Headless help - not playing on Pi4

Plex Labs
1

on my third install attempt, I’m close to getting a virgin install working on a pi4. However, when I go to play something, it fails.

Looking through logs, I’m seeing this:

Dec 26, 2022 12:24:24.970 [0x8a13d140] INFO - Media: Found an item to direct play with bitrate under 0 (it was 909 kbps).
Dec 26, 2022 12:24:24.970 [0x8a13d140] DEBUG - Mixer: Initializing audio pipeline with sample rate: 44100 channels:2 soft: 0.
Dec 26, 2022 12:24:25.115 [0x8a13d140] ERROR - BASS: Error initializing device -1 with sample rate 44100 and flags 00000000 (3).
Dec 26, 2022 12:24:25.118 [0x8a13d140] DEBUG - BASS: Creating a mixer with sample rate 44100 and 2 channels (decode: 0).
Dec 26, 2022 12:24:25.122 [0x8a13d140] ERROR - BASS: Error [m_mixer = BASS_Mixer_StreamCreate((DWORD)sampleRate, (DWORD)channels, flags)] - 8
Dec 26, 2022 12:24:25.124 [0x8a13d140] ERROR - BASS: Error [BASS_ChannelGetInfo(mixer, &info)] - 5
Dec 26, 2022 12:24:25.124 [0x8a13d140] ERROR - BASS: Error [m_stream = BASS_StreamCreate(info.freq, info.chans, BASS_SAMPLE_FLOAT | BASS_STREAM_DECODE, StreamProc, this)] - 8
Dec 26, 2022 12:24:25.124 [0x8a13d140] ERROR - BASS: Error [BASS_Pause()] - 8
Dec 26, 2022 12:24:25.132 [0x8a13d140] DEBUG - BASS: Resetting device (soft: 0, initialized: 1).
Dec 26, 2022 12:24:25.132 [0x8a13d140] WARNING - BASS: Couldn't start, so we're not doing a soft configure.
Dec 26, 2022 12:24:25.132 [0x8a13d140] DEBUG - BASS: Suspending device (sample rate: 44100, num channels: 2, soft: 0, decode only: 0, force: 0)
Dec 26, 2022 12:24:25.132 [0x8a13d140] DEBUG - BASS: Changing mixer from 0/0 to 44100/2.
Dec 26, 2022 12:24:25.132 [0x8a13d140] DEBUG - BASS: Suspending -1 currently active channels.
Dec 26, 2022 12:24:25.132 [0x8a13d140] ERROR - BASS: Error fetching mixer channels - 5
Dec 26, 2022 12:24:25.132 [0x8a13d140] DEBUG - BASS: Tearing down audio stack.

some googling indicates that this error might have something to do with the audio interface.

While I’m testing with a out of the box pi4 attached to a touchscreen monitor, I’ll eventually want to hook things up to my Digi+ hat. For now I want to test everything with the built-in headphone jack.

Anyone have thoughts on how I can get past this error? Thanks! Happy boxing day!

2

What audio device do you have selected under Settings → Playback → Audio Output → Audio Device, and through which physical interface on your Pi are connected to your speakers?

3

sounds like you might be running a desktop/gui (since you have a monitor attached) … in which case pulseaudio is probably running and can be difficult to bypass

setting up plexamp as a user service (not a system service) and then choosing the default (pulseaudio) output should work (I recall @Ryuzaki_2 posted info on how to run plexamp headless on a Pi running a desktop) … or, stopping the pulseaudio service and socket might also work if you want to use alsa directly

4

oddly, nothing was selected—the screen before making the selection indicated that it followed system preferences. I selected “Jack” and returned to see if that fixed anything, and it doesn’t appear to.

I also selected Pulse to see if I routed it that way, it would fix anything. It didn’t.

What’s weird is that the UI shows the track loading and then it fails out to the prior screen after loading artwork and looking like it’s going to start playing.

5

Thanks for the reply. I have a pi3 running perfectly upstairs — headless plexamp client installed behind desktop/gui and haven’t run into this issue. However, I installed that the same day the headless option was released and have been upgrading since then. This is my first install with the current settings (node 16.19.0, latest binary from plexamp.com) and am having a heck of a time establishing what’s different. (except everything, probably).

6

If you have your speakers connected to the 3.5mm jack, select the “bcm…” device. I’d also recommend restarting Plexamp and disconnecting/reconnecting the player as well. There’s an odd dance which needs to be done at times when changing audio outputs.

7

thanks… Unfortunately I’m not seeing a “BCM…” option.

I see:

  • default
  • JACK Audio Connection Kit
  • Open Sound System
  • Plugin for channel down mix (stereo)…
  • Plugin for channel up mix (4,6,8)
  • PulseAudio Sound Server
  • Rate converter plugin using Libav/FFmpeg Library
  • Rate converter plugin using Samplerate
  • Rate converter plugin using speex

Using a plugin makes it fail out of play mode more slowly.

8

Huh. That’s strange. I’ve not run into that. This is what my selection of devices looks like on a Pi4b running 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS:

image

What OS are you running?

9

I used the latest (9/22) 64 bit raspbian install from the pi website and burned it to a card with balenaEtcher.

From your list, I’m also missing the vc4 options. Everything else is there.

I ran an apt update/upgrade today, so that’s not the issue.

10

In further digging, it would appear that my pi isn’t registering anything as an audio device. Running aplay -l gives me:

aplay: device_list:274: no soundcards found…

Is that normal?

(yes, dtparam=audio=on is set properly in boot config)

11

This was solved by removing libfuse2.

Or by coincidence when I removed it and rebooted I got audio options just like everyone else. Thank you all for your help!

1 Like
12

Glad you got it working!

1 Like
13

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