HOW-TO Logitech Media Server on FOXY_Dev-03

[SBP]

As promised, here is a "HOW TO" install Logitech Media Server (LMS) on FoxyRoxyLinux Dev_03.

LMS is a media server which is build for streaming music (+photo and video) throughout your house. It streams local music as well as thousands of radio stations from the internet. It supports a large number of audio formats including MP3, FLAC, WAV, Ogg, and AAC, as well as transcoding. It can stream to both software and hardware receivers, including the various Squeezebox models, as well as any media player capable of playing MP3 streams. Plugins from Logitech and third-party sources are also supported, allowing additional functionality to be added, and there is integration with Logitech's mysqueezebox.com online service which allows for streaming of paid music streaming like WIMP, Spotify, MOG and Pandora.
Logitech Media Server is open source software, released under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

Installation
First you need to install LMS. It is very easy as there is a Debian package which installs without any problems at all.

You could use the version described later (I use a nightly build - but other versions are available as well - see here: http://downloads.slimdevices.com/nightly/ - Version 10 should not be used - they are for the new Logitech equipment)

So write:
wget http://downloads.slimdevices.com/nightl ... 52_all.deb
dpkg -i logitechmediaserver_7.7.3~1342008352_all.deb

Now LMS is installed and running. Next you need to make it possible for LMS to save log files, its database and its plug-ins otherwise it won't start after a reboot. Therefore, please don't reboot until I tell you to!


Set-up a place for storing logfiles, configuration files and the LMS-database
Next you need to make a place to save these files, either you can use a connected HDD (with your data on) or use a dedicated USB stick which is only used for writing this stuff to.

Note you can't use a FAT or NTFS formatted disk, it needs to be a native linux partition like ext2, ext3 or ext4 formatted, because LMS is a pit picky about user rigths; LMS user is "squeezeboxserver" and group is "nogroup"

Therefore make a linux partition and:
1) Name the partition LMSData
2) Copy /var/lib/squeezeboxserver/ with all its subdirectories to /media/LMSData
3. Add a log directory by making a /media/LMSData/squeezeboxserver/log directory as well.
4. So now you should have /media/LMSData/squeezeboxserver/ with three subdirectories: cache, log, plugins and prefs. (See picture below)
5) Change the permissions so that the Permissions of /media/LMSData/squeezeboxserver/ and all its subdirectories is like this:
user is "squeezeboxserver" and group is "nogroup". (See picture below.)

The change in permissions can easily be done by using the XFexplorer. First highlight /media/LMSData/squeezeboxserver/ then right click on this, then choose "properties" and select "Permissions". In the field "User" choose squeezeboxserver from the drop-down list, and in the field "Group" choose nogroup from the drop-down list. In the right side choose "Recursively" and "files and folders" and then finaly click Accept - and now the permissions are set.

Permission.png (124.14 KiB) Viewed 20282 times

Change the start-up script
Then you need to tell LMS to use these directories, therefore jvb has made a new startup script which you can copy-paste into your existing Logitechmediaserver start script which for now is located in /live/cow/etc/Init.d/logitechmediaserver. You also need to delete the original content of the /live/cow/etc/Init.d/logitechmediaserver :

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
#
# $Id$
#
# logitechmediaserver   initscript for slimserver.pl
#         This file should be placed in /etc/init.d.
#
# Original Author: Mattias Holmlund
#
# Updated By: Dan Sully, Michael Herger
#
# Modified for FoxyRoxy By: jbv 26-08-2012

#
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: logitechmediaserver
# Required-Start: $network $local_fs $remote_fs $syslog
# Required-Stop: $network $local_fs $remote_fs $syslog
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description:   Startup script for the Logitech Media Server
# Description:      Logitech Media Server powers the Squeezebox, Transporter and SLIMP3 network music \
#         players and is the best software to stream your music to any software MP3 \
#         player. It supports MP3, AAC, WMA, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, WAV and more! \
#         As of version 7.7 it also supports UPnP clients, serving pictures and movies too!"
### END INIT INFO
#

. /lib/lsb/init-functions

#set -e

DESC="Logitech Media Server"
NAME=squeezeboxserver
NEWNAME=FoxyLMS
DAEMON=/usr/sbin/$NAME
PIDFILE=/var/run/$NEWNAME.pid
SCRIPTNAME=$0
SLIMUSER=$NAME
CHARSET=utf8
SLIMOPTIONS=""
LOGDIR=/media/LMSData/squeezeboxserver/log
PREFSDIR=/media/LMSData/squeezeboxserver/prefs
CACHEDIR=/media/LMSData/squeezeboxserver/cache

# Read config file if it is present.
#if [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ]; then
#   . /etc/default/$NAME
#else
#  echo "*** /etc/default/$NAME missing"
#fi

echo "Name is : "$NAME
echo "NewName is : "$NEWNAME

case "$1" in
  start) log_daemon_msg "Starting $NAME" $NAME
   start-stop-daemon --start --quiet \
                --chuid $SLIMUSER \
                --pidfile $PIDFILE \
      --exec $DAEMON \
                --background \
                --make-pidfile \
                -- \
                $DAEMON \
                --prefsdir $PREFSDIR \
                --logdir $LOGDIR \
                --cachedir $CACHEDIR \
      --charset=$CHARSET \
                $SLIMOPTIONS   
   log_end_msg $?
   ;;
  stop)   log_daemon_msg "Stopping $NAME" $NAME
        start-stop-daemon --oknodo --stop --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE
   log_end_msg $?
   echo ""
   ;;
  status)
        status_of_proc -p $PIDFILE $NAME $NAME && exit 0 || exit $?
        ;;
  restart|reload|force-reload)
   #
   #   If the "reload" option is implemented, move the "force-reload"
   #   option to the "reload" entry above. If not, "force-reload" is
   #   just the same as "restart".
   #
   log_daemon_msg "Restarting $NAME" $NAME
   start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --signal 1
   log_end_msg $?
   ;;
  *)
   echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|status|restart|reload|force-reload}" >&2
   exit 1
   ;;
esac

exit 0

That's it. Remember to use the correct paths in the start script described just above:
In this section of the script you need to take care of the marked three lines, so they fit your set-up:
DESC="Logitech Media Server"
NAME=squeezeboxserver
NEWNAME=FoxyLMS
DAEMON=/usr/sbin/$NAME
PIDFILE=/var/run/$NEWNAME.pid
SCRIPTNAME=$0
SLIMUSER=$NAME
CHARSET=utf8
SLIMOPTIONS=""
LOGDIR=/media/LMSData/squeezeboxserver/log
PREFSDIR=/media/LMSData/squeezeboxserver/prefs
CACHEDIR=/media/LMSData/squeezeboxserver/cache


Save all your precious work before a reboot
Now you are ready but you need to save everything therefore write:
95-create
This will create the 95-snap-squashfs with all your changes.
Now it is time for reboot and you will find that LMS is starting up, and it is time for configuring LMS for your use.

See the next post

Steen

Question and note for jvb: This tutorial is different from what we did previously. It seems not important to change anything in the server.prefs file. I think that the changes you made in the start-up script is sufficient.
I have been thinking that maybe we only need to make some symbolic links from the original directories to these new directories that can be written to
/media/LMSData/squeezeboxserver/log
/media/LMSData/squeezeboxserver/prefs
/media/LMSData/squeezeboxserver/cache
Then probably we could install LMS and keep the original Init.d/startup script , and we only needed a startup script that made these symbolic links before LMS is started.
Maybe it could even be used as a place were symbolic links easily could be defined for other programs that needed access to a writeable directory?

[SBP]

How to set up LMS server... Coming here.

The configuration of LMS is done via its web-page. You can reach it from the FoxyRoxy computer using localhost:9000 in the webbrowser, or from another computer using the IP-adress of the FoxyRoxy computer like 192.168.1.16:9000.

On the first screen in the set-up wizard is this. Here you can make a "mysqueezebox account", it is a free service and you need to have a "Mysqueezebox" account if you will be using some of the paid music streaming services like Pandora, Spotify or Wimp.
But it is only an option as you can use the LMS without a mysqueezebox account (which is free by the way).

Sign In Mysqueezebox.png (67.01 KiB) Viewed 20323 times

Then press "Next" in the lower right corner.

The next screen will let you choose your music library - then press "Next in the lower right corner.
The next screen will let you choose your playlist library - if you don't have any just press "Next in the lower right corner.




Here you will need to choose you media library

Screenshot-Server Settings.png (63.13 KiB) Viewed 20336 times

It will start scanning your directory for media files. You can choose if you only want it to look for music or also video and photos.
I mostly use it for music as the UPnP/DLNA video part of the LMS is not that good. Many DNLA clients can't use the stream. At least my Samsung blueray player can't play videos from LMS. Other DLNA clients like BubbleUPnP on my Android phone easily play the Videos from LMS, so maybe your prefered DNLA player will work with LMS - you need to check.
But I think that "minidlna" is a better dlna server for streaming videos.


As LMS is a server software you need to have a client (a player) in order to listen to music. More on this topic can be found here http://www.foxyroxylinux.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=219#p943
You can use a hardware player from Logitech or you can use a software player either on the FoxyRoxy computer or on one or several other computers on your LAN. In this screenshot, you can see how to choose the players

Choose player.png (246.32 KiB) Viewed 20336 times

On the LMS web page you can use the dropdown menu and choose which player (SqueezeSlave or SquezePlay, see next section) you want to control. Select the player and choose what you wan't to listen to on that player, then choose another player and select something else to play, or play the same on two different players (in synch or not in synch).
But as also seen on the screenshot, you can choose to synchronize the players so that all the chosen players are in synch.

As shown here all this can be done through the web-browser, but using a smartphone as a remote controller is much more convenient. There are several free as well as commercial solutions to Android phones. I don't have an IPhone but I know that there is a commercial controller as well.
In the next section I will describe how to use an Android Phone to control LMS and its connected players.

Steen

[SBP]

How to control LMS and its players .. coming here

As I demonstrated in my previous post you can control LMS and its players through a web-page, but it is much more convenient to control what you are listening to via a smartphone or a tablet.

ANDROID:
There are several options, either free or commercial software.
On Android you can get an overview here : http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/R ... or_Android

Logitech controller Free
I have used Logitechs free android controller, it is OK. You will need to have a "Mysqueezebox.com". It is free so if you wan't to try LMS with a free Android controller, I think that this is the best option. Here you can control your players and even synchronize the players. You can get it from Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... W1vdGUiXQ..

Squeezer Free
Or you can use the free software Squeezer. https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... o.squeezer . It allow you to control your system, and to choose the players as well, but I haven't been able to control the synchronization between two playes in this software.

Orange Squeeze Paid app
There is a commercial software the "Orange Squeeze" https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ngesqueeze it costs about 2 $ and is very good. It is fast and easy to use, and it allows to synchonize your players. So if you would like to try the best - try this one.

SqueezeCommander Paid app
Also a very good commercial app for controlling your LMS fra an Android phone or tablet. I haven't tried it but the reviews are very good.
http://www.androidzoom.com/android_appl ... r_flm.html


IPhone or IPAd

IPhone app
There are also software for the IPhone, the review is very good, but I haven't tried it. http://penguinlovesmusic.de/

IPad app
App for controlling the LMS from your IPad: http://www.squeezepad.com/

Windows Smartphone
There are also Squeezebox controller software for your windows based samrtphone; http://7illusions.com/SqueezeRemote/default.html

Another Windows based Squeezebox controller: http://www.avzuylen.com/squeezebox-control.aspx


So after installing any of these controller software, you will be able to control your LMS from your smartphone or IPhone (or IPad/Tablet) through your LAN. This will allow you to control the music playing from any of the attached players.


Next Section will describe how to use a software player on either your FoxyRoxy computer or on separate computers in your LAN.

[SBP]

How to set-up software players .... Coming here

If you don't have a Logitech music player, then you can install any of the software players on one or more of your computers at your LAN. You could even use the FoxyRoxy computer hosting the LMS as a player as well.

Squeezeslave
Squeezeslave, is a very lightweight squeezebox player, which can be controlled via CLI. Often it is used without any GUI, and is controlled through LMS webpage or your smartphone (see above).
It can be found here: http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/SqueezeSlave and you have versions for windows, Linux, ARM and BSD.

For installing Squeeseslave on your Foxyroxy computer (which may or may-not have LMS installed) you need to download the latest build, which can be found here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/softsqu ... eezeslave/
Here are some very good builds, which all are working fine: http://code.google.com/p/squeezeslave/d ... t?can=1&q=

Then extract the downloaded file like "squeezeslave-1.2-311-lnx26.tar.gz" to the place you want it to be (like var/lib/squeezeslave/).
Next use 95-refresh, in order to save the changes.

On the Foxyroxy computer where LMS is installed you start the Squeezeplayer by:
/var/lib/squeezeslave/squeezeslave

On another computer in your network you should start it with the -F switch, because then squeezeslave broadcast a message on the network "Here I am", so that the LMS server on another computer automatically knows that the squeezeslave player is available.
So use something like:
/var/lib/squeezeslave/squeezeslave -F

Now it is started and you can change its name to something meaningful like this:
On the LMS web-page, go to the settings page, player tab, pick the player from the drop down list, change the player name field and click apply. If you have more than one squeezeslave running on your network (on different computers) you can give them names like "Kitchen", "living room" ect. so that it is easy to see which player you are controlling. See here:

Change player name.png (92.37 KiB) Viewed 20320 times

There are other important switches that can be used, which you can read about. It can be important to see which output options you have, and to control which output squeezeslave uses.
Therefore try squeezeslave -L
More info can be found here: http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/SqueezeSlave
One important shortcoming/problem with Squeezeslave is that it is only capable to play streams using 44100 Hz. Therefore, some radio stations can't be played natively. You need to configure LMS to transcode these streams into a 44100 Hz stream. In order to do so you will need to make a custom-convert.conf file that should be placed in the plugin directory: /LMSData/squeezeboxserver/Plugins/custom-convert.conf. The content of this file should be:

Code: Select all

# Capabilities
# I - can transcode from stdin
# F - can transcode from a named file
# R - can transcode from a remote URL (URL types unspecified)
#
# O - can seek to a byte offset in the source stream
# T - can seek to a start time offset
# U - can seek to start time offset and finish at end time offset
#
# D - can downsample
# B - can limit bitrate
#
# Substitution strings for variable capabilities
# %f - file path (local files)
# %F - full URL (remote streams)
#
# %o - stream start byte offset
#
# %S - stream samples start offset
# %s - stream seconds start offset
# %t - stream time (m:ss) start offset
# %U - stream samples end offset
# %u - stream seconds end offset
# %v - stream time (m:ss) end offset
# %w - stream seconds duration

#
# %b - limit bitrate: b/s
# %B - limit bitrate: kb/s
# %d - samplerate: samples/s
# %D - samplerate: ksamples/s

# For one player with this MAC address.
# mp3 flc * 00:00:00:00:00:01

# All squeezeslave players.
mp3 flc squeezeslave *
    # FRT:{START=-ss %s}U:{DURATION=-endpos %w}
    [mplayer.sh] -really-quiet -vc null -vo null $START$ $DURATION$ -cache 128 -af volume=0,resample=44100:0:1,channels=2 -ao pcm:file=/dev/fd/3 $FILE$ | [flac] -cs --totally-silent --compression-level-0 -

flc flc squeezeslave *
   # FT:{START=--skip=%t}U:{END=--until=%v}
   [flac] -dcs $START$ $END$ -- $FILE$ | [sox] -q -t wav - -t flac -C 0 -b 16 -r 44.1k -

However, if you need to transcode on the LMS, it is difficult almost impossible to keep a software player and a hardware player in synch, because only the stream to the software player is transcoded.

SqueezePlayer
Squeezeplayer is an official Logitech software player that has a GUI which looks like a hardware Logitech player. So this player you can either control directly through the GUI or control it through LMS (via its webbrowser or a controller software on your smartphone/tablet). For more infor see here: http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/SqueezePlay
There are several different versions for different OS, like windows linux etc. It can be downloaded from here: http://downloads.slimdevices.com/nightly/?ver=7.7
It installs easily on my windows computer, but it seems like the current official logitech linux versions are broken. Therefore use this patched version, which even allows to use up 192 kHz streams where the GUI is fixed as well: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthrea ... up-to-192k

You simply extract the tarball into /opt/squeezeplay/ , it is started by running /opt/squeezeplay/bin/squeezeplay.sh and then follow the instructions on the screen - choose to connect to FoxyLMS - thats it.
Next use 95-refresh, in order to save the changes.

At the first screen choose "My Music"
Then at the bottom choose "Switch Library"
Then choose the LMS server you want to connect to.
Like this:

Squeezeplay.PNG (132.24 KiB) Viewed 20319 times

SqueezePlay can play all streams, and no transcoding is needed, therefore it is easier to keep players in synch. I just tried to synch two Squeezeplayers (one on the FoxyRoxy computer, the other on a windows computer) a Logitech Radio and a Logitech Duet hardware players, and both local music as well as internet radio streams were kept in synch in all four locations.


IPhone Player
It is also possible to use a IPhone or IPad as a music player, by installing this software: http://penguinlovesmusic.de/


Android player
Or you can use your Android tablet or phone by installing this software: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthrea ... the-market

[jbv]

Hi Steen,

This is great thanks.

Obviously a work in progress. Would you mind if myself and/or Kazza go over this in the coming weeks, and make some slight text formatting and/or layout changes, or would you prefer us to keep-out until you feel you are finished?

BTW, the link to finding players was either missing or not added yet

I will have a look at your comment/question regarding start-up and directories in a day or two. With regard to the actual start-up script, I did clean a few things up. While using the standard script will work, my script just seems a little cleaner and also allows you to request the status from the LMS, which the standard script does not. There may be some other minor tweaks too. I will have a look and try to document the changes soon.

Thanks again. Great Stuff.

Cheers, Brenton

[SBP]

Hi Brenton

You are free to change whatever you feel should be changed, and if there are some not so clear areas, please let me know.

You should try to use Squeezeslave on your FoxyRoxy computer (and/or another one as well) and control what is playing through your Android phone, it is really amassing

Steen

[KazzaMozz]

Hi Steen & Brenton
Sitting with a cup of tea on the balcony enjoying the warmth (sorry couldn't help it)
I digress.

This is really taking shape nice work Steen.

I think the best way for the edits (thanks for being ok about this Steen) would be to sign off in the thread as " Steen final"

1. We lock the topic so users can't post any further comments.
2. Make a copy and transfer it across into "review" area & a copy into "Archives" original
3. Make any changes or formatting that might be needed and place new version into "Archives" Updated
4. Delete Topic and replace with "Updated" Copy & lock it from further posts.
5. Create a Topic [FAQs] Logitech Media Server & FoxyRoxyLinux
6. Posting up the usual clause that we do not give any after sales service etc in the original [How To] Logitech Media server document.

Steen
if you have any questions you think users might have pop each question with it's own Topic heading.
1 question per topic works best for this.
Post your answer to your question as the 2nd post.
If it's a question for Brenton specifically leave it as open if and when or it's relevant to Foxy Brenton or someone else can answer if they have the time or want to.

[FAQs] and the question you being asked
Post up the answer in the second post, not on the first page.
as it shows as Re: [FAQs] and the question being [Solved]
It will show posts 2 which is the answer.

This makes It's really easy to have a readymade FAQs for the Logitech media stuff.
Steen it's pretty much up to you if you wish to answer any user queries posted.
Remebering the Golden Rules apply to all of us:

I have a real job, and a real family.
These are the highest priorities in my life and world.
They always have been, and they always will be.
Sometimes I can spend a little time playing with FoxyRoxy, sometimes I can't.

How does this sound ?

Cheers
Kazza (Mmm might go have a dip in the pool)

[SBP]

Ok
EDIT, I think I'm finished, so please use it as you find best.

I'm ready to try and answer the questions which might pop up.

If you would like to try it; I suggest that you use the patched version of SqueezePlay which I linked to together with the official Logitech Android controller software .
Is it understandable how to install LMS, the players and control it all from a smartphone?


Brenton: I'm happy with your start-up script for LMS it is working fine.
I was just thinking that hopefully a lot of people start using FoxyRoxy and then it will be impossible for you to make modified start-up scripts for all the different programs we wan't to use.
I was thinking that maybe most programs would work happily on FoxyRoxy if they were provided with a symbolic link to a writeable directory. Then a lot of work could be spared. Off-course I don't think that this will solve all problems, but maybe at least some problems could be solved?


Steen

[KazzaMozz]

Hi Steen

I'm ready to try and answer the questions which might pop up.

Great to know this and thanks for the guide. I'm away at present so it will take a little time to go over the guide and test it out.
Once that is done, we can set the ball in motion and I'm sure I will have some questions for you to answer as I have never used the logitech Media Server so I'm a good candidate to trial it out on.
Cheers
Kazza

[SBP]

Hi

If you would like to try using the Logitech Media Server, you also need a client that can play the music and radio stations. For that I think that you should try the newest rising star; the "Squeezelite" a very small player, which so far is the best software player for the LMS system I have tried. It is still in development, but so far plays flac, mp3 and pcm (wav/aiff) perfectly, and you can install this player on several computers (I even had it running on my RaspberryPi with great success). You will be able to play different content on each player, or the same content on all or some of your players.
In addition the content can be synched on the players you choose.

So try it.

It can be found here: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthrea ... (alsa-only)