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blog:the_problem_of_portability_part_2 [2026/03/15 13:00] – created hjrblog:the_problem_of_portability_part_2 [2026/03/15 13:04] (current) – hjr
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 Once you’ve built a library of possible PulseAudio sinks in this way, you can take the mini-player’s Option 1 to select a particular one of them to send audio to: Once you’ve built a library of possible PulseAudio sinks in this way, you can take the mini-player’s Option 1 to select a particular one of them to send audio to:
  
 +{{ :blog:screenshot_2026-03-14_at_18.04.08.png?direct&400 |}}
  
 +The current audio ‘sink’ is marked with an asterisk; your job is to up and down arrow through the list of available sinks and press the Space Bar when you’re sitting on the item you want to use for the next play: that press of the Space Bar will make the asterisk jump to that item, indicating selection success. Press [Enter] to make the new selection ‘stick’. You’ll be returned to the main mini-player menu where, towards the bottom of the screen, you’ll see confirmation of the currently-selected PulseAudio server: if you then tap the ‘P’ option to play music, it’s this IP address to which music will be directed.
  
-The current audio ‘sink’ is marked with an asterisk; your job is to up and down arrow through the list of available sinks and press the Space Bar when you’re sitting on the item you want to use for the next play: that press of the Space Bar will make the asterisk jump to that item, indicating selection success. Press [Enter] to make the new selection ‘stick’. You’ll be returned to the main mini-player menu:+To be clear, for any of this to work, the persistent configuration parameter **Force the use of PulseAudio** must be set in full-fat Giocoso’s configuration settings:
  
 +{{ :blog:screenshot_2026-03-12_at_15.51.25.png?direct&600 |}}
  
-Towards the bottom of the screen, you’ll see confirmation of the currently-selected PulseAudio server: if you then tap the ‘P’ option to play music, it’s this IP address to which music will be directed. 
- 
-To be clear, for any of this to work, the persistent configuration parameter **Force the use of PulseAudio** must be set in full-fat Giocoso’s configuration settings: 
 If you haven’t set that parameter to “yes”, then specifying a PulseAudio server to play to simply doesn’t work: audio will ‘sound’ on the PC you’re directly connected to, assuming it has speakers to use! If you haven’t set that parameter to “yes”, then specifying a PulseAudio server to play to simply doesn’t work: audio will ‘sound’ on the PC you’re directly connected to, assuming it has speakers to use!
 It should also be obvious, I hope, that this can only work if your player PC and the devices it sends audio to are all configured to use PulseAudio (or its cousin, PipeWire, which is essentially the same thing as far as these purposes are concerned). Most Linux distros ship with PulseAudio out-of-the-box and very little, if any, configuration is needed to make them players or sounders. MacOS can also act as a PulseAudio client and server, though things get much more complicated there: I’ll have specific documentation prepared for this topic shortly. It should also be obvious, I hope, that this can only work if your player PC and the devices it sends audio to are all configured to use PulseAudio (or its cousin, PipeWire, which is essentially the same thing as far as these purposes are concerned). Most Linux distros ship with PulseAudio out-of-the-box and very little, if any, configuration is needed to make them players or sounders. MacOS can also act as a PulseAudio client and server, though things get much more complicated there: I’ll have specific documentation prepared for this topic shortly.
 +
 The little secret ingredient I haven’t mentioned until now, too, is that the box doing the Giocoso playing and sending its audio out to ‘sounding devices’ doesn’t have to be a big PC. There’s a reason it was drawn in that earlier diagram with this logo: The little secret ingredient I haven’t mentioned until now, too, is that the box doing the Giocoso playing and sending its audio out to ‘sounding devices’ doesn’t have to be a big PC. There’s a reason it was drawn in that earlier diagram with this logo:
  
 +{{ :blog:linux_containers_logo.svg.png?direct&220 |}}
  
 That is the official logo of the LXC or [[https://linuxcontainers.org|Linux Containers project]]. What is an LXC container? Well, it’s sort-of like a virtual machine, running on [[https://www.proxmox.com/en/|a Proxmox hypervisor]], but incredibly minimal and lightweight: I have an Arch one configured to use just 2GB of RAM, 8GB of hard disk space and two virtual CPUs. It runs nothing much more than standard Giocoso, configured to use PulseAudio. I ssh into it and, using the mini-player interface, direct it’s audio output to whichever one of my minimalist room setups I need to hear music from at the time. That is the official logo of the LXC or [[https://linuxcontainers.org|Linux Containers project]]. What is an LXC container? Well, it’s sort-of like a virtual machine, running on [[https://www.proxmox.com/en/|a Proxmox hypervisor]], but incredibly minimal and lightweight: I have an Arch one configured to use just 2GB of RAM, 8GB of hard disk space and two virtual CPUs. It runs nothing much more than standard Giocoso, configured to use PulseAudio. I ssh into it and, using the mini-player interface, direct it’s audio output to whichever one of my minimalist room setups I need to hear music from at the time.
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 I hasten to add that //none// of this affects how you use Giocoso if you don’t want it to! All my ‘serious’ music listening happens in my dedicated ‘listening room’: that contains a passively-cooled PC hidden away in a draw, physically connected via optical-out to a full-on DAC and amplifier. I ssh direct into that machine and run full-fat Giocoso on it from my iMac desktop: there’s no PulseAudio involved at all there… and I wouldn’t want it to be! I hasten to add that //none// of this affects how you use Giocoso if you don’t want it to! All my ‘serious’ music listening happens in my dedicated ‘listening room’: that contains a passively-cooled PC hidden away in a draw, physically connected via optical-out to a full-on DAC and amplifier. I ssh direct into that machine and run full-fat Giocoso on it from my iMac desktop: there’s no PulseAudio involved at all there… and I wouldn’t want it to be!
  
-The new features in version 3.36 of Giocoso simply means that it’s now easier than ever to have less-serious listening follow me about the house, if I want it to: I ssh into the LXC container and direct its output via PulseAudio to the lightweight playing device in whatever room I’m working in at the time. In my garden shed, the playing device is literally a Raspberry Pi 3B playing wirelessly to a small Bluetooth speaker: I’m not expecting great hi-fi fidelity from that setup and sending audio via PulseAudio and Bluetooth therefore doesn’t degrade anything below my already-low expectations!+The new features in version 3.36 of Giocoso simply means that it’s now easier than ever to have less-serious listening follow me about the house, if I want it to: I ssh into the LXC container and direct its output via PulseAudio to the lightweight playing device in whatever room I’m working in at the time. In my garden shed, the playing device is literally a Raspberry Pi 3B playing wirelessly to a small Bluetooth speaker: I’m not expecting great hi-fi fidelity from that setup and sending audio via PulseAudio and Bluetooth therefore doesn’t degrade anything below my already-low expectations! It is enough, however, to have music follow me around the house at will... or, at least, at the touch of some keys on my mobile phone :-) 
 + 
  • blog/the_problem_of_portability_part_2.txt
  • Last modified: 2026/03/15 13:04
  • by hjr