Headless - project-owner/PeppyPlayers.doc GitHub Wiki

Overview

Here is the description of the Headless Mode.

Disk Image Content

This disk image has the following software and configuration:

Raspbian Lite OS (release date depends on player release)
pip3 Python3 package management utility.
Eject Linux utility, required for CD Player.
Audio signal level set to 80% using amixer.
Pygame library, required for UI.
Patched libsdl1.2 to fix touchscreen issues.
RPi.GPIO library, required for Rotary Encoders, python3-serial for serial interface, python3-smbus for I2C interface.
Tornado Web Server (required for Web UI). Web Server enabled by default.
ALSA Plugin peppyalsa, required for VU Meter and Spectrum Analyzer screensavers.
LIRC/PyLIRC, patched for using with Python 3, configured for using with WD TV Live IR remote control, disabled in /boot/config.txt
Library discogs_client, required for retrieving CD album art.
Library bluealsa, required for configuring Bluetooth devices as ALSA devices.
Library pynanosvg, required for displaying SVG vector images.
Library libasound2-plugin-equal, required for Equalizer functionality.
Library feedparser, required for parsing podcasts feeds.
Library pexpect, required for connecting Bluetooth devices.
Library Pillow, required for image manipulations.
Version control system git, required for installing software from GitHub.
The following media players were installed and configured:
- vlc - VLC media player 3.0.8 Vetinari. This is the default player.
- mpd - Music Player Daemon 0.21.5. Configured for pi user.
- mpv - mpv 0.29.1
shairport-sync, required to support streaming via AirPlay.
raspotify, required to support streaming via Spotify Connect.
sqlite3 - command line tool for SQLite database.
rpi-backlight - this library allows to control DSI Display Backlight.
pyudev - the library for handling USB disks mounting/unmounting.
udisks2 - the library to poweroff USB hard drives.
pyown, Python binding for the OpenWeather API, required for the Weather Screensaver.
samba, samba-common-bin - the libraries for the file sharing functionality.
youtube-dl - the library for handling YouTube data.
pafy - the library for fetching information from YouTube video metadata.
psutil - the library for collecting host computer information (CPU, Memory, Disks etc.).
yahooquery - the library for the Yahoo! Finance API.
python3-serial - the library for devices connected through serial interface.
sounddevice - the dependency library for Vosk.
vosk - the voice assistant library.
beautifulsoup4 - the library for parsing HTML pages (required for the Horoscope screensaver).
internetarchive - the official API library for the Internet Archive.
The patched version of the ALSA library libasound.so.2.0.0 was built and installed. The patch allows to enable VU Meter screensavers.
Peppy Player configured to start as a service. Peppy Player configured to work in Headless Mode. In this mode it can be controlled from Web UI, IR remote control and voice commands.

Hardware

Hardware required for the Headless Disk Image:

Any computer or mobile device with Web Browser to control Peppy Player via Web UI.

Installation and Configuration

Here are the steps which were used to create the Headless Disk Image.

Prepare MicroSD Card

Download the latest Raspberry Pi OS Lite disk image from the Raspberry Pi web site.
Write downloaded disk image to 8GB MicroSD card.
Copy empty file 'ssh' to the root of the boot folder.
Insert a MicroSD card to a Raspberry Pi, power on, login using putty (user: pi, password: raspberry)

Raspberry Pi Configuration

Run commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo reboot

Run raspi-config utility:

sudo raspi-config

Select and configure the following options (can be different location/wording):

System Options / Password
System Options / Boot/Auto Login / Console Autologin
System Options / Network at Boot
Advanced Options/ Expand Filesystem
Interface Options/I2C Enable/Yes
reboot

On-board Audio Configuration

Run 'alsamixer'
Set Headphone to 20
Connect powered speakers to audio output (3.5mm connector)
Run command:

speaker-test -t wav

aplay -D hw /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Side_Left.wav
aplay -D hw /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Side_Right.wav

Patch ALSA library

This step is required to fix the bug in the ALSA library. Without this fix there is about 40 seconds delay between stations when peppyalsa plugin is in use. More details can be found here. The bug will be fixed in ALSA version 2.1.

Run the following command to define the ALSA version:

$ aplay --version
aplay: version 1.1.8 by Jaroslav Kysela <[email protected]>

Run the following commands for ALSA 1.8 to setup ALSA project:

sudo apt-get install libasound2-dev libncursesw5-dev -y
wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/utils/alsa-utils-1.1.8.tar.bz2
tar xvjf alsa-utils-1.1.8.tar.bz2
cd alsa-utils-1.1.8
./configure --disable-alsaconf --disable-bat --disable-xmlto --with-curses=ncursesw
make && sudo make install
cd ..
wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/lib/alsa-lib-1.1.8.tar.bz2
tar xvjf alsa-lib-1.1.8.tar.bz2
cd alsa-lib-1.1.8
./configure

Change the lines starting at line#1101 in file src/pcm/pcm_meter.c from:

if (size < 0)
    size += spcm->boundary;

to:

if (size < 0) {
    s16->old = meter->now;
    return;
}

Run commands:

make
sudo make install
sudo mv /usr/lib/libasound.so.2.0.0 /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/
speaker-test -t wav
cd ..
rm -rf alsa*

User pi Configuration

These steps are required to run the player under pi user instead of root user.

Add user pi to the tty group:

sudo usermod -a -G tty pi

Change access rights:

sudo nano /lib/udev/rules.d/50-udev-default.rules

from:

SUBSYSTEM=="tty", KERNEL=="tty[0-9]*", GROUP="tty", MODE="0620"

SUBSYSTEM=="tty", KERNEL=="tty[0-9]*", GROUP="tty", MODE="0660"

Install pip3

sudo apt-get install python3-pip

Install VLC and VLC Python bindings

sudo apt-get install vlc
pip3 install python-vlc

Install mpd and mpc

sudo apt-get install mpd
sudo apt-get install mpc
sudo service mpd stop
sudo update-rc.d mpd disable
sudo systemctl disable mpd
sudo systemctl disable mpd.socket
sudo systemctl disable mpd.service
sudo rm /usr/lib/systemd/user/mpd.service
sudo rm /etc/xdg/autostart/mpd.desktop
sudo chown pi /usr/bin/mpd
sudo chgrp audio /usr/bin/mpd
mkdir -p /home/pi/.config/mpd/playlists
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/project-owner/Peppy.doc/master/files/mpd.conf
mv mpd.conf ~/.config/mpd

Install mpv and mpv Python bindings

sudo apt-get install mpv
sudo apt-get install libmpv1
pip3 install python-mpv

Install AirPlay Shairport Sync

sudo iwconfig wlan0 power off
sudo apt-get install build-essential git xmltoman autoconf automake libtool libpopt-dev libconfig-dev libasound2-dev avahi-daemon libavahi-client-dev libssl-dev libsoxr-dev libglib2.0-dev
git clone https://github.com/mikebrady/shairport-sync.git
cd shairport-sync
autoreconf -fi
./configure --sysconfdir=/etc --with-alsa --with-soxr --with-avahi --with-ssl=openssl --with-systemd --with-metadata --with-dbus-interface
make
sudo make install
cd ..
rm -rf shairport-sync
sudo apt install python3-gi

Edit the configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/shairport-sync.conf

Edit the following parameters:

name = "Peppy Player"; // name of the client
enabled = "yes"; // set this to yes to get Shairport Sync to solicit metadata from the source and to pass it on via a pipe
include_cover_art = "yes";
cover_art_cache_directory="" // to disable image caching
output_device = "hw:Headphones"; // the name of the alsa output device. Use "alsamixer" or "aplay" to find out the names of devices, mixers, etc.
mixer_control_name = "Headphone"; // the name of the mixer to use to adjust output volume. If not specified, volume in adjusted in software.

Stop service:

sudo systemctl stop shairport-sync
sudo systemctl disable shairport-sync

Change User and Group from 'shairport-sync' to 'pi' in file /usr/lib/systemd/system/shairport-sync.service:

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/shairport-sync
User=pi
Group=pi

Change user from 'shairport-sync' to 'pi' in file /etc/dbus-1/system.d/shairport-sync-dbus.conf:

<!-- Allow users "root" and "shairport-sync" to own the Shairport Sync service -->
  <policy user="root">
    <allow own="org.gnome.ShairportSync"/>
  </policy>
  <policy user="pi">
    <allow own="org.gnome.ShairportSync"/>
  </policy>

Install Spotify Connect Raspotify

curl -sL https://dtcooper.github.io/raspotify/install.sh | sh

Edit configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/default/raspotify

Set properties:

DEVICE_NAME="Peppy Player"
BITRATE="320"

Stop service:

sudo systemctl stop raspotify
sudo systemctl disable raspotify

Install Samba software (required if file sharing will be in use)

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install samba samba-common-bin
sudo cp /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.bak
sudo systemctl stop smbd
sudo systemctl disable smbd

Install software for Bluetooth Sink functionality (when player works as a Bluetooth speaker)

sudo apt-get install python-dbus
wget https://gist.githubusercontent.com/mill1000/74c7473ee3b4a5b13f6325e9994ff84c/raw/104a7aab866742d162926cc3082f2757574c1a92/a2dp-agent
wget https://gist.githubusercontent.com/mill1000/74c7473ee3b4a5b13f6325e9994ff84c/raw/104a7aab866742d162926cc3082f2757574c1a92/bt-agent-a2dp.service
sudo mv a2dp-agent /usr/local/bin
sudo mv bt-agent-a2dp.service /etc/systemd/system
sudo systemctl enable bt-agent-a2dp.service
sudo systemctl start bt-agent-a2dp.service
sudo systemctl stop bt-agent-a2dp.service

Create the file:

sudo nano /etc/machine-info

with content:

PRETTY_HOSTNAME=Peppy Player

Run the command:

rfkill unblock bluetooth

Install Pygame

sudo apt-get install python3-pygame

Install patched libsdl1.2

wget https://www.dropbox.com/s/0tkdym8ojhcmbu2/libsdl1.2debian_1.2.15+veloci1-1_armhf.deb
sudo dpkg -i libsdl1.2debian_1.2.15+veloci1-1_armhf.deb
sudo apt-get -f install
rm libsdl1.2debian_1.2.15+veloci1-1_armhf.deb

Install Equalizer ALSA plugin

sudo apt-get install libasound2-plugin-equal

Install peppyalsa plugin

git clone https://github.com/project-owner/peppyalsa.git
cd peppyalsa
sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf automake libtool libasound2-dev libfftw3-dev
aclocal && libtoolize
autoconf && automake --add-missing
./configure && make
sudo make install
cd ..
rm -rf peppyalsa

Install ALSA configuration files

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/project-owner/Peppy.doc/master/files/alsa-config/.asoundrc
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/project-owner/Peppy.doc/master/files/alsa-config/.asoundrc-equal
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/project-owner/Peppy.doc/master/files/alsa-config/.asoundrc-equal-peppyalsa
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/project-owner/Peppy.doc/master/files/alsa-config/.asoundrc-multi
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/project-owner/Peppy.doc/master/files/alsa-config/.asoundrc-peppyalsa

Installing Peppy Player dependencies

sudo apt-get install eject
sudo apt-get install bluealsa
sudo apt-get install sqlite3
sudo apt-get install udisks2
sudo apt install python3-smbus
sudo apt-get install python3-serial
pip3 install tornado
pip3 install RPi.GPIO
pip3 install discogs_client
pip3 install pynanosvg
pip3 install feedparser
pip3 install mutagen
pip3 install pexpect
pip3 install Pillow
pip3 install rpi-backlight
pip3 install pyudev
pip3 install pyowm
pip3 install youtube-dl==2020.12.2
pip3 install pafy
pip3 install numpy -U
pip3 install psutil
pip3 install yahooquery
pip3 install vosk sounddevice
pip3 install beautifulsoup4
pip3 install -U requests
pip3 install internetarchive

To avoid root user for rpi-backlight:

echo 'SUBSYSTEM=="backlight",RUN+="/bin/chmod 666 /sys/class/backlight/%k/brightness /sys/class/backlight/%k/bl_power"' | sudo tee -a /etc/udev/rules.d/backlight-permissions.rulesecho 'SUBSYSTEM=="backlight",RUN+="/bin/chmod 666 /sys/class/backlight/%k/brightness /sys/class/backlight/%k/bl_power"' | sudo tee -a /etc/udev/rules.d/backlight-permissions.rules

Create named pipes:

mkfifo myfifo
mkfifo myfifosa

Create folders:

mkdir /home/pi/music
mkdir /home/pi/podcasts
mkdir /home/pi/collection
mkdir /home/pi/playlists

Peppy Player Installation/Configuration

git clone https://github.com/project-owner/Peppy.git

Enable the Headless mode:

nano Peppy/config.txt

set property:

headless = True

Copy changed file to the defaults:

cp Peppy/config.txt Peppy/defaults/

Configure player as a service

Get the service file from Github:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/project-owner/Peppy.doc/master/files/peppy.service

Move the service file to the system folder:

sudo mv peppy.service /etc/systemd/system

Refresh service daemon and enable player as a service:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable peppy.service

Add and disable the poweroff functionality

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Add the line:

#dtoverlay=gpio-poweroff,active_low,gpiopin=4

Move ALSA libraries (after Equalizer & Bluealsa installation)

sudo mkdir /usr/lib/alsa-lib/
sudo cp /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_equal.so /usr/lib/alsa-lib/
sudo cp /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/alsa-lib/libasound_module_ctl_equal.so /usr/lib/alsa-lib/
sudo cp /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_bluealsa.so /usr/lib/alsa-lib/

Install LIRC

sudo apt-get install lirc

Edit LIRC configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/lirc/lirc_options.conf

Change properties:

driver = default
device = /dev/lirc0

Edit system configuration file:

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Add property:

dtoverlay=gpio-ir,gpio_pin=23

Copy configuration files and poweroff:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/project-owner/Peppy.doc/master/files/lircd.conf
sudo mv lircd.conf /etc/lirc/lircd.conf.d
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/project-owner/Peppy.doc/master/files/hardware.conf
sudo mv hardware.conf /etc/lirc
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/project-owner/Peppy.doc/master/files/lircrc
sudo mv lircrc /etc/lirc
sudo poweroff

Switch power off and connect IR sensor to GPIO2 (+5v) connector pin #2, GPIO6 (GND) connector pin #14 and GPIO23 (signal) connector pin #16. To test run the command and press buttons on the remote control:

sudo mode2 -d /dev/lirc0

Install PyLIRC

sudo apt-get install python3-dev
sudo apt-get install liblircclient-dev
wget https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/a9/e1/a19ed9cac5353ec07294be7b1aefc8f89985987b356e916e2c39b5b03d9a/pylirc2-0.1.tar.gz
tar xvf pylirc2-0.1.tar.gz
cd pylirc2-0.1
rm pylircmodule.c
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/project-owner/Peppy.doc/master/files/pylircmodule.c
sudo python3 setup.py install
sudo mv /usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/pylircmodule.cpython-37m-arm-linux-gnueabihf.so /usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/pylirc.cpython-37m-arm-linux-gnueabihf.so
cd ..
sudo rm -rf pylirc*

To test:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/project-owner/Peppy.doc/master/files/test-pylirc.py
python3 test-pylirc.py

After test:

rm test-pylirc.py

Edit the system configuration file to disable LIRC:

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Comment out the property:

#dtoverlay=gpio-ir,gpio_pin=23

Power off

sudo poweroff