moOde Network Name aberration

[Wheel_nut]

I have three moOde players on my network. moode1 has the USB Library attached and moode2 and moode3 access the moode1 library over the network.

At some point since installing moOde 8.3.2, there has been a change to the way the moOde player network name appears to other devices on the network.

The moode1 player appears as moode11

The moode2 player appears as moode22

The moode3 player appears as moode33

I have tried renaming the moode1 playerto moode0 but it then appears as moode01  

All of my players are running on RPi 3Bs and were reloaded with 8.3.2 using the configurator on the RPi installer.

- Robin

[Tim Curtis]

Did you configure the host name using the Pi Imager?

That prolly won't work because moOde is not currently importing that during startup. I'll add to the TODO list to investigate whether it makes sense to import host name for upcoming 8.3.3 release. If not then I'll update the Setup Guide to note that hostname should not be set in the Imager.

To fix things up on your systems you will prolly need to do the following.

1. Edit the files: /etc/hostname and /etc/hosts and update to the correct host names for those systems.
2. Update the configuration table on each system to match the respective host name.

Code:

# Update host name setting
moodeutl -q "update cfg_system set value='NEW_HOST_NAME' where param='hostname'"

# View setting
moodeutl -q "select value from cfg_system where param='hostname'"

3. Reboot

[Wheel_nut]

Did you configure the host name using the Pi Imager?

Hi Tim and thank you for your prompt response.
Yes I did set the hostname in the RPi Imager but also then set it in the Configure/ System panel and rebooted which seems to have given me the problem.
The easiest way for me to fix it is to re-Image the uSD Card, leaving the hostname as default and then set it in the Configure/ System Panel.
I will do that now (that the Coronation Concert is finished) and report back soon
- Robin

[Wheel_nut]

Hi again Tim,

I re-Imaged the uSD Card, leaving the hostname as the default (moode) and then changed the hostname to moode1 in the Configure/ System panel and it now appears on the network as moode1.

It may help with your diagnosis that the RPi Imager does seem to be adding the suffix 1 to the hostname though it doesn't show up in the Configure/ System panel. Thus, when I added the 1 suffix in the Configure/ System Panel. it ends up with moode11 showing up on the network. Dare I say that this is a bug in the RPi Installer

- Robin

[Tim Curtis]

Hi again Tim,

I re-Imaged the uSD Card, leaving the hostname as the default (moode) and then changed the hostname to moode1 in the Configure/ System panel and it now appears on the network as moode1.

It may help with your diagnosis that the RPi Imager does seem to be adding the suffix 1 to the hostname though it doesn't show up in the Configure/ System panel. Thus, when I added the 1 suffix in the Configure/ System Panel. it ends up with moode11 showing up on the network. Dare I say that this is a bug in the RPi Installer

- Robin

Glad that changing in System Config works as designed :-)

When the imager changes the host name, moOde startup does not pick up the change like it does for the other Pi imager settings.

I could certainly mod the startup so that a new host name is imported but then there is the matter of updating the renderer service names. For example if new host name is "Tim" then you would prolly want the Airplay, Spotify  etc service names to default to "Tim Airplay", "Tim Spotify" and so on.

[Wheel_nut]

My preference would be to only have the RPi Imager set the WiFi SSID, Passphrase and Username/ Password and leave all of the other settings to be configured after startup.

I say this because the Country,Timezone and Keyboard settings im the Imager don't work for me (Windows Imager) and I would check them and set them myself after initial startup anyway. I am assuming that the Imager Settings panel is implemented by RPi and therefor not under your direct control.

Thank you again for guiding me through the fix. - Robin

[TheOldPresbyope]

@Wheel_nut

I wasn’t aware this hostname kerfuffle could happen until you posted but I can repro.

The thing is, I have always taken advantage of Tim’s nice /boot/moodecfg.ini feature to provision my multiple players. Have you looked at it?

I can easily edit the file with editor or script to customize the hostname, player name, and renderer names in (my own) consistent way. Actually, I start with a semi-customized file on hand that already has the timezone and networking paarameters set.  ‘Course I have to check with each release that the structure and content of the moodecfg.ini.default file hasn’t changed. 

Regards,
Kent

[Wheel_nut]

@Wheel_nut

I wasn’t aware this hostname kerfuffle could happen until you posted but I can repro.

The thing is, I have always taken advantage of Tim’s nice /boot/moodecfg.ini feature to provision my multiple players. Have you looked at it?

I can easily edit the file with editor or script to customize the hostname, player name, and renderer names in (my own) consistent way. Actually, I start with a semi-customized file on hand that already has the timezone and networking paarameters set.  ‘Course I have to check with each release that the structure and content of the moodecfg.ini.default file hasn’t changed. 

Regards,
Kent

Hi Kent, I am glad that you were able to repro. I am not a developer, having failed to keep up my skills a few decades ago but I do have a talent for finding undocumented "feechurs"  

I am unaware of Tim's nice /boot/moodecfg.ini feature but I have been using the Backup and Restore functions to recover my configurations. My short term memory is not what it used to be and I have tried writing down such details but I find that I invatiably "forget" to read my notes! For this reason, I greatly appreciate Tim's editing of the Setup instructions which should be the obvious place to go when an installation goes wrong. Like many others on here, I also seem to only resort to RTFM when I encounter a problem  

With the improved structure of the configuration panels in recent releases, I find it very intuitive to configure moOde from scratch. What threw me this time was that having failed to configure the RPi Installer Settings, moOde wouldn't fall back to Access Point Mode and even when I tried connecting by Ethernet, I couldn't change any of the moOde configuration settings (as has been reported by others). However, RTFM set me straight and I was going again.

I am not sure of who maintains the RPi Installer but AFAIK, the only settings that work are the SSID/ Passphrase and UserID/ Password settings. It may be worth putting a line in the Setup Guide about this until it is fixed.

... back to enjoying the Music.

- Robin

[the_bertrum]

I could certainly mod the startup so that a new host name is imported but then there is the matter of updating the renderer service names. For example if new host name is "Tim" then you would prolly want the Airplay, Spotify  etc service names to default to "Tim Airplay", "Tim Spotify" and so on.

I actually find "Tim Airplay" and "Tim Spotify" to be superfluous. Spotify only shows up in Spotify, Airplay in Airplay etc, so host name alone is sufficient.

[TheOldPresbyope]

I could certainly mod the startup so that a new host name is imported but then there is the matter of updating the renderer service names. For example if new host name is "Tim" then you would prolly want the Airplay, Spotify  etc service names to default to "Tim Airplay", "Tim Spotify" and so on.

I actually find "Tim Airplay" and "Tim Spotify" to be superfluous. Spotify only shows up in Spotify, Airplay in Airplay etc, so host name alone is sufficient.

Same here. That’s why I like to use moodecfg.ini to provision my players. A little scripting takes care of business without touching that mouse

Regards,
Kent