sndio over the network

> why searching for a longer cable when you can use the network? /s

Published: 2020-09-22

Tagged with:

#OpenBSD

Like I said in the previous entry I don't like to write howtos: the information tend to rot away if not carefully updated, and I don't have all that stamina. Anyway, I felt like writing this, and so here we are.

Previous entry: Automatic USB Tethering on OpenBSD

Due to events that are outside the scope of this entry, I moved my computer in a place where I cannot comfortably attach a jack to it. (I realized this only after the rearrangement, shame on me!)

While any sane person would have just bought a longer cable (that I should have somewhere anyway) I decided that was the right time to test the network capabilities of sndio, the audio server of my OS of choice.

I have to admit that while at a first glance sending audio over the network may seem complicated, I was surprised by how easy it was.

The plan™ was to route all the audio from my OpenBSD workstation to a raspberry pi through the LAN. Why a raspberry? Because I had one spare that was accumulating dust.

So, I installed void linux on the raspberry (OpenBSD should run on the raspberries, but for the installation you need to use the serial, and I don't have an adapter). The setup was really quick:

# xbps-install sndio
# xbps-install alsa-utils # for alsamixer
# echo 'OPTS="-L-"' > /etc/sv/sndiod/conf
# ln -s /etc/sv/sndiod /var/service/

(the -L- is to tell sndiod to accept connection from anywhere.)

And for the pi that's all. (except that I still have to increase the volume with alsamixer after every boot). Now, back on the workstation I added this to my .xsession

export AUDIODEVICE=snd@192.168.1.12/0

(You probably want to change the ip address, and only that! snd@ IS NOT a username. The same goes for the /0: it's the device number, not some CIDR notation.)

Now all the audio is transparently sent through the network to my pi, and from there to my headphones via my (short) jack cable. Awesome.

That's really all. Now the bad news: you could have same some time by reading the FAQ on the OpenBSD website instead of this post :P

-- text: CC0 1.0; code: public domain (unless specified otherwise). No copyright here.

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