Tryphon

Packages debian/ubuntu for Rivendell 2.1.2

2012-01-05T00:00:00+01:00

Rivendell 2.1.2 has been announced on December 30 by Fred Gleason. In short, the main changes are :

Shoutcast support in RLM (macros)
a better error handling in import/export operations
an updated spanish translation
and some various bugfixes

Rivendell 2.1.2 packages are available on the Tryphon debian repository for :

Debian squeeze/stable, wheezy/testing, sid/unstable
Ubuntu : lucid/10.04(LTS) natty/11.04

Binaries for i386 and amd84 are provided.

Refactored packages

With release 2.x, Rivendell packages have been completely rewrited.

After a test period (on releases 2.0.2 and 2.1.0), these packages 2.1.2 are the first “official” release.

Many thanks for feedback provided by subscribers on Rivendell mailing-list (to french subscribers too)

Here are some of changes provided by Rivendell 2.1.2 packages :

A new package : rivendell-server

With Rivendell 2, exchanges between Rivendell stations and server have changed. To help the server deployment, we created a rivendell-server to setup Rivendell database, storage and rdxport webservice.

A Rivendell station, using a server on local network, only requires the rivendell package.

In the “special” case of a standalone station, you need to install the both packages (rivendell and rivendell-server).

Easier setup

The default configuration setup by packages (rivendell and rivendell-server) is simplified.

Rivendell 1.x packages provided a lot of options (via debconf), including partial setups for jackd or pam. This detail level made less accessible Rivendell on first installation. And advanced Rivendell administrators have their own ways to setup their Rivendell hosts, by overriding the package configuration mechanism.

Now a fresh install provides a simple configuration with as few questions as possible. Rivendell is setup to use alsa for sound and a local Rivendell server.

You can have a fonctionnal Rivendell in few minutes :

Step 1 : Add the Tryphon debian repository to your source lists

Step 2 : Install a MySQL server : sudo apt-get install mysql-server

Step 3 : Install both Rivendell “server” and “station” : sudo apt-get install rivendell-server rivendell

Step 4 : Add user who needs to use Rivendell in the rivendell group. For example, to use yourself in this group : sudo adduser $USER rivendell

Check if this user is specified at AudioOwner line in file /etc/rd.conf . If you used sudo to install package, your username will be used. This information will configurable during the package installation.

Step 5 : Log out et start a new session (Gnome, KDE, …) to load changes on group and permissions.

Step 6 : Start rdadmin which creates the database by asking you the Mysql administrator login (root) and password (specified during mysql-server install).

Step 7 : Start rdairplay, play the Test cast and enjoy.

Optional MPEG support

Libraries required to import and export MPEG formats (mp2 and mp3) are no longer installed automatically.

If you need this MPEG support, you just have to install the 3 following packages :

apt-get install libmp3lame0 libtwolame0 libmad0

These libraires have several licence problems, so Debian users will have to add the Debian Multimedia repository to install these packages.

Easier startup

Daemons used by Rivendell applications (caed, ripcd et rdcatch) are easier to manage by the user.

The daemons launch performed by /etc/init.d/rivendell is now disabled by default. The “classic” mechanism is now used by default : the first Rivendell application starts the 3 daemons.

A small tool rivendell-daemons is added to stop daemons easily from a shell :

$ rivendell-daemons stop
Stop Rivendell caed daemon : done
Stop Rivendell ripcd daemon : done
Stop Rivendell rdcatchd daemon : done

New icon set

A new icon set has been created from the Open Icon Library :

It’s used in application menus created by the package rivendell.

Known problems

Ubuntu 11.10/oneiric : packagees are not available for the moment on this distribution. A pending compilation problem blocks the package build.

Conflict with package rivendell 1.7.2 : some files have been moved into librivendell package. If a conflict is reported on files /usr/share/rivendell/*.qm, uninstall librivendell 1.7.2 before installing the 2.1.2 release.

Backstage

Like all Tryphon projects, package sources are available on http://projects.tryphon.eu/rivendell2-debian.

The project’s wiki gives instructions to rebuild packages.

Debian and Ubuntu packages 1.7.2-3 for Rivendell

2011-01-23T00:00:00+01:00

This release is not a new Rivendell release but an update of debian/ubuntu packaging.

Always pin in production

Because you always need to validate fresh packages before upgrading your production system, you should “pin” the previous/expected Rivendell version in the apt preferences of your production stations :

Explanation: Always test Rivendell before upgrade
Package: rivendell
Pin: version 1.7.2-1*
Pin-Priority: 1000

See apt_preferences man page or Debian Reference documentation for more information.

You can “hold” the version in aptitude/synaptic tools too.

Changelog

These new Rivendell packages (released as 1.7.2-3) provide several updates on debian/ubuntu packages :

Jackd 2 support

As discussed on the french Rivendell mailing-list, the previous packages were built with “jackd1” and were incompatible with jackd2 (ticket 3). The new packages are now built with jackd2 when available in the distribution (testing, unstable and maverick currently).

LSB init.d/rivendell

Latest Debian and Ubuntu systems use a dependency based boot sequence. The previous /etc/init.d/rivendell script doesn’t provide required information. It’s now fixed (ticket #2).

The INIT INFO are based on Frederick Henderson’s script. After installing the new Rivendell package, you can update your sysv-rc configuration with : sudo dpkg-reconfigure sysv-rc

Hpklinux 4.04.07

The previous ASI drivers provided by hpklinux 3.08.05 can’t be built with newest kernel releases (ticket #4). The package provides now the 4.04.07 drivers released by AudioScience on November.

As noticed by Rob Landry, a small patch was required on Rivendell 1.7.2 sources to support the hpklinux (ticket #6).

Rivendell Loadable Modules plugins

RLM plugins (like Facebook or Twitter ones) are now included in rivendell packages (ticket 1). You can find them in RdAirPlay Now&Next section of RdAdmin.

Maverick support

Packages are now available for Ubuntu 10.10 Maverik.

Install

On Debian Tryphon repository, you will find packages :

rivendell, hpklinux and gpio (including modules built for standard kernels)
for debian stable, testing and unstable
for ubuntu karmic, lucid and maverick
on both i386 and am64

And instructions to modify your apt sources if needed.

Trac changes

Rivendell debian packages are now managed in Tryphon Projects : rivendell-debian. Tickets will help us to track feedback, requests and bugs around this packaging.

New build platform

We deployed the whole build process on our servers (buildbot, pbuilder and rake-debian-build framework). The 144 packages require … 6 hours to be built. But it’s now an industrial process which can be executed several times a day. It was a requirement for us before starting to package the v2 branch :

Rivendell 2 beta ?

We receive a lot of requests about Rivendell 2 packaging. We’ll try to start this new project over the next few weeks, a fresh packaging using latest debian tools. More information in this blog or on our Twitter & Identica accounts.

New StreamBox release

2010-11-20T00:00:00+01:00

This new release of the Tryphon StreamBox is named streambox-20101029-1716. It includes in all StreamBoxes delivered since the last week.

Here is the content of this release :

AAC et SHOUTcast

HE-AACv2 is now part of supported formats. The Tryphon StreamBox provides now the 4 major audio stream formats : Ogg/Vorbis, MP3, AAC et AAC+.

After several requests, the StreamBox streams can now be sent to SHOUTcast servers.

Tryphon still recommends you to use the Ogg/Vorbis format and Icecast servers, which are, both, free.

Other enhancements

You can now disable streams individually managed by the StreamBox. A disabled stream is no longer computed and nor sent to the configured server. But you can enable it again in a single click.

StreamBox now uses the “streambox” name in the DHCP negotiation. You can manage even more easily on your network, by using a dedicated entry in your local DNS (like streambox.maradio.priv). If you want to customize this name, vote for this suggestion.

Upgrade management

After a long test period, the Tryphon StreamBox provides an upgrade management via Internet, as other Tryphon Boxes :

The upgrade management provides :

new release detection,
release download (on your request)
release installation and box reboot (on your request)

For example, the latest StreamBox release requires a download of 162 MB, only few minutes on a correct DSL link.

To stay tune about StreamBox releases, subscribe to the RSS feed of this blog.

New steps

The new release of the Tryphon StreamBox is under construction. It should be available in December.

The requests are numerous, but are already selected :

Ability to update streams descriptions (such as currently playing song title) from (antenna management) software. This tiny and open RESTful http API will allow an easy StreamBox integration
Integration of an icecast2 daemon in the StreamBox, providing a control stream on the local network.

All the suggestions (and why not yours) are available on the UserVoice forum dedicated to StreamBox. You can contribute by giving suggestions in a few clicks.

Developer corner

Tryphon StreamBox is a Free project under GNU/GPL licence. You can download sources of StreamBox and other free Tryphon projects.

If you want to go a bit further discussing these projects, the french mailing list Radio & Logiciel libre welcomes you.

Please note that a post on our Developers Blog should give some details for those of you willing to test the StreamBox demo CD.

Rivendell wiki migration

2010-08-30T00:00:00+02:00

For many years, Rivendell users and developers maintain a “wiki”. This community website (rivendell.tryphon.org) provides a more and more complete documentation, with several hundred of pages now.

This site is hosted on Tryphon’s infrastructure. It evolves with this infrastructure. rivendell.tryphon.org is now hosted a more powerful server, powered by the latest release of the wiki engine MediaWiki (used by Wikipédia).

Another change with this migration, the page URLs are now shorter. They have been changed from /wiki/index.php/Main_Page to /wiki/Main_Page. The previous URLs are silently redirected.

The most faithful readers can follow the wiki changes with the RSS feed.

The Rivendell wiki is available in several languages : brasilian and french. Volonteers for the translations are welcome.

For more informations about this wiki, consult the Rivendell mailing-list. The Tryphon team is available for technical problems like spam or other administrative tasks.

Rivendell 1.7.1 packages for Debian and Ubuntu

2010-05-17T00:00:00+02:00

Fred Gleason released Rivendell 1.7.1 on wednesday, Debian and Ubuntu packages are now updated. Please follow the quick start guide for your first Rivendell installation.

Ubuntu packages are now available for the new Ubuntu Lucid/10.04. gpio, hpklinux and rivendell packages are available.

As usual, you can find on debian.tryphon.org :

Debian packages : for lenny, squeeze or unstable
Ubuntu packages : for hardy, karmic and lucid
both i386 and amd64 packages

Discover the PigeBox web interface

2010-02-10T00:00:00+01:00

The demo site of Pige, the management interface of our PigeBox is available for few days.

The goal is quite simple : let you discover the various features et tools provided by the PigeBox for your broadcast logging. With just a few clics you can extract 5 minutes, a given hour or a complete radio show.

This demo site allows us to study with our customer and all users the best solutions for their needs to log and extract their radio broadcasts. The site is updated with our latest software developments.

Your suggestions

The Tryphon PigeBox is based on Free Software, its management interface too. We want these projects to be opened and user oriented.

Your first contribution to Free Software could be a simple suggestion.

We thank people who have already found few minutes to share their feedback, questions (or cheers).

Like our other products, a user forum is dedicated to the PigeBox. You can share a suggestion in few seconds.

Chunks

As the PigeBox records continuously your broadcast, you just have to come and retrieve the needed chunks.

At any time, you can extract a complete radio show, a short chronicle or one of the guest’s answers to rebroadcast or upload it.

Our PigeBox is installed in your studio. It is 9:04 p.m and the guest of the 8 p.m show would like to go back home with an audio record ?

A click, select the right time et create the chunk :

Give your PigeBox a few seconds to extract the 600MB required by our request and :

You just have to download the file and copy it on a nice branded USB (with your radio station logo) before giving it to your guest.

Temporal labels

Thinks are not always so simple. How to find, for example, the beginning of a chronique or a guest’s intervention ? It always happens something on your station, but you need to find the “right moment”.

The PigeBox offers you a simple and innovative solution. It records the events of your broadcast. When a music or a jingle starts, when microphones are opened, a temporal label can be created. With their helps, you will be able to find the right extract in the twinkling of an eye :

These labels allow you to define the begin and the end of a chunck. In the context of our previous example :

You need to select a piece of a guest’s intervention. Fortunately, the events from your automation software and your mixer created automatic labels. The presenter (or the producer) created few manual labels during the show. You just jave to select the begin label :

Next, choose the end label and the chunk is now ready to be created :

After this small tour of the PigeBox interface, it’s time to test now.

The Tryphon PigeBox is a box ready to use, which records continuously a radio broadcast. This box is a computer, a secure stockage et a Free Software suite (including GNU/Linux and the interface Pige). For more information, visit our website.