists I would appreciate an explanation of what it is, why, and if a problem or error what to do to correct it please.

It appears to me that the ao failure is due to jackd and/or liquidsoap not configured to be aware of each other's existence
and instead is just trying to use alsa alone which won't work with jack running. A few shortcuts or tips would be appreciated here...

When I access the Icecast2 server using the WUI, it is running and I am able to login, and although liquidsoap and icecast2
processes are running in a ps-A, when I use a command line to play a playlist as you see below I do not see an active mountpoint in Icecast2
admin WUI.

I also noticed there is a lot of references in liquidsoap docs to icecast which is a different package from icecast2. the 2 version I believe allows for option format playouts, whereas the icecast was restricted to only ogg I believe; please correct me if I am wrong here. Would that
possibly be an explanation why the mount points aren't showing?

It appears to me from below that the stream output is supposedly working, just the ao to the sound card is shut down due to jack problem.

I have tried both types of playlist generation methods, the #EXTINFO type and the find piped to an m3u file and both give the same result as below.

Ubuntu 11.04 Airtime 1.8.2

Thanks in advance.
Andy

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
airhost1@studio-ws:~$ liquidsoap 'out(normalize(playlist("/home/airhost1/Oldies-103.m3u")))'
2011/06/16 08:25:53 >>> LOG START

2011/06/16 08:25:53 [protocols.external:3] Didn't find "ufetch" <-------------------- what is this? why? (not in apt-get or synaptic package list repos)

2011/06/16 08:25:53 [protocols.external:3] Found "/usr/bin/wget" <-------------------- what is this? why?

2011/06/16 08:25:53 [main:3] Liquidsoap 0.9.2
2011/06/16 08:25:53 [threads:3] Created thread "generic queue #1".
2011/06/16 08:25:53 [threads:3] Created thread "root" (1 total).
2011/06/16 08:25:53 [root:3] Waking up active nodes...
2011/06/16 08:25:53 [Oldies-103(dot)m3u:3] Loading playlist...
2011/06/16 08:25:53 [Oldies-103(dot)m3u:3] No mime type specified, trying autodetection.
2011/06/16 08:25:53 [Oldies-103(dot)m3u:3] Playlist treated as format audio/x-mpegurl
2011/06/16 08:25:53 [Oldies-103(dot)m3u:3] Successfully loaded a playlist of 1125 tracks.
2011/06/16 08:25:53 [threads:3] Created thread "ao" (2 total).
2011/06/16 08:25:53 [root:3] Broadcast starts up!

2011/06/16 08:25:53 [mksafe:3] Switch to safe_blank. <-------------------------- What and why??

2011/06/16 08:25:53 [decoder:3] Decoder MP3 chosen for "/home/airhost1/Music/Joan Baez - We Shall Overcome - Flower Power- Time Of The Season-oldies.mp3".

2011/06/16 08:25:54 [threads:1] Thread "ao" failed: Failed to open device! <------------ JACK Audio config needed ?????? to autostart??
Thread 4 killed on uncaught exception Failure("Failed to open device") <------------ " " " "

2011/06/16 08:25:54 [main:3] Shutdown started!
2011/06/16 08:25:54 [main:3] Waiting for threads to terminate...
2011/06/16 08:25:54 [Oldies-103(dot)m3u:3] Prepared "/home/airhost1/Music/Joan Baez - We Shall Overcome - Flower Power- Time Of The Season-oldies.mp3" (RID 1).

2011/06/16 08:25:54 [mksafe:3] Switch to src_10939 with transition. <-------------------- What is this and why????

^Z
[2]+ Stopped liquidsoap 'out(normalize(playlist("/home/airhost1/Oldies-103.m3u")))'
airhost1@studio-ws:~$
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Paul Baranowski

On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 5:09 AM, VE4PER / Andy <
airtime-support@lists.sourcefabric.org> wrote:

> **
>
>
> It appears to me that the ao failure is due to jackd and/or liquidsoap not
> configured to be aware of each other's existence
> and instead is just trying to use alsa alone which won't work with jack
> running. A few shortcuts or tips would be appreciated here...
>

Hi Andy -
Currently we support audio out to ALSA and streaming OGG or MP3. At the
moment you might be the first person to try to hook it up to JACK.

Most of the warnings you saw in the liquidsoap log file you can ignore,
except for the ao ones. For more in depth understand of liquidsoap, check
out their web page (it is a separate project).

The documentation for recompiling liquidsoap is here:
http://wiki.sourcefabric.org/x/ZIBr

>
> I also noticed there is a lot of references in liquidsoap docs to icecast
> which is a different package from icecast2. the 2 version I believe allows
> for option format playouts, whereas the icecast was restricted to only ogg I
> believe; please correct me if I am wrong here. Would that
> possibly be an explanation why the mount points aren't showing?
>

Airtime works with icecast2, thats what we are using by default.

> I have tried both types of playlist generation methods, the #EXTINFO type
> and the find piped to an m3u file and both give the same result as below.
>

Not sure what you are referring to here?

- Paul

VE4PER / Andy

OK thanks for the comments and efforts.

I have since confirmed the problem is related to liquidsoap and
jack/alsa interplay.
If jack/alsa is running and although levels are lower than I would like,
there is sound
and config possible using the connections and patchbay in jack.

However, starting airtime streaming will generate the errors since the
ao device is grabbed by alsa/jack
automatically. Rebooting the box and airtime autostarts and grabs the ao
device rendering it
busy to jack/alsa and the jackd won't start due to device busy.

The only way I could get jack server up was to 'sysv-rc-conf' liquidsoap
so that it did not autostart.

I tried to find a config file for liquid soap somewhere that was telling
it to launch/grab the ao device
automatically and disable it yet allow streaming so that sound card was
available to jack but couldn't locate
such a file.

The airtime WUI shows show playing and selections count down and
change as scheduled, however there is no
ON AIR light... When I access the icecast2 WUI and click the m3u
stream, it launches the player app, and the player's
visual effects would appear that there is audio playing, but because the
ao problems are grabbing the snd card, the player,
which is jack-aware, can't be monitored from off the stream either.

I thought if I could turn off the direct monitoring using the soundcard
directly from airtime/liquidsoap, and instead
monitor by using a browser plugin connection to the actual icecast2
stream output, I might be bale to work around
the no sound.

The only references in docs I could find so far was the CLI switch
options/configs for testing icecast2/liquidsoap
operation by directly playing a playlist without airtime.

The reason why I have no ON Air Light, I cannot explain.

Paul Baranowski wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 5:09 AM, VE4PER / Andy <
> airtime-support@lists.sourcefabric.org
> <mailto:airtime-support@lists.sourcefabric.org>> wrote:
>
> > **
> >
> >
> > It appears to me that the ao failure is due to jackd and/or
> liquidsoap not
> > configured to be aware of each other's existence
> > and instead is just trying to use alsa alone which won't work with jack
> > running. A few shortcuts or tips would be appreciated here...
> >
>
> Hi Andy -
> Currently we support audio out to ALSA and streaming OGG or MP3. At the
> moment you might be the first person to try to hook it up to JACK.
>
> Most of the warnings you saw in the liquidsoap log file you can ignore,
> except for the ao ones. For more in depth understand of liquidsoap, check
> out their web page (it is a separate project).
>
> The documentation for recompiling liquidsoap is here:
> http://wiki.sourcefabric.org/x/ZIBr
>
>
>
> >
> > I also noticed there is a lot of references in liquidsoap docs to
> icecast
> > which is a different package from icecast2. the 2 version I believe
> allows
> > for option format playouts, whereas the icecast was restricted to
> only ogg I
> > believe; please correct me if I am wrong here. Would that
> > possibly be an explanation why the mount points aren't showing?
> >
>
> Airtime works with icecast2, thats what we are using by default.
>
>
>
> > I have tried both types of playlist generation methods, the #EXTINFO
> type
> > and the find piped to an m3u file and both give the same result as
> below.
> >
>
> Not sure what you are referring to here?
>
> - Paul
>
>
>

VE4PER / Andy

Paul,
I had a look at the link you recommended, and am of the opinion that
liquidsoap differs
from other streamer apps, like Darkice/Darksnow in that the user
creates a custom .liq
script to run rather than just setting variable values through a GUI
form or sudo edited
base config file.

If this is so, and it wouldn't be too much trouble for you, could you
point me where to
find the script.liq file that airtime uses so I can see if that is where
the ao option is specified?

It would appear from some of the forums and sites I have researched,
that I should also be able to
enable jack as an option in that script as well.

Thanks
Andy

Paul Baranowski wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 5:09 AM, VE4PER / Andy <
> airtime-support@lists.sourcefabric.org
> <mailto:airtime-support@lists.sourcefabric.org>> wrote:
>
> > **
> >
> >
> > It appears to me that the ao failure is due to jackd and/or
> liquidsoap not
> > configured to be aware of each other's existence
> > and instead is just trying to use alsa alone which won't work with jack
> > running. A few shortcuts or tips would be appreciated here...
> >
>
> Hi Andy -
> Currently we support audio out to ALSA and streaming OGG or MP3. At the
> moment you might be the first person to try to hook it up to JACK.
>
> Most of the warnings you saw in the liquidsoap log file you can ignore,
> except for the ao ones. For more in depth understand of liquidsoap, check
> out their web page (it is a separate project).
>
> The documentation for recompiling liquidsoap is here:
> http://wiki.sourcefabric.org/x/ZIBr
>
>
>
> >
> > I also noticed there is a lot of references in liquidsoap docs to
> icecast
> > which is a different package from icecast2. the 2 version I believe
> allows
> > for option format playouts, whereas the icecast was restricted to
> only ogg I
> > believe; please correct me if I am wrong here. Would that
> > possibly be an explanation why the mount points aren't showing?
> >
>
> Airtime works with icecast2, thats what we are using by default.
>
>
>
> > I have tried both types of playlist generation methods, the #EXTINFO
> type
> > and the find piped to an m3u file and both give the same result as
> below.
> >
>
> Not sure what you are referring to here?
>
> - Paul
>
>
>

Martin Konecny

Hi!

By default Liquidsoap bundled with Airitme should *not* attempt to access the soundcard. Take a look at /etc/airtime/liquidsoap.cfg and ensure the following line exists:

output_sound_device = false

As for the liquidsoap script, you can find it at /usr/lib/airtime/pypo/bin/scripts/ls_script.liq

If you do make any changes, please post them here so that we can incorporate it into upcoming versions Smile

VE4PER / Andy

liquidsoap.cfg is set to false for the o/p snd device.

Here is the link that makes reference to including JACKD,

*/http://www.freshports.org/audio/liquidsoap/*

It appears one has to custom build it to include jack option from the
looks of this.

Here are config options for build:

Configuration Options

===> The following configuration options are available for liquidsoap-0.9.3:
AO=Off (default) "portable and stable, but it does only output"
* JACK=On (default) "audio connection kit, designed for low latency"
<------**************
FAAC=On (default) "AAC encoding"
FAAD=On (default) "AAC decoding"
FESTIVAL=On (default) "speech synthesis (say)"
GAVL=Off (default) "converts from and to many formats"
LADSPA=Off (default) "audio plugins providing sound effects"
LAME=On (default) "for MP3 encoding"
MAD=On (default) "for MP3 decoding"
OGG=On (default) "ogg/vorbis and ogg/theora encoding and decoding"
VORBIS=On (default) "ogg/vorbis encoding and decoding (need OGG)"
SPEEX=Off (default) "ogg/speex encoding and decoding (need OGG)"
THEORA=Off (default) "ogg/theora encoding and decoding (need OGG)"
SAMPLERATE=Off (default) "for having better quality resampling"
SOUNDTOUCH=Off (default) "for changing pitch and tempo of sound"
PULSEAUDIO=Off (default) "cross-platform audio sound server"
TAGLIB=On (default) "for MP3 ID3 tag reading"
WGET=On (default) "for downloading remote files (http, https, ftp)"
===> Use 'make config' to modify these settings

Also, could someone explain what the following snippets of code actually
do, please? The code options following
this quoted one obtained from the if--->then --> else group are self
explanatory by virtue of the associated
mp3 or ogg format specs, however, "out(s)" I can't locate a description
in ref manual for this command structure
standing alone.

excerpt from ls_script.liq;
*_______________________________
if output_sound_device then
out_device = out(s)
end
_______________________________
*
To me this says if output sound hardware device exists on the system,
output to the device is out(s), whatever
out(s) implies.

- is output_sound_device a variable set by
boolean/logical expression set by a liquidsoap confg option ao=true ?
or is it established by boot-up list of hardware
devices available and therefore grabbed for use
here? with the command to output to that device
formatted using out(s) whatever format that implies?
In the case of it being hardware list related,
airtime/liquidsoap on start would logically detect it, require it,
and therefore commandeer it for it's own exclusive
use ?/ liquidsoap buffer overload skip protection would need
an existent device assignment in order to skip??

Thanks,

Andy

Martin Konecny wrote:
> Hi!
>
> By default Liquidsoap bundled with Airitme should *not* attempt to
> access the soundcard. Take a look at /etc/airtime/liquidsoap.cfg and
> ensure the following line exists:
>
> output_sound_device = false
>
>
> As for the liquidsoap script, you can find it at
> /usr/lib/airtime/pypo/bin/scripts/ls_script.liq
>
> If you do make any changes, please post them here so that we can
> incorporate it into upcoming versions Smile
>
>
>
>

Martin Konecny

Quote:

- is output_sound_device a variable set by
boolean/logical expression set by a liquidsoap confg option ao=true ?
or is it established by boot-up list of hardware
devices available and therefore grabbed for use
here? with the command to output to that device
formatted using out(s) whatever format that implies?
In the case of it being hardware list related,
airtime/liquidsoap on start would logically detect it, require it,
and therefore commandeer it for it's own exclusive
use ?/ liquidsoap buffer overload skip protection would need
an existent device assignment in order to skip??

Thanks,

Andy

output_sound_device is actually a boolean variable set in /etc/airtime/liquidsoap.cfg.

As for out(s), this is set-up by liquidsoap using whatever is available on the system. From the liquidsoap utils.liq source code:

# Output to local audio card using the first available driver in this list:
# ao, pulseaudio, alsa, oss, dummy

You can see more of this source in /usr/lib/airtime/pypo/bin/scripts/library/utils.liq

VE4PER / Andy

still doesn't answer the question of why liquidsoap running with output_sound_device=false, is showing the sound hardware as unavailable or busy to other programs then (jackd as example).

stopping airtime and liquid soap services from starting on bootup, and jackd sees the card as available and serviceable and hence, starts qjackctl automatically.

Martin Konecny

This sounds like it could be a problem with the Liquidsoap binaries we are currently using, since they should not be accessing the sound hardware (in the past I have verified that they did not, but could be something strange with the newer version packaged with Airtime 1.8.2). Try stopping both the Airtime and JACK daemons, run

/usr/lib/airtime/pypo/bin/liquidsoap_bin/liquidsoap 'output.icecast(%vorbis, mount="test.ogg", sine())'

and then try starting the JACK daemon to see if liquidsoap has still locked the soundcard.

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