Raspberry Pi Usb Audio fix

Pubblicato il 10 maggio 2013 da admin — 127 Commenti ↓

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Ladies and gens,

finally usb audio problems affecting the Pi, have been solved! For those of you seeking a Raspberry Pi Usb Audio fix, you’re in the right place! I was compulsively lurking this thread hoping that the foundation would eventually find a fix for the usb issue. What was it?

Well, to make it simple, when the usb bus of the pi was receiving lot of i\o requests, it cannot satisfy them all, and as a result part of the data travelling trough usb was lost. So, while communicating with a usb dac , if the file being played was more than 44/16 the usb bus was overwhelmed and some parts of the data (packets, jargon comes in finally) was lost. If you google for packet loss, you can figure out what was happening.

I’ve been investigating a lot on the matter, hoping to find a Raspberry Pi usb audio fix , tried almost everything. But this was in the hands of the foundation, since there is no extensive documentation available.

Finally, the Raspberry Pi usb Audio Fix came on Thu May 09, 2013 9:19 am, from gsh (which has my imperiture gratitude)

Basically, this updates some part of the pi firmware and kernel, via rpi-update (this is an experimental branch you won’t find on the master branch of rpi-update by hexxeh

For those of you on RaspyFi, update is hassle free since you already have rpi-update up and running. Just do this to enable the Raspberry Pi Usb Audio Fix:

sudo apt-get install git-core binutils

sudo BRANCH=fiq_split rpi-update

Let it run, it will need almost 20 minutes to complete. In case you’re receiving some errors, just retry. Sometimes the git servers are not able to face the requests of thousands users simoultaneusly.

Once it’s done, and you’re not getting any error, just reboot.

Now, it’s time to enable bit perfect playback on RaspyFi via mpd.conf

sudo nano /etc/mpd.conf

the line:

format “44100:16:2″ # optional

becomes

#format “44100:16:2″ # optional

ctrl + x to save.

Now, we’ll restart mpd:

sudo /etc/init.d/mpd restart

Now, play and enjoy! Files >44/16 will be played without glitches, and I hope that async dacs will work flawlessly as well! I cannot confirm this by now since I don’t have any async to the test this Raspberry Pi usb audio fix for them… But please let me know via comments below.

To check if your Pi now resides in Bit Perfect heaven just type, while playing:

cat /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params

The output will show you current bit rate and bit depth, that should be the same as the file. Please note that if a bit rate/bit depth is not supported by your dac, mpd will automatically resample it to the nearest supported one.

Here, an example (showing different bitrates/bitdepths, with perfect sound)

Raspberry Pi in bit perfect mode

Obviously, this raspberry pi usb audio fix will be implemented and working out of the box in next Release of RaspyFi, which is in its final stage of development.

This raspberry pi audio fix, also can be excecuted on plain Raspbian and all the other distros out there. Just type that:

sudo apt-get install git-core
sudo wget http://goo.gl/1BOfJ -O /usr/bin/rpi-update && sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/rpi-update
sudo BRANCH=fiq_split rpi-update

Et voilà, you’re done! Please let me know if it works for you, and if you got some troubles doing it !

UPDATE FOR SAMBA USERS

As suggested by Klinkt Beter and Carlo Bernardini this fixes the samba issues for async dac users. With my new xmos to i2s dac and this fix I don’t have any stuttering at 24/96 , some reports this works well with 24/192 as well. So edit /etc/auto.nas as follows:

Nas -fstype=cifs,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777,iocharset=utf8,sec=ntlm,rsize=2048,wsize=4096,cache=strict,username=pi,password= ://192.168.nasip/sharename

Taggato con: audio stuttering fix, bit perfect, Mpd, optimizations, usb audio fix, usb dac
Pubblicato in Distributions, Documentation

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Rodrigo Abreu

What about using an USB host to GPIO? Then the USB DAC would have a exclusive bus.

http://www.hobbytronics.co.uk/usb-host-board
Millenium

I just bought an Exposure 2010s2 DAC which is a great piece of Hardware using Wolfson 8742 chipset. Results: I’m experiencing clips/blips with my raspberry pi with Raspyfi 1.0. I am quite fuzzy with all the updates, changes, and tips to be taken. Can anybody please indicate the steps to be tried in order to fix the situation? thanks!
Andrea

I have some problems with Mbox 2 soundcard (Digidesign, now Avid).
The sound popping and clipping and is absolutely bad.
Anyone has a solution?
Modulator

Hi!

I’ve had bad luck with Behringer UCA202, it pops, not that often, but it pops. I think it’s appearing only when playing something from network (stream or Airplay) but not from local play (like MP3 from the SD). I don’t know if the RaspyFi 1.0 had this USB audio fix so I tried to update the firmware. No luck with that. Is there anything else I can do? Why is it that the UCA202 acts quite bad with RPi but not with Windows or Mac computers. It’s just a simple DAC, nothing else.
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mats

Hi there, I have some problems with playing flac files. I have constantly some gaps. I use a ew-7811Un and a dr.dac nano. In version 1.beta i didn’t have and when I plug the wifi in a powered usb-hub, the gaps disappear as well. Does anyone have an idea?

Thanks a lot
PiZ

Hi there ! Excellent implementation.
Everything is working ok with my HiFimeDIY Sabre USB DAC (SA9023, not async) provided that I stay on 16bit/44.1kHz.
If I try to go up to 24bit there are occasional crackling and glitches that are not acceptable for an HiFi setup. Sometimes playback stops and restarts after some seconds.
I tried USB fix even if I am working with Raspyfi V1.0 (the most recent, I think), but nothing changes. I am playing FLAC files stored on a Synology NAS (flawlessly mounted).
Any idea how to solve the problem ?

Thanks !
- millenium
  
  Hello! Very interesting tip. I do also hace a synology ñas serving FLACS to the raspberry. Can you please explain how did you change de folder sharing to nfs? Thanks!
Heiner

Hi, I’m running Raspyfi 1.0 on my raspberry model b with an Musical Fidelity VDAC II and NAS and still can’t play files > 16bit 44khz. Tried the USB fix, deactivated buffer, doubled rsize and wsize, Set USB to 1.1 but nothing helped me. Is there a Chance to Run 24bit96k with my dac?

Thanks,
Heiner
- Heiner
  
  For those of you who struggle with VDAC II – it only is able to handle 24bit/48khz over USB and then does an internal upsampling to 24/192! 24/48 and disabled buffer plays without glitches/crackles
  
  Greets
  Heiner
mark

Keep getting a ‘!!! Failed to sownload new firmware files” error after executing ‘sudo BRANCH=fiq_split rpi-update’. Any ideas; am running the 1.0 beta version.
John Halloran

A minor bit of tweaking that may help with static and gaps is adding the folloing line:

options snd-usb-audio nrpacks=1

to the:

/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

file. Seems to improve the buffering of packets to an external usb DAC if you’re using one.

With this last tweak, I’m very impressed with the sound that I’m getting out of my setup.
- andrejg
  
  for me it works even worse than before.
  with dwc.otg.speed=1 and forcing mpd to 16bit/44.1khz i could at least play any 16 or 24bit flac without crackling (albeit always at 16/44.1). now there’s so much crackling it’s unlistenable. (running usb at 2.0 speeds and allowing mpd to play at the song’s native bit depth makes it even worse).
  - John Halloran
    
    Interesting. Are you working with Raspberrian? And have you run rpi-update, and made sure that the correct ‘device’ in your mpd.conf (i.e. using the external DAC rather than the internal one)?
    
    FWIW, I found this post to be pretty useful:
    http://www.hifiwigwam.com/showthread.php?89501-BeagleBone-Black-as-an-MPD-server
    
    though obviously the differences in the BeagleBone distro vs Raspberrian create some issues, but there were some good explanations in there, and that’s where I found:
    
    options snd-usb-audio nrpacks=1
    
    Which def made a positive difference for me.
    
    Also FWIW, I am running this using a USB drive, rather than accessing any network storage. If I remote into the Pi and do anything of any consequence (let alone if I push audio files to it through SMB), then I do start to get static and gaps. So I’m suspicious as to how it would behave using networked storage.
    
    Finally, I also found that lowering the output level of the MPD to 80% seemed to help, but that may also have been some poorly converted files.
- Alex
  
  Thank you for the nice tip!
John Halloran

FYI, it looks like the contents of the “fiq_split” branch have been merged into the “next” branch, so running:

sudo BRANCH=next rpi-update

should pull the code in, although other code as well. I’m running this update now. Hope to be able to report results soon.
- John Halloran
  
  Yup. All good now. Playing FLAC @ 88200. And it sounds great!
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Will

On the second step, I get the following error:

Cloning into ‘//root/.rpi-firmware’…

warning: Could not find remote branch fiq_split to clone.

fatal: Remote branch fiq_split not found in upstream origin

Unexpected end of command stream

!!! Failed to download new firmware files
- rickymaru
  
  Troubleshooting
  
  There are two possible problems related to SSL certificates that may prevent this tool from working.
  
  The time may be set incorrectly on your Raspberry Pi, which you can fix by setting the time using NTP.
  
  sudo apt-get install ntpdate
  sudo ntpdate -u ntp.ubuntu.com
  
  The other possible issue is that you might not have the ca-certificates package installed, and so GitHub’s SSL certificate isn’t trusted. If you are on Debian, you can resolve this by typing:
  
  sudo apt-get install ca-certificates
  
  mine work after run the following command:
  
  sudo apt-get install rpi-update
  - Will
    
    Hi rickymaru,
    Thanks for your suggestions. My time is set and the certificates are installed.
    I still get the same error! I might try the Beta version.
    - rickymaru
      
      have u try sudo apt-get install rpi-update
      
      instead of
      
      sudo wget http://goo.gl/1BOfJ -O /usr/bin/rpi-update && sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/rpi-update?
      - Will
        
        Yes, it’s up to date. Not sure what that line ‘Could not find remote branch fiq_split to clone’ means. Should I reinstall everything from scratch perhaps?
      - rickymaru
        
        btw i forgot, try sudo rpi-update
      - Will
        
        Did the full firmware update. Still the same error. Very frustrating…
      - Heffa
        
        Same error here, have also tried all the suggestions above
      - mikelangeloz
        
        Seems that the update is no longer available on the servers… So for those who wants the USB fix, just download RaspyFi 1.0 beta… Is already with the patched kernel…
        
        Grab it here:
        
        http://www.raspyfi.com/forum/giveaways-news-thoughts-from-raspyfi/raspyfi-1-0-in-beta-test/
Will

Hi, I’m using a VDdac 2 and I’m getting loads of clicks. I tried the first step but get the following error: E: Unable to locate package binutilis.
- mikelangeloz
  
  first do
  sudo apt-get update
  then you can go.
  
  or just use the 1.0 beta…
  let me know
  
  — Messaggio originale —
  
  Da: “Disqus”
  Inviata: 04 agosto 2013 20:39
  A: [email protected]
  Oggetto: Re: New comment posted on Raspberry Pi Usb Audio fix
  - Will
    
    Thanks for you quick reply! Still returns the same error.
    - Will
      
      Sorted that out, but on the next step I get this error:
      
      Cloning into ‘//root/.rpi-firmware’…
      
      warning: Could not find remote branch fiq_split to clone.
      
      fatal: Remote branch fiq_split not found in upstream origin
      
      Unexpected end of command stream
      
      !!! Failed to download new firmware files
Sjaak

I am running the Beta version of Raspify with an M2Tech DAC. 44.1 Khz files run perfectly. When playing 96Khz or 192 KHz files, I still get occasional clicks (every few seconds, quite random). I am using an SSD disk that stores my music. When, as a test, I copy files on the disk, the number of clicks increases, which leads me to believe that disk access might be the source of the clicks. Can this be right? Does anyone else has this problem? Does anyone know a solution? Thanks!
- mikelangeloz
  
  Yeah, this happens because the Pi cannot handle too much io on the USB bus… So, if you copy a file while playing you are overwhelming the USB bus, both with data to the hard drive and audio via USB…With the USB fix we mitigated those problems, however they still persist… In order to avoid such clicks try not to make too much things pass on USB…Hope I helped…
  Subject: Re: New comment posted on Raspberry Pi Usb Audio fix
  - Sjaak
    
    Thank you. The annoing thing is that even when I don’t use the hard drive at all, but just play hires music, the clicks are also present. I guess that getting the music from the hard drive already is too much for the USB bus. On the USB bus, the hard dsk, the DAC and the Wifi dongle are present. I don’t see how I can lower the amount of data passing through USB in this setup. Would a normal mechanical hard disk (instead of an SSD hard disk) help? Or is it possible to mnimise the data transfers by using another filesystem/data block size on the hard disk?
    - Simon West
      
      Perhaps try NFS? Then the Pi will be getting the music data over the network, leaving the USB free for the DAC.
      - mikelangeloz
        
        NFS doesn’t work with the USB fix. And ethernet is carried over USB in the Pi, so no benefit by doing that. Only solution is to use Ramplay for hi res files
        Subject: Re: New comment posted on Raspberry Pi Usb Audio fix
      - Simon West
        
        > And ethernet is carried over USB in the Pi
        
        Ah, that explains why I get pops when my MPC client is connected over the network.
      - Simon West
        
        On second thought, I get the occasional pop when my Android client (MPDroid) is connected, so it’s possible that networking activity can also overwhelm the Pi.
Least Mail

First off, I think this a great project something that I have been looking for, so thanks for all your work. I live in China so bought myself a DAC-X10 which is a combination of ES9018 Sabre Reference 32bit chip, with XMOS. Cutting and pasting from the website. I installed raspyfi and as promised it worked straight out of the box. However I then went to do the USB Audio fix. That would not work without first updating and upgrading the system and setting the correct date. After installing the fix and rebooting the system music plays. The DAC-X10 is telling me it is getting 44.1K over the USB port GMPC is telling me that it is playing. But I am not getting any sound.

Am I missing something obvious? Do you have any ideas?
- mikelangeloz
  
  Yeah you are!!! You can download a pre built image of RaspyFi, which works best that the one you built yourself (even if you learned a lot doing it…).
  
  Get it here:
  
  http://www.raspyfi.com/forum/giveaways-news-thoughts-from-raspyfi/raspyfi-1-0-in-beta-test/#p258
  
  This will work without resampling…
  To solve your problem, try to do
  sudo alsamixer
  
  and raise all the volume up.
  
  Let me know!
  - Least Mail
    
    Thanks for your reply. I will try your suggestions when I am back home next week.
  - Least Mail
    
    Just installed the pre built image as you suggested. Have installed and it seems to work. Have only tested it with 44.1K files so need to do some further trials. I also will have a go at setting up the hardware volume control.
    
    Thanks for your help and thanks for Raspyfi
HKL

Thanks for all your work and I can set up my CAS now and enjoy the music via the android phone, I tried to check the info. of the music per your instruction, it was OK but it was closed today, don’t know what is the problem :

[email protected]:~$ cat /proc/asound/card0/pcm0c/sub0/hw_params
closed
[email protected]:~$
- HKL
  
  [email protected]:~$ cat /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params
  closed
  [email protected]:~$
  
  fixed it, thanks
  - mikelangeloz
    
    Well done, what was your problem? And the solution?
    - hk
      
      I got the RaspyFi and installed your Beta version, everything is good, now I tried the CubieBoard but could not get the info. of the music, checked that there are several sound drivers card0/card1/card2…/pcm0c/pcm0p and I selected the wrong one, now I can get the correct music info. from Cubieboard, thanks.
      
      The MPD from Cubiebaord is 0.16.7, not the latest 0.17.4 which can play DFF files.
Simon West

This is working perfectly for me so far with my Arcam rDAC, many thanks!
- Brian
  
  Simon, what’s your configuration? I just tried booting raspyfi and nothing plays over my rDAC. I would appreciate any help.
Ed

Can bit perfect be played through airplay? When I run “cat /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params”, I’m seeing samples rates of 44.1khz for everything, both 32khz and 48khz. Will bit perfect only work with mpd? Thank you!
ktdong61

my xmos to i2s dac(pcm5102) is not working.

the music play but no sound.
JS

Hi There,

I have followed the instructions, but I get an empty file when i try the

sudo nano /etc/mpd.conf

Can you tell me what I am doing wrong.

Thanks for your help.
- mikelangeloz
  
  Are you using RaspyFi? Or raspbian?
Rotte2

My msd.log file has a lot of the following entries:

“decoder_thread: Unrecognized URI”

It seems there is an entry every time I select a song from MPod.

I’m trying the above fix to see if it helps, and it works until I get to the last step:

[email protected] ~ $ sudo BRANCH=fiq_split rpi-update
*** Raspberry Pi firmware updater by Hexxeh, enhanced by AndrewS
*** Performing self-update
–2013-02-13 09:55:43– https://github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/raw/master/rpi-update
Resolving github.com (github.com)… 204.232.175.90
Connecting to github.com (github.com)|204.232.175.90|:443… connected.
ERROR: The certificate of `github.com’ is not trusted.
The certificate has not yet been activated
!!! Failed to download update for rpi-update!
!!! Make sure you have ca-certificates installed and that the time is set correctly

Any ideas to solve the 2 issues?
- mikelangeloz
  
  Try with
  sudo apt-get install ca-certificates
  
  Let me know!
  - Rotte2
    
    Thanks for your quick reply – running the command gives:
    
    ca-certificates is already the newest version
    
    and running “sudo BRANCH=fiq_split rpi-update” gives the same results as above.
    - bmeijers
      
      Hello,
      
      I just had the same error.
      
      Setting date and time with
      
      sudo date –set=”21 JUN 2013 21:33:30″
      
      to current date and time resolved it.
      - Rotte2
        
        @4154a1857bd0964e02f5ab7b654fb95c:disqus
        That did the trick – thanks a lot. I would never come up with that solution.
  - Rotte2
    
    I’m just wondering, if the “decoder_thread: Unrecognized URI” in mpd.log is a configuration issue? Running “aplay -l” gives:
    
    **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
    card 0: DAC [HiFimeDIY DAC], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
    Subdevices: 1/1
    Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
    card 0: DAC [HiFimeDIY DAC], device 1: USB Audio [USB Audio #1]
    Subdevices: 1/1
    Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
    
    and the mpd.conf has:
    
    device “hw:0,0″
    
    Is that correct? 0,0 refers to card number and device id, right? Don’t know how to read them from the “aplay -l” output though
- Rotte2
  
  The solution to the error messages “decoder_thread: Unrecognized URI” in the msd.log file was an invalid symbolic link from the msd music directory.
  Now I have Raspify up and running, and it sounds great!
  - mikelangeloz
    
    Good to know! Enjoy it, and I just anticipate…
    RaspyFi 1.0 (which is coming very soon) will sound even better!
andrejg

This is quite an awesome solution and it also works on stock Raspbian .

I am getting the occasional pop when playing 24 bit/96 kHz flac files from an USB thumb drive, however. I’m not sure what’s causing this. Maybe it’s the sound card? I use a Creative Sound Blaster 5.1 X-Fi USB (sb1090). The pops occour when playing both through the sound card’s line out and through the optical out, so the DAC (a cheap Fiio D3) is most likely not the problem. 16/44.1 (or 48kHz) files play OK.

I haven’t tried copying the files to the SD card and playing from there, yet.

At least there’s no need for dwc_otg.speed=1 anymore .
- mikelangeloz
  
  Yeah, we’re investigating on the cause of these pops… If you experience them while listening also on the analog out, the problem is most likely to be searched there..
  I suggest you to try RaspyFi, as sonic performances are way better than stock Raspbian!
  Let me know!
  - andrejg
    
    > If you experience them while listening also on the analog out, the problem is most likely to be searched there..
    
    Well, it’s present on both the analog and digital out of the SoundBlaster. I haven’t tried the raspberry pi’s analog output (I’m not even sure if it works ). Anyways the pops are also present on RaspyFi, unfortunately.
    
    I wonder how it would perform with a HDMI to TOSLINK or S/PDIF converter…
    
    > I suggest you to try RaspyFi, as sonic performances are way better than stock Raspbian!
    
    Well, I can’t hear any difference. Not with my ears and my equipment, anyway .
    Besides, your approach (according to this link, anyway) doesn’t sit well with me. You trimmed the Raspbian install down, I got a minimal install (similar to a Debian netinstall) and added just what I needed. We probably ended with similar results, but, at least to me, my approach seems a bit neater.
    - andrejg
      
      Another update, of sorts. When playing audio from a volume attached via NFS the crackling/popping is also present in 16/44.1 files.
      
      The only workaround I found is dropping the USB speed to 1.1 via dwc_otg.speed=1 in /boot/cmdline.txt and forcing MPD output to 16/44.1 via format “44100:16:2″ in /etc/mpd.conf.
      
      Not that I plan to play music from a network volume or that I can tell the difference between 16 and 24bit music, but still, it would have been nice.
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Auvo

I can’t understand what I’m doing wrong. I’m running Raspbian with Mopidy, and I when I tried this update for first time (few days ago), it worked. But I decided to format my SD to try some other distros, and now I have Raspbian again. But, seems like that update doesn’t work anymore. The sound is quite unlistenable, with distortion and cracks. I’m using CA DacMagic Plus. And done the installation quite exactly same way, as previous time..
- admin
  
  You’ll have to repeat the update! Sometimes it may fail…
M Cook

Thanks for posting this solution to update the firmware. This indeed works for ALSA sound playback on the 3.5mm Jack output when the RaspPi is fully booted. Is there anyway to address the bootup crackle and pops? I’m using this as in-car audio server and so the RaspPi is often booted up.
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http://klinktbeter.be Klinkt Beter

USB 1.X DACS seems to be working with no dropouts with the standard Raspbian. They don’t have the split transaction USB issues as with many USB 2.X DACS.

Have been playing for days now with a Trends UD10 converter connected to my Vitus Audio SCD-010 AES-EBU input. But this converter is pretty basic and doesn’t do HD audio.

My Stello U3 which is an xmos based USB 2.0 converter clicks and pops with the standard Raspbian like hell, with all music mounted from a samba share on my nas using cifs (=samba) and indexed/played by mpd.

When I copy a single flac file from the network to the SD card of the Pi and play directly from it while using the network only for command & control and no real data transfers of audio, no clicks and pops.

As someone already pointed out: the onboard ethernet is shared with the USB ports as it is actually an onboard USB ethernet.

I tried to disable cifs caching and it reduced the pops/clicks/stutters slightly.

Also tried this firmware:

sudo apt-get install git-core
sudo wget http://goo.gl/1BOfJ -O /usr/bin/rpi-update && sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/rpi-update
sudo BRANCH=fiq_split rpi-update

+reboot

but only a slight improvement.

The only real solution is to have an USB driver fix which solves the split transaction/usb packet drop problem, or to give USB audio a higher priority than the network. If network packets get lost tcp/ip will handle retransmissions, while USB is more problematic when USB packets get lost.
- admin
  
  Yes, that’s definetely a solution. Giving higher priority to snd_usb module you mean? It’s worth a try…
  Anyway, I’ll use a local storage.
  Or you can try ram play, that is seriously better than playing from sd: more info on the 1.0 manual:
  http://www.raspyfi.com/raspyfi-user-manual/
  
  Let me know! PS: which modules you would apply higher priority to?
  - http://klinktbeter.be Klinkt Beter
    
    Possible workaround solution for files on a samba share, step 2 is required in addition to what is already suggested on this page.
    
    1. Make sure you’re using the suggested fiq_split branch, otherwise you will still get audio drops.
    
    sudo apt-get install git-core
    sudo wget http://goo.gl/1BOfJ -O /usr/bin/rpi-update && sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/rpi-update
    sudo BRANCH=fiq_split rpi-update
    
    2. use rsize=4096,cache=none for your samba mountpoint
    
    mount.cifs -o rsize=4096,cache=none //server/share /mountpoint
    
    —–
    
    Here’s my thoughts on the fix:
    
    First, I wanted to know the rate at which packets are read from the network, so I opened iptraf to see the packet distribution.
    
    Every second, the packet counters for 1426-1500 byte sized packets and 1051-1125 byte sized packets would increase in bursts, while the smallest packets were increasing continously as I have an ssh session open to the Pi.
    
    So I opened strace and check the read() calls:
    
    sudo strace -tt -f -p `cat /var/run/mpd/pid` -e read
    
    Every second, mpd burst +- consecutive 27 read calls, this will cause a burst in the USB layer and possibly cause occasional stutter.
    
    I tried to lower the mpd buffer size in /etc/mpd.conf
    
    From:
    
    audio_buffer_size “2048″
    
    To:
    
    audio_buffer_size “512″
    
    but it didn’t change the tempo of the read() calls after mpd was restarted. I could not go below 384, or I get 1 second of sound and then nothing (e.g. when using 256).
    
    I tried to lower the MTU of eth0 to force smaller packets, no change and audio drops remained. So MTU back to the default 1500.
    
    Finally I thought about changing the samba read buffer to avoid the USB bus to be occupied too long during the bursts. Better to have many small reads where in between the bus can also be used for audio, instead of a fewer larger reads which lockup the bus during a transfer, so audio starts to stutter.
    
    And it worked:
    
    in /etc/fstab I’m using cache=none,rsize=4096
    
    Example line from /etc/fstab
    
    //nas/Audio /mnt/music cifs user=user,password=password,cache=none,rsize=4096 0 0
    
    and since changing the rsize to a small value, no more audio dropouts. This acts as a form of QOS: when data is split into smaller chunks, they can be more easily and faster scheduled.
    
    I’m using this samba config with the FIQ kernel, the kernel suggested on this page.
    
    [email protected] ~ $ uname -a
    Linux raspberrypi 3.8.12+ #438 PREEMPT Wed May 8 22:31:10 BST 2013 armv6l GNU/Linux
    
    I’m playing all kind of tracks for more than one hour now with rsize=4096 and I couldn’t spot any stutter/click/pop/drop.
    
    To be 100% sure I’m on the right track, I tried my mount.cifs fix with the standard Raspbian kernel, 3.6.11+ #371 PREEMPT
    
    rsize=4096,cache=none -> occasional drop
    cache=none -> very frequent drop
    
    So it is mitigating the problem, but you’ll also need the FIQ kernel for a complete solution.
    - Lorenzo Campioni
      
      This fix is working for me as well. Great sound and no noise, except for rare pops on 24/192. Great work!
Per

Hi

Just bought a Pi to try out RaspyFI – now that the USB might be fixed. I’ve followed the guide above which worked like a charm. But… MPD won’t push anything higher that 44100, and seems stucked on it (I’ve rechecked my mpd.conf several times). Now it could be my DAC not being able to perform better, but being a HifiMeDiy Sabre it should be able to run 96k/24 so I’m a bit puzzled. Have anyone succeeded running the combo higher than 44100?
I’ve tried to start MPD with verbose log-level, and catched the following when a new track is started. But I can’t decipher if it’s actually negotiating the rate here – or not showing that part…

Feb 14 00:01 : decoder_thread: probing plugin flac
Feb 14 00:01 : client: [0] process command “status”
Feb 14 00:01 : alsa: opened hw:0,0 type=HW
Feb 14 00:01 : alsa: format=S16_LE (Signed 16 bit Little Endian)
Feb 14 00:01 : decoder: audio_format=44100:16:2, seekable=true
Feb 14 00:01 : alsa: buffer: size=90..262144 time=2040..5944309
Feb 14 00:01 : alsa: period: size=45..131072 time=1020..2972155
Feb 14 00:01 : alsa: default period_time = buffer_time/4 = 500000/4 = 125000
Feb 14 00:01 : alsa: buffer_size=22050 period_size=5513
Feb 14 00:01 : output: opened plugin=alsa name=”USB Dac” audio_format=44100:16:2
Feb 14 00:01 : client: [0] command returned 0

Regards
Per

Great distro by the way – thank you!..
- Channing Benson
  
  What does the description of your device in mpd.conf look like? I’m betting that you’ve specified a “format” attribute, like
  
  audio_output {
  type “alsa”
  name “EDIROL UA-1X”
  device “hw:1,0″
  format “44100:16:2″
  }
  
  format is optional, so leave it out and see if that solves the problem.
http://guidainstallazionevoyagempdlinux.blogspot.it/ carl0

Arcam rDac + Rasperry PI = 0K )

GRAZIE MICHELANGELO!!
THANK YOU MICHELANGELO!!

Veramente un ottimo lavoro. Era da un anno che attendevo questo aggiornamento.

Ho aggiornato la mia guida, naturalmente:

http://guidainstallazionevoyagempdlinux.blogspot.it/2012/06/9-progetti-futuri.html
Guntram

In my case, the update made things worse!
I got metallic, strongly distorted sounds!

Using Creative XMod Wireless as USB-Soundcard.
- admin
  
  Please paste the output of:
  
  sudo lsusb
  
  thank you!
  - Guntram
    
    Here you go:
    
    sudo lsusb
    Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9512 Standard Microsystems Corp.
    Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
    Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp.
    Bus 001 Device 004: ID 1a40:0201 Terminus Technology Inc. FE 2.1 7-port Hub
    Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0bc2:2101 Seagate RSS LLC
    Bus 001 Device 005: ID 041e:30d1 Creative Technology, Ltd
    - admin
      
      Sorry, no good clue here… The only thing you can do is revert to original firmware…
      Type:
      
      sudo rpi-update
      
      And follow the instructions… Anyway this update seems to broke network performances… So this could be the cause of your issues, since i imagine your sound card works wirelessly…
      - Guntram
        
        Thanks, nevertheless!
        
        In fact, the music is stored on a sshfs-mounted drive. Maybe this was the problem. I’m going to try it lateron with local music.
        
        Will the fiq-split join the main branch, once it is functioning?
        
        Another questions, if I may. How can I figure out the automatically selected ALSA-settings of mpd?
        When I use mpd without any sound-card configuration, everything works fine (autodetect). But all my essays of finding an ALSA-configuration by hand failed with various, not very much telling errors…(tried with mpg123 or ogg123, too)
      - admin
        
        Yeah, early feedbacks says that there are less problems playing from usb.
        And of course, this will be included in master branch once it’s fully fixed, refer to usb redux thread and the work of gordon (gsh), the man who’s working on that.
        
        And last, if I figured out what you mean, just type this
        
        cat /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params
        
        when playin to figure out which parameters mpd is using to deliver the soundstream. If you were about to know something else, let me know!
        
        Bye! Going to a concert!
        Calibro 35, listen them on yt, awesome!
tml

This works perfectly. Thank you so much!

I’m running Arch Linux ARM and when using MPD with a Terratec Aureon 5.1 MKII there was a constant background noise while playing music. Installing the update got rid of it.
Derek

Have the same 32-bit problem as Lorenzo above – 24-bit songs returning S32 with the Schiit Bifrost. Also, when switching from a 24-bit song to a 16-bit song the 16-bit song is completely distorted. Have to press Stop then Play and it plays okay, although with the occasional stumble. Same if going from 16-bit to 24-bit.

If its of any help this was also a problem with Voyage MPD and was recently solved by an updated kernel – 3.19 if memory serves.

I’m sure you’ll solve it – keep going!!
ricouxxx

After an attentive ecoute it seems that cracks are owed to the activite of the hard disk. No problem with the music on a usb key and the HDD unplugged (it is normally plugged on a freebox and shared with Samba).
The “cracks” are coming when the hdd is reading files, and there is much more noise if the file is on hight resolution.If somebody can confirm that whit his configuration it could be interesting.
sorry for my english and good night
- Luis
  
  I can also confirm that. The cracks are only coming when playing the music from a HDD share through CIFS or NFS. Playing from a local source works perfect.
  
  Gear:
  Raspyfi –> Hiface two –> Cyrus DAC 6 –> PMC Twenty 21
ricouxxx

Great news! i tried and i could plug my M1 DAC for the first time but whit “cracks” at the beginning of each tracks, and problems whit 96khz tracks (too much noise) on my two dac (M1 dac asynchro and Audio GD nfb12).
Before the upgrade it was impossible to ear with M1 and very good with Audio GD.I will search to adapt parameters on mpd conf, if somebody has an idea…
MartinP

No joy on a Creative USB HD (This one: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41m9ePOYfgL._SL250_.jpg)

Audio is actually worse, it had horrid noise and crackles and played slightly quick, now after the update the noise and crackles are still there but it’s playing way too slow.

mpd.conf:
format “44100:16:2″

[email protected] ~ $ cat /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params
access: RW_INTERLEAVED
format: S16_LE
subformat: STD
channels: 2
rate: 48000 (48000/1) <= this should be 44100 right?
period_size: 6000
buffer_size: 24000

mpd.conf:
#format "44100:16:2"

[email protected] ~ $ cat /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params
access: RW_INTERLEAVED
format: S24_3LE
subformat: STD
channels: 2
rate: 96000 (96000/1)
period_size: 12000
buffer_size: 48000

The only way I've found to get the card working properly is following these instructions (http://audioplastic.org/blog/2013/01/10/AP1/), but I'm limited to 48khz…
- admin
  
  Thanks for the feeback,
  this way you’re using a different audio subsystem. But really useful though, let you know if I can sort things out. Quite busy at the moment with the latest audio fixes…
  - MartinP
    
    Which subsystem should I be using?
vadam

I have a problem after this update, my USB DAC mpd.log file system reports “decoder_thread: Unrecognized URI”
- admin
  
  Sorry but I don’t get it… Is there something wrong with the reproduction?
peterlicht

Playing all kinds of sample-rates on my Pro-Ject Head Box, but only when my usb-Hardisk (with my music stored) is connected via usb.
When sharing it via cifs, there are many clicks and pops and stopps.
- admin
  
  Thanks for the feedback, please try to increase the buffer… At which samplerate do you hear pops?
  - peterlicht
    
    I hear pops at all sample-rates. The higher, the more.
    But only with my usb-disk mounted with cifs over my fritzbox.
    Maybe thats the problem.
    When the disk is mounted via usb everything works well, up to 192kHz/24bit.
    - admin
      
      What dac are you using?
      - peterlicht
        
        Pro-Ject Head-Box DS
        with
        Cirrus Logic CS4344 24/192 Delta Sigma.
- admin
  
  Thanks for feedbacks, I’ll try to recreate the issue…
Sjaak

This seems like good news. Did anyone try the Dragonfly DAC with this new version yet? Will this combination work? I am preparing to setup a new Raspyfi system with the Dragonfly, so I prefer to know in advance this will work now…
- admin
  
  No reports yet, but I’ll bet it works…
Florian

hmmm… Weird…

I’ve got a big problem…

If I pause mpd for a certain time (more than 5min), mpd crashes after 2min when play again…
Restarting mpd from ssh works for few seconds, then recrash (disappear from TOP)
Only a hard reboot is working (unplug and replug the PSU), as a soft reboot from ssh seems to not reopen the connection (no ssh connection possible, no connection from mpd client).
Until the next pause…

It’s not the first time I meet this problem : three weeks ago, before using Raspify RC2, I tried Raspbian (2013-02-09), and made rpi-update. And I had the same problem, then decided to test Raspify.
So it seems that something in the last revision of firmware causes some crashes of mpd…

Am I the only one to meet this problem ?
- peterlicht
  
  Hi Florian,
  same problem here.
  Crash after a few minutes while playing my cifs mount, not depending on sample-rate.
  Happened after firmware-update.
  ??
- admin
  
  Hello Florian, thanks for your extensive feedbacks. Please note that rc2 integrates rpi-update, and has updated firmware update, so this could be not related to it. Maybe it’s a timeout of connection, we can investigate it out…
  Are you using wi-fi? Your music is on Nas?
  - Florian
    
    You’re welcome…
    
    My music is on a HDD connected via USB to the PI.
    The Pi is connected via ethernet/RJ45 cable to my home network.
    No keyboard, no display.
    DAC connected via USB
    
    The system is a simple Raspify RC2. I just installed Samba, and didn’t run rpi-update when configuring (3 weeks ago, then)
    All was working fine.
    I didn’t run rpi-update because just before, I have this crashes problem just after an rpi-update on raspbian.
    - admin
      
      Sorry, can’t get enough clues to understand what’s going on… Could you please send me by mail the mpd.log?
      You can find it in the credits section…
Lorenzo Campioni

Unfortunately for me it’s not working well!
I use a micromega MyDac.
The synchronisation problems have disappeared and the sound is good, but the noise is still present. Some pops once in while on cd quality and really frequent on higher bit rate files (24/192).
I’m playing from an NFS share.
I’ll try samba and eventually I’ll try to recompile.
Lorenzo Campioni

Unfortunately for me is not working well!
All synchronisation problems have disappeared, the sound is good
but noise is still present.
Some pops once in a while while playing 24/41 and more frequent with higher bit rate files (24/192)
I’ll try to recompile.

I’m playing from an NFS share, I’ll try samba too.
- admin
  
  This fix breaks nfs support, so you better try Samba. Also, if your dac is not capable to play 24/192 the pi needs to resample it which uses lot of cpu.
  As for the noise, this could be psu related as well. Let me know what happens with samba!
  - Lorenzo Campioni
    
    Sorry for the double post, please delete. I’ll try samba. The Dac plays 192.
    - Lorenzo Campioni
      
      Still noise with samba too.
      Tomorrow I’ll try to change the psu.
      - admin
        
        Ok let me know, we’re almost there…
      - admin
        
        Lorenzo,
        could you explain which kind of noise do you hear?
      - Lorenzo Campioni
        
        I will try to explain the noise I hear.
        It is something like a cracking. Hard to hear every 5-10 seconds (no changes in the buffer) while listening 24/44.1 and really frequent on 24/192. Let’s say constant.
        I’m not sure, but i think there’s no noise when listening 16/44.1 when playing from samba share ( opposed to NFS).
        I think it’s not a foreground noise: the noise goes with the music. No noise when the music is silent. I can make a recording if you want.
        No luck with the psu change. I will try a usb HD.
        
        In Italiano lo chiamerei ‘scricchiolio’
      - Lorenzo Campioni
        
        Update:
        I did found a problem.
        All my audio outputs as 32 bit. (cat /proc/asound….. reports S32_LE ) .
        My Dac is not supporting 32 bit and nor my songs are 32bit. This keeps happening also when I restore the format parameter in the mpd.conf file to be fixed to 24/44.1. No problems with the sample rate.
        Anyone else experiencing this problem?
      - admin
        
        Yeah, Lorenzo. I noticed as well, the xmos device asks the pi to send the stream in 32 bit.
        So the pi cannot handle it (lol).
        Next days I’m gonna investigate further, will ask some reports…
        Thanks for the feedback!
- Florian
  
  Effectively, I have also some pops some time to time with 24/96 (but no with 16/44.1) directly read from an usb hdd coonected to the Pi.
  It seems that changing audio_buffer_size and buffer_before_play value in mpd.conf affects the delay between pops.
  
  More test tomorrow…
  - http://blog.g.free.fr G
    
    Hi,
    
    Thanks for the Raspyfi package. I was close to give up when I found it
    
    I got the same configuration (MyDac+Pi) and I also hear the music cracking every 5-10 seconds with 16/44.1 tracks.
    
    I increased the audio_buffer_size and buffer_before_play values in mpd.conf without impact.
    
    I listen the music through Virtual Audio Cable and Live In Code. With Virtual Audio Cable, I can select the sample rate an bit depth to be used and the pops happens in all modes with the same frequency (from 16/32 to 16/48).
    - admin
      
      Hi Guillaume!
      did you try the latest patch? This solves the issue for asyncs dacs, but use it with a usb storage!
      http://www.raspyfi.com/raspberry-pi-usb-audio-fix/
      Let me know!
arpi

When you enter the command “sudo apt-get install git-core binutils” all servers show “404 Not Found”. What am I doing wrong?
- admin
  
  Check your internet connection is available, if yes then do
  sudo apt-get update
  
  then retry. Let me know!
  - arpi
    
    It works! Thanks a lot!
Florian

Small update : Cracks and pops appears when the network is strongly used.

My music stand on a HDD connected to the Pi with USB (powered by USB)
I installed a Samba server on my PI to be able to transfer freshly ripped CD from my computer to the USB HDD through the network.
I just try to copy some files to the HDD during Play, and some cracks and pops appears, but just during the transfer. As soon as tranfer is complete, noise stops.

So it’s not a real problem as I don’t do that everyday…

By the way, no problem at all with 24/96 files : the DAC receive 24/96 stream…

I’m really happy.
Thanks again…
- admin
  
  Very happy too! Btw, you can configure RaspyFi to take the audio files directly from Samba! So no need to tranfer each time…
Gyp

Great news, though that probably means I’ll now have to buy a USB to SPDIF converter as the DAC UBS input is limited to 16/44
- admin
  
  Which dac are you using?
  RaspyFi will output at the samplerate /bitdepth your dac is capable to…
  - Gyp
    
    Rega DAC, so having checked it’s 24/48 not 16/44, but it’s still not 24/96 or 24/192!
    - admin
      
      Mmm, I see…
      so Hiface 2 is your best bet…
      - Gyp
        
        True, but all my content so far is ripped from CD (or will be if I spend a few more days in front of this PC), so I’ll not rush to get a Hiface 2 just yet.
        
        Perhaps next time I stop off in Montecatini Terme, I’ll pop along to see them and buy one
      - admin
        
        Yeah, wise.
        Do you usually go to Montecatini Terme? I live just 30 km away! You can stop in Florence also!
Florian

Hello,

It’s a great news to hear !!!

I’ve tried what you said.

I’ve got an error during the first attempt to run
rpi-update :
This tool requires you have readelf installed, please install it first
In Debian, try: sudo apt-get install binutils

Installed it and retry rpi-update.
Done in less of 5 minutes… So i had doubt but don’t see any error in my term.

It can be useful to test if all happen well with :
uname -a

In my case, it returns :
Linux raspberrypi 3.8.12+ #438 PREEMPT Wed May 8 22:31:10 BST 2013 armv6l GNU/Linux

So it seems all happens well.

Tried directly with my DAc Musical Fidelity M1Dac-A (which is asynchronous), and for the first time since the beginning of the year, IT WORKS without noise !!!

Thank you very much for your work and this precious help.

Florian
- admin
  
  Great!!! So finally we achieved async dac support!!! Thanks for the feedback!