[pulseaudio-discuss] module-raop-sink problem (and kindly asking for help)

[Tanu Kaskinen]

On Sun, 2017-01-01 at 19:30 +0100, Linux User #330250 wrote:
> Hello!
> 
> 
> I have an Apple Airport Express (1st version) and wanted to finally use 
> its RAOP function in Linux. But I have a couple of problems with it and 
> don't know how to get past them... so I thought, I'll ask for help.
> 
> 
> Help!
> 
> 
> My setup:
> 
> 1. The Airport Express in the LAN (local, RJ45) and has a static IP 
> 192.168.1.21.
> 
> 2. The PC has another static IP 192.168.1.47, it runs Debian testing amd64.
> 
> 3. The router is running pfSense (current Community Edition), provides a 
> DHCP server and is configured with static IP addresses for known devices 
> (a list that I manage manually). All of them are also reachable by local 
> DNS names, i.e. "airport" is the same as 192.168.1.21.
> 
> 
> So, I installed pulseaudio-module-raop on Debian (apt install). I 
> followed https://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/PulseAudio/AirTunes/ and also 
> installed paprefs.
> 
> Using paprefs, I checked "Make discoverable Apple AirTunes sound devices 
> available locally". After a reboot I see TWO devices with the DNS name 
> of my AirPort Express WLAN router. But none worked.
> 
> 
> I checked pactl list modules and found that their IP addresses are 
> completely wrong: 169.254.145.142:5000. So I tried to load the modules 
> manually. I removed the wrong ones with "pactl unload-module ##" (the 
> modules number from the list) and reloaded the module:
> 
> pactl load-module module-raop-sink server=airport sink_name=raop.AirPort
> 
> (server=192.168.1.21 works just the same)
> 
> That worked.
> 
>  > Modul #35
>  >         Name: module-raop-sink
>  >         Argument: server=airport sink_name=raop.AirPort
>  >         Usage counter: 1
>  >         Properties:
>  >                 module.author = "Colin Guthrie"
>  >                 module.description = "RAOP Sink"
>  >                 module.version = "9.0"
> 
> What did not work was to add option 
> sink_properties='device.description="AirPort Express"' -- the module 
> always failed to load that way. I am also not able to change its name 
> later, using:
> 
> pacmd update-sink-proplist raop.AirPort device.description="AirPort Express"
> 
> only writes "Failed to parse proplist." I also tried module.description, 
> which also failed.

The failure is probably because of quoting issues. I'm not sure what
was wrong when you tried to add the sink_properties argument when
loading the module, but the update-sink-proplist command will
definitely fail, because the quotes around "AirPort Express" will be
removed by the shell, so pulseaudio will see this:

    device.description=AirPort Express

"Express" gets interpreted as a property name, and parsing fails
because it's not followed by '='.

> Anyway, I can now see the "sink" as an output choice in pacucontrol and 
> I can make an application use this output for sound.
> 
> This is partly success -- finally I got the module loaded correctly!
> 
> 
> Only, the sound doesn't work. I get parts of the sound every 2-4 seconds 
> or so, inbetween is silence. The sound piece that comes through is about 
> 1/3rd of a second long (or less).
> 
> 
> I see the same effect both on the output device itself (I hear the sound 
> as mentioned: only pieces of it now and then) as well as I see the 
> levels likewise in pavocontrol on this output sink. So I assume that the 
> problem is in the module, or in the configuration of it or in pulseaudio 
> configuration.
> 
> 
> My questions:
> 
> 1. What should I try or what have I done wrong in the first place?
> 
> 2. Is there a way to get steady sound output to the RAOP device and how 
> do I configure this?

I don't have answers to these questions.

> 3. Is there a way to set the sink statically (without 
> module-raop-discover which gets the wrong IP addresses and creates two 
> devices with it) and to automatically set this up with the start of 
> pulseaudio?

You can add modules to /etc/pulse/default.pa.

-- 
Tanu

https://www.patreon.com/tanuk