I want a compact, low power Linux box to use as a NAS and audio streamer (probably running mpd). This is a slightly odd mix of requirements, does anyone have any suggestions of what to look at?
Alternatively maybe a 'media streamer' would provide what I want, but I need it to have audio outputs and be able to run something like mpd so that it can run headless and be driven remotely.
A custom built Linux box is a valid possibility too but getting a small, low-power one isn't trivial. (Raspberry Pi is out because its audio is notoriously bad and there seem to be few workarounds to avoid its sound problems)
On 28/12/12 15:50, Chris Green wrote:
I want a compact, low power Linux box to use as a NAS and audio streamer (probably running mpd). This is a slightly odd mix of requirements, does anyone have any suggestions of what to look at?
How about just adding either a USB audio interface or even an HDMI audio breakout to one of the low power platforms ?
Not sure if RPi is the best choice for a NAS regardless, isn't the ethernet interface hanging off the USB bus and therefore CPU bound ? I'd say with both network and storage hanging off USB the CPU might become a bottleneck....not tried it though.
Either that or you may find a cheap nettop type device, not as silent or as low power as a RPi but without the clutter of external storage etc hanging off it.
Or (now this is a bit bonkers but it might work out)
Pick up an O2 Joggler from ebay (£50 or so) It already has analogue audio out so job done there
Plug some USB storage in the side, this is your media archive and has a boot partition for Linux (easy enough to do on a Joggler..I've had mine booting ubuntu before) There are a few well documented fixes to work around the aggressive thermal throttling and improve the sound output.
Now have it auto start a GUI mpd client like ario or impc or whatever is your preference and works best on a touchscreen.
Now you have your mpd server and it has a local front end...madness or genius ?...you decide.
On Sun, Jan 06, 2013 at 02:07:35PM +0000, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
On 28/12/12 15:50, Chris Green wrote:
I want a compact, low power Linux box to use as a NAS and audio streamer (probably running mpd). This is a slightly odd mix of requirements, does anyone have any suggestions of what to look at?
How about just adding either a USB audio interface or even an HDMI audio breakout to one of the low power platforms ?
Yes, it's a possibility I have been considering.
Not sure if RPi is the best choice for a NAS regardless, isn't the ethernet interface hanging off the USB bus and therefore CPU bound ? I'd say with both network and storage hanging off USB the CPU might become a bottleneck....not tried it though.
RPi isn't supposed to be particularly good for sound, and as soon as you move to alternatives the price creeps up, support is less universal and you end up down a bit of a blind alley.
It's just a pity that none of the relatively cheap - and low power - NAS systems is 'open'.
My (now no longer in production) WM My Book II takes only six watts when idle, has storage and an adequate processor. All it needs is a sound output and it would be perfect. I guess I could add a USB sound interface.
On 06/01/13 15:21, Chris Green wrote:
RPi isn't supposed to be particularly good for sound, and as soon as you move to alternatives the price creeps up, support is less universal and you end up down a bit of a blind alley.
Yes but the issue with the RPi is at the D/A level. If you added usb audio or an HDMI audio breakout then you bypass the problems.
On Sun, Jan 06, 2013 at 04:04:38PM +0000, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
On 06/01/13 15:21, Chris Green wrote:
RPi isn't supposed to be particularly good for sound, and as soon as you move to alternatives the price creeps up, support is less universal and you end up down a bit of a blind alley.
Yes but the issue with the RPi is at the D/A level. If you added usb audio or an HDMI audio breakout then you bypass the problems.
Not just the D2A. Apparently lots of people who have tried USB D2A have had trouble too. I think the HDMI->audio route is OK though (however that does add quite significant cost).
On Sun, 6 Jan 2013 15:21:24 +0000 Chris Green cl@isbd.net allegedly wrote:
RPi isn't supposed to be particularly good for sound, and as soon as you move to alternatives the price creeps up, support is less universal and you end up down a bit of a blind alley.
It's just a pity that none of the relatively cheap - and low power - NAS systems is 'open'.
Try the Linksys NSLU2 - I have three of them and they are easy to reflash (with debian or unslung) and there is (still) a fairly active community of users out there. See http://www.nslu2-linux.org/ and http://www.cyrius.com/debian/nslu2/
You can pick up slugs for about £10-20 off ebay. http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=linksys+N...
Mick ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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On Sun, Jan 06, 2013 at 04:15:13PM +0000, mick wrote:
On Sun, 6 Jan 2013 15:21:24 +0000 Chris Green cl@isbd.net allegedly wrote:
RPi isn't supposed to be particularly good for sound, and as soon as you move to alternatives the price creeps up, support is less universal and you end up down a bit of a blind alley.
It's just a pity that none of the relatively cheap - and low power - NAS systems is 'open'.
Try the Linksys NSLU2 - I have three of them and they are easy to reflash (with debian or unslung) and there is (still) a fairly active community of users out there. See http://www.nslu2-linux.org/ and http://www.cyrius.com/debian/nslu2/
You can pick up slugs for about £10-20 off ebay. http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=linksys+N...
Definitely a possible, I've often considered buying one.
Now see this.....
On 06/01/13 14:07, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
Pick up an O2 Joggler from ebay (£50 or so) It already has analogue audio out so job done there
Plug some USB storage in the side, this is your media archive and has a boot partition for Linux (easy enough to do on a Joggler..I've had mine booting ubuntu before) There are a few well documented fixes to work around the aggressive thermal throttling and improve the sound output.
Now have it auto start a GUI mpd client like ario or impc or whatever is your preference and works best on a touchscreen.
Now you have your mpd server and it has a local front end...madness or genius ?...you decide.
Was such a crazy idea I had to try it...it actually works quite well.
The Joggler runs mpd and gimmix as a local client (gimmix is about the most touch friendly client I could find) and mounts my music library over NFS (or it could be local storage as I suggested)
Then I used MPDroid to control it via my phone, it can even stream the output to the phone as well as or instead of the Jogglers audio output.
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Chris Green -
mick -
Wayne Stallwood