Forum.HaveTheKnowHow.com

Hi Ian,

I'm glad to see the site up and running. As always, your help was invaluable. I'd like to thank you again. I've made a lot of progress since we last talked.

Last time we chatted, you were wondering about spicefly. (http://www.spicefly.com). I've got it running under linux and ubuntu. It works very well. The nicest thing about it is that while it uses MusicIP to tag tracks; it doesn't require the MusicIP plug-in to work on squeezebox. And, most importantly, I found that the MusicIP plug-in wreaked havoc on my track tags and names. Spicefly doesn't. If you are interested, pay a visit to spicefly.com. To get the most up to date version, you have to make a small donation.

If you want to run spicefly, I followed this sequence:

1. Installed Squeezebox
2. Installed MusicIP headless
3. Run genpuid to tag all my music
4. Ran MusicIP to build a MusicIP default file.
5. Install the Spicefly plug-in
6. Install the trackstat plug-in

There are a lot of details, but this is the general idea. There may be some dependencies to install according to your system.

In addition, I use virtualbox to run almost everything as a virtual machine. Right now, I only use the server for music. So, I have a virtual ubuntu server do this. I don't think you can underestimate the value of virtualization. One of my biggest frustrations early on was creating an unstable system by installing an update/upgrade before I should have, etc, etc. Using virtualization guarantees that you can return the system to a more functional earlier state. This is a snap on virtualbox. And, you can run headless VM's also.

In addition, if there is someplace I can make a donation to help with the expense of maintaining your website, please let me know.


Thanks again.

Bill Krauss

Hey Bill, nice to hear from you again (Bill and I exchanged emails before this forum was created incase anyone is wondering ).
Glad to hear you’ve made some decent progress with your server and with spicefly. I’m afraid that particular job is still on my todo list. I’m keen to try it out but I’ve simply been too snowed under with other stuff to give it a go. Personally, I’ve not had any issue with MusicIP messing with my tags although I have found it’s not very good at pulling in any changes to those tags which are made AFTER the tracks have been pulled into the MusicIP database. I found I have to wipe the MusicIP database and start over for the revised tags to be reflected in Squeezebox server. Thanks for the spicefly instructions I’m sure they’ll come in very handy.

A while back I tried virtualbox and was impressed with it but reverted to using KVM because my hardware supports true virtualisation. I too could not live without virtualisation now. As I said in my guide, you have to try it to appreciate its power and flexibility, especially when it comes to “fiddling around” with an install. Now I try everything out on a virtual machine, once I’m happy I then incorporate the changes into my host machine (just like you). Since I installed KVM I’ve not had the need to rebuild my host once. Previously I was ALWAYS rebuilding it!

Re making donations, I used to have a paypal button on a page on my main site but that page fell by the wayside once this forum was created and I’ve not got round to putting it somewhere else (Yet another job still on my todo list! ) So, if you’d like to say “thank you” you can do so here:.

Thank you very much and I’m glad you’re enjoying your server. I do feel rather chuffed knowing there are people out there who I’ve helped achieve something. It makes all the effort I’ve put in all the more satisfying!

Take care Bill and thanks for popping back and letting me know how you’re getting on. Feel free to stick around, your experience I’m sure will be invaluable to others.

Ian.