Hifiberry AMP+ Can't Control Volume or Can't Play

timetherington · July 6, 2019, 8:04pm

I’m running a fresh download of Volumio on a RPi 3+ on a 16GB SD card with a Hifiberry AMP+ installed. It works fine till I go to Playback Options and change Volume Options as follows:

Mixer Type: Software
Default Startup Volume: 40
Max Volume Level: 100
One Click Volume Steps: 5
MPD Clients Volume Control: Off

After that, it won’t play any stream. If I put the Mixer Type back to hardware, it will eventually play. I can AirPlay to get music out of the speakers, but that’s it.

From the logs:

Jul 06 19:23:49 outside systemd[1]: Starting Music Player Daemon... Jul 06 19:23:49 outside volumio[894]: error: Cannot restart MPD: Error: Command failed: /usr/bin/sudo /bin/systemctl restart mpd.service Jul 06 19:23:49 outside volumio[894]: Job for mpd.service failed. See 'systemctl status mpd.service' and 'journalctl -xn' for details. Jul 06 19:25:03 outside volumio[894]: error: Upnp client error: Error: connect ETIMEDOUT 127.0.0.1:6600 Jul 06 19:25:19 outside systemd[1]: mpd.service start operation timed out. Terminating. Jul 06 19:25:33 outside volumio[894]: error: Upnp client error: Error: connect ETIMEDOUT 127.0.0.1:6600 Jul 06 19:26:09 outside volumio[894]: Upnp client error: Error: This socket has been ended by the other party Jul 06 19:26:09 outside volumio[894]: error: MPD error: Error: read ECONNRESET Jul 06 19:26:09 outside systemd[1]: Failed to start Music Player Daemon. Jul 06 19:26:09 outside systemd[1]: Unit mpd.service entered failed state. Jul 06 19:26:09 outside systemd[1]: Starting Music Player Daemon... Jul 06 19:26:35 outside volumio[894]: error: Upnp client error: Error: connect ETIMEDOUT 127.0.0.1:6600 Jul 06 19:27:06 outside volumio[894]: error: Upnp client error: Error: connect ETIMEDOUT 127.0.0.1:6600 Jul 06 19:27:36 outside volumio[894]: error: Upnp client error: Error: connect ETIMEDOUT 127.0.0.1:6600 Jul 06 19:27:40 outside systemd[1]: mpd.service start operation timed out. Terminating. Jul 06 19:28:38 outside volumio[894]: error: Upnp client error: Error: connect ETIMEDOUT 127.0.0.1:6600

Logs:
logs.volumio.org/volumio/9XOyDZW.html

With volume set to hardware, systemctl -l status mpd.service shows:

[code]● mpd.service - Music Player Daemon
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mpd.service; enabled)
Active: active (running) since Sat 2019-07-06 19:59:24 UTC; 13s ago
Docs: man:mpd(1)
man:mpd.conf(5)
Main PID: 2581 (mpd)
CGroup: /system.slice/mpd.service
└─2581 /usr/bin/mpd --no-daemon

Jul 06 19:58:34 outside systemd[1]: [/lib/systemd/system/mpd.service:23] Unknown lvalue ‘RestrictNamespaces’ in section ‘Service’
Jul 06 19:58:34 outside systemd[1]: [/lib/systemd/system/mpd.service:18] Unknown lvalue ‘ProtectKernelTunables’ in section ‘Service’
Jul 06 19:58:34 outside systemd[1]: [/lib/systemd/system/mpd.service:19] Unknown lvalue ‘ProtectControlGroups’ in section ‘Service’
Jul 06 19:58:34 outside systemd[1]: [/lib/systemd/system/mpd.service:20] Unknown lvalue ‘ProtectKernelModules’ in section ‘Service’
Jul 06 19:58:34 outside systemd[1]: [/lib/systemd/system/mpd.service:23] Unknown lvalue ‘RestrictNamespaces’ in section ‘Service’
Jul 06 19:58:34 outside systemd[1]: [/lib/systemd/system/mpd.service:18] Unknown lvalue ‘ProtectKernelTunables’ in section ‘Service’
Jul 06 19:58:34 outside systemd[1]: [/lib/systemd/system/mpd.service:19] Unknown lvalue ‘ProtectControlGroups’ in section ‘Service’
Jul 06 19:58:34 outside systemd[1]: [/lib/systemd/system/mpd.service:20] Unknown lvalue ‘ProtectKernelModules’ in section ‘Service’
Jul 06 19:58:34 outside systemd[1]: [/lib/systemd/system/mpd.service:23] Unknown lvalue ‘RestrictNamespaces’ in section ‘Service’
Jul 06 19:59:24 outside systemd[1]: Started Music Player Daemon.[/code]

With it set to software, I get:

[code]● mpd.service - Music Player Daemon
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mpd.service; enabled)
Active: deactivating (stop-sigterm) since Sat 2019-07-06 20:00:48 UTC; 1min 9s ago
Docs: man:mpd(1)
man:mpd.conf(5)
Main PID: 3831 (mpd)
CGroup: /system.slice/mpd.service
└─3831 /usr/bin/mpd --no-daemon

Jul 06 20:00:48 outside systemd[1]: Starting Music Player Daemon…
Jul 06 20:00:49 outside systemd[1]: Stopping Music Player Daemon…[/code]

The software volume control works on my other RPi 3+ running the latest version of Volumio using a Hifiberry DAC+.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

timetherington · July 8, 2019, 5:27pm

Let me back up and start from the beginning.

RPi 3B+ with a HifiBerry AMP+ DAC driving two Klipsh AW-400 outdoor speakers. I installed a new download of Volumio version 2.587 on a 16GB SD card and go though the initial setup. For audio output I select snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplus since Amp is not available.

With that initial setup, the General Playback Options look like:
Output Device: snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplus
I2S DAC: off
DSD Playback Mode: DSD Direct
DSD Auto Volume Level: On
Volume Normalization: On
Audio Buffer: 8 MB
Buffer Before Play: 10%
Persistent Queue: On
Mixer Type: Hardware
Mixer Name: Analogue
Default Start Volume: 40
Max Volume Level: 100
One Click Volume Steps: 5
Volume Curve Mode: Natural
MPD Clients Volume Control: Off
Auto Resampling: Off

When I stream from the Radio Paradise plugin, it plays but I have no control over the volume. I can change the setting on the playback page, but it has no effect on the actual output.

If I change the Playback Options, Volume Options, Mixer Type to Software (which I’m successfully using on another Volumio installation with a Hifiberry DAC), it won’t play. I hit the play button and the banner says it is starting Radio Paradise, but nothing comes out and the play button never changes to a stop button.

Found a post at Hifiberry (support.hifiberry.com/hc/en-us/ … th-Volumio) which seemed to have fixed it but the images of the correct settings are no longer available.

Tried turning on I2S and selecting DAC Plus and restarting. Left Mixer Type as Hardware and now it works.

That is odd.

timetherington · July 9, 2019, 12:59am

And then it stopped working again. For no reason.

timetherington · July 10, 2019, 5:53pm

Last post. Problem fixed.

I did a REAL clean install again. In the initial setup up, I turned on I2S DAC first and then selected Hifiberry DAC Plus. Mixer type can stay Hardware and the volume control works.

sharberger · June 30, 2020, 3:38pm

Thanks for documenting this. I’m about to set up two P13’s with the Amp2. I can follow your lead. BTW. What are you using for power supply. that’s my missing link right now.

timetherington · June 30, 2020, 3:58pm

I got a 12 v 60w power brick to plug into the HifiBerry AMP which powers the RPI. Its been a while so I don’t remember where I got it.

sharberger · June 30, 2020, 9:02pm

Thanks- I scavenged a couple old laptop power supplies in the 50-60 W range. We’ll see how they do.

timetherington · June 30, 2020, 9:14pm

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.