(5 items)
As is the case with many people, all music I listen to on my PC these days plays from the web through a browser. I’m a heavy user of Google Play Music and SoundCloud, and using Chrome to handle everything means playlists and libraries (and the way I use them through extensions) sync up properly everywhere I need them.
On OS X I use BearededSpice to map the keyboard media controls to browser-based music-players, and the volume keys adjusted the system as they should. Using i3 (and other lightweight window managers) can make you realise what you take for granted when using more fully-fledged arrangements, but it doesn’t take long to achieve the same functionality on such systems.
In my last post I discussed methods for streaming music to different zones in the house. More specifically I wanted to be able to play music from one location and then listen to it in other rooms at the same time and in sync.
After researching various methods, I decided to go with using a compressed MP3 stream over RTP. Other techniques introduced too much latency, did not provide the flexibility I required, or simply did not fulfill the requirements (e.g. not multiroom, only working with certain applications and non-simultaneous playback).
For a while, now, I have been looking for a reliable way to manage zoned music-playing around the house. The general idea is that I’d like to be able to play music from a central point and have it streamed over the network to a selection of receivers, which could be remotely turned on and off when required, but still allow for multiple receivers to play simulataneously.
Apple’s AirPlay has supported this for a while now, but requires the purchasing of AirPlay compatible hardware, which is expensive. It’s also very iTunes-based - which is something that I do not use.
I today issued a full upgrade of the server at flyingsparx.net, which is hosted by Digital Ocean. By default, on Arch, this will upgrade every currently-installed package (where there is a counterpart in the official repositories), including the Linux kernel and the kernel headers.
Digital Ocean maintain their own kernel versions and do not currently allow kernel switching, which is something I completely forgot. I rebooted the machine and tried re-connecting, but SSH couldn’t find the host. Digital Ocean’s website provides a console for connecting to the instance (or ‘droplet’) through VNC, which I used, through which I discovered that none of the network interfaces (except the loopback) were being brought up. I tried everything I could think of to fix this, but without being able to connect the droplet to the Internet, I was unable to download any other packages.
I’ve been having trouble connecting to Eduroam, at least reliably and persistently, without heavy desktop environments or complicated network managers. Eduroam is the wireless networking service used by many Universities in Europe, and whilst it would probably work fine using the tools provided by heavier DEs, I wanted something that could just run quickly and independently.
Many approaches require the editing of loads of config files (especially true for netcfg), which would need altering again after things like password changes. The approach I used (for Arch Linux) is actually really simple and involves the use of the user-contributed wicd-eduroam package available in the Arch User Repository.