[SunRescue] MP3 on SPARCstation LX (Findings)

[Mike Hebel]

>>First off the reason I wanted to use an LX was because of size and the
16bit
>>audio. My plan was to build a SPARC Solaris MP3Car and I don't want to put
>>my Ultra 10 in my trunk!  When I tried to play MP3s on an IPX under
Solaris
>>I found that apparently mpg123 didn't support 8-bit sound.  This may or
may
>>not be true so don't flame me.

Actually mp123 supports 8-bit with the --8bit switch. ;-)  Of course on the
IPX you also have to use a whole host of other switches as well.

>>I bought an LX with 32MB RAM, and a sound box.  When I tried Solaris 7 the
>>mpg123 output was very choppy.   I tried to kill all the unneeded daemons.
>>When that didn't help, I tried Solaris 2.6 & 2.5.1.   I decided I needed
an
>>OS that required less memory.  I now believe that more memory might allow
>>using Solaris, which is my OS preference.  (Does anyone have cheap memory
>>for an LX for sale?)

IIRC I posted this earlier.  Hmm... did you try:
mpg123 -4 -r 8000 -m --8bit --aggressive -a /dev/audio my_mp3_file.mp3

This allowed my IPX under NetBSD to play properly.  Just out of curiosity
I'll try it on my Classic here at work and see if it flies.  (Not a "proper"
comparison to the LX because of 8-bit sound but it should be close under 7
or even 2.6.)

>>According to the BSD hardware compatibility lists, Sun4M sound is not
>>supported on the LX. I never tested this though.

I'm getting two from an on-line auction so I'll be trying this <I>real</I>
soon.

>>That brought me to Linux...since a co-worker had made a CD from an ISO of
>>SPARC RedHat 6.1, I decided to try it and see if it would work.  (Also
there
>>are some cool LCD & keypad source code available for Linux.)  When I tried
>>RH, I initially found the sound output to be unsatisfactory, but not
choppy.
>>I booted in init 2 starting only the S??network and S99linuxconf.  I
played
>>with mpg123 and found that the sound is fine if I use the -m switch which
>>combines both channels. (Mono)

Whenever I've used RH on an older Sparc box it took _forever_ to boot and
the goddess help you if you shut the system down incorrectly.  The fsck time
was murder on anything above a 450meg drive.  Debian was better but sound
was broken until recently.  Maybe I'll try Debian again.  It had a fast load
and it might support LX sound properly.

>>Maybe more memory would fix that.  (Does
>>anyone have cheap memory for an LX for sale?)

No personal knowledge but www.memoryx.com has been bandied about here. Their
site says $72 for 32meg of non-bar-coded.
(http://www.memoryx.net/classiclclx.html)
Almost any good parity 72-pin SIMMs should work as long as they are in
pairs.

(Anybody know any truth to the rumor that you can install two 32meg SIMMS in
the first bank to make 128meg when the system is full or is that just a
myth?)

>>I might try more memory and/or the -m switch under Solaris soon. (Hey the
>>neat Linux source code should port, right?)

My IPX has 64meg of RAM so maybe that's why mine works ok.  I did try and
use the buffer settings but maybe I just don't know how to use them
correctly because I couldn't get any output while using them.

>>So, if you want MP3s on your LX, I currently suggest at least 32MB, and RH
>>6.1 with no extra services using the -m switch for mpg123.

32meg is probably minimum but I'm pretty sure that RH is not necessary.  I
know NetBSD works better for Sun4c and this project.  It's faster and seems
to work out-of-the-box so to speak.  As for the extra services I'm also
using that box as my bnet (battlenet) server for the home LAN although I was
not playing a game on it when I was playing MP3s.  I'll have to try it just
to see what happens.

The -m switch is definitely necessary as the 8-bit IPX can't provide the
true stereo output.  It's the only way I could get any proper sound out of
the box.

>>If I ever get it playing MP3s under Solaris, I'll let y'all know.

Same here.  It would be cool to use some of the extra space on the server
here for MP3s. (Hmmm...am 'tinking am needink room for musika. ;-)

>>Does anyone have cheap memory for an LX for sale? ;-)

I'm sure someone has some around here.  Just not me.

I should have the LX boxen by next week some time so I'll let you all know
how it goes.  I too would like a SPARC .mp3 player in my car. *GRIN*

Mike Hebel