I am making this post to help people who still didn't manage to run Volumio stable with ESI dac.
Since 2 days i've managed to run a stable Volumio build on HAKAI with ESI dac.
No more freezes, MPD crashing, UPMPDCLI crashing, stop playing when switching or adding songs, etc.
I am not sure if it is configuration and the use of server(s) and control points- dependant, but to make sure, i'll start with my configuration and my findings during the long and frustrating road to musical bliss.
What i wanted to achieve:
# Running Volumio on HAKAI *build as suggested, > USB > ESI Gigaport HD+ dac.
# Music (FLAC) located on HAKAI NAS, running Open Media Vault NAS-software, Minimserver for local music files and BubbleUpnp server for creating a Volumio-open-home-renderer to be able to stream Qobuz (and Tidal).
# Linn Kazoo control point, because i like it's simplicity and i'm used to it. (and it has Qobuz and Tidal build in)
ESI Gigaport HD+
Somehow the problems described above are all related to using this dac.
Although ESI claims the dac is fully compatible with the newest ALSA drivers in Linux, i encountered all sorts of trouble.
I was sure these were caused by ESI dac under Linux, since the RME dac i bought meanwhile, did not have any problem at all and worked from the day i plugged it in the HAKAI > FLAWLESSLY!
I could play songs or even albums fine with the ESI dac, but sometimes MPD (Music Player Daemon) crashes. Usually the crash is triggered by us; we change song, skip track, add tracks, clear playlist and so on...
When i tried to use Linn Kazoo (with BubbleUpnp server and Volumio as open-home-renderer) things got worse; 3 seconds sound, skip to next track... MPD crashes and UPMPDCLI error's in the logfile.
I was about to give up on using ESI dac and keep my RME playing, but with help from Volumio community i kept trying to get this particular configuration stable.
Here is the link to the thread i made at their forum:
https://volumio.org/forum/mpd-crashes-w ... 11069.html
YES! Stable !
I was given the advice to try the current development build of Volumio. (see link above to get it)
The development build, although lower version number, has the latest Linux (Debian) Kernel(s) and most recent ALSA drivers, etc.
I made a fresh new usb install disk with this dev. build and crossed my fingers.. but no luck; still MPD crashes and hardly able to play a song.
Then i made some (quite a few actually) changes in some files and updated some parts of the build.
First: get the latest UPMPDCLI build (currently 1.3.6)
https://www.lesbonscomptes.com/upmpdcli/downloads.html
Follow the instructions in this link!
(you need the Debian Jessie packages and you need to use "sudo nano" /etc/apt/sources.list.d/upmpdcli.list to add the file locations)
I made the following changes in the upmpdcli.conf.tmpl file (located in /volumio/app/plugins/audio_interface/upnp)
Remove # in the line #upnpav = 0 and change 0 to 1 (upnpav = 1)
Remove # in the line #ownqueue = 0 and change 0 to 1 (ownqueue = 1)
I added the following lines in the asound.conf file (located in /etc)
defaults.pcm.card 1
defaults.ctl.card 1
(use aplay -l to see which number the ESI dac is given and use the appropiate number (mine is given 1))
One thing is important:
DO NOT USE the web-ui or Volumio app to play music or configure any options.
I would suggest not to use web-ui or Volumio app at all or use it solely. Volumio doesn't like to be controlled by multilple control points (apps).
I hope this helps; mine is working perfectly now with Linn Kazoo control point and native Qobuz via BubbleUpnp server.
Need more help? Just ask!