GuruPlug.org With license to serve

Add sound and Music Player Deamon (mpd)

I would like my GuruPlug to serve sound to my surround speakers, I have tried Music Player Deamon (mpd) earlier, so I connected (HDD) a USB Sound Card and started by installing alsa (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) mpd and mpc (Music Player command Client):

$ sudo apt-get install alsa-base mpd mpc

To verify card was connected and drivers installed:

$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0d8c:0102 C-Media Electronics, Inc. CM106 Like Sound Device


$ ls /dev

told me that sound card was located on /dev/snd

$ dmesg
usb 1-1.3: new full speed USB device using orion-ehci and address 6
usb 1-1.3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice input: USB Sound Device as
/devices/platform/orion-ehci.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3:1.3/input/input1 generic-usb
0003:0D8C:0102.0002: input: USB HID v1.00 Device [USB Sound Device] on
usb-orion-ehci.0-1.3/input3


$ ls /proc/asound
card0  cards  default  devices  hwdep  modules  pcm  seq  timers  version


$ ls /proc/asound/card0
id  pcm0c  pcm0p  stream0  usbbus  usbid


$ cat /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/info
card: 0
device: 0
subdevice: 0
stream: PLAYBACK
id: USB Audio
name: USB Audio
subname: subdevice #0
class: 0
subclass: 0
subdevices_count: 1
subdevices_avail: 1

I edit the mpd configuration file to fit my folder structure and sound device:

$ sudo nano /etc/mpd.conf


music_directory         "/mnt/sda3/share/Musikk"
playlist_directory      "/mnt/sda3/.mpd/playlists"


# bind_to_address       "127.0.0.1"
bind_to_address          "any"


audio_output {
 type                    "alsa"
 name                    "USB Audio"
 device                  "hw:0,0"     # optional
 # format                "44100:16:2" # optional
}


$ sudo /etc/init.d/mpd restart

If I comment out device, the sound stuttered (configuration settings not shown was not changed).

$ speaker-test -t wav -c 6

Logged in as root I was able to get sound (only front l/r), but mpd was not, mpd creates a mpd user and a audio group, after trying a lot of different things I issued this command, and mpd was able to play:
$ chmod -R a+rwX /dev/snd/

To create mpd "database" (flat file):

$ mpc update

In Firefox i have Minion installed so by adding host: gp, port: 6600 I was able to enjoy my music and listen to radio streams

Tip: Right Click on stream links, select "Play link with MPD" or "Add link to MPD playlist"

CPU utilization is very low, about 4% for main server, and 1% per client.

If you are using Android, iPhone, ... there are a lot of mpd clients available here.

The following days

I decided the GuruPlug stays with me, I don't want it travel around the globe.
So I opened the box, removed power-supply, and connected another supply, viola! it works
It get's warm, even when it's idle, so for now, I unplug at nights.

I managed to:
• Connect to LAN
• Disable WiFi
• Update software
• dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
• Install JTAG drivers on Win7 & XP (tip, use: FT_INF)
• Connect 1TB WD Green HDD on eSATA
• Configure samba, add windows users
• apt-get install phpmyadmin
• apt-get install sqlite3 php5-sqlite
• apt-get install subversion
• apt-get install build-essential
• apt-get install git-core mercurial
• apt-get install mpd mpc
  Finally I got audio from mpd & Minion in Firefox
  (think it was this command who did it: chmod -R a+rwX /dev/snd/)
• I also managed to configure subversion, svn+ssh://joe@my.guruplug.org/repos/
  on windows I use TortoiseSVN & PageAnt

I could not:
• apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`
  E: Couldn't find package linux-headers-2.6.32-00007-g56678ec

I'm planning to:
• Move mysql data from flash to HDD
• Move mysql data from windows server to gp HDD
• Compile on the box
• Install dvb-t (need linux-headers to compile drivers)
• Try some media (DLNA) server SW
• Set up another box, and use rsync

to be continued ...

First 15 minutes

Finally my plug arrived, plugged it in, and it seems to boot ok.

Tried to connect with WiFi, Win7 could not connect.
Tried to connect to LAN, GuruPlug does not seem to request IP address.
Tried to install JTAG drivers on Win7 & WinXP, no luck, where could I find drivers ?

After 10 minutes power & all network led's blinks, the box is not warm at all.
Tried to power off/on, led's starts blinking immediately, does not boot.
I suspect the power supply is broken.

After ordering the plug I regret I didn't order 2 or more,
today (after 15 minutes ownership) I regret I order one.

After contacting GuruPlug dealer, I was asked to return the plug
for repair or replace. No money, no plug, no fun.

I was really looking forward to receive/use this plug, a total failure.