Category Archives: unix

A PulseAudio primer, and setting up an equalizer

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Once again, some notes for my own personal reference, which may help others as well. And if something is wrong, let me know.

Written only from the user’s perspective.

What is it?

Quoting from the description:

PulseAudio is a sound system for POSIX OSes, meaning that it is a proxy for your sound applications. It allows you to do advanced operations on your sound data as it passes between your application and your hardware. Things like transferring the audio to a different machine, changing the sample format or channel count and mixing several sounds into one are easily achieved using a sound server.

PulseAudio is designed for Linux systems. It has also been ported to and tested on Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, MacOS X, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

PulseAudio is an integral part of all relevant modern Linux distributions and used in various mobile devices by multiple vendors.

It’s running as a daemon. My understanding is that it runs in userspace.

Main concepts

PulseAudio is an audio graph. It uses a variety of modules to expose sinks and sources. Sinks and sources seem to be what Apple’s Core Audio, another audio graphing system, would all be “audio units”, where there could be some inputs, and some outputs. Here, sinks seem to be intended as playback devices, and input devices such as microphones are sources.

Clients can create sink inputs.

Main tools

As a user, main CLI tools used to interact will be pactl and pacmd. I’m fine with pactl, but pacmd seems to expose more options.

To view all objects known to PulseAudio, use pactl list.

Module #0
        Name: module-device-restore
        Argument: 
        Usage counter: n/a
        Properties:
                module.author = "Lennart Poettering"
                module.description = "Automatically restore the volume/mute state of devices"
                module.version = "4.0"

Module #1
        Name: module-stream-restore
        Argument: 
        Usage counter: n/a
        Properties:
                module.author = "Lennart Poettering"
                module.description = "Automatically restore the volume/mute/device state of streams"
                module.version = "4.0"

....


Module #21
        Name: module-filter-apply
        Argument: 
        Usage counter: n/a
        Properties:
                module.author = "Colin Guthrie"
                module.description = "Load filter sinks automatically when needed"
                module.version = "4.0"

Sink #0
        State: SUSPENDED
        Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_05_00.1.hdmi-stereo
        Description: GF108 High Definition Audio Controller Digital Stereo (HDMI)
        Driver: module-alsa-card.c
        Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
        Channel Map: front-left,front-right
        Owner Module: 5
        Mute: no
        Volume: 0:  84% 1:  84%
                0: -4.39 dB 1: -4.39 dB
                balance 0.00
        Base Volume: 100%
                     0.00 dB
        Monitor Source: alsa_output.pci-0000_05_00.1.hdmi-stereo.monitor
        Latency: 0 usec, configured 0 usec
        Flags: HARDWARE DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY SET_FORMATS 
        Properties:
                alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
                device.api = "alsa"
...
                device.vendor.id = "10de"
                device.vendor.name = "NVIDIA Corporation"
                device.product.id = "0bea"
                device.product.name = "GF108 High Definition Audio Controller"
                device.string = "hdmi:2"
                device.buffering.buffer_size = "65536"
                device.buffering.fragment_size = "32768"
                device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
                device.profile.name = "hdmi-stereo"
                device.profile.description = "Digital Stereo (HDMI)"
                device.description = "GF108 High Definition Audio Controller Digital Stereo (HDMI)"
                alsa.mixer_name = "Nvidia GPU 14 HDMI/DP"
                alsa.components = "HDA:10de0014,10de0101,00100100"
                module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
                device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
        Ports:
                hdmi-output-0: HDMI / DisplayPort (priority: 5900, not available)
        Active Port: hdmi-output-0
        Formats:
                pcm

Sink #1
        State: SUSPENDED
        Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
        Description: Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
...
Source #2
        State: SUSPENDED
        Name: alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
        Description: Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
        Driver: module-alsa-card.c
        Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
        Channel Map: front-left,front-right
...

Client #5
        Driver: protocol-native.c
        Owner Module: 11
        Properties:
                application.name = "GNOME Volume Control Media Keys"
                native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
                native-protocol.version = "28"
                application.id = "org.gnome.VolumeControl"
                application.icon_name = "multimedia-volume-control"
                application.version = "1.0"
                application.process.id = "30127"
                application.process.user = "ivucica"
                application.process.host = "MYHOSTNAME"
                application.process.binary = "unity-settings-daemon"
                application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
                window.x11.display = ":0"
                application.process.machine_id = "MYMACHINEID"
                application.process.session_id = "c14"

...
Card #1
        Name: alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1b.0
        Driver: module-alsa-card.c
        Owner Module: 6
        Properties:
                alsa.card = "0"
                alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
                alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0xef340000 irq 86"
                alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
...

Sink Input #0
        Driver: protocol-native.c
        Owner Module: 11
        Client: 7
        Sink: 1
        Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
        Channel Map: front-left,front-right
        Format: pcm, format.sample_format = "\"s16le\""  format.rate = "44100"  format.channels = "2"  format.channel_map = "\"front-left,front-right\""
        Corked: no
        Mute: no
        Volume: 0: 100% 1: 100%
                0: 0.00 dB 1: 0.00 dB
                balance 0.00
        Buffer Latency: 60408 usec
        Sink Latency: 21966 usec
        Resample method: n/a
        Properties:
                application.icon_name = "google-chrome"
                media.name = "Playback"
                application.name = "Chrome"
                native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
                native-protocol.version = "28"
                application.process.id = "13436"
                application.process.user = "ivucica"
                application.process.host = "MYHOSTNAME"
                application.process.binary = "chrome (deleted)"
                application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
                window.x11.display = ":0"
                application.process.machine_id = "MYMACHINEID"
                application.process.session_id = "c14"
                module-stream-restore.id = "sink-input-by-application-name:Chrome"

Using pactl list short, the output will be more ambiguous. Let’s filter it to show only sink-inputs using pactl list short sink-inputs.

0   1   7   protocol-native.c   s16le 2ch 44100Hz

Changing default output

When an app starts playing an audio stream, it gets sent to the default sink. Let’s change it to go from the current output to ‘hdmi-stereo’.

$ pactl list short sinks
0   alsa_output.pci-0000_05_00.1.hdmi-stereo    module-alsa-card.c  s16le 2ch 44100Hz   SUSPENDED
1   alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo  module-alsa-card.c  s16le 2ch 44100Hz   RUNNING
$ pactl set-default-sink 0

Moving existing sink inputs to another sink

If an application is already playing audio, it will not switch over to the new sink.

$ pactl list short sink-inputs
0   1   7   protocol-native.c   s16le 2ch 44100Hz
// move sink input 0 to sink 1:
$ pactl move-sink-input 0 1
// alternatively:
$ pactl move-sink-input 0 alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo

GUI for the above operations

One of the more lightweight GUI solutions seems to be pavucontrol.

Setting up equalizer

The modules may not be loaded. (Optionally verify with pactl list modules.)

$ pactl load module-equalizer-sink
$ pactl load module-dbus-protocol

This creates a new sink.

Upstream documentation claims the equalizer should already set itself as the default. Existing sink inputs definitely didn’t move over to the new sink. I’m using Ubuntu 14.04; YMMV.

None of the arguments mentioned by upstream docs (sink_name=equalized master=alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-surround-51 set_default=true) worked for me. I would suspect they are simply post-trusty additions.

Instead, here’s my manual steps. (This could be more automated simply by using variables. Still, given that these are semi-educational notes, I’m opting for showing how to interpret outputs.)

// Find the ID of the first equalizer sink.
// If you suspect you may have more, skip everything after 'grep equalizer' and manually handle.
$ pactl list short sinks | grep equalizer | head -n1 | awk '{print $1;}'
4
$ pactl set-default-sink 4
$ pactl list short sink-input | awk '{print $1;}'
2
6
7
$ pactl move-sink-input 2 4
$ pactl move-sink-input 6 4
$ pactl move-sink-input 7 4

Adjusting equalizer settings using qpaeq

Qt PulseAudio Equalizer or qpaeq is available from PulseAudio source tree. For example, take it from a mirror on GitHub, make it executable and run it. (Before running it, of course, read through this code you’re grabbing from a random website on the Internet.)

$ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/master/src/utils/qpaeq
$ chmod 755 qpaeq
$ ./qpaeq

Dealing with issues

If something doesn’t go right, kill the PulseAudio daemon pulseaudio -k. Your desktop environment is probably going to restart it by itself. Otherwise, something like nohup pulseaudio & should probably help. Then, reload the modules.

Upstream docs also say you may want to disable tsched, for example in /etc/default/pulse.pa:

### Automatically load driver modules depending on the hardware available
.ifexists module-udev-detect.so
load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0
.else
### Alternatively use the static hardware detection module (for systems that
### lack udev support)
load-module module-detect tsched=0
.endif

I’m thinking, that may be also the right place for loading the equalizer and dbus module. Although, ~/.config/pulse/default.pa may be an even saner one. Not sure yet.

Good luck!

Ubiquiti's mPower ships with ancient Dropbear 0.51 and no forced command support

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Bane of all hardware products — software updates.

The exciting mPower and mPower PRO power strips that I am otherwise happy with are, even in the latest firmware version, sadly shipping with an ancient version of Dropbear. This means no command restriction in authorized_keys file.

sigh

In hopes that their firmware release engineering processes are such that swapping one Dropbear version for another will not take too much effort, I’ve opted to file a support request, upon which I was directed to post a request on the forums.

Sadly, I don’t think I could even work around this with multiuser support and putting together a .profile, given that this device is not really built for multiuser use. (That is, it seems to have one user, root, which may or may not be renamed. For example, in /etc/passwd, uid 0 on my devices is called ivucica.)

If they do, hopefully they opt for the latest release, as apparently 0.52 and later had security vulnerabilities exactly with command= restriction.

Gajim causing kernel lockup on startup

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Specifically, Gajim’s use of python-crypto (or something similar) has been causing the kernel to lock up for me, months ago. 100% repro rate: I would launch Gajim, and kernel would lock up on the relevant core even before Gajim showed the first window.

Trying to pinpoint it using strace, it was actually an attempt to read /proc/brcm_monitor0. I have no idea why it would try to read it, but once it did, kernel would lock up on one CPU core (seen by examining dmesg), and slowly other CPU cores would follow.

Given that I don’t actually need the Broadcom wireless card on my desktop machine (at least ever since I wired up my room), I’ve just blacklisted the wl module:

$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-IVUCICA.conf
blacklist wl

Ubiquiti mPower PRO (EU): First steps after unpacking

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I’ve been happy enough with my mid-range mPower (EU edition) that I bought an mPower PRO (again, EU edition). I finally got around to unpacking it and setting it up.

mPower mini, mPower and mPower PRO are Ubiquiti Networks’ IP power outlet product. They run Linux on them. There’s web UI, and it’s also easy to SSH into the device out of the box (username is ubnt and password is ubnt). This makes the device easy to script for: all power use statistics and remote control are exposed as files in /proc/power. An app for Android exists as well.

I purchased the mPower PRO simply because I needed a few more plugs to control. Difference between mPower and mPower PRO is that the latter has six instead of three plugs, and it has both WiFi and an ethernet port (all smaller models have just WiFi).

Since my previous post) was originally written in August 2014, I discovered that a newer firmware has a nicer web UI, and changing the default username and password is not really a problem anymore either. So I ended up flashing the device, then factory-resetting it. Given how nicer web UI is important to me, this means this will be the first step with my today’s setup of mPower’s “bigger brother”.

Unboxing and connecting

The box contains the device, a wall-mount and a small manual. I’m interested in just the device, of course.

First difference is that mPower PRO will not bring up a wireless network you use to set it up. Instead, you must connect it via the ethernet port. This is fine; I’m happy that I lucked out and had an extra ethernet cable lying around.

mPower PRO picked up an IP address over DHCP immediately. To find out what to punch into the browser, I just looked at my router’s DHCP leases and saw what device is outside the statically-assigned range (I hand out IP addresses based on known devices’ MAC addresses). I then added the new MAC address to the list of known ones, and assigned a new static IP to it. (By the time I am writing these lines, the original lease expired and the device already has the new IP address.)

Upgrading firmware

This mPower PRO shipped with v1.2.6 firmware, which means I have to use the manual upgrade method. So I’ve downloaded the 2.11.1 firmware and:

scp firmware.bin ubnt@198.51.100.84:/tmp/fwupdate.bin  # RFC-5737 example IP range \o/
ssh ubnt@198.51.100.84 -t /sbin/syswrapper.sh upgrade2

Password is, as previously mentioned, ubnt. This will take a while. Don’t unplug the device while it’s being flashed. After a few minutes you’ll probably get something like Write failed: Broken pipe. This is fine.

In future, you can use web UI to flash an upgraded firmware.

Logging in and changing password

If your device is at 198.51.100.84, then just visit http://198.51.100.84/ and log in with username ubnt and password ubnt. You probably don’t want others to be able to log in with the same credentials, so change them as soon as feasible.

On the System tab, next to the field ‘Administrator Username’ and its value ubnt, there should be a small icon of a key. Click on it. Then, change the administrator username, enter the old password ubnt, then enter the new password twice. Then click the ‘Change’ button which is above the ‘Management’ section and below the ‘NTP’ section. You’ll get asked whether to apply the changes. Do apply them.

Hooray! mPower PRO is sufficiently ready for basic use. At some point I’ll go ahead and assign port names which doesn’t seem to be doable through web UI.

mFI mPower basic use without cloud and controller

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Updated 29 December 2014: With the latest software (currently 2.1.4) there is actually a decent, password-protected standalone web UI. I’d recommend you to factory reset the device, set it up from scratch, and set a new username and password from the web UI. You’ll still be able to log in over SSH and telnet, and while I no longer need to access the device directly, I’m sure most of the article below applies.

To upgrade from 1.x series software, which is what I had, you should use scp to upload the new firmware to /tmp/fwupdate.bin. To upgrade from 2.x series software, which has the nicer web UI, just use the web UI. Details.

Just to note: Of course, while I don’t need to use connectivity over terminal, this seems to be used by software such as this nice Android app. The app seems thirdparty (despite the ID being set to com.ubnt.mpower), so it would have been harder to put together if there was no terminal access. Heck, I can even envision management software using not much more than sshfs and ssh to manage a fleet of mPowers (if you happen to need and have such a fleet)…

Original text follows.

After getting the mFI mPower unit, I saw that it really wasn’t planned for standalone use. I was also surprised at seeing no ethernet port; I’m not sure why I thought it’s going to have one.

This is a wifi IP power strip that seems to be designed neither fully for a consumer (why would a consumer need a IP power strip?) nor for an expert. After plugging it in and waiting for it to boot, you’re greeted with a new completely unprotected wifi network. After connecting to it, you’re hijacked in the same way captive portals technologies work. It seems pretty painless to configure a device to connect to a wifi network, and then either to cloud or to a local controller — a chunk of proprietary software that, based on the quick guide booklet, seems to be written in Java. Booklet mentions versions for Windows and OS X, but the website offers download for Linux as well.

I’m however uninterested in having a home machine run 24/7 and waste electricity just to occasionally control a power strip. I opted for the (for obvious reasons less secure) variant of going into the cloud. Unfortunately, the built-in web UI doesn’t give you an option to register nor a hint on doing so. Quick guide does mention the website, which reveals a login panel but no registration.

At least I could configure wifi connectivity without either controller software or cloud — but that seems to be all.

That’s because in October 2013 the service was shut down for new registrations, with promises of coming back. Seeing that was 10 months ago, I began to think I may have purchased a brick.

Luckily, apart from what’s served to the customer on the surface, the device seems to be rather open. I’m unfamiliar with how free and open source it is, but it seems to be built out of relatively understandable components. BusyBox is there, the usual UNIX-like directory structure is there. I also spotted dropbear, which means aside from a telnet daemon, it’s also providing an SSH service.

Default username and password set is ubnt/ubnt. Ouch. First obstacle: How do we change that?

We can use vi to edit /tmp/system.cfg. There it is! Username and password. But wait — what kind of a password hash is that?

Turns out it’s the output of crypt(3). This gets used to generate /etc/passwd.

PHP has the crypt() function as well. PHP’s numerous flaws are irrelevant for such simple use case, so we’ll be forgiven for using:

php <<< '< ?php echo crypt("my_password", "SL");'

where “SL” is the salt. (In the stock password, it was “KQ”.)

You can add new users as well (although I’d highly advise changing at least the password of the default user), like so:

users.1.name=ubnt
users.1.password=KQiBBQ7dx8sx2
users.1.status=enabled
users.2.name=ivucica
users.2.password=AEPbWtbh7XaS.   
users.2.status=enabled

That’s really nice and flexible. But they could have either documented all this (and in an obvious place), or created a web UI (of course, while letting us deal directly through telnet and ssh, too).

To save these settings, punch in save. (Alternative command seems to be cfgmtd -f /tmp/system.cfg -w.) To give the system a chance to apply the settings, reboot.

While at it, you may want to disable the default unprotected wifi network, which for me was numbered 2:

wireless.2.status=disabled

What I also like in this device is that it seems to have the Linux-friendly Atheros chipset in it.

So next. How do we actually read stats or switch an outlet on or off?

cd /proc/power
# enable outlets we want to read stats from or that we want to control
for i in $(seq 1 3) ; do
  echo 1 > enabled${i}
done
# get current power usage
for i in $(seq 1 3) ; do
  echo "active_pwr$i: ${i}"
done
# turn off and on a slot
echo 0 > relay1
sleep 1
echo 1 > relay1

Other functionality is demonstrated and explained by forum member Sequim.

  • active_pwr – power factor corrected power demand
  • v_rms – RMS voltage – zero if outlet is off
  • i_rms – RMS current, as currently delivered
  • pf – power factor
  • energy_sum – totalized energy in Watt-hours delivered via this outlet, probably since last boot

And the /proc/led directory contains some nice controls for the LED.

Really lovely design. It’d have been even nicer if it had been properly documented and if it had a proper web UI shipped in case you don’t feel like dealing with all the power that these controls exposed as a filesystem provide.