Which command line only OS? For streaming audio

[zirconx]

Hi, I'm a newbie to SBC. I have a 512MB model, that I would like use to stream audio to the internet (darkice + caster.fm).  I've read the OS page in the wiki, the only OS there suitable for the 512MB board is Debian. Which has a gui (desktop environment), which I really don't want or need. 

I'm much more comfortable with Ubuntu (actually CentOS, and Ubuntu is closer to Cent than Debian is), but it says Ubuntu won't run on the 512MB boards.  I'm guessing that if ran Ubuntu, it would be slow and laggy, but then if I uninstalled the de it would be ok?  But there might be other things wrong then, like the audio would be setup for a de, not command line, it might make things a little harder.  It seems there is no "official" (recommended) command line OS?

I see lots of references to custom builds in the forums, like "get bob's Ubuntu core here..." but I don't feel great about that idea... I'd like something a little more mainstream. I found one that sounded like it would work ok, but the download link was a 404.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

[pfeerick]

For ubuntu, you want Longsleep's Xenial Ubuntu Image. All Pine64 images are based on Longsleeps work at the kernel level, but that is where the story usually ends. However, he also put together the minimal Ubuntu image, and it will work with  all three board variants (512MB/1GB/2GB).

Otherwise, have a look at the DietPi image for Pine64... here is the announcement for it on the forum. It is a heavily optimised debian jessie distro aimed at having the minimal possibly process and memory footprint, whilst having plenty of features and being easy to use.

[zirconx]

I tried dietpi but it looks like it doesn't support the onboard audio ("This option is not available for the Pine A64...").  Thinking I should have went with a raspberry pi now... The Pine64 is an amazing board but might not be the right one for me. This is the 3rd or 4th OS I've tried on the Pine64, haven't been able to get headphone audio out of any of them.

root@DietPi:/tmp# arecord test.wav
arecord: main:722: audio open error: No such file or directory
root@DietPi:/tmp# cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [sndhdmi        ]: sndhdmi - sndhdmi
                      sndhdmi
root@DietPi:/tmp#

I also tried the "Longsleep's Xenial Ubuntu Image" you mentioned, but I don't think the HDMI works for me. I get output for a while, then it goes back and never comes back.

[zirconx]

Update - I went back to Debian and followed these instructions for getting the onboard audio to be recognized: http://forum.pine64.org/archive/index.ph...-1228.html

Now I am able to get audio through my headphones if I specify the device:
aplay -D plughw:CARD=audiocodec,DEV=0 /usr/share/sounds/speech-dispatcher/test.wav

Now I'm working on being able to use arecord to record using the mic in my headset. So far I get an error every time I run arecord and give it one of my devices.

[pfeerick]

Update - I went back to Debian and followed these instructions for getting the onboard audio to be recognized: http://forum.pine64.org/archive/index.ph...-1228.html

Now I am able to get audio through my headphones if I specify the device:
aplay -D plughw:CARD=audiocodec,DEV=0 /usr/share/sounds/speech-dispatcher/test.wav

lol.. beat me to it... I was about to point you to that thread, as I did the same to make it work on DietPi (it's just some of the DietPi menus don't work with the pine64 yet). If you want the analog audio (headphones jack) to be the default, try editing /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf and changing

defaults.ctl.card 0
defaults.pcm.card 0

to

defaults.ctl.card 1
defaults.pcm.card 1

(where sndhmdi is 0 and audiocodec is 1 when you run aplay list)

Now I'm working on being able to use arecord to record using the mic in my headset. So far I get an error every time I run arecord and give it one of my devices.

Afraid I can't help you with that one... I haven't had any need to record anything with the Pine64, so haven't played with the record side of things.

[zirconx]

I can't get this to work  

New plan - I bought a USB SDR stick, I will use that and get audio directly from it (via rtl_fm etc), rather than use an external radio and a cable inputting into the pine64.