1. Linux manages all network connections way before moOde even starts. All moOde does during its startup sequence is check for an IP address assignment.
2. WiFi suddenly dying or becoming unreliable can be a symptom of interference. The infamous HifiBerry issue from back in the day where one of its clocks generated RFI that interfered in the 2.4G WiFi band is an example.
To troubleshoot you need to start from a clean slate.
Use your full board stack.
1. Start with a fresh moOde 8.3.8 image
2. Connect using Ethernet
3. Set "Output device" to "I2S audio device"
4. Set "Named I2S device" to "ProtoDAC TDA1387 X8"
5. Reboot
6. Verify that everything works
Troubleshoot WiFi
1. Leave Ethernet connected
2. Open Network Config and define your SSID and password (use SSID for 5GHz band first)
3. Reboot
Post the contents of the startup log and output from the commands below
1. Startup log
The log can be viewed via the SSH command moodeutl -l or downloaded via the Logs section in System Config, or via Menu, System info from the any of the Config screens. The startup log will be at the end of System info output.
2. WiFi info
Code:
ifconfig
iwconfig
Hi @Tim Curtis trying to understand your guidance here better. So you are asking me to recreate the 'failure' mode with ethernet cable connected, correct? In other words, do this test from the location (my office room) where Wifi is dying but with ethernet cable connected so that you can see what is happening in start up log for the Wifi config? I just need to find a 20 feet ethernet cable ?
FWIW yesterday I tried to start from clean slate multiple times. I typically set the Wifi SSID and password while imaging the SD card using RPi imager tool. And yes I've been entering the 5GHz band info. I was able to see the 5GHz connection in the router when it connected successfully from my living room.
Finally, is the start up log stored in the SD card boot partition somewhere (hidden)? I can plug in the SD card and try to get the startup log if that is feasible.
1. Linux manages all network connections way before moOde even starts. All moOde does during its startup sequence is check for an IP address assignment.
2. WiFi suddenly dying or becoming unreliable can be a symptom of interference. The infamous HifiBerry issue from back in the day where one of its clocks generated RFI that interfered in the 2.4G WiFi band is an example.
To troubleshoot you need to start from a clean slate.
Use your full board stack.
1. Start with a fresh moOde 8.3.8 image
2. Connect using Ethernet
3. Set "Output device" to "I2S audio device"
4. Set "Named I2S device" to "ProtoDAC TDA1387 X8"
5. Reboot
6. Verify that everything works
Troubleshoot WiFi
1. Leave Ethernet connected
2. Open Network Config and define your SSID and password (use SSID for 5GHz band first)
3. Reboot
Post the contents of the startup log and output from the commands below
1. Startup log
The log can be viewed via the SSH command moodeutl -l or downloaded via the Logs section in System Config, or via Menu, System info from the any of the Config screens. The startup log will be at the end of System info output.
2. WiFi info
Code:
ifconfig
iwconfig
Hi @Tim Curtis trying to understand your guidance here better. So you are asking me to recreate the 'failure' mode with ethernet cable connected, correct? In other words, do this test from the location (my office room) where Wifi is dying but with ethernet cable connected so that you can see what is happening in start up log for the Wifi config? I just need to find a 20 feet ethernet cable ?
FWIW yesterday I tried to start from clean slate multiple times. I typically set the Wifi SSID and password while imaging the SD card using RPi imager tool. And yes I've been entering the 5GHz band info. I was able to see the 5GHz connection in the router when it connected successfully from my living room.
Finally, is the start up log stored in the SD card boot partition somewhere (hidden)? I can plug in the SD card and try to get the startup log if that is feasible.
Yes, try to recreate the failure with Ethernet plugged in so you can get log and command output that can be analyzed.
If it fails in a location closer to your Router then use that location. If it only fails in your office room then it would reinforce a wifi interference or some other external issue.
1. Linux manages all network connections way before moOde even starts. All moOde does during its startup sequence is check for an IP address assignment.
2. WiFi suddenly dying or becoming unreliable can be a symptom of interference. The infamous HifiBerry issue from back in the day where one of its clocks generated RFI that interfered in the 2.4G WiFi band is an example.
To troubleshoot you need to start from a clean slate.
Use your full board stack.
1. Start with a fresh moOde 8.3.8 image
2. Connect using Ethernet
3. Set "Output device" to "I2S audio device"
4. Set "Named I2S device" to "ProtoDAC TDA1387 X8"
5. Reboot
6. Verify that everything works
Troubleshoot WiFi
1. Leave Ethernet connected
2. Open Network Config and define your SSID and password (use SSID for 5GHz band first)
3. Reboot
Post the contents of the startup log and output from the commands below
1. Startup log
The log can be viewed via the SSH command moodeutl -l or downloaded via the Logs section in System Config, or via Menu, System info from the any of the Config screens. The startup log will be at the end of System info output.
2. WiFi info
Code:
ifconfig
iwconfig
Hi @Tim Curtis trying to understand your guidance here better. So you are asking me to recreate the 'failure' mode with ethernet cable connected, correct? In other words, do this test from the location (my office room) where Wifi is dying but with ethernet cable connected so that you can see what is happening in start up log for the Wifi config? I just need to find a 20 feet ethernet cable ?
FWIW yesterday I tried to start from clean slate multiple times. I typically set the Wifi SSID and password while imaging the SD card using RPi imager tool. And yes I've been entering the 5GHz band info. I was able to see the 5GHz connection in the router when it connected successfully from my living room.
Finally, is the start up log stored in the SD card boot partition somewhere (hidden)? I can plug in the SD card and try to get the startup log if that is feasible.
Yes, try to recreate the failure with Ethernet plugged in so you can get log and command output that can be analyzed.
If it fails in a location closer to your Router then use that location. If it only fails in your office room then it would reinforce a wifi interference or some other external issue.
@Tim Curtis I think I figured out what is going on. It looks like the Wifi signal is getting increasingly weak as I move away from the wifi router room. And based on what I read in multiple forums RPi4's wifi implementation seems to be inherently weak. And the IanCanada stack is making the signal attenuation worse. I just chatted with Gabster and he confirmed the same experience and suggested I stick to ethernet.
It appears that plugging in a USB wifi adapter with antenna could be an alternative. Should any Wifi adapter that works with RaspiOS/Debian work with the latest Moode build? I'm considering the following and it is based on the RT5370 which likely works out of the box.
Here is a more advanced adapter but not sure if this will work out of the box plug n play. Might need driver installation. Is it relatively easy to install drivers for this if needed? Please advice.
02-22-2024, 05:34 AM (This post was last modified: 02-22-2024, 05:44 AM by hifinet.)
I have a few RT5370 for older RPis. They work well with the antenna. Plug and play with RaspiOS and Windows. Very handy to have. These were under $5 shipped in 2017. If you are interested, I can compare the wifi signal using the RT5370 compared to the built-in Zero W.
Hardware: RPi Zero W | Allo Kali | ProtoDAC TDA1387 X8 | PGA2311 | Icepower 500ASP | Harbeth SHL5 Software: Moode 8.3.3 Source: Win 10 NAS
02-22-2024, 12:32 PM (This post was last modified: 02-22-2024, 12:41 PM by Tim Curtis.
Edit Reason: eta
)
I usually just use the Pi integrated WiFi adapters which are pretty good. For the Pi's w/o built in adapters or w/o 5GHz band I've been using the excellent Comfast CF-912AC adapters but they only work with our custom compiled driver and I'm not sure if then are even available anymore (maybe AliExpress). Also not sure the driver will even compile correctly for our upcoming Bookworm release.
Generally 3rd party WiFi adapter support on Linux is not that great. A lot of vendors claim their adapters are compatible with this or that Linux OS but in reality what they mean by compatibility is that you need to drop to the command line to manually install a kernel version-specific driver from some website using some sort of script and hope it works. Then if you update your kernel it all breaks.
Maybe there is some sort of up to date list of known to work WiFi adapters? In any case when buying one make sure you can do an unconditional return.
ETA: @varunach, MoodeOS is built using pi-gen the same tooling used to build the official Raspberry Pi OS and we use their shipped Linux kernel and thus in theory any WiFi adapter that works on a given release of Raspberry Pi OS and its kernel will work on the corresponding release of moOde.
02-22-2024, 05:15 PM (This post was last modified: 02-22-2024, 05:32 PM by varunach.)
(02-22-2024, 12:32 PM)Tim Curtis Wrote: I usually just use the Pi integrated WiFi adapters which are pretty good. For the Pi's w/o built in adapters or w/o 5GHz band I've been using the excellent Comfast CF-912AC adapters but they only work with our custom compiled driver and I'm not sure if then are even available anymore (maybe AliExpress). Also not sure the driver will even compile correctly for our upcoming Bookworm release.
Generally 3rd party WiFi adapter support on Linux is not that great. A lot of vendors claim their adapters are compatible with this or that Linux OS but in reality what they mean by compatibility is that you need to drop to the command line to manually install a kernel version-specific driver from some website using some sort of script and hope it works. Then if you update your kernel it all breaks.
Maybe there is some sort of up to date list of known to work WiFi adapters? In any case when buying one make sure you can do an unconditional return.
ETA: @varunach, MoodeOS is built using pi-gen the same tooling used to build the official Raspberry Pi OS and we use their shipped Linux kernel and thus in theory any WiFi adapter that works on a given release of Raspberry Pi OS and its kernel will work on the corresponding release of moOde.
I got the Wifi adapter today and finally managed to get the entire stack to work amazingly well! I gotta say the sound quality is simply stunning. The build procedure that we discussed at length in this thread worked perfectly. Over this weekend I'm adding a ReceiverPiDDC and Amanero USB to the stack and that should be the end all of this Streamer/DDC/DAC combo. I'm super happy with this set up. Thank you @hifinet, @Tim Curtis and many others on this thread who helped provide valuable suggestions/discussions on this topic.
(02-23-2024, 06:08 AM)varunach Wrote: I got the Wifi adapter today and finally managed to get the entire stack to work amazingly well! I gotta say the sound quality is simply stunning. The build procedure that we discussed at length in this thread worked perfectly. Over this weekend I'm adding a ReceiverPiDDC and Amanero USB to the stack and that should be the end all of this Streamer/DDC/DAC combo. I'm super happy with this set up. Thank you @hifinet, @Tim Curtis and many others on this thread who helped provide valuable suggestions/discussions on this topic.
Nice. Please share your thoughts on PiDDC when you’re up and running.
