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More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 29 for Linux => Topic started by: rustybutton on June 05, 2022, 05:42:25 pm

Title: MediaCenter29 stops in the middle of songs
Post by: rustybutton on June 05, 2022, 05:42:25 pm
I just did a fresh rebuild on my laptop PC, swapping out the spinning drive for an SSD.    I installed a current rev Ubuntu derivative called "Linux-lite".  Nice snappy interface.  I recently paid for the version 29 upgrade and had it installed on the old spinning drive, and now on the SSD.

Every so often, MediaCenter29 would just stop in the middle of a song.  The application does not crash.  The song just stops playing.  It was the same for version 28 as well.   There is no mention of its operation in /var/log/syslog, nor can I find anything useful under ~/.jriver.

Can someone tell me how to run MediaCenter29 in debug mode, and where to find the log files for it?
Title: Re: MediaCenter29 stops in the middle of songs
Post by: rustybutton on June 05, 2022, 07:28:19 pm
I did a search on this issue and saw some very old postings mentioning AudioScrobbler, but see nothing in MediaCenter29 about that.  Is this still a concern?  Could my problem be something similar?

Until this gets fixed, MediaCenter29 is unusable.
Title: Re: MediaCenter29 stops in the middle of songs
Post by: rustybutton on June 05, 2022, 08:26:57 pm
I've attached a screenshot of MediaCenter29 at the time of failure.   The music just stopped playing.  I only use MediaCenter29 for playing back flac files.  The media files are all on local disk.  No network volumes.

Before doing this, I walked through the troubleshooting guide.  Auto import is not enabled.

And just so ya know, the same file that dies in MediaCenter29 plays just fine on the free Clementine media player.

Please help.

Title: Re: MediaCenter29 stops in the middle of songs
Post by: JimH on June 06, 2022, 01:13:30 am
The wiki has a topic on logging.
Title: Re: MediaCenter29 stops in the middle of songs
Post by: rustybutton on June 06, 2022, 01:17:43 am
I found that doc on logging and enabled it.  That's how I got the log file I uploaded here. 

Title: Re: MediaCenter29 stops in the middle of songs
Post by: bob on June 06, 2022, 09:48:51 am
I found that doc on logging and enabled it.  That's how I got the log file I uploaded here.
From the log it looks like you are using the default device.
I wouldn't recommend that. The system can take that over at any time.

What is your actual hardware that's being used for playback?

For the best sound quality you should choose one of the hw: or front: devices.
Title: Re: MediaCenter29 stops in the middle of songs
Post by: rustybutton on June 06, 2022, 11:38:56 am
I'm running MediaCenter29 on an HP laptop with an Ubuntu variant called "Linux-lite".   I'm running a Peachtree DAC-iT USB DAC, o a tube preamp.

You mention choosing hw: or  front: devices, but I don't see where you make that selection in MediaCenter29.

I've looked through

Tools - Options -> Audio
Player -> DSP Studio

What's even worse now, starting this morning, is that I can't play anything back.  I suppose it's possible that because I had fired up Clementine, something there may have stepped on it.   See screenshots.
Title: Re: MediaCenter29 stops in the middle of songs
Post by: Awesome Donkey on June 06, 2022, 11:40:30 am
You mention choosing hw: or  front: devices, but I don't see where you make that selection in MediaCenter29.

MC's Options > Audio > Audio Device dropdown list there will list all your output devices. If you have a hw: output available for your DAC, I'd recommend using that one.
Title: Re: MediaCenter29 stops in the middle of songs
Post by: rustybutton on June 06, 2022, 03:19:56 pm
The only device selections where it plays at all are:

default [ALSA]
pulse [ALSA]

Here's a screenshot of the device selection menu.
Title: Re: MediaCenter29 stops in the middle of songs
Post by: bob on June 06, 2022, 03:49:03 pm
From a terminal command line as the user running MC, do:

/usr/lib/jriver/Media\ Center\ 29/alsacap

copy and paste the results for your DAC into a reply here.
Title: Re: MediaCenter29 stops in the middle of songs
Post by: rustybutton on June 06, 2022, 04:42:42 pm
rbutton@media:~$ /usr/lib/jriver/Media\ Center\ 29/alsacap
*** Scanning for playback devices ***
Card 0, ID `HDMI', name `HDA ATI HDMI'
  Device 3, ID `HDMI 0', name `HDMI 0', 1 subdevices (1 available)
    2..8 channels, sampling rates 32000, 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000 Hz
    Sample formats: S16_LE, S32_LE
      Subdevice 0, name `subdevice #0'
Card 1, ID `DAC', name `Peachtree USB DAC'
  Device 0, ID `USB Audio', name `USB Audio', 1 subdevices (0 available)
Error opening sound device for card 1, device 0: Device or resource busy.  Skipping.
  Device 1, ID `USB Audio', name `USB Audio #1', 1 subdevices (1 available)
Error obtaining hardware parameters for card 1, device 1: Invalid argument.  Skipping.
Card 2, ID `Generic', name `HD-Audio Generic'
  Device 0, ID `ALC3227 Analog', name `ALC3227 Analog', 1 subdevices (0 available)
Error opening sound device for card 2, device 0: Device or resource busy.  Skipping.
Title: Re: MediaCenter29 stops in the middle of songs
Post by: bob on June 06, 2022, 04:59:52 pm
rbutton@media:~$ /usr/lib/jriver/Media\ Center\ 29/alsacap
*** Scanning for playback devices ***
Card 0, ID `HDMI', name `HDA ATI HDMI'
  Device 3, ID `HDMI 0', name `HDMI 0', 1 subdevices (1 available)
    2..8 channels, sampling rates 32000, 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000 Hz
    Sample formats: S16_LE, S32_LE
      Subdevice 0, name `subdevice #0'
Card 1, ID `DAC', name `Peachtree USB DAC'
  Device 0, ID `USB Audio', name `USB Audio', 1 subdevices (0 available)
Error opening sound device for card 1, device 0: Device or resource busy.  Skipping.
  Device 1, ID `USB Audio', name `USB Audio #1', 1 subdevices (1 available)
Error obtaining hardware parameters for card 1, device 1: Invalid argument.  Skipping.
Card 2, ID `Generic', name `HD-Audio Generic'
  Device 0, ID `ALC3227 Analog', name `ALC3227 Analog', 1 subdevices (0 available)
Error opening sound device for card 2, device 0: Device or resource busy.  Skipping.

Something on the system is hogging output to that device.
Error opening sound device for card 1, device 0: Device or resource busy.  Skipping.

If you don't want to bother with it you could just select the default (which is the pulse server) and go into DSP studio output format, right-click on on the the same rates and change them all to 48k.

If that doesn't solve your issue, something else is taking control of the pulse server.
On my systems designed for music playback I discard the pulse system so it doesn't get in the way.
Title: Re: MediaCenter29 stops in the middle of songs
Post by: rustybutton on June 07, 2022, 09:36:19 am
Changing outputs to 48000 didn't make a difference.

My laptop is just as a music player.  I have about 600G of flac files on local SSD, ripped from CD, to be played back through a Peachtree USB DAC, to my 2-channel Old School stereo rig.  The laptop is nothing special.

Should I do:

sudo apt-get -y remove pulseaudio.

Is pulseaudio necessary for music playback?


Title: Re: MediaCenter29 stops in the middle of songs
Post by: Awesome Donkey on June 07, 2022, 10:50:58 am
It's worth noting that most modern Linux distros have replaced PulseAudio with PipeWire.

That said it's probably a bad idea to mess with that and trying to remove PulseAudio/PipeWire. Very likely you'll end up breaking system audio doing things like that. If all else fails you might need to choose another Linux distro, straight Ubuntu would probably be your best bet. I've never heard of "Linux Lite" but after doing a quick search and reading a little bit about it, it seems like it might be a hassle to deal with. As such based on my very quick search I personally wouldn't recommend it. Keep in mind JRiver doesn't officially support any Linux distros except Debian. Unofficially it'll work as fine on Ubuntu too, since Debian and Ubuntu are closely related.

BTW, in your screenshot above it looks like the first hw: audio output is the right one for your DAC.
Title: Re: MediaCenter29 stops in the middle of songs
Post by: rustybutton on June 08, 2022, 09:38:11 pm
Your recommendation worked.   I thought I had tried it, but I was wrong.  I now have set it to:

hw:CARD=DAC,DEV=0 [ALSA]

My laptop is just an HP that's a few years old, running a current Ubuntu derivative.   I'm sure that I'd have the same issue were I to have installed straight Ubuntu.

Clementine has no problem at all.  No idea why.  Something for you to keep an eye on. 

Much thanks  for the help!