Softsqueeze: anyone has it working?

[MarcoZan]

Hi all

Even if I'm a former Pluto user since 2005, I'm quite new here so first of all thanks to all for the amazing work done so far.

I'm trying to make use of Softsqueeze in my LMCE environment. I followed some instructions I found here that belong to former Plutohome forum, but no avail.
When I was running Pluto I never test those hints, so I don't know whether they are effective or not.

Has anyone it working? Can anyone give me some suggestion to make it work?

TIA
Marco

[chrisbirkinshaw]

I would love to see this work but when I managed to get it to run it just said it could not connect to the server and could not find my sound card (alsa), though it does claim to support alsa.

I also tried squeezeslave but it appears this does not support alsa at all.

I found a mention of something called slimslave here:

http://forums.slimdevices.com/archive/index.php/t-3831.html

However although the post says to scan that forum for info I cannot really find any more info anywhere on the web which is of any use. Perhaps slimslave does not exist??

At any rate it would be great to have something you could run on an MD for mutli room audio. The current music player is simply useless... (it doesn't appear you can sort by album, or create smart playlists, or do any of the thinsg which make players like iTunes to useable).

chris

[MarcoZan]

Just to add some info ...

I've tried Softsqueeze included in Slimserver installed with LMCE and also the most recent release dowloaded from official site, with same result : "Player not found".

I could be wrong, but it sounds to me that it may be a configuration problem i.e that Slimserver does not know anything about sw player and does not now how to feed it with audio.

TIA
Marco

[chrisbirkinshaw]

The softsqueeze player is supposed to be a full emulator. So it shouldn't matter....

[sp00nhead]

are you running the softsqueeze on a pc in the internal or external network. You might need to enable some extra ports in the firewall for it to work if its on the external side. cant remember which ports it needs:) you'll need to check the slimdevice website for those.....

[nite_man]

Could somebody explain me what is an advantage to use Softsqeeze. As I understand it needs a dedicated PC to run it.

[bulek]

Could somebody explain me what is an advantage to use Softsqeeze. As I understand it needs a dedicated PC to run it.

Well one idea might be to run softsqueeze on core to output on second audio channel - so to get more audio sources on core. Maybe even more softsqueezes.. But I guess maybe some command line slim player would be better for that....

Regards,

Bulek.

[MarcoZan]

I agree that Squeezebox is an appliance and that is more flexible (no pc needed).
Actually I was thinking to use Softsqueeze for those pc that I don't want to use as MD. Say that wife or kids are using pc for different stuff, but wanting to listen to some music in background.
OK, I know that I can obtain the same result accessing via Samba to all audio files stored in public folder, but softsqueeze looks a very neat solutions and can increase WAF factor 

Regards
Marco

[Zaerc]

I think that can easily be done by simply installing the windows orbiter on those machines

[MarcoZan]

Hi Zaerc and thanks for your reply

I probably didn't explain properly what my idea is.

Actually I have 1 hybrid and 1 MD. Then I have my own laptop with all my work stuff  and wife laptop (both wireless enabled).
When using those laptops in a room with no hybrid/MD, the idea is to be able to listen to music directly from the laptops.
I think that installing the windows orbiter won't help me that much, because AFAIK it is only a control interface (no media playback out of it).
Squeezeboxes are interesting but for time beeing they are not an option, so I was thinking to use Softsqueeze.

I understood that Softqueeze should be a full emulator of Squeezebox so it would behave as a PnP device, but this is not happening. I'm keen to think that I'm doing something wrong or maybe I'm missing something from the configuration side.
I don't think it's a problem with firewall blocking ports, (at least not after issuing iptables -P INPUT ACCEPT), but again I may be wrong.

It looks that no one did succesfully set up Softsqueeze with LMCE, so I will try again and keep posted of my progress (if any)

Of course any suggestion is welcome

Regards
Marco

[Zaerc]

You're right, the windows orbitter itself cannot play media.  But it would be able to control any media director in the room though.

[totallymaxed]

I think that can easily be done by simply installing the windows orbiter on those machines

The problem is that the Windows Orbiter is just that... it can act as a 'remote' for a media director and control other devices about the network. But as far as I know it cant play content locally.

[1audio]

Check the version of Slimserver in your system. It may not support Softsqueeze. The standard version in LMCE is old. You can update it but the dependencies are in conflict with some other's for the system. If you bludgeon your way through it will probably work but there will be complaints from the updaters in the system. Its on the LMCE to-do list to upgrade.