Volumio 3 RC1 - Open Beta Testing

[volumio]

@ashthespy

At the end of the day, (as I understand it) it is still up to the plugin author/developer to “submit” it to the plugin store.
So if you as the plugin author have such strong views, hypothetically, you could always do as some authors do now, and NOT publish it, and instead point towards repos and manual installation.

This of course would be detrimental to both the ease of use/User experience, and to bigger Volumio ecosystem, but is in the end still your choice, as the plugin dev…

Thing is, to make the plugins store “quality step” successful, this is exactly what we want to avoid.
Do you have suggestions?

[Petecallaghan]

I believe that the model used by Android is this:

1. Internal Test Channel - participants have to be invited by the developer to have access to releases on this channel. These releases are not reviewed by Google and can be used for early testing
2. Beta Test Channel - releases on this channel can be submitted for approval but do not need to published.
3. Release Channel - releases have to be approved and anyone can install.

So it is still possible to publish software without approval, but only to specific individuals.

Would this work for Volumio?

[ashthespy]

100% - I am not suggesting anyone do this - just pointing out to @reboot that if they as a developer has such strong feelings – no one forces them to submit their plugin to the store. They will loose out on users, and it would be a loss to the community for sure, but this is always an option…

That is of course is until manual plugin installs are nuked - but that would anyway be a sad day for Volumio if that happens!

EDIT: OTH seeing Signal manually installed plugins · volumio/volumio3-backend@87f0ae6 · GitHub I really hope this isn’t the direction Volumio is heading!

[M1ck]

Startup Volume Delay.

RPI 4, topping D10s DAC, V3.139

Startup volume takes its time adjusting, ~30 seconds after the system is ready to play.
If you press play straight away, music starts, you manually adjust the volume, it adjusts the volume back again after 30 secs or so.

http://logs.volumio.org/volumiobuster/gJnHet2.html

[martinp]

How to enable GUI on PC version of Volumio 3? It’s enabled only for network access, in Volumio 2 UI was enabled by default on machine installed to

[sjaaklaan]

I have removed eq5 altogether now. Thanks for the top. This setting comes from one of the presets (Focal Celestee headphone). The reported problem stays the same by the way.

[kaizoor7]

Hi there new to the community and want to help a bit. I have some trouble since the last update. Tidal Connect is not working.

Device: x86 asus j1900i-c + Topping D10s
Version: 3.139
Issue: After updating tidal connect can not be discovered. Also tried a fresh install. Same behavior there. Also tried to enable and disable the service after start without success. This is also seen in the logs. There is a clear error message from tidal connect:

Nov 15 19:31:20 streamer volumio[701]: error: Error starting TidalConnect Cannot read property 'sendRevoke' of undefined ...

Full line is found in log. Would not add it to the post. Thought it would mess up the post.
Debug log link: http://logs.volumio.org/volumiobuster/R18eEp6.html

[volumio]

Thanks for letting us know! We are looking at it

[gkkpch]

We have no idea what kind of PC you have and which components it has. Please help us a little and post a log and the output from “lspci” and “inxi -Fxxxz”.

[RichA]

I believe it is part of the process or journey, if you like, towards tightening up security, which I expect will eventually lead to ‘approved’ plugins - either paid for or free, but all the code for these is checked and guaranteed to not have malware and not (likely) to cause your system to crash. Unapproved software will be difficult to get/install.
The tech giants are undoubtedly greedy, but they tend to value their reputation more highly than cash. I remember in the early days of the PC when everyone and their dog was producing hardware and drivers - and it was this ‘wild west’ environment that lead to the wintel PC becoming the predominant platform - but when a bad driver caused Windows to crash, the user would blame MS, not the poor quality h/w & s/w of the 3rd pty product. If Volumio becomes mainstream, the vast majority of users will not be tech savvy and will blame the core product if it’s not stable.
Perhaps the dev community could have their own version, with perpetually renewable license so only active devs get a license - any versions leaked to the outside world will die due to a lack of a license = just an idea…

[volumio]

@RichA

but when a bad driver caused Windows to crash, the user would blame MS, not the poor quality h/w & s/w of the 3rd pty product. If Volumio becomes mainstream, the vast majority of users will not be tech savvy and will blame the core product if it’s not stable.

I couldn’t have expressed it better

[elderavelas]

Thank you, very much, for your work.

Volumio 3 is so much better in performance than Volumio 2 on my Raspberry Pi 3B+.
I had an old issue with Volumio 2 when the USB DAC, based on the Amanero module, was disconnected and then reconnected. Part of the functionality crashed. Media library disapeared but Spotify and Spotify Connect kept working. I had to reboot all the time to fix the issue. Now, with Volumio 3, this no longer happens. The system fix itself. This improvement only made the upgrade worthy for me. All seem to have been improved in performance. Scanning media is faster, too.

I am looking forward the final release.

Cheers.

[RichA]

There are advantages to getting old! the same issues keep coming around year after year, and all you can do is give the historical perspective on how these problems were overcome in the past.

[ashthespy]

@RichA

I believe it is part of the process or journey, if you like, towards tightening up security, which I expect will eventually lead to ‘approved’ plugins - either paid for or free, but all the code for these is checked and guaranteed to not have malware and not (likely) to cause your system to crash. Unapproved software will be difficult to get/install.

Volumio is built upon the shoulders of FOSS giants - quite a lot being copy left GPL based code. Volumio itself is GPL licensed. It’s really ironical, that we talk here about “unapproved” software in the same breath… But I digress

In my book, the main distinction b/w Volumio and the other players in this space is that a) Volumio runs on more than just Rasberry Pis, and b) provides you a vibrant plugin ecosystem.

On the topic of this myVolumio plugin store discussion, I think there are two main categories of stake holders to consider.

1. Developers
   When it comes to the dev process, I see all the points being made, about code scrutiny and vetting. If this process becomes easier with a myVolumio account, then so be it. There are still a few hiccups with the entire process currently, but I am sure it will get ironed out in due time.

2. Users
   Here is where I don’t get the narrative - how does making a plugin available (essentially for download) only via a myVolumio account increase stability and security? The plugin should have been already been vetted and approved when the source code is added into the main repository. So what additional security/stability is the myVolumio login providing here?

If the main motivation for user login is for ratings/reviews and other freemium features, then perhaps it should be turned on when all those features are actually implemented? Or better still, as with the current myVolumio stuff, all the open-source plugins are available out of the box, and the freemium closed source ones require the myVolumio login?

I fear with the myVolumio login wall to open source plugin access, will lead to a fragmentation of this rather healthy plugin ecosystem that has been nurtured.

Like you mention, vast majority of the users will probably have just enough knowledge to make them dangerous, and resort to using some side-loader/installer script they find, and end up here for support, adding to mods/devs/staff frustration. And inevitably in the end blame Volumio as a whole.

[arohl]

Downgraded to version 2 this evening and works fine (although so slow compared to version 3 :-), so it must be a version 3 issue

[gvolt]

I have to fully agree with @ashthespy.

IMHO it is currently difficult to see what gain in stability or security even a registration (only) for developers should bring compared to the previous procedure. To me the only decisive factor appears to be the review of the plugin code - regardless of the procedure or the way in which it is submitted.

[RichA]

@ashthespy you raise some excellent points, and I am not qualified, as a non-dev, to argue either way. I am sure your input will be taken seriously as I have already seen that you have a lot of respect here.
From a users point of view, I understand your point that logging in does not in itself increase stability, but could it, and you would know better than me on this, allow a more nuanced approach to providing the most appropriate and/or compatible plugins. Or you could take the approach that a logged in user has explicitly rejected the installation of plugins from anywhere else other than from the store, and this entitles them to tech support. If you are not signed in, then that’s ok as well, but support and warranty are removed.
Having a login may help in other ways, for example, age restricted access to certain content (eg explicit) which a parent may want to control, or if information about a specific users system/interests is stored, then content filtering based that information would be possible. And your point about reviewing and recommending content needs to be attributable - fake review are a big problem on other platforms.
I think, ultimately, whatever system is adopted, it must not restrict the dev community from doing what they do best, but in the long run, end user experience will be the final arbiter of the success or not of Volumio.

[RichA]

Needed to look up FOSS - found this: What is FOSS? What is Open Source? Are They the Same Thing? (itsfoss.com)
Look at the comments below the main article… <gulp!>

[dvo]

you could take the approach that a logged in user has explicitly rejected the installation of plugins from anywhere else other than from the store, and this entitles them to tech support. If you are not signed in, then that’s ok as well, but support and warranty are removed.

if you want to get rid of a lot of people you should do that.

Having a login may help in other ways, for example, age restricted access to certain content (eg explicit) which a parent may want to control, or if information about a specific users system/interests is stored, then content filtering based that information would be possible.

volumio is not youtube and has no content that should be age restricted. nor should there be info stored about the people.and about running version this could be a option for plugins.

[ashthespy]

@RichA

Needed to look up FOSS - found this: What is FOSS? What is Open Source? Are They the Same Thing? (itsfoss.com)
Look at the comments below the main article… <gulp!>

A rather strong view is also found linked below - personally I don’t think everything can be that black and white, unless you have the big guns(lawyers) to go after violations. A good read nonetheless! https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.en.html

As people have rightly pointed out, it’s not about the money - sustaining the great work that is being done makes Volumio better for everyone. Running servers isn’t free! (PS: nor is developer/support staff time)

Everyone makes good points – and I for one appreciate that we can have such a constructive discussion!

@ashthespy

In my book, the main distinction b/w Volumio and the other players in this space is that a) Volumio runs on more than just Rasberry Pis, and b) provides you a vibrant plugin ecosystem.

and c) the community!



At the end of the day, I am sure the team is listening and trying to come up with a solution that aligns everyone’s interests!

My views on the topic have been voiced - so I will go back to my other vocal view – time to get back to squashing so we can finally kill Jessie and move on to shiny new software!