Using a Mintbox pro 2 as music server.

[dontcallmejeff]

I recently bought a Mintbox pro 2, very nice. I'm trying to use it as a music server. I've installed X2GO to remote control it. That is working fine. I've turned off pulseaudio on the client side. I want to connect the audio output to my amp. I can see the audio output when I log in locally. But not when I log in with X2Go. When I log in with X2GO I only see dummy output. Would appreciate any help.

John

[MrEen]

Hi dontcallmejeff, and welcome to the forum.

I know squat about using remote desktop software, but maybe some suggestions may help point you in the right direction.

I've turned off pulseaudio on the client side.

This I really don't understand. Are you trying to start a music playing app and have already configured it to use alsa directly? If not, you either need to do that, or have pulseaudio running. Also, depending how you turned it off, it may re spawn automatically.

I can see the audio output when I log in locally. But not when I log in with X2Go.

Again, depending on how you turned off pulseaudio, it will start up when you log in. When you're logging in via X2Go, is it as your normal user? If there's a user just for X2Go use, maybe that user doesn't have sufficient permission to play audio or use audio devices. For that check in Users and Groups in the Mint Menu.

Hope that helps at least a little bit.

[phd21]

Hi dontcallmejeff,

Welcome to the wonderful world of Linux Mint and its excellent forum!

It would help to know more about your system setup. If you run "inxi -Fxzd" and "lsusb" from the console terminal prompt, highlight the results, copy and paste them back here, that should provide enough information.

I would not have removed pulse audio and in fact I would recommend re-installing it.

There are excellent remote access applications available for Linux and are cross-platform, like "TeamViewer", "NoMachine", etc... and various RDP applications (Remmina, Krdc/Krdp, etc...).

10 Fast and Secure Remote Desktop Client Software for Linux
https://www.ubuntupit.com/10-fast-and-s ... for-linux/


You could install a multi-media server application which can stream video, audio (music), pictures, etc... Like "UMS - Ultimate Media Server", Kodi (xbmc), Plex Home Theater, etc... "UMS" takes only a few minutes to have running.

Media Server - What to use?
viewtopic.php?f=48&t=273165&hilit=java+8

If you search the "Synaptic Package Manager (SPM)" there are actual music streaming servers as well.

Hope this helps ...

[dontcallmejeff]

Thanks for the help. I knew when I posted I wasn't being very clear. I've been using X2GO to interface to all my Linux servers that are in another room. One is running CENTOS, the others different flavors of Linux. The X2GO client on the window side has a selection to turn on pulseaudio. I assume that this is for playing sounds local to the windows machine. This isn't something I want to do.

I haven't turned or uninstalled pulseaudio on mintbox. When I run pavucontrol locally logged in directly to the mintbox I see the S/PDIF. But when I run pavucontrol logged in remotely using X2GO I only see dummy output. It could be a permission problem, I've added my user to the audio group. While I have a lot of Unix experience, this is the first time I've played around with audio playback. I will admit I'm a little confused on what is needed. It sounds like pulseaudio is the sound driver. I've tried installing MPD, but it sounds like it needs pulseaudio to work. I'm open to other ideas in getting it to play music locally, other then replacing the OS.

So to recap, Mintbox to amp using digital cable. Control music remotely. Thanks for any help, will post the requested information if needed.

[phd21]

Hi dontcallmejeff,

I am not sure I understand why you need a remote access application like "x2go" for listening to your music from a streaming music server or multimedia server, locally on your LAN or remotely from any computer using any operating system or tablet or smartphone? If you are using the "mpd" or related software, you may need to add a firewall rule too.

Recommend "subsonic" which also has UPnP/DLNA and or "madsonic" which do not require "mpd"...

*** Subsonic ***
http://www.subsonic.org/pages/index.jsp

How to Install Subsonic Media Server on Ubuntu 18.04, 18.10 and Enable HTTPS
https://www.linuxbabe.com/ubuntu/instal ... 8-04-https

Install Subsonic Media Server on Ubuntu or Debian to Stream Music Through Your Linode
https://www.linode.com/docs/application ... or-debian/

All I had to do to get MPD and related packages to work was install "mpd" and those packages from the "Synaptic Package Manager (SPM)", edit the mpd configuration file to point to my Music folder, add firewall rule, fix the pid issue (see next reply).

How To Set Up Music Player Daemon On Linux
https://www.addictivetips.com/ubuntu-li ... -on-linux/

Creating a home music server using mpd
https://feeding.cloud.geek.nz/posts/hom ... -with-mpd/

Cantata - a Qt5 Graphical MPD Client for Linux (v2.3.1)
https://www.ubuntupit.com/cantata-a-qt5 ... for-linux/

Madsonic » Music Streamer
http://beta.madsonic.org/pages/index.jsp

Mopidy
https://www.mopidy.com/



Hope this helps ...
.

firewall-mpd1.jpg

[phd21]

Hi dontcallmejeff,

Ok, for the heck of it I installed "mpd" and cantata, sonata, gmpd (gnome music player), etc... to try this out in My Linux KDE Neon that I am testing based on Ubuntu 18.04 like Linux Mint 19.x.

I then edited the mpd.conf to use my Music folder, and restarted.

Nothing happens, none of my music files showed up. I did some looking around and noticed that the "mpd" service daemon was not running giving me an error
"could not open pid_file "/var/run/mpd/pid" (at line 13) for writing: Permission denied"

Which turns out to be an old permission problem that is easy to fix which by now you would have thought would not be an issue.
[all variants] Solved: mpd could not open pid_file "/var/run/mpd/pid" (at line 13)
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1034777


If your MPD and related applications are not finding your music, run the commands below.

Open a console terminal and copy and paste the commands below one by one.

Code: Select all

sudo mkdir /var/run/mpd

next, make the file pid

Code: Select all

sudo gedit /var/run/mpd/pid

and just save as an empty file.

Next, modify the read/write permissions.

Code: Select all

sudo chmod 777 /var/run/mpd/pid

Now start mpd service

Code: Select all

sudo systemctl start mpd

From now on, "mpd" and all the mpd applications should work perfectly...

FYI: on all smart devices (smartphones, tablets, smart TV and Blu-Ray DVD players, TV sticks, some game consoles, etc...) you can look for "MPD client" or just "mpd" in their app stores and try those to connect to your MPD server.

"cantata" and some other "mpd" applications work on all computer platforms (MS Windows, Mac, and Linux)

Clients | Music Player Daemon Wiki
- Look under "Graphical Clients"
http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/Clients

Hope this helps ...

[MrEen]

No idea if it will help, but running pulseaudio -k remotely in the terminal to restart the pulseaudio daemon might get it working, especially if there are multiple users involved.

[phd21]

Hi dontcallmejeff,

Although I was able to get all the "mpd" music streaming applications working with pulseaudio, I still prefer a good multimedia server application which can stream videos (movies), music, and or pictures.

I have been using UMS (Ulimtate Media Server) for years and it just works great, does not use a lot of my computer resources, and does not have an always running background service, but it does not have all the built-in options that some fully featured media servers (Kodi, Plex, Emby, streamio?, etc...) have including creating playlists from the "client" unless the client software or device supports that (my smart Blu-Ray player apparently does not support creating playlists with UMS, but plays everything very well) . You can create playlists from UMS' web based interface or have playlists in "m3u" or "pls" formats in the folders where the music files are that will show up as folders in UMS that can be played. FYI: Most music applications can easily create playlists and there is a new version of "Kid3" that can easily create playlists. VLC can create playlists with videos and or music.

Some of the music streaming options I mentioned work well (subsonic, madsonic, etc...) but to get all the features, you have to pay for it. I could not get the Subsonic DLNA/UPnP to work on my system.

The Emby media server looks really good and works on all computer platforms and devices. My older Samsung smart Blu-Ray DVD player even has Embry application in its applications. I have not yet had a chance to test Emby yet, but it has an easy to install Linux deb file...

Emby - Your Media, Your Way
https://emby.media/about.html


Hope this helps ...