Streaming internet radio when browsing for games and on screensaver?

mitu

Ok, here it goes.

All credit goes to @synack for putting together the easiest method for playing mp3's while in emulationstation. The steps have been summarized by @MapleStory here and I only replaced the mpg123 command with vlc.
NOTE: I tested the instructions below only on a Raspberry PI system installed from the RetroPie. image, so YMMV.

The steps must be executed either logged in to the RetroPie system via SSH or by exiting EmulationStation and dropping down to a command prompt.

Playing a radio internet stream in the background

Pre-requisites

The instructions assume you have VLC and socat installed on the RetroPie system. The RetroPie setup script already installs VLC, but the latter must be installed explicitely. The command to install the packages is (copy paste in the SSH/terminal session logged in as the pi user):

sudo apt-get -y install vlc-nox socat

Step 1

Edit /opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh to add the command for music playing:

sudo nano /opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh

Once in nano, hit enter to create a line break above emulationstation #auto. Go up to the blank line and type/paste the following:

while pgrep omxplayer >/dev/null; do sleep 1; done
(sleep 10; [[ -f /home/pi/radio/list.txt ]] &&  vlc -I oldrc --rc-fake-tty --rc-unix /tmp/radio.sock -Zq --no-video /home/pi/radio/list.txt >/dev/null 2>&1) &

Hit CTRL+O followed by Enter to save the file and CTRL+X to quit nano back to terminal.

Step 2

Edit the on-start file to stop the music playing once a game is started

Execute the following command to edit the on-start script file

sudo nano /opt/retropie/configs/all/runcommand-onstart.sh

Once inside, type/paste the following:

echo -n pause | socat -u - unix-client:/tmp/radio.sock >/dev/null 2>&1

Hit CTRL+O followed by Enter to save the file and CTRL+X to quit nano back to terminal.

Edit the on-end file to start back the music once a game is finished.

Execute the following command to edit the on-end script file:

sudo nano /opt/retropie/configs/all/runcommand-onend.sh

Once inside, type/paste the following:

echo -n pause | socat -u - unix-client:/tmp/radio.sock >/dev/null 2>&1

Hit CTRL+O followed by Enter to save the file and CTRL+X to quit nano back to terminal.

Step 3

Edit your .bashrc so that music is stopped once you stop EmulationStation and drop to the CLI. Execute the following command:

nano /home/pi/.bashrc

Once inside, scroll to the very bottom of the file and create a line break under retropie_welcome but above # RETROPIE PROFILE END and type/paste the following:

[[ $(tty) == "/dev/tty1" ]] && (echo -n quit | echo -n quit | socat -u - unix-client:/tmp/radio.sock >/dev/null 2>&1)

Step 4

Create the radio playlist folder and the input file:

mkdir /home/pi/radio
touch /home/pi/radio/list.txt

Optional
Adding the SLAY Radio High def stream to the file:

echo "https://relay3.slayradio.org:8000" >> /home/pi/radio/list.txt

And this is basically it. Add the URLs to the radio strreams in the list.txt file, one URL per line. You can do this while logged in via SSH on the RetroPie system by using nano to edit the file:

nano /home/pi/radio/list.txt

then add the HTTP URLs one per line with copy/paste.

NOTE: URLs ending with m3u are not accepted by vlc, you have to download them first (they're just text files) and look-up the correct URL from the m3u file. For instance, the https://www.slayradio.org/tune_in.php/128kbps/slayradio.128.m3u file contains:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:-1,SLAY Radio - 128kbps, relay2 [shoutcast - kork]
http://relay2.slayradio.org:8000/
#EXTINF:-1,SLAY Radio - 128kbps, relay3 [shoutcast - farsan]
http://relay3.slayradio.org:8000/
#EXTINF:-1,SLAY Radio - 128kbps, relay1 [shoutcast - elpost]
http://relay1.slayradio.org:8000/
#EXTINF:-1,SLAY Radio - 128kbps, relay4 [icecast - icepic]
http://relay4.slayradio.org:8000/

The correct URL to add in the list.txt file would be one of the http... entries.

Finally, reboot the system from the EmulationStation menus and enjoy.

Addendum

The vlc command will play randomly one of the radio streams in the file. If you want to have a new radio stream played every time you return from a game, then add the following line in Step 2, in the on-end script:

echo -n next | socat -u - unix-client:/tmp/radio.sock >/dev/null 2>&1

If you want to stop the background music, just rename or remove the /home/pi/radio/list.txt file, then modify the files /opt/retropie/configs/all/runcommand-onstart.sh and /opt/retropie/configs/all/runcommand-onebd.sh and remove the line added in Step 2.

robertybob

This would be a great addition to the Wiki :)

jonnykesh

@mitu This is cool. There is a script to toggle background music on / off. You could change this to toggle the radio on / off.

#!/bin/bash 
#Toggle to start / stop any Music Player or Video Player

command="mpg123"

pids="$( pgrep "$command" )"

#if [[ -z "$pids" ]]; then
#    printf '"%s" is not running\n' "$command" >&2
#    exit 1
#fi

for pid in $pids; do
    state="$( ps -ostate= -p "$pid" )"

    stopped=0

    case "$state" in
        *T*)    stopped=1 ;;
    esac

    if (( stopped )); then
        kill -s CONT "$pid"
#        printf '"%s" (%d) has been unpaused\n' "$command" "$pid"
    else
        kill -s STOP "$pid"
#        printf '"%s" (%d) has been paused\n' "$command" "$pid"
    fi
done

I wish I could remember who wrote it so I could give them credit.

mitu

@jonnykesh It's quite similar to the method in the topic I mentioned first, so it might have originated there.
I used the vlc control-over-unix-socket method instead of the script because it gives more control over how the playlist should be played - you can jump to the next radio station in the playlist when going back to ES from a game.

pipesfranco

This is awesome thank you so much for your help :)

pipesfranco

One last thought guys...is there anyway to make the radio fade out rather than cut out once a game is selected and fade back in when you exit a game?

No big issue but just a thought?

Thanks again

:)

mitu

@pipesfranco I actually tried adding a cross-fade effect when stopping/resuming vlc, but it does not support that. Various searches on the interwebs show that it's not implemented in currently (see for instance this ticket).

I'll see if we can find an alternative to VLC that supports both streaming from internet radio sources and fade out/in for audio.

NowArrivingHere

@mitu

Raspberry Pi 3B
2.4A power supply
Raspbian Stretch
RetroPie 4.3.1

I haven't been able to get this working properly. I suspect there is a problem with my particular setup. I have RetroPie installed on top of Raspbian Stretch, which I know has issues.

Step 1 and 4 work fine for me. I was able to install everything, add my station (AI Radio), and get it to start playing automatically when emulationstation starts. However, step 2 and 3 are where everything falls apart.

The step 2 runcommand-onstart.sh breaks my runcommand. The music keeps playing and my chosen emulator fails to launch. I tried copy-pasting. I tried typing by hand. I even looked at the other thread and used chmod to allow execution privileges for all. It didn't work. The files were newly created and no other commands were added.

As for Step 3, my .bashrc doesn't have a retropie_welcome or #RETROPIE PROFILE END

Again, it is clear some people have gotten this working, so it is probably down to my particular setup. I'm just not sure what I did wrong.

mitu

@nowarrivinghere Can you paste here the contents of the /opt/retropie/configs/all/runcommand-onstart.sh file ? It seems this is the stuff that breaks for you.

NowArrivingHere

@mitu
Sure. Here you go

echo -n pause | nc -U /tmp/radio.sock >/dev/null 2>&1

mitu

@nowarrivinghere You might be missing the nc utility. Does the command works if you run it in a terminal ? Just type nc and see if you get any error.

NowArrivingHere

@mitu

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ nc
usage: nc [-46CDdFhklNnrStUuvZz] [-I length] [-i interval] [-O length]
          [-P proxy_username] [-p source_port] [-q seconds] [-s source]
          [-T toskeyword] [-V rtable] [-w timeout] [-X proxy_protocol]
          [-x proxy_address[:port]] [destination] [port]

mitu

@nowarrivinghere So netcat is installed. What happens if you run the command from the onstart file manually, after ES is started and the music plays ? It should pause the music.

echo -n pause | nc -U /tmp/radio.sock >/dev/null 2>&1

Can you run the command from a SSH session and see what's the outcome ? If it works (i.e. music is paused), try starting a game and (after you get thrown back to ES ) then paste the contents of the /var/shm/runcommand.log file, we might have some clues there.

cyperghost

@jonnykesh said in Streaming internet radio when browsing for games and on screensaver?:

I wish I could remember who wrote it so I could give them credit.

Not written completly just modified a bit... but I introduced here.... with correspondending source ;)

NowArrivingHere

@mitu

Okay, I just used SSH to try the pause command while the music was playing. I've waited about 90 seconds. Music is still playing and the SSH window is unresponsive.

mitu

@nowarrivinghere Sorry, forgot about removing the redirection. Execute this:

ls -l /tmp/radio.sock
echo -n pause | nc -U /tmp/radio.sock

I suspect it might be a permission problem.

NowArrivingHere

@mitu

Still fails to pause and leaves the window stuck.

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ ls -l /tmp/radio.sock
srwxr-xr-x 1 pi pi 0 Oct  4 16:42 /tmp/radio.sock
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ echo -n pause | nc -U /tmp/radio.sock

mitu

@nowarrivinghere I have no idea why it does that - maybe Stretch has a different version of VLC that's not the same as the one I tested and the old interface doesn't work anymore ?

Just to check if there is a problem with newer versions, kill the VLC that is started via the autostart with killall vlc, then start the playback directly from thessh session, by running

vlc -I oldrc --rc-unix /tmp/radio.sock -Zq --no-video /home/pi/radio/list.txt

You should get the radion playing this way with logging from VLC on the terminal.
Now, from a 2nd SSH session, run the echo command that's giving you trouble and see if it pauses the stream or any error appears in the 1st terminal, where VLC is running.

Other than that, maybe the output of /dev/shm/runcommand.log from starting a game might be of use.

NowArrivingHere

@mitu

Okay, this is interesting, I opened SSH Window 1, killed vlc, and reopened it via the command you gave. Then, in SSH Window 2, I ran the pause command. It appeared to sit there with the music still playing just as before. However, I then did a CTRL+C in Window 2 and it paused. Then I used the pause command in Window 2 again. Once again, it just sat there silently. Then I did CTRL+C and sure enough it started playing music again. Also, here is the output that appeared in Window 1.

status change: ( new input: http://listen.ai-radio.org:8000/128.ogg?cc=US&now=1507110308.444& )
status change: ( play state: 3 )
pause: returned 0 (no error)
status change: ( pause state: 3 ): Pause
status change: ( pause state: 4 )
pause: returned 0 (no error)
status change: ( play state: 2 ): Play
status change: ( play state: 3 )
pause: returned 0 (no error)
status change: ( pause state: 3 ): Pause
status change: ( play state: 3 )
pause: returned 0 (no error)

EDIT: I decided to just place the script that jonnykesh brought us inside my runcommand-onstart.sh and runcommand-onend.sh with the mpg123 replaced with vlc. That seems to work and perform the function of the pause command on the cases I have tried so far. Its probably not as efficient as the actual vlc controls, but I haven't noticed a delay from a human perspective. It is more efficient than just using the kill all command and then that command we added in autostart.sh and restarting vlc every time though, which was my backup plan and did introduce a delay. Would be nice to have access to the other vlc controls, but I can't think of anything else to try right now.

mitu

@nowarrivinghere This means the netcat commands you run in the 2nd window reads the pause command but it doesn't send it right away and awaits further input.
I'll do some testing with the version in Stretch to see if it behaves differently than the one in the Jessie release, but glad you got it working with the alternate start/stop command.