Converting an old Antipodes DS Reference to play Snakeoil

[PKay 2,178]

I have an old Antipodes DS Reference which is based on 32 bit architecture.  The old linux operating system failed after a software upgrade and the cost of repairing by Antipodes who wanted to upgrade it was too expensive for an old machine.

 

In the meantime I bought a 1TB Samsung SSD and loaded daphile which was relatively easy after a bit of advice from Clay @Gieseler Audio.  Having compared Daphile to JRiver and Audirvana I found that it wasn't as good even though JRIver and Audirvana were run on an 8 year old laptop.  https://www.daphile.com/

 

I was wondering whether anyone has loaded an earlier version of Linux Mint such as Linux Mint 19.3 "Tricia" - Cinnamon (32-bit) to use with JRiver and if so would they be willing to give me a few pointers?  At this stage I don't want to bin the Antipodes since it should be able to perform better than an 8 year old laptop.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Peter

Edited September 17, 2020 by PKay

[gypr1961 138]

Long time since I looked at it but have a look at snakeoil

 

https://www.snakeoil-os.net/forums/

[Snoopy8 3,341]

3 hours ago, PKay said:

I was wondering whether anyone has loaded an earlier version of Linux Mint such as Linux Mint 19.3 "Tricia" - Cinnamon (32-bit) to use with JRiver and if so would they be willing to give me a few pointers? 

While Linux Mint is one of the better distros for ease of use, it is still a full Linux system with lots of overheads which may affect SQ.

1 hour ago, gypr1961 said:

Long time since I looked at it but have a look at snakeoil

 

https://www.snakeoil-os.net/forums/

I am using SnakeOil OS and am delighted with it.

---

SnakeOil OS has been stripped back of the overheads that may impact SQ.  But, there will be problems installing JRiver 

https://www.snakeoil-os.net/forums/Thread-Installing-Jriver-Media-Center?highlight=Jriver

It has other players like MPD, LMS/Squeezelite which provide excellent SQ. Give them a try.

 

And Agent Kith, the developer, is usually responsive.

[PKay 2,178]

32 minutes ago, Snoopy8 said:

While Linux Mint is one of the better distros for ease of use, it is still a full Linux system with lots of overheads which may affect SQ.

I am using SnakeOil OS and am delighted with it.

---

SnakeOil OS has been stripped back of the overheads that may impact SQ.  But, there will be problems installing JRiver 

https://www.snakeoil-os.net/forums/Thread-Installing-Jriver-Media-Center?highlight=Jriver

It has other players like MPD, LMS/Squeezelite which provide excellent SQ. Give them a try.

 

And Agent Kith, the developer, is usually responsive.

Which music player are you using? Sounds like snake oil will be worth a try. It needs to be easy in my case. 

Edited September 10, 2020 by PKay

[Snoopy8 3,341]

51 minutes ago, PKay said:

Which music player are you using?

I am currently using MinimServer as the server and upmpdcli as the player. Upmpdcli has UPnP wrapper around MPD, which gives the SQ of MPD (which I like) and the usability and configurability of MinimServer & BubbleUpnp phone app.

 

This is probably too complex for your initial foray. Suggest looking at MPD itself and LMS/Squeezelite for your comparisons.  Both of them have a web based interface within SnakeOil OS, but there are also phone apps. 

[PKay 2,178]

First attempt to get Snakeoil up and running hasn’t worked out to well. I’m not sure whether it is my configuration or that the boot disc hasn’t worked properly. I was using Rufus. 
 

[PKay 2,178]

[PKay 2,178]

[PKay 2,178]

[PKay 2,178]

[PKay 2,178]

The end result;

[PCOWandre 153]

Is there a UEFI/Legacy option in there? If set to UEFI, set it to Legacy. And try disconnecting the internal SSD and DVD drive to see if it changes anything.

 

Nice chassis - probably wouldn't be difficult to drop a modern board/CPU in there. 

[PKay 2,178]

5 hours ago, PCOWandre said:

Is there a UEFI/Legacy option in there? If set to UEFI, set it to Legacy. And try disconnecting the internal SSD and DVD drive to see if it changes anything.

 

Nice chassis - probably wouldn't be difficult to drop a modern board/CPU in there. 

Is that the same as ATA/IDE Mode?
 

I think it may be my boot USB drive. 
 

 

[Old Man Rubber 382]

If you have a spare usb or memory card, try putting a debian boot image on it and see if the system boots - I often find it easier to make bootable DVDs which is something else to try.  You would have to switch the boot order around to get it to boot that way.

Once you're happy debian can boot, try again with the snakeoil distribution.

[PKay 2,178]

12 minutes ago, Old Man Rubber said:

If you have a spare usb or memory card, try putting a debian boot image on it and see if the system boots - I often find it easier to make bootable DVDs which is something else to try.  You would have to switch the boot order around to get it to boot that way.

Once you're happy debian can boot, try again with the snakeoil distribution.

Thanks, I might try to create a DVD as well. I have my original boot USB I created for Daphile which was seamless to get up and running. I could try that to see if one of my settings is incorrect. 
 

Failing all of that I may have to go to my computer guy and get him to fix it. 
 

I don’t want to bin the Antipodes as it has a lot of goodies. 

[PKay 2,178]

A few photos of the internals. 

[Snoopy8 3,341]

@PKay I note you joined the SnakeOil forum. 👍  Agent Kith is excellent with support.

 

Note sure what Daphile used to create the USB boot, but SnakeOil has probably too many options. Been a while since i did mine, but I think I used Etcher and a USB stick 2.0 stick.

[PKay 2,178]

1 hour ago, Snoopy8 said:

@PKay I note you joined the SnakeOil forum. 👍  Agent Kith is excellent with support.

 

Note sure what Daphile used to create the USB boot, but SnakeOil has probably too many options. Been a while since i did mine, but I think I used Etcher and a USB stick 2.0 stick.

I tried Etcher last night. I will buy another USB to try again tonight as well as DVD. 
 

I thought this would be easier than it has turned out. 

[PCOWandre 153]

I doubt your USB stick is actually faulty to the point where it won't boot after writing. That's easy enough to test -- try to use the same stick to boot another PC. The installer won't mess with your PC unless you ask it to.

 

I'll send you a PM with some other ideas.

[PKay 2,178]

19 hours ago, PCOWandre said:

Is there a UEFI/Legacy option in there? If set to UEFI, set it to Legacy. And try disconnecting the internal SSD and DVD drive to see if it changes anything.

 

Nice chassis - probably wouldn't be difficult to drop a modern board/CPU in there. 

I tried my Daphile boot stick tonight which previously worked and it also failed  so I’m guessing it will be Something in my settings. 

 

Edited September 16, 2020 by PKay

[PKay 2,178]

Some progress as the system is currently writing onto the hard drive. It does seem to be taking a long time. 
 

[PKay 2,178]

system is ready to load music and connect to the Gross. NAS connection will be a challenge. 

Edited September 16, 2020 by PKay

[PCOWandre 153]

Nicely done! NAS connection should be a breeze now that you've come this far.

[PKay 2,178]

Thanks to @Snoopy8for a few pointers today. I am listening to my system using Snakeoil and first impressions are that I probably won’t bother with Jriver.  This is just the beginning but as a first start it is brilliant. 
 

Next step is to activate the system and setup my nas which will be a challenge. At the moment I have copied some files across for a bit of a listen. 
 

I would highly recommend Snakeoil. Using my iPeng app.
 

 

 

[PKay 2,178]

I have changed the topic header to play Snakeoil as this is an operating system well worth investing some time on.

[PKay 2,178]

I have the Snakeoil system up and running and this is a very impressive audio player. The Gieseler Gros has never sounded this good in my system. 
 

It is a bit difficult for those with a low level IT skill set like myself. The material on the website is very helpful as is the developer Agent Kith and not to mention @Snoopy8with his kind pointers. 
 

Having said that I am now up and running with access to Tidal and my NAS library. It is a very organic sounding music player on LMS and when some bugs are ironed out I will be able to try MPD.
 

for anyone with an old PC lying around I would suggest give it a try. There is a lot of help available if required.  
 

the headless interface using the iPeng App is very good. I don’t miss Roon (mostly) Too much. 

Edited September 21, 2020 by PKay

[Snoopy8 3,341]

16 minutes ago, PKay said:

I have the Snakeoil system up and running and this is a very impressive audio player. The Gieseler Gros has never sounded this good in my system. 

It helps when you have a good foundation with the old Antipodes box plus a linear power supply and good sound card.

18 minutes ago, PKay said:

the headless interface using the iPeng App is very good. I don’t miss Roon (mostly) Too much. 

If you want to use Roon, you can configure your box as a Roon endpoint in SnakeOil.  If you do not have a server, get a decent Intel NUC, install SnakeOil and configure that as a Roon server.

[PCOWandre 153]

It certainly is good to see hardware continuing to deliver good service. I'd be happy to help if you get stuck with mpd.

[PKay 2,178]

9 minutes ago, PCOWandre said:

It certainly is good to see hardware continuing to deliver good service. I'd be happy to help if you get stuck with mpd.

Thanks, at the moment it won't connect and I think it may be a bug that will be ironed out in the next version.  I am using 1.1.9 (Blind testing U9) and I have tried the hot fix patch as well as the duplicate albums in myMPD.  Agent Kith is working on 1.1.10

[PKay 2,178]

17 minutes ago, Snoopy8 said:

It helps when you have a good foundation with the old Antipodes box plus a linear power supply and good sound card.

If you want to use Roon, you can configure your box as a Roon endpoint in SnakeOil.  If you do not have a server, get a decent Intel NUC, install SnakeOil and configure that as a Roon server.

I gave up on Roon with the annual licence fee and when our dollar was in the 50c range it just wasn't worth it.  I'm very happy with iPeng and LMS.

[PCOWandre 153]

8 minutes ago, PKay said:

at the moment it won't connect and I think it may be a bug that will be ironed out in the next version

Hmm, I think mpd defaults to only binding localhost unless mpd.conf has a bind_to_address line for each IP you want it to bind to.

[PCOWandre 153]

OK, that was maybe a bit cryptic. What I should probably have said is

 

Make sure /etc/mpd.conf contains a line that starts with bind_to_address and ends with your IP address in quotes. 

 

For example, if your IP address is "10.11.12.13", the line would look like:

 

bind_to_address  "10.11.12.13"

 

... and restart mpd.