If you’re running linux and are thinking about doing some oggcasting/podcasting or are having a virtual meeting which you might wish to make available for general listening, perhaps you’ll find these notes to be at least slightly useful. I’ve been involved in several discussions over the last several years regarding the best way to record a *cast and stream it at the same time, and while I can’t state with authority that this is the “best” way, it is at least _one_ way…and it’s not bloody talkshoe. This is still fairly rough, and I’m no expert in any of this, so it’s likely you’ll want to play with various settings after you’ve got it running to get better quality out of it. Your mileage may vary.

For those who aren’t familiar with it, Mumble is a VOIP client similar to Teamspeak or Ventrilo, generally used for gaming. Best to just click here and read about it from the horse’s mouth. If you want the short version, you can run your own Murmur server if you like, and have roundtable discussions using the Mumble client. Audio quality is generally excellent.

Version 1.2.3 of Mumble, which was released recently, has a built in recording function with a number of options. You can record a session either as one ogg, wav, flac, or au file. You can also record each participant in a session to their own track, which would make the editing process a little cleaner if you needed to edit out noise or match audio levels. So, if all you’re wanting to do is record a *cast, then Mumble should do the job for you quite well.

I was curious about how you could also stream it live while the recording was being done. The setup of this initial success has plenty of room for improvement. But for posterity’s sake, here’s how I managed it:

Requirements:
[EDIT: I have managed to get this running on a single computer. The (somewhat ugly) method I used is detailed at the bottom of this post.]
* A working Icecast2 server
* A Murmur server (wherever)
* 2 computers with the Mumble client installed – 1 for you to chat on (which I’ll call TALKER), 1 to do the streaming (which I’ll call STREAMER), which needs pulseaudio installed on it for this method
* The svn trunk version of Darkice

Process:
I’m going to leave off explaining the setup of Icecast, Murmur and Mumble. Plenty of places have better explanations than I can provide about those topics. The archlinux wiki is a good place to start. Murmur and Mumble are very straightforward, and setting up Icecast for this isn’t difficult. Just make sure to set a password for the “source” user in your Icecast config as Darkice will be using that for the stream.

You will need to create a null sink in pulseaudio on STREAMER. Enter
pactl load-module module-null-sink sink_name=stream on the command line to create a virtual output named “stream” which doesn’t actually point at a sound card, but will allow other programs to capture that output before it’s dumped. Pulseaudio will automatically create what it calls a ‘monitor’ for that output which you can use as input for another program, in this case it will be called “stream.monitor”. Darkice will be using stream.monitor as it’s audio input.

Once you have created the null sink, set the audio output on STREAMER’s Mumble client to the pulseaudio null sink (Settings->Audio Output, System = PulseAudio, Device = Null Output). It would also be a good idea at this time to ‘mute self’ on STREAMER, or even remove the right for it to transmit if you are admin of the Mutter server, simply to ensure that it doesn’t pass along any unwanted audio.

Next you’ll need to install Darkice. At the time of this writing, you’ll need to grab the subversion trunk in order to use pulseaudio. Sooner or later this won’t be an issue as the code makes it way into stable releases. I needed to install libvorbis-dev, libtool, and libpulse-dev as well as subversion and the normal development tools.

Pull the dev code for Darkice with this on the command line:
svn checkout http://darkice.googlecode.com/svn/darkice/trunk/ darkice

Next, cd darkice and run ./autogen.sh on the command line. Pay attention to it’s output, and it will tell you if you’re missing anything critical which will need to be installed. Once it’s done, type make to build Darkice.

I needed to add one line to three of the source files in order to get this to compile. If it fails for you, try adding this line #include cstdio (please note! you need carats around cstdio, but they are being stripped and it’s too bloody late at night for me to care enough to search for the answer. They should look like this.) to each of these files in the src directory: PulseAudioDspSource.cpp, SerialUlaw.cpp, JackDspSource.cpp. Simply open each of those files in a text editor and add that line below the copyright notice and the other line which starts with #include.

Once you’ve added those, go back to the darkice directory and try ‘make’ again. When you get a successful compile, run ‘make install’ as root to complete the installation.

Now, cd back to your home directory and copy the file ‘/usr/local/etc/darkice.cfg’ to someplace convenient for your user to work on it. /home/YOU/darkice.cfg is perfectly reasonable.

Open your copy of the darkice.cfg file and under the first section, titled [general], change duration = 60 to duration = 0 to continuously encode the stream.

Next, look for the section titled [input]. Change the ‘device’ entry from ‘/dev/dsp’ to ‘pulseaudio’, and add the line paSourceName = stream.monitor at the end of the input section. When you’re done, it should look something like this:

# this section describes the audio input that will be streamed
[input]
device = pulseaudio # OSS DSP soundcard device for the audio input
sampleRate = 22050 # sample rate in Hz. try 11025, 22050 or 44100
bitsPerSample = 16 # bits per sample. try 16
channel = 2 # channels. 1 = mono, 2 = stereo
paSourceName = stream.monitor


Check ‘man darkice.cfg’ for more options.

I’m streaming to Icecast2, so I just commented out the icecast-0 and shoutcast-0 entries. In the [icecast2-0] section, fill in your server address, password (for the ‘source’ Icecast user) and anything else you need or wish to change. I also changed my ‘mountPoint’ to ‘stream.ogg’. In the end, it should look something like this:
[icecast2-0]
bitrateMode = abr # average bit rate
format = vorbis # format of the stream: ogg vorbis
bitrate = 96 # bitrate of the stream sent to the server
server = myserverip # host name of the server
port = 8000 # port of the IceCast2 server, usually 8000
password = sourcepassword # source password to the IceCast2 server
mountPoint = stream.ogg # mount point of this stream on the IceCast2 server
name = DarkIce trial
# name of the stream
description = This is only a trial
# description of the stream
url = http://www.yourserver.com
# URL related to the stream
genre = my own # genre of the stream
public = no # advertise this stream?
localDumpFile = dump.ogg # local dump file


Finally, the moment of truth. Get your Mumble clients on TALKER and STREAMER connected to your Murmur server. Fetch some friends to jeer at your accomplishment and have them connect as well.

On streamer, run darkice -c darkice.cfg on the command line.
If it’s successful, you should see these lines:
Using config file: darkice.cfg
Using PulseAudio audio server as input device.
Using PulseAudio source: stream.monitor


You will probably receive this warning, as well:
Could not set POSIX real-time scheduling, this may cause recording skips.
Try to run darkice as the super-user.

I haven’t solved this issue yet. Running darkice as root doesn’t completely solve the problem because it won’t talk to the stream.monitor input.

But, the bottom line is that if you’re seeing this message, you should be in business. Find some sap to connect to http://yourip:8000/stream.ogg, hit record on TALKER’s mumble client and talk to your friends.

[EDIT: The section belows details the steps I needed to use in order to make this work from a single machine. YMMV]

There are a couple of problems I initially had trying to run this one machine. Mumble was not happy running a second instance in a single X session, even when launching the second instance as a different user. It was “stealing” the certificate for my normal user and re-logging me in under that account in the second mumble session, which would log me off of the first session. This was also a real pain when I went to add my normal mumble user as an admin on my local server. I ultimately ended up needed to start a second X session, run mumble and log in to the superuser account there and set the permissions on my normal mumble account. There’s a ‘-m’ flag which I’ve seen referenced which is supposed to allow you to log in without using your certificate, but that didn’t work for me.

Launching a second instance of mumble under a different user on the same X session was also giving pulseaudio fits. There might well be some hocus pocus (read: permission stunt) that I can pull to fix that problem, but given the nature of the first problem, I haven’t bothered looking into this.

However, you can start up a second X session with a different user on the machine, and use it that way. At the moment, I need to do it with the root account (which is horrible, yes, I know) but I suspect that this is an issue with the catalyst drivers and my dual monitor setup rather than a necessity in general. It does, however, have the benefit of solving the real time scheduling error from Darkice.

At any rate, the setup is similar to using a second machine. startx -- :1 on a virtual console to start the second X session, start mumble and point the output to a null sink, and then run darkice out of the second user account.

*New tiny tyrannosauroid may be missing link in evolution
*But how will she floss?
*I had no idea! Not for the faint of heart, and I’m purposely NOT linking to any of the video, which does exist on the Internet.
*A new book in one of my favorite worlds is set for release next year!
* Speaking of favorite worlds and new books, not concrete news yet on George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series or on Jean M Auel’s Earth’s Children series. These two are in a fierce competition to see how long they can keep fans waiting. At the moment, Jean has what appears to be a commanding lead at 5 years to 2 for George, but there are rumors whispering that Jean may have delivered a manuscript to her editor. Of course, she’s already the champion, having made her fans was 12 years for book 5. Let us all hope that she’s not trying to break her previous record.

• Cigarettes are in indispensable part of your jump kit if you’re going to protest and expect tear gas to be deployed. The smoke helps dispel the stinging pain. On a related note, small fires can also be set to assist more people at one time.
• Saran Wrap can be used to treat gunshot wounds to the chest (sucking chest wounds) until they can be seen by a doctor.
• Wailing needs no translation. It’s understood, no matter what in what language it’s being uttered.
• Allahu Akbar isn’t just a chant employed by those who seem to want to destroy the Western way of life…and when uttered as a plea, few phrases are as gut-wrenching.
• Marg bar dictator means “Death to the Dictator”.
• Beautiful women remain beautiful, even in death

I’m not posting links to the videos from which I’ve learned these things. Some of them are graphic and horrible and I want to keep this blog PG13 at worst. If you haven’t already seen videos coming from Iran and really want to know what I’m talking about, a quick search of youtube will provide you with links that you never wanted to see.

Remember, once something has been seen, it can’t be unseen. And there are images from the last few days that I’d give anything to unsee.

I’ll grant that blogs are generally journals for people to record their own thoughts, and that’s fine. But I’d love to have some little conversation, too. So if you see something you like, or something you hate even, please comment. I’d love to hear from you.

About two months ago, I hurt myself getting into the car. I was holding my weight up with my right foot to straighten out my shirt and get settled in when I felt something pull/tear/pop on the right side of my low back. It didn’t really hurt at that time and I figured I’d just strained a muscle or something…no big deal.

A few days later, I noticed an ache in my right butt cheek or lower back when I had to bend over. The original injury was so NOT a big deal, I didn’t even know what I’d done to myself. I just chalked it up to getting older and didn’t think about it. A couple of weeks later, it not only hurt to bend over, but now it hurt when I sat down. Nothing huge, just enough to make me grunt when I sat down. About that same time, I was getting in the car and recreated what I’d done to myself the first time and I about hit the roof. OUCH!

After that I went to my dr. He diagnosed “sacroiliitis” and sent me to physical therapy. Just to be safe we did x-rays, which came back completely normal. At PT they poked, they did strain counter strain treatments, they had me do exercises, they pulled on my legs, they tried manipulation and distraction treatments…and the pain continued to get worse.

So, I called my doctor back and explained that the pain is getting worse, and what was originally a slightly grunt provoking discomfort is becoming a 10-15 second ordeal on par with natural childbirth every time I have to change orientation, in which it feels to me like bone is sliding against bone. But still, once whatever is done adjusting in there adjusts, I don’t feel any pain.

Now I get referred to a pain management doctor. He also says it’s sacroiliitis and schedules me for an SI injection of cortisone. That appointment was yesterday. But when I got there and the PM doctor got ready to do the injection, I don’t actually hurt where they thought I hurt. It’s lower. In an area where there really isn’t much that could be sliding around, apparently. The PM doctor jumps to the sciatica conclusion and wants to send me back to PT. I very nearly cried when he said that, and tried again to explain what I’m feeling. I’ve had nerve pain; this is not nerve pain. The doctor seems completely lost until I suggest maybe it’s time to get an MRI. “Oh, that’s a good idea!” he exclaimed. Gee, and I didn’t even have to go through 12 years of college and residency to come up with it. I should make the kind of money he does.

Every one is confused as heck, because the only time it hurts is when I bend over, when I sit down (and sit deeply, like in the car not just perch on the edge of something), and when I stand up. Once I’m sitting and I’ve gritted my teeth through the pain, I can sit comfortably for hours. Once I’ve stood up and gritted my teeth through the pain, I can walk all around Kennedy Space Center with no discomfort….until the next time I have to sit down or bend over, that is. Which is to say, it hurts to put on my shoes and socks and otherwise get dressed. It’s incredibly painful to try to do any housework that involves bending over. I’m planning my day at work around getting the most out of each time I have to get out of my chair, because it hurts to get up and it hurts to sit back down.

So, that’s where I am. I have an MRI scheduled for Thursday and I’m really hoping it will shed some kind of light on what the heck is going on. I’m not looking for drugs to mask the pain. I have some, but they’re really not strong enough to even take the edge off when it hurts, and the trade off of the side effects isn’t worth it. I want to know what’s broken and what can be done to fix it before I go postal on anyone wearing scrubs.

This is also by way of apologizing for not finding more cool things to blog. By the time I get home I’ve used up my resources and I just want to read a bit in a book and go to bed. Which is where I’m headed now.

Created by Train Horns

The website claims that a significant number of people over 25 can’t hear this tone. Well, I now have the headache to prove that I can. But it got me to wondering. I haven’t had a hearing test in … well … Let’s just say since I left public school and leave it at that, shall we?

Anyway, since I was wondering and I have a ‘satiable curiosity, I went looking for a website that talks more about this teenage mosquito tone thing. The one I found was interesting, but really didn’t go into the depth I was looking for. A bit more poking around and I found a site where you can download your very own mosquito ringtones, which has a pretty substantial list of tones in various formats that you can try out. Their recommendation is that you go down the list for the last tone you can hear, as that will make it less likely that the adults around you who don’t want you getting cell phone calls will be able to hear it. I can hear them all, so I guess I still have the ears of a teenager.

Not content there, I wondered if there are full-blown hearing tests online. Glory be, there are. There’s too much background noise at work for me to try it, but I’ll give it a whirl when I get home!

What about you? What’s the last mosquito ringtone YOU can hear?