Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[jmone]

Axiom Audio Air is a wired & wireless Active Speaker that uses a Rasberry Pi2 instead of a "traditional" SOC.  The build on the Pi is running a custom version of Volumio and supports DLNA and Airplay as well as it's own GUI (Web, Android, iOS).  Supports both wired and WiFi connection.  You can also group multiple Axiom Airs and they will play on all devices and in Sync (I think it uses SnapCast).  Optionally battery powered as well (which I have).  You can get it in a range of finishes.

It's Big... Loud... Smart... (but definitely not Cheap!).

AxiomAir Technical Specs
- Amp Power (continuous RMS) - 150 watts
- Woofers- Dual 6.5" Aluminium Cone
- Tweeters - Dual 1" Titanium Dome
- Frequency Response +/- 3 dB - 60 Hz - 20 kHz
- Frequency Response + 3 dB/- 9 dB - 50 Hz - 20 kHz
- Max SPL Continuous - 115 dB
- Enclosure - Bass Reflex
- Crossover Frequency - 2.2 kHz
- Height (inches) - 10.25 : Height (mm) - 261
- Width (inches) - 19.5 : Width (mm) - 497
- Weight (lbs) - 16 : Weight (kg)- 7.3



MC Installation Instructions (all credit and thanks to mwillems for the following!)

Note: Before you start you may want to expand the Data (3rd and last) Partition on the SD Card from 1GB to 10GB (I used GParted Live CD as I was unsure how to do this safely via SSH).  I found that MC will fill this partion with Thumbs etc leading to very poor responsiveness. 

1) Use SSH to log in to the axiomair (the Credentials are volumio/volumio)  Note: You may need to enable SSH but going to the http://192.XXX.XXX.XXX/dev/ page first
2) Install a minimal window manager and a vncserver that generates a virtual desktop, e.g.:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install openbox tightvncserver 3) Then start the vnc server to force it to do first time setup and enter passwords

Code: [Select]

vncserver4) Then kill the vnc server and tell it you want to use your window manager

Code: [Select]

vncserver -kill :1
echo "openbox-session &" >> /home/volumio/.vnc/xstartup5) Then restart the VNC server at a reasonable resolution

Code: [Select]

vncserver :1 -geometry 1920x10806) Install MC as follows

Code: [Select]

mkdir Downloads
wget -q "http://dist.jriver.com/mediacenter@jriver.com.gpg.key" -O- | sudo apt-key add -
sudo wget http://dist.jriver.com/latest/mediacenter/mediacenter22native.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediacenter22.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mediacenter22
7) To run MC, run the following commands through SSH

Code: [Select]

export DISPLAY=:1
mediacenter22 &
At that point, you have a running instance of MC on the AxiomAir.  If you want to interact with MC's interface, you can use a vnc viewer (I use tigervnc which has windows and linux versions) to connect to the AxiomAir's IP address, just make sure to add a ":1" to the end of the address.  Once you've vnced in, do some basic setup (pointing it to your server, etc.).  At that point you should be able to control it fully with a Remote (gizmo, JRemote, EOS etc) or another MC Instance.  It can be sluggish at time and I'd recommend
- building all your thumbnails in advance if you have a large library
- turning off the Spectrum Analyser in the Top of the MC Display

8 ) To install a MC Licence.  When you purchase JRiver, you receive an E-mail with an .mjr file. Download that file to your AxiomAir's Downloads directory (the one created above). Run the following command through SSH (Replace Linux with Master if needed, and the Y's with the numbers from your .mjr file):

Code: [Select]

mediacenter22 /RestoreFromFile ~/Downloads/"Media Center22 Linux-YYYYYY.mjr"9) To set MC to autorun on Startup/Reboot using a cron script.  Type "nano /home/volumio/headless" into the terminal and type the following

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/bash
export USER=volumio
vncserver :1 -geometry 1920x1080
export DISPLAY=':1'
sleep 30
mediacenter22 /mediaserverOnce you're done, press CTRL-X, and choose "y" and press "enter" twice.  Now type

Code: [Select]

sudo chmod 755 /home/volumio/headless
sudo apt-get install cron
crontab -e
After you enter the second command, you may be prompted you to choose an editor; if so choose /bin/nano, which should be option 1.  Now you should now be looking at a file with some information in it. 

If you want mediacenter to launch on boot type the following line at the bottom of the file:

Code: [Select]

@reboot     /home/volumio/headless > /dev/null
Once you've added the one you want, press CTRL-X and then "y" and "enter" twice.  Now reboot your AxiomAir, and within a few minutes you should be able to access MC and your VNC desktop.
 

[jmone]

Given it is a Pi2 and @mwillems has worked out how to run MC on this platform I'm keen to see if I can "mod" the setup to include MC running natively on this device (plan is to try to outdo Hilton's home built version  )

[jmone]

A quick Whitebear test shows the following (I'm running a fuller test overnight as much of the advertised DLNA support is ambiguous ):

Code: [Select]

DMR Report (by Whitebear) for UpMPD
===================================

Device Description Url=http://192.168.1.xxx:49152/description.xml
HTTP Server Header=Linux/4.0.6-v7+, UPnP/1.0, Portable SDK for UPnP devices/1.6.19.jfd3
Description=UPnP front-end to MPD
Friendly Name=AxiomAir
Manufacturer Name=JF Light Industries
Manufacturer Url=http://www.github.com/medoc92/upmpd
Model Name=UpMPD
Model Number=1.0
Model Url=http://www.github.com/medoc92/upmpd
Presentation Url=http://192.168.1.xxx:49152/upmpd/presentation.html
Serial Number=42
UPnP Device Type=urn:schemas-upnp-org:device:MediaRenderer:1
UPnP Media Renderer version=1
Unique Device Name=uuid:12d25297-bf51-7de7-e08b-74da3868d788
Service Url for RenderingControl=http://192.168.1.xxx:49152/upmpd/RenderingControl.xml
Service Url for AVTransport=http://192.168.1.xxx:49152/upmpd/AVTransport.xml
Service Url for ConnectionManager=http://192.168.1.xxx:49152/upmpd/ConnectionManager.xml
AVT:GetDeviceCapabilities action=Supported
AVT:GetMediaInfo action=Supported
AVT:GetPositionInfo action=Supported
AVT:GetTransportInfo action=Supported
AVT:GetTransportSettings action=Supported
AVT:SetNextAVTransportURI (gapless play)=Supported
AVT:SyncPlay (synchronous play)=NOT Supported
RC:GetVolume action=Supported
RC:SetVolume action=Supported
AVT:Event Subscription=Succeeded
RC:Event Subscription=Succeeded
HTTP User Agent (client)=Music Player Daemon 0.19.9
Play test file result=Play success => Start Ok / Stop Ok


Media Center DLNA Server Advanced Settings
==========================================

DLNA=Off
DLNAExtra=Off
Enable bitrate Field=Off
Filter international characters=Checked
Include session ID=Off
Playstation 3 Compatible=Off
Present Caption Resources=Off
Present Small Artwork=Off
Present Subtitle Resources=Off
Skip Child Count=Checked
Use flat URLs=Checked
Use full URLs=Checked
WMC Compatible=Off


Declared Supported Audio, Image & Video Formats
===============================================

http-get:*:audio/dsd:*
http-get:*:audio/wav:*
http-get:*:audio/wave:*
http-get:*:audio/x-wav:*
http-get:*:audio/x-aiff:*
http-get:*:audio/mpeg:*
http-get:*:audio/x-mpeg:*
http-get:*:audio/mp1:*
http-get:*:audio/aac:*
http-get:*:audio/flac:*
http-get:*:audio/x-flac:*
http-get:*:audio/m4a:*
http-get:*:audio/mp4:*
http-get:*:audio/x-m4a:*
http-get:*:audio/vorbis:*
http-get:*:audio/ogg:*
http-get:*:audio/x-ogg:*
http-get:*:audio/x-scpls:*


[jmone]

FYI - Here is a couple of pics of the Pi from inside the AA

[mwillems]

Did it ship with the edimax dongle stuck in there? If so, that's funny; I've definitely used those with my Pis before.

I'll post back once I've had a chance to look at the image.

[jmone]

Yup & Thanks

[jmone]

So far, so good with pushing items over DLNA, including:
- up to 24 bit, 196k (& it will handle multi channel) in all the major formats
- all my web radio links
- Video, I've not tested to see if I get a video output on the Pi's HDMI connector as it is not exposed, but you do get the Audio

As of got a another one of these coming (and they plan to release a box of just the smarts for adding to existing speakers/amps etc), I've asked if they plan to support DLNA AVT:SyncPlay (synchronous play) so I could get Multi Room Audio in Sync (like with Airplay).

[jmone]

Here is some screen shots from both the Web and Android UI

[jmone]

After some playing:
- It seems pretty rock solid as a DLNA/Airplay device
- Looking forward to seeing if I can add MC to it but will need much guidness from mwillems
- Embarrassingly I "broke" the Pi..... and had to replace it.  When I had the board out of the unit, I let it touch the only metal part on the bottom of the unit (a plate with the serial # etc on it).... A new Pi "fixed" my sloppiness! 

[syndromeofadown]

Hi jmone
I backed the Axiom Air and bought the large battery kit for it. I'm excited for the day it shows up.
I'm hoping you can give some advice on how I can get my music onto it, so I am ready when it arrives.

My situation:
I don't have electricity, hence the battery kit, so I don't have a router or MC setup for a network.
I do have: Internet, Windows laptops, Windows tablets, Android tablets, Windows phones, 2.5 inch usb external hardrives, and a 128GB Fiio DAP.

Ideally I would plug a usb drive with 1TB of music into the axiom air then access it using MC on a tablet.
Would this be possible?

Do you have any thoughts on the best way to set up a large library without a standard network?

[jmone]

Mmmm could have a few options, but they all need a Wired or WiFi connection beween the Air and Laptop/Tablet/Phone to control it:
- Use a Laptop/Tablet with WiFi Hotspot On to create the network.  This way you could both control the Air and also push music using DLNA to it without the need to attach a drive to the Air
- Put the Air into WiFi Hotspot to create the network.  I've NOT been able to do this one but it should be possible.
- Attach a Laptop to the Air directly using the Ethernet Port instead of WiFi

Other options could include:
- Keep all the music on some "player" and use the Analogue In port on the Air
- Add a Screen / Keyboard / Mouse to the Air (this is harder as there is no external jack for the Screen and how would you power it anyway)

PS - I've not tested the Battery Life in mine (I have the 1 bat pack option) but it seems good.

[syndromeofadown]

- Put the Air into WiFi Hotspot to create the network.  I've NOT been able to do this one but it should be possible.

I would like to do this and have a usb drive plugged into the axiom air that shows up as a network drive on my tablet that I can import into MC.
I have no idea if it's something that is possible though. I have never used a PI.

A few more options could be:
- add a 200GB sd card to my tablet and still have a decent size library.

- Buy a 1TB WD wifi 2.5 inch hardrive to throw into the mix.

- Buy a cheap netbook type device and upgrade the internal storage to 1tb.

My preference is not to spend anymore money, which is why I though I would ask.
Thanks for the help.

PS - I've not tested the Battery Life in mine (I have the 1 bat pack option) but it seems good.

I got the 2 battery option and have read that it outperforms the specs.

[jmone]

Mmmm I've asked a Q over at Axiom on this.

[mwillems]

Ok, so I spent a few hours with this.  Good news and bad news:

The Good News: I've got MC21 running on the axiomair image with a minimum of fuss.
The Bad News: I've got no idea if it will actually work because I don't have the hardware here to test.

Here's the blow by blow:

To minimally install MC on the axiom do the following:

1) Use SSH to log in to the axiomair.
2) Install a minimal window manager and a vncserver that generates a virtual desktop, e.g.:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install openbox tightvncserver 3) Then start the vnc server to force it to do first time setup and enter passwords

Code: [Select]

vncserver4) Then kill the vnc server and tell it you want to use your window manager

Code: [Select]

vncserver -kill :1
echo "openbox-session &" >> /home/volumio/.vnc/xstartup5) Then restart the VNC server at a reasonable resolution

Code: [Select]

vncserver :1 -geometry 1920x10806) Now follow the directions in my install guide under the subheader Installing MC: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=99370.msg687831#msg687831
7) To run MC, run the following commands through SSH

Code: [Select]

export DISPLAY=:1
mediacenter21 &
At that point, you have a running instance of MC on the pi.  If you want to interact with MC's interface, you can use a vnc viewer (I use tigervnc which has windows and linux versions) to connect to the pi's IP address, just make sure to add a ":1" to the end fo the address.  Once you've vnced in, do some basic setup (pointing it to your server, etc.), At that point you should be able to control it fully with gizmo or JRemote, but it will be a little pokey at first.  I'd recommend building all your thumbnails in advance if you have a large library.

So here's the limitations:

1) Testing Limitations - They seem be using an extremely streamlined/customized kernel, such that it seems to only recognize the audio hardware that's "supposed" to be connected to the axiomair.  So the handful of USB DACs which I tried (All of which are normally plug and play with a pi) were not recognized and not addressable.  That means that while audio appeared to play when I told it to, I had no way of actually testing whether audio output works correctly.  I thought about re-compiling the kernel and testing, but given that your plan is to use it with OEM hardware, that seems like a waste of time at this point.  MC could "see" the hifiberry DAC that the axiom was expecting to see, and could play to it (even though it wasn't there), but I have no way of doing further testing on that piece. Basic network connectivityand gizmo control seemed to work, and it found my server just fine (but see below).  But that's as far as I could test.

2) Minimal Install - The installation I outlined above will get you mediacenter running on a blank grey field with none of the usual "desktop apparatus" that normally ships with the pi.  Installing all of that would require a fair few additional steps; this is good enough to get the install going.  If you want MC to start automatically on boot, follow the directions after the phrase "We're not done yet..." in this post: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=99370.msg687832#msg687832.

3) DLNA renderer issues - While control from Gizmo or JRemote seems to work fine, attempting to control the axiom as a UPNP/DLNA renderer from another instance of MC seems to fail completely, which is odd because you would expect that MC could talk to itself readily enough.  I suspect, however, that MC is not "talking to itself" but is rather talking to the volumio/axiomair DLNA renderer which is likely hogging the relevant port.  The reason I suspect that to be the case is that the way in which it is failing is the same way that Volumio's UPNP implementation failed for me when I tested it in the past: it tries to play the first five seconds of a song, gives up, moves to the next, repeat until the end of the playlist.  I managed to work around this issue when I was testing Volumio by using AndrewFG's analyzer tool and then creating a Volumio specific profile in JRiver, which allowed minimal (if a bit flaky) UPNP control.  I suspect you'll have to do something similar if you want to be able to control it from other MC instances.

General thoughts:

The axiom web interface seems nice (it's fairly similar to volumio's interface) and I like the way that it exposes NAS mounting so easily (which worked well).  There were a few missed opportunities, but it's a neat product.

Hope this helps, I'm not sure I coudl get any farther without the actual hardware, so I'll be interested to see if it works.

[jmone]

Thanks for the detailed instructions.  I'll give it a go this weekend and see what I can do (but I bet I'll be back with dumb Q's!).  I'm pretty impressed with the setup so far (couple of niggles but nothin to bog).  Still got a couple of things to test (waiting on my 2nd device to see how multiroom works - they must be using Airplay as it does not support DLNA Sync)... but it seems nice and stable.

[jmone]

I didn't get far sorry -  

Code: [Select]

volumio@axiomair:~$ sudo apt-get install openbox tightvncserver
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package openbox
E: Unable to locate package tightvncserver
edit - doing a "sudo apt-get update" to see if that helps
edit2 - that seems to have worked and it's now install all sorts of stuff!

[mwillems]

I didn't get far sorry -  

Code: [Select]

volumio@axiomair:~$ sudo apt-get install openbox tightvncserver
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package openbox
E: Unable to locate package tightvncserver
edit - doing a "sudo apt-get update" to see if that helps
edit2 - that seems to have worked and it's now install all sorts of stuff!

Oh wow, I had done the update first just as a precaution, but it hadn't occurred to me they'd ship it with no repos cached whatsoever!  Sorry for skipping a step 

[jmone]

Mate - You are a Genius!  It all just works 
- Via VNC
- Via a Remote (EOS in my case)
- Via another Instance of MC... Though it is coming and going a bit (I'll see if it settles down or it could be a DLNA conflict between the Air DLNA and the MC on Air DLNA but I would not have thought so)

It also has not "broken" the native Air (Volumio) SW in any way that I can tell

Couple of things,
- Your right in that it is sluggish but I guess that will settle down once MC has built the Thumbs etc
- Like all my other MC instances, I'm using this as a Library Server Client, and have all my content shared using UNC on the Network (eg in the form of "\\MAIN\Media\Audio\song.flac".  At present it seems the Air can not "see" these clients as everything is being transcoded.  I seem to remember that UNC is not a Linux format??

[jmone]

The MC instance (incl VNC just disappeared).  I see in the SSH Cleint that I got a:
"[1]+ Segmentation fault   mediacenter21"

Edit - just restarted MC from the Cmd Line just fine.

[jmone]

So I (think) I've added a Lic just fine and I rebooted the Air, but I don't think stuff (MC / VNC Server etc) runs on boot?  What apps (and how) should I add to run on boot?

THanks
Nathan

Edit - running the following from SSH gave me back both VNC and MC.
vncserver :1 -geometry 1920x1080
export DISPLAY=:1
mediacenter21 &

Edit -    I guess the MC Startup options fix the MC Autorunning.... However I'm in the middle of Rebuilding all the Thumbnails

[mwillems]

So I (think) I've added a Lic just fine and I rebooted the Air, but I don't think stuff (MC / VNC Server etc) runs on boot?  What apps (and how) should I add to run on boot?

THanks
Nathan

Edit - running the following from SSH gave me back both VNC and MC.
vncserver :1 -geometry 1920x1080
export DISPLAY=:1
mediacenter21 &

Edit -    I guess the MC Startup options fix the MC Autorunning.... However I'm in the middle of Rebuilding all the Thumbnails

The MC menu startup options don't work on Linux.  For autostart, I mentioned directions on autostarting MC on the pi above and provided a link, but those were generic directions for regular Pi's.  Here are the directions inline and modified for volumio:

Type "nano /home/volumio/headless" into the terminal and type the following

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/bash
export USER=volumio
vncserver :1 -geometry 1920x1080
export DISPLAY=':1'
mediacenter21 /mediaserver
Once you're done, press CTRL-X, and choose "y" and press "enter" twice.  Now type

Code: [Select]

sudo chmod 755 /home/volumio/headless
crontab -e
After you enter the second command, you may be prompted you to choose an editor; if so choose /bin/nano, which should be option 1.  Now you should now be looking at a file with some information in it.  

If you want mediacenter to launch on boot type the following line at the bottom of the file:

Code: [Select]

@reboot     /home/volumio/headless > /dev/null
Then press CTRL-X and then "y" and "enter" twice.  Now reboot your pi, and within a few minutes you should be able to access MC and your VNC desktop.  

Those scripts should work fine, but I didn't test them on the volumio image.  Let me know if you hit trouble.

The MC instance (incl VNC just disappeared).  I see in the SSH Cleint that I got a:
"[1]+ Segmentation fault   mediacenter21"

Edit - just restarted MC from the Cmd Line just fine.

Open up MC's options window and set the thumbnail thread priority to "low."   MC will sometimes crash itself when thumbnailing on the pi because it runs out of ram and setting the priority lower will make that less likely.  That should stop happening once the thumbnailing is done, and if it doesn't let's troubleshoot it.

 

Couple of things,
- Your right in that it is sluggish but I guess that will settle down once MC has built the Thumbs etc
- Like all my other MC instances, I'm using this as a Library Server Client, and have all my content shared using UNC on the Network (eg in the form of "\\MAIN\Media\Audio\song.flac".  At present it seems the Air can not "see" these clients as everything is being transcoded.  I seem to remember that UNC is not a Linux format?Huh

This is a known problem with cross-platform libraries.  The issue isn't UNC paths, it's that Linux and Mac don't have the same kind of filesystem as Windows.  For starters they use forward slashes instead of backslashes between directories, and there are no drive letters, etc.  Currently there is no way to have a linux client just "see the files" on a windows server PC like a windows client does.  However, if you go under client options in media network options on the Pi, and set it not to convert audio you shouldn't see transcoding.  Then you're only losing a little network performance.

[jmone]

Got the Cron Job going (had to install Cron), but I may need some sort of delay (either in MC or the Cron Job) as it appears that MC Tries to run before the network is established so it is "stuck" on a MC GUI "Error Loading Library...Please Ensure that your network connection is available and that the server is running properly"

Thanks
Nathan

[mwillems]

Got the Cron Job going (had to install Cron), but I may need some sort of delay (either in MC or the Cron Job) as it appears that MC Tries to run before the network is established so it is "stuck" on a MC GUI "Error Loading Library...Please Ensure that your network connection is available and that the server is running properly"

Thanks
Nathan

Add a line in the script above the part where you launch MC that says "sleep 20"; that will pause for 20 seconds.  Add or subtract time as needed  

Sounds like you're getting close.
 

[jmone]

Thanks -

also - here is some mem / cpu info.  The MC/VNC Combo feels very very sluggish at time (and keeps dropping it's DLNA Advertisement), though audio playback is not interrupted.

[mwillems]

Thanks -

also - here is some mem / cpu info.  The MC/VNC Combo feels very very sluggish at time (and keeps dropping it's DLNA Advertisement), though audio playback is not interrupted.

I was seeing the same thing when I was running it earlier.  MC is using a whole CPU for "something."  My guess is thumbnailing.  Just to set expectations: interacting with the MC GUI on a Pi will always be sluggish.  Playback via Gizmo or JRemote is pretty responsive, but the VNC interface will always be a little watch and wait.  

But I can confirm that when I was tinkering with MC on the Air image earlier MC seemed unusually sluggish (even on a pi).  I'm hoping that's just a matter of waiting for the thumbnailing to finish.

As to the dropping the DLNA advertisement, I must confess I suspect Volumio.  My pi's running MC don't have any DLNA issues, but when I was running volumio I was constantly "losing" the renderer.  When I was running MC on the air earlier, I was seeing very strange DLNA behavior: botched playback like I described above, two zones labelled Axiom Air, a "There" zone visible on the air itself labelled "Axiom Air."  It all suggests that both Volumio and MC are trying to do DLNA/UPNP advertisement at the same time which is likely to lead to trouble eventually.  But maybe it's something else; DLNA is not my wheelhouse.

[jmone]

Yeah - getting close and thanks for all this!

- The "sleep 20" actually stops MC/VLC from running.  Just removed that line and I can see in Top that MC is running
- The sluggishness seems to be the combination of VNC and MC, so I'm keen to see what it is like without running up the VNC Client if I can fix the "sleep 20" issue
- The two DLNA renderers (axiomair = MC, and AxiomAir = Volumio) were co-existing just fine at one point.  You could see and control both (but only play to one or the other obviously).  The "There: AxiomAir" is a rebroadcast of the "AxiomAir" zone from your Library Server. 

[mwillems]

Yeah - getting close and thanks for all this!

My pleasure, glad to help!

- The "sleep 20" actually stops MC/VLC from running.  Just removed that line and I can see in Top that MC is running

Odd.  First question: where did you put the "sleep"? I was thinking the modified script would look like this:

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/bash
export USER=volumio
vncserver :1 -geometry 1920x1080
export DISPLAY=':1'
sleep 20
mediacenter21 /mediaserver

If that's not working (obviously after waiting for a minute or two as MC can take a while to fully start on a pi) something is very odd. If so, I'll tinker tomorrow and see if I can sort it. One step you can take to troubleshoot is to remove the cron job, restart the pi, and try running the script manually on the command line and see what error it gives you.  

Another thing to try: try removing the /mediaserver switch from the MC launch.  As I recall that starts MC minimized, but in the absence of a dock or launcher bar (in our minimal environment) there's nowhere for MC to minimize "to."

- The sluggishness seems to be the combination of VNC and MC, so I'm keen to see what it is like without running up the VNC Client if I can fix the "sleep 20" issue

I'm not 100% sure what you mean about the VNC client, but you do need the VNC server as it's furnishing the (virtual) xserver that MC needs to run (that's why the startup script starts it first).  If you don't run the VNC server, you'll need to start up an xserver another way, but you'd be unable to interact with such an xserver without plugging a monitor into the pi.  If you just mean that connecting to the VNC server with the VNC client seems to make things sluggish, interacting with the MC GUI definitely can cause MC to bog down a bit on a pi.  

- The two DLNA renderers (axiomair = MC, and AxiomAir = Volumio) were co-existing just fine at one point.  You could see and control both (but only play to one or the other obviously).  The "There: AxiomAir" is a rebroadcast of the "AxiomAir" zone from your Library Server.  

Interesting.  

[jmone]

Thanks - I'll have more of a play and catch you tomorrow!

[jmone]

Odd.  First question: where did you put the "sleep"?

In the wrong file (cron job)! - Fixed and working  

I'm not 100% sure what you mean about the VNC client, but you do need the VNC server as it's furnishing the (virtual) xserver that MC needs to run (that's why the startup script starts it first).  If you don't run the VNC server, you'll need to start up an xserver another way, but you'd be unable to interact with such an xserver without plugging a monitor into the pi.  If you just mean that connecting to the VNC server with the VNC client seems to make things sluggish, interacting with the MC GUI definitely can cause MC to bog down a bit on a pi.  

Yup - I see that the VNC Server can eat a lot of CPU when interacting with MC.  So I thought I'd try Hilton's Alternative (and ran into an issue that could be the root cause).... I've run out out of space...  (the MC Thumbs were some hundreds of MB).

Code: [Select]

volumio@axiomair:~$ df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mmcblk0p2  1.7G  820M  785M  52% /imgpart
/dev/loop0      271M  271M     0 100% /static
overlay         982M  924M     0 100% /
devtmpfs        455M     0  455M   0% /dev
tmpfs           464M     0  464M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs           464M   33M  431M   8% /run
tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs           464M     0  464M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs           464M   20K  463M   1% /tmp
tmpfs           464M     0  464M   0% /var/spool/cups
tmpfs           464M     0  464M   0% /var/cache/apt/archives
tmpfs            20M  8.0K   20M   1% /var/log
tmpfs           464M     0  464M   0% /var/spool/cups/tmp
/dev/mmcblk0p1   61M   27M   35M  45% /boot
tmpfs            93M     0   93M   0% /run/user/1000  

I can still SSH into the Air but no longer run MC or Volumio clients.

So I'm happy to do any of the following:
- Rebuild the existing 16GB card from the img I've got
- Growing Partitions on the 16GB existing card to use the space
- Put it all onto a bigger card with bigger partitions

Thanks
Nathan

[jmone]

FYI - I've gone with the Rebuild Option on the existing 16GB Card.  This is what it looks like after a factory install + version Upgrade... It seems I used up whatever "Overlay" space was

Code: [Select]

volumio@axiomair:~$ df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mmcblk0p2  1.7G  820M  785M  52% /imgpart
/dev/loop0      271M  271M     0 100% /static
overlay         982M  3.8M  911M   1% /
devtmpfs        455M     0  455M   0% /dev
tmpfs           464M     0  464M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs           464M  8.6M  455M   2% /run
tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs           464M     0  464M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs           464M   28K  463M   1% /tmp
tmpfs           464M     0  464M   0% /var/spool/cups
tmpfs           464M     0  464M   0% /var/cache/apt/archives
tmpfs            20M   16K   20M   1% /var/log
tmpfs           464M     0  464M   0% /var/spool/cups/tmp
/dev/mmcblk0p1   61M   27M   35M  45% /boot
tmpfs            93M     0   93M   0% /run/user/1000
volumio@axiomair:~$

...and after using GPart to expand the Volumio_Data partition it now looks like lots of space for "Overlay"... time to start again!

Code: [Select]

volumio@axiomair:~$ df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mmcblk0p2  1.7G  820M  785M  52% /imgpart
/dev/loop0      271M  271M     0 100% /static
overlay         9.9G  4.8M  9.4G   1% /
devtmpfs        455M     0  455M   0% /dev
tmpfs           464M     0  464M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs           464M  8.6M  455M   2% /run
tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs           464M     0  464M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs           464M   28K  463M   1% /tmp
tmpfs           464M     0  464M   0% /var/spool/cups
tmpfs           464M     0  464M   0% /var/cache/apt/archives
tmpfs            20M   16K   20M   1% /var/log
tmpfs           464M     0  464M   0% /var/spool/cups/tmp
/dev/mmcblk0p1   61M   27M   35M  45% /boot
tmpfs            93M     0   93M   0% /run/user/1000
volumio@axiomair:~$


[jmone]

I've tried Hiltons RDP version but I can not login and It does not look like MC or RDP is running so I've stuffed something up....  Here is some info (off to bed for now)!

Code: [Select]

volumio@axiomair:~$ ps -e | grep vnc
volumio@axiomair:~$ ps -e | grep mediacenter
volumio@axiomair:~$ crontab -l
# Edit this file to introduce tasks to be run by cron.
#
# Each task to run has to be defined through a single line
# indicating with different fields when the task will be run
# and what command to run for the task
#
# To define the time you can provide concrete values for
# minute (m), hour (h), day of month (dom), month (mon),
# and day of week (dow) or use '*' in these fields (for 'any').#
# Notice that tasks will be started based on the cron's system
# daemon's notion of time and timezones.
#
# Output of the crontab jobs (including errors) is sent through
# email to the user the crontab file belongs to (unless redirected).
#
# For example, you can run a backup of all your user accounts
# at 5 a.m every week with:
# 0 5 * * 1 tar -zcf /var/backups/home.tgz /home/
#
# For more information see the manual pages of crontab(5) and cron(8)
#
# m h  dom mon dow   command
@reboot     /home/volumio/headless > /dev/null

volumio@axiomair:~$ cat ~/headless
#!/bin/bash
export USER=volumio
ps -e | grep x11vnc || x11vnc :0 -localhost -geometry 1920x1080
export DISPLAY=':0'
sleep 20
ps -e | grep mediacenter || mediacenter21
volumio@axiomair:~$ ls -la ~/
total 37
drwxr-xr-x 1 volumio volumio 4096 Apr 30 12:01 .
drwxr-xr-x 1 root    root    4096 Apr 14 22:15 ..
-rw------- 1 volumio volumio  633 Apr 30 12:00 .bash_history
-rw-r--r-- 1 volumio volumio  220 Oct 18  2014 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r-- 1 volumio volumio 3515 Oct 18  2014 .bashrc
drwxr-xr-x 3 volumio volumio 4096 Apr 30 11:44 .config
drwxr-xr-x 4 volumio volumio 4096 Apr 30 12:01 .jriver
-rw-r--r-- 1 volumio volumio  675 Oct 18  2014 .profile
-rw-r--r-- 1 volumio volumio    0 Apr 30 11:59 .selected_editor
drwxr-xr-x 2 volumio volumio 4096 Apr 30 11:44 .vnc
drwxr-xr-x 2 volumio volumio 4096 Apr 30 11:48 Downloads
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root    root     167 Apr 30 11:55 headless

[mwillems]

I'm not an expert on RDP (I don't use it regularly at all), but I can guarantee that it won't be much lighter weight in terms of CPU and RM than VNC is.  TightVNC has the advantage of being much simpler, and I'll explain why:

The issue with using x11vnc rather than the normal VNC server is that it passes through the actual video output of the pi (i.e. x11vnc shows what you would see if you plugged in an HDMI cable to the pi's output).  In order for that to work there has to be something for you to see.  By default the axiom image does not contain a graphical user environment or the underlying display software (called an X11 server), whereas a normal NOOBS pi image does have both a preconfigured GUI and an X11 server to run it on.  In order to get Hilton's guide to work with x11vnc, you'll need to install and start, at minimum, an X11 server which adds some complexity.  TightVNCServer has the advantage that it brings it's own virtual display with it so is much easier to configure and deal with.  The CPU utilization you're seeing is for running the entire graphical stack that MC sits on top of (i.e. basic OS-type CPU use).  In practical terms when I tested, the difference in overhead between running x11VNC and TightVNCServer on a normal Pi install is a few CPU percents and about 35MB of RAM.  If you add RDP on top of x11vnc, which (as I recall) is how Hilton set it up, it will eat any savings you might've seen and potentially more.  All this at the "expense" of quite a bit more configuration.

Hilton's RDP method makes sense in the context of a normal Pi installation because the whole graphics stack is already there, but here where we're starting from scratch TightVNCServer might even actually be lighter weight.  In any case RDP is unlikely to be meaningfully more performant (in terms of reduced CPU and RAM), but may be more convenient if you prefer RDP.  

One quick tip in case you're misunderstanding the "top" CPU readings, Linux represents CPU utilization very differently than windows: on a four core processor what windows would call 100% utilization will be styled as 400% utilization in top (100% x 4 cores).  It's a bit of a shift coming from windows so I wanted to make sure you weren't caught out.  So when you see MC using 100% CPU, that just means it's fully using one core, and the other three cores are idle.  Another useful thing to note is the "load averages" in the top right which show CPU utilization backlogs over time.  If they ever exceed 4, that means all four cores are fully utilized and backlogged.  As long as they're below 4, the processor isn't being used to full capacity.  To the extent MC is sluggish while thumbnailing, it's due to too much activity on a single thread, not due to the pi running out of steam globally.  So the additional CPU load from the VNC server (which is on a different thread) is unlikely to make much difference to MC either way unless you're seeing loads over 4 or seeing extreme RAM pressure, if that makes sense.  

If you haven't doen it already, lowering the thread priority on the thumbnailing as noted above should result in improvements in responsiveness and stability.  

[jmone]

Ahhh got it.  Lets see if I can back out the X11vnc stuff and go back to TightVNC.....

[jmone]

It's seems to be playing "nice".  I'm currently streaming from MC Library to the Air while rebuilding thumbs with no issue, and the UI is responsive.

One thing I need to play with more is the Vol Control.  It seems the Air App controls the overall System Vol, with MC / Remotes / DLNA being App Vol (so I've had occasions of unexpectedly Glaringly Loud / Soft).

Edit: It also seemed to help a bit to turn off the Spectrum Analyser in the Top Bar.

[jmone]

@mwillems - Thanks for all you have done.  It is working pretty well.  I have been playing headless for the last 1.5hrs pushing musics to it from a MC Lib Server) without issue (well a couple of Wifi pops but nothing I had to interven on). 

I have also tried to bring all your instructions on how to install MC onto an AxiomAir in the OP (hope I've not missed something)!

Thanks again,
Nathan

[mwillems]

@mwillems - Thanks for all you have done.  It is working pretty well.  I have been playing headless for the last 1.5hrs pushing musics to it from a MC Lib Server) without issue (well a couple of Wifi pops but nothing I had to interven on).  

I have also tried to bring all your instructions on how to install MC onto an AxiomAir in the OP (hope I've not missed something)!

Thanks again,
Nathan

My pleasure to help! Glad it's working.  Good catch on the spectrum analyzer, I forgot that that eats up a surprising amount of CPU.  Happy listening, I bet they sound great.

The instructions in the first post look good, but I'd suggest removing the second cron option (the restart option).  I didn't include it in the instructions above because I modified the script from my other instance to streamline it, but that means it's only suitable to run on boot, not over and over once a minute (I removed a key test from the script that checks if MC is already running, so the second variant would just spawn infinite instances of MC!)  Other than that it looks good.

[jmone]

I'm now giving it a flogging with Airplay (pushing to 6 Airplay Speakers using MC --> TuneBlade--> Airplay) and it works really really well with all of them in sync.  So it kind of leaves me wondering when I would use the MC on AxiomAir instance as it's DLNA implementation is pretty good as well.  

I guess it gives options, such as:
- InBuilt Airplay:  Best for Multi Room Sync.  Nice and Stable.  Disables Axiom UI (Web, Andriod, iOS) control till Airplay stream has stopped. Downside is limited to 44.1/16bit and you need a 3rd party product like TuneBlade to use with MC.

- InBuilt DLNA Renderer:  Supports sending files up to 192/24/6ch files (rendered to 2ch by the DAC in the AxiomAir).  Can use any DLNA Control Point including MC to push to the Air as a Zone (and you can control that MC / Zone with Remotes (EOS, JRemote,Gizmo etc)).  Works well with the Axiom UI (Web, Andriod, iOS).  Nice and Stable.  

- InBuilt DLNA Control Point:  Oddly there does not seem to be any Control Point on the Air.  So you can not use any of the Air UI (Web, Andriod, iOS) to find a play content from DLNA Servers (like MC)

- MC Instance:  Gives you all the MC Familiarity, Quality and Options as well as a full Renderer / Server / Control Point and all running on the Air itself.  Downside is that it take a bit to setup and yet to prove its stability  

[mwillems]

- MC Instance:  Gives you all the MC Familiarity, Quality and Options as well as a full Renderer / Server / Control Point and all running on the Air itself.  Downside is that it take a bit to setup and yet to prove its stability  

It also gives you DSP/speaker correction/room correction.  I'm sure the air's are nice, but you might be able to iron out some wrinkles, or at minimum work out some correction for your room.  That's the main reason I run MC as an endpoint on everything I can (that and it tends to work a little smoother than non-MC DLNA renderers with Gizmo and JRemote which are the main control surfaces in my house).

[jmone]

True - I guess you could also just make a standalone Pi/MC Build and run it without the Volumio component if the resources are stretched but it has been going well all day.  I'll push another few hours to it MC to MC. 

[jmone]

After 5hrs of streaming MC -> MC on the Air it has been nice and stable.  MC is running around 30% CPU / VNC 10% (without the peaks I was seeing) & the Zone has not dropped out.  Seems the expanding of the Partition also worked well (as when the Thumbnails were generated the std partition size was full).  I'm sure there must be away of expanding partitions directly (but fdisk was not present on the Air), so I used GParted Live CD on a PC and did it offline.

[mwillems]

After 5hrs of streaming MC -> MC on the Air it has been nice and stable.  MC is running around 30% CPU / VNC 10% (without the peaks I was seeing) & the Zone has not dropped out.  Seems the expanding of the Partition also worked well (as when the Thumbnails were generated the std partition size was full).  I'm sure there must be away of expanding partitions directly (but fdisk was not present on the Air), so I used GParted Live CD on a PC and did it offline.

Doing it with gparted is the "safe" route, but the default NOOBS pi installation has a utility that will expand the filesystem automatically for you as well as do some other basic system tasks (called "raspi-config").  You may be able to just install that if the raspberry pi foundation's repos are synced to the Air (if you apt-get update look for repos with references to the raspberry pi foundation).  If not, it should be easy enough to install fdisk. 

Also one thing to check before trying to install fdisk: on some Linux systems (Debian-based systems do this to a large extent) certain commands that only root can run are not even in the default users "path" environment variable.  So if you try to run one of those commands without sudo the CLI won't return an "unauthorized" type error, it will just say "command not found" which creates the impression that the utility is not installed.  However, if you try the same command with sudo the command is present and will run, it's just only in root's "path" variable.  I seem to recall fdisk being one of those commands (blkid and iptables definitely are and caused me no end of grief before I figured out what was up). 

[jmone]

Got my second Axiom Air and thought I'd "cheat" and just clone the SD Card from my first one.  That worked and while I needed to reinstall my licence and change the Name of the Air so it was different from the first I had issues discovering the MC DLNA Instance and Library Server on each as they seemed to conflict with each other (eg the second to boot did not have it's DLNA/Library Server discoverable on the network).  The Axiom Air DLNA/Airplay discoverability was fine however.  Anyway, I could not work out how to modify any settings in MC on these speakers to resolve the issue so in the end had to do a clean install on the new one.  Now both showup as individual Zones correctly.

Thanks
Nathan

[syndromeofadown]

I received my Axiom Air a few days ago, almost a year late.
First impression was pretty bad as I had unrealistic expectations and I have never used DLNA before.
Now that I get it, I am liking it more. It sounds really good and that's what's most important.

I have my music on an sd card in an tablet. The Axiom Air shows up as a zone in MC and it plays without issue.

Pros:
- Uses DLNA
- Sounds good
- Good build quality
- Battery powered
- Works great with MC for audio

Cons:
- Uses DLNA
- Takes a year to ship
- Don't like the axiom android app
- Had to install itunes to use the windows app
- Need an app to switch between DLNA and analog input (changes revert on restart)
- I believe the only way to get audio when watching a movie is to use analog input which involves hooking up cables and switching mode with an app
- My wife's eyes glaze over when I try to explain how to use it

[jmone]

Good overview.  I'd also mention a couple of other
Pros:
- Uses Airplay
- Two Speakers can be in Sync (and controlled for each other)
- The DLNA Presentation Page takes you to the main Web UI (and can be in a MC TAB)
- You can use the Web and/or the Andriod/IOS UI
Cons:
- Physical Vol Control only works with the Analog Input
- No BlueTooth (yet)
- Ethernet cable is hard to get out

On using it with Movies:  I have my two Axiom Air Speakers setup to play with In-Sync Audio with Video using Airplay (but it requires you to add Airplay output from the Play the Video). - http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=95760.0

[syndromeofadown]

I have been using my Axiom Air for the last year am really happy with it.
I recently upgraded its Pi2 to a Pi3, which required a new SD card from Axiom.
I tried it with my Id Pi card and it sort of worked but not quite.
No sound and power button turns the Air on but not off.
If time permits, which it likely won't, I will to do my own install of Linux and MC23 to run directly on the Axiom Air.

[jmone]

I had both MC and AA running at the same time and that worked fine for both sound and the power button worked.... I did a factory reset at some point and lost the MC part but I'm waiting to see when the new version comes out (with Spotify Connect) before looking at sideloading MC again.