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aplay: Unable to install hw params

Martin Hertig

February 07, 2014 22:39

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Hi,

I installed my new HifiBerry and your test-script runs fine, also the sine soundfile plays. however if i want to play another file using aplay, i get the error "aplay: set_params:1145:: Unable to install hw params
what am i doing wrong?

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11 comments

• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team February 08, 2014 00:22

  Hi,
  
  I guess the file you wanted to play was not a WAV file. aplay is very limited. If you want to play back other file formats than simple WAV files, you should use mplayer.
  
  Best regards
  Daniel
• 0
  
  Falk Eichmann August 19, 2014 15:40

  I get the same message (and no sound):
  
  pi@musicserver01 /usr/share/scratch/Media/Sounds/Vocals $ aplay Singer1.wav
  Playing WAVE 'Singer1.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 11025 Hz, Mono
  aplay: set_params:1145: Unable to install hw params:
  ACCESS: RW_INTERLEAVED
  FORMAT: S16_LE
  SUBFORMAT: STD
  SAMPLE_BITS: 16
  FRAME_BITS: 16
  CHANNELS: 1
  RATE: 11025
  PERIOD_TIME: (124988 124989)
  PERIOD_SIZE: 1378
  PERIOD_BYTES: 2756
  PERIODS: 4
  BUFFER_TIME: (499954 499955)
  BUFFER_SIZE: 5512
  BUFFER_BYTES: 11024
  TICK_TIME: 0
  
  Best regards
  
  Falk
• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team August 19, 2014 17:21

  Hi Falk,
  
  our hardware does not support 11kHz mono playback. Try to use mplayer.
  
  Best regards
  Daniel
  
• 0
  
  Falk Eichmann August 19, 2014 18:21

  Hi Daniel,
  
  no chance. This results in "-bash: mplayer: command not found".
  
  I think, I'll put the whole project to the trashbin. It turns out to be more of a Nerdberry than a Hifiberry. Too difficult for me.
  
  Thanks for trying
  
  Falk
  
  
• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team August 19, 2014 20:13

  Hi Falk,
  
  what exactly are you trying to achieve? For most use cases there are already distributions available that do not need a lot of configurations. Tell us more what you want to do.
  
  Best regards
  Daniel
  
  BTW: "sudo apt-get install mplayer" will install mplayer.
• 0
  
  Falk Eichmann August 19, 2014 21:39

  I just try to stream/control 4 TB of flac&m4a audio using the Raspberry/Hifiberry and control the whole thing via Wifi.
  
  Back to basics:
  - I have about 80.000 Tracks (flac and m4a with different sample rates up to 24bit/192 kHz) on a 6 TB USB-drive. For testing I still use a 128 GB USB-Pen-Drive with a few files on it.
  - I have a Raspberry Pi, Hifiberry and this SPDIFberry-Thing (and a pretty cool real good DAC receiving SPDIF)
  - I have a Logi-Link USB-Wifi-Adapter, which was running pretty neat as an Ad-Hoc network with on of those hundred different distributions, which do NOT support the Hifiberry but the crappy audio-out of the raspberry. (I have a few more WIFI-Adapters, which did not work with those distributions ...)
  - I want to play a (via Wifi-selectable, preferably user friendly interface) file out of those 80.000 to the stereo out of the HifiBerry (as I expect, the same will work to the SPDIF-thing after reconnection, unplug, reboot, detonate, whatever).
  - My Wifi remote things are all of Apple (iphone, Ipod, Ipad-Stuff, none Android) -> could be a problem
  - I expected it to be not simple, but managable.
  - I failed
  
  Best regards
  
  Falk
  
• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team August 20, 2014 02:02

  Hi Falk,
  
  did you try to use Volumio for this? It should be able to do what you want. It hace a Web interface which can be used from PC, phone and tablet.
  
  Best regards
  Daniel
• 0
  
  Falk Eichmann August 20, 2014 12:02

  Hi Daniel,
  
  I just tried Volumio and it is at least playing Webradio through the Hifiberry and also a few files from a pendrive. I Used the WebUI for control, which looks - basic.
  
  So practically the hifiberry works. The next step will be to get this running with an WiFi AdHoc network and getting access to the coverart.
  
  Thanks for helping.
  
  Falk
• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team August 20, 2014 16:22

  Dear Falk,
  
  as Volumio is based on Raspbian setup of an ad-hoc network should work the same way. As this might be interesting to other readers: do you have a guide somewhere how to set this up?
  
  Best regards
  Daniel
• 0
  
  Falk Eichmann August 20, 2014 18:37

  If can manage to set it up properly, I will post it here.
  
  But Volumio looks pretty nasty for me, compared to iTunes. No covers, bad HMI, bad search. I'll try to find something better, or continue on iTunes.
  
  Falk
• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team August 20, 2014 20:46

  Hi Falk,
  
  if you just want to stream from iTunes, you can use the Airplay functionality from Volumio. Volumio is based on "mpd" and there are apps to control mpd in the Appstore. However I've never tried this and I'm not sure if they work with Volumio.
  
  Best regards
  Daniel