Squeezebox Controller serial port tips

A list of general pointers to assist when using a controller hooked up to a serial port.

Console Settings

 Data Rate: 115200
 Data Bits: 8
 Partiy: None
 Stop Bits: 1
 Flow Control: Xon/Xoff

Tom says "with OS X and Zterm, it's a little flaky. I have to make sure that all of my cables are fully connected before launching Zterm"

Ben says: "who needs Zterm?? use `screen` for fun and profit"

   screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200

(on mac it is typically /dev/tty.usbserial-yaddayadda)

Restarting the SqueezePlay process - /usr/bin/jive

As of 7.4, there is new script in squeezeos (i.e. on the controller) to deal with stopping/starting /usr/bin/jive and also for feeding the watchdog process(which wants to restart the device if /usr/bin/jive isn't running)

The script is /etc/init.d/squeezeplay

• start : to start SqueezePlay
• stop : to kill SqueezePlay
• stopwdog : to kill SqueezePlay, and start a watchdog process (you'll need to enter this within 30 seconds!)
• restart : to restart SqueezePlay

An alternative to feeding the watchdog is to disable the watchdog functionality by commenting out the following line in SqueezeboxFab4Applet.lua:

  --	self.watchdog = Watchdog:open()

After that change, power cycle the device. Then the watchdog timer will be disabled (though now you will have to manually reboot if /usr/bin/jive stops for any reason.)

Printing Squeezeplay Syslog Messages to Serial Console

  rm /usr/lib/lua/5.1/syslog.so

then reboot. All squeezeplay messages are logged to the serial port then.