The SheevePlug is now also running Squeezebox Server. This because I bought a Squeezebox Touch. It’s a very nice device to play music. TwonkyMedia Server was already running on the SheevaPlug, and allowed me to play video and music using a DLNA compatible television. But this set-up is not ideal for music; the television must always be on. The Squeezebox is a dedicated device just the play music. Unfortunately, Squeezebox uses its own server software, and does not work with the standard DLNA. The software that is needed is, however, open source, and can be run on a lot of different devices, including Linux. All it need is Perl and MySQL. Easy deb packages are available for download.

The speed it not great, but certainly workable. It first needs to index all music. This takes around 40 minutes for 6000 files. When browsing using the web interface, it takes a few seconds to load a page. When using the Squeezebox itself, the speed it more than enough.

Another advantage of the Squeezebox, is that a lot of it is open source. The server software is open source, written in Perl, and the Touch runs a small version of Linux. You can connect using SSH. The interface of the Touch is written in lua, and can be hacked completely. I already wrote my first hack…