Autostart Squeezelite

If you have an USB DAC (or an amplifier with integrated DAC) correctly configured in pCP (by setting in squeezelite settings: USB AUDIO as audio output device and hw:CARD=xxx into output setting section - where xxx is the Linux device name of your DAC which you can see by expanding the same output section - ) you can get the problem described below.

If your DAC is turn-off, pCP (or more generally the Linux operating system) can’t see the hw:card=xxx because is off. So, if pCP gets restart, squeezelite can’t start. You have to intervene manually by first turning on your DAC and then going to the web page of your PC and clicking on the [Restart] squeezelite button.

The solution that I have created autostarts squeezelite (if it is down) when the DAC is turning on by checking the udev event.

This are the steps (you need “nano editor”, if you don’t already have it you can easily install as extension into pCP web interface):

Steps

Step 1

• Login into ssh shell—see Access piCorePlayer via ssh.
• Turn off your DAC and then it turn on.
• Type dmesg and find the string “idVendor” and “idProduct” of your DAC (they are two strings of four characters).

Step 2

• Type sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/10-DAC.rules and paste this string:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ATTRS{idVendor}=="xxxx", ATTR{idProduct}=="yyyy", RUN+="/home/tc/DAC.sh"

where xxxx and yyyy are what you found in the previous step.

• Press control+o to save and control+x to exit.

Step 3

• Type sudo nano /home/tc/DAC.sh and paste this text:

#!/bin/sh

giar=$(sudo /usr/local/etc/init.d/squeezelite status)
if [ "$giar" = "Squeezelite is not running." ];
then
	sudo /usr/local/etc/init.d/squeezelite restart
fi

• Press control+o to save and control+x to exit.

Step 4

• Type sudo chmod 755 /home/tc/DAC.sh to make the script executable.

Step 5

• Type sudo nano /opt/.filetool.lst and add at the end of file this string to backup the mod:

etc/udev/rules.d/10-DAC.rules

• Press control+o to save and control+x to exit.

Step 6

• Type pcp br to backup and reboot.

Now, if your DAC is turned-off and squeezelite is not running, when you turn on your DAC, squeezelite will start.

Credits: my wife for the patience…

More information

• Development thread
• Documentation thread