Internet DJ Console Homepage IDJC

website logo

Aims

In this section I'm going to walk you through the procedure of setting up an Iceccast server and then sending a live stream to it with IDJC. In addition I will demonstrate the connection of a listener to show that everything really does work.

The advice below is for demonstration purposes only. Not covered are best practices of locking down an Icecast server for serious use. For that and other non IDJC related matters there are the Icecast forums and the Icecast documentation itself.

Setting up Icecast

Why local?

Everything in this tutorial will be demonstrated on the same machine and while not as impressive as sending a stream half way across your house, by making this tutorial single machine specific I can not only leave multi-machine as an exercise to the reader but also not have to worry about anyone's local network specifics or how many machines they have reasonable access to.

Installing Icecast
  • Ubuntu

    sudo apt-get install icecast2
  • Debian

    sudo -c "apt-get install icecast2"
The configuration file

Take a look in your /etc/icecast2/ directory and you should find a file called icecast.xml. This file is and will be referred to as the Icecast server configuration file. In it are the settings for the various different Icecast options. Here below are the typical contents.

<icecast>
    <limits>
        <clients>100</clients>
        <sources>2</sources>
        <threadpool>5</threadpool>
        <queue-size>524288</queue-size>
        <client-timeout>30</client-timeout>
        <header-timeout>15</header-timeout>
        <source-timeout>10</source-timeout>
        <!-- If enabled, this will provide a burst of data when a client
             first connects, thereby significantly reducing the startup
             time for listeners that do substantial buffering. However,
             it also significantly increases latency between the source
             client and listening client.  For low-latency setups, you
             might want to disable this. -->
        <burst-on-connect>1</burst-on-connect>
        <!-- same as burst-on-connect, but this allows for being more
             specific on how much to burst. Most people won't need to
             change from the default 64k. Applies to all mountpoints  -->
        <burst-size>65535</burst-size>
    </limits>

    <authentication>
        <!-- Sources log in with username 'source' -->
        <source-password>hackme</source-password>
        <!-- Relays log in username 'relay' -->
        <relay-password>hackme</relay-password>

        <!-- Admin logs in with the username given below -->
        <admin-user>admin</admin-user>
        <admin-password>hackme</admin-password>
    </authentication>

    <!-- set the mountpoint for a shoutcast source to use, the default if not
         specified is /stream but you can change it here if an alternative is
         wanted or an extension is required
    <shoutcast-mount>/live.nsv</shoutcast-mount>
    -->

    <!-- Uncomment this if you want directory listings -->
    <!--
    <directory>
        <yp-url-timeout>15</yp-url-timeout>
        <yp-url>http://dir.xiph.org/cgi-bin/yp-cgi</yp-url>
    </directory>
     -->

    <!-- This is the hostname other people will use to connect to your server.
    It affects mainly the urls generated by Icecast for playlists and yp
    listings. -->
    <hostname>localhost</hostname>

    <!-- You may have multiple <listener> elements -->
    <listen-socket>
        <port>8000</port>
        <!-- <bind-address>127.0.0.1</bind-address> -->
        <!-- <shoutcast-mount>/stream</shoutcast-mount> -->
    </listen-socket>
    <!--
    <listen-socket>
        <port>8001</port>
    </listen-socket>
    -->

    <!--<master-server>127.0.0.1</master-server>-->
    <!--<master-server-port>8001</master-server-port>-->
    <!--<master-update-interval>120</master-update-interval>-->
    <!--<master-password>hackme</master-password>-->

    <!-- setting this makes all relays on-demand unless overridden, this is
         useful for master relays which do not have <relay> definitions here.
         The default is 0 -->
    <!--<relays-on-demand>1</relays-on-demand>-->

    <!--
    <relay>
        <server>127.0.0.1</server>
        <port>8001</port>
        <mount>/example.ogg</mount>
        <local-mount>/different.ogg</local-mount>
        <on-demand>0</on-demand>

        <relay-shoutcast-metadata>0</relay-shoutcast-metadata>
    </relay>
    -->

    <!-- Only define a <mount> section if you want to use advanced options,
         like alternative usernames or passwords
    <mount>
        <mount-name>/example-complex.ogg</mount-name>

        <username>othersource</username>
        <password>hackmemore</password>

        <max-listeners>1</max-listeners>
        <dump-file>/tmp/dump-example1.ogg</dump-file>
        <burst-size>65536</burst-size>
        <fallback-mount>/example2.ogg</fallback-mount>
        <fallback-override>1</fallback-override>
        <fallback-when-full>1</fallback-when-full>
        <intro>/example_intro.ogg</intro>
        <hidden>1</hidden>
        <no-yp>1</no-yp>
        <authentication type="htpasswd">
                <option name="filename" value="myauth"/>
                <option name="allow_duplicate_users" value="0"/>
        </authentication>
        <on-connect>/home/icecast/bin/stream-start</on-connect>
        <on-disconnect>/home/icecast/bin/stream-stop</on-disconnect>
    </mount>

    <mount>
        <mount-name>/auth_example.ogg</mount-name>
        <authentication type="url">
            <option name="mount_add"       value="http://myauthserver.net/notify_mount.php"/>
            <option name="mount_remove"    value="http://myauthserver.net/notify_mount.php"/>
            <option name="listener_add"    value="http://myauthserver.net/notify_listener.php"/>
            <option name="listener_remove" value="http://myauthserver.net/notify_listener.php"/>
        </authentication>
    </mount>

    -->

    <fileserve>1</fileserve>

    <paths>
		<!-- basedir is only used if chroot is enabled -->
        <basedir>/usr/share/icecast2</basedir>

        <!-- Note that if <chroot> is turned on below, these paths must both
             be relative to the new root, not the original root -->
        <logdir>/var/log/icecast2</logdir>
        <webroot>/usr/share/icecast2/web</webroot>
        <adminroot>/usr/share/icecast2/admin</adminroot>
        <!-- <pidfile>/usr/share/icecast2/icecast.pid</pidfile> -->

        <!-- Aliases: treat requests for 'source' path as being for 'dest' path
             May be made specific to a port or bound address using the "port"
             and "bind-address" attributes.
          -->
        <!--
        <alias source="/foo" dest="/bar"/>
          -->
        <!-- Aliases: can also be used for simple redirections as well,
             this example will redirect all requests for http://server:port/ to
             the status page
          -->
        <alias source="/" dest="/status.xsl"/>
    </paths>

    <logging>
        <accesslog>access.log</accesslog>
        <errorlog>error.log</errorlog>
        <!-- <playlistlog>playlist.log</playlistlog> -->
      	<loglevel>3</loglevel> <!-- 4 Debug, 3 Info, 2 Warn, 1 Error -->
      	<logsize>10000</logsize> <!-- Max size of a logfile -->
        <!-- If logarchive is enabled (1), then when logsize is reached
             the logfile will be moved to [error|access|playlist].log.DATESTAMP,
             otherwise it will be moved to [error|access|playlist].log.old.
             Default is non-archive mode (i.e. overwrite)
        -->
        <!-- <logarchive>1</logarchive> -->
    </logging>

    <security>
        <chroot>0</chroot>
        <!--
        <changeowner>
            <user>nobody</user>
            <group>nogroup</group>
        </changeowner>
        -->
    </security>
</icecast>

What we should do now is copy and paste this file into a text editor or start editing a copy of your original file. Hint: use your own file in preference to mine. Launch a text editor like gedit to do this.

Next, select Save As in the text editor's menu, choose the file name icecast.xml, and save it in your home directory.

Attempting to run
$ icecast2 -c icecast.xml
FATAL: could not open error logging (/var/log/icecast2/error.log): No such file or directory
FATAL: could not open access logging (/var/log/icecast2/access.log): No such file or directory
FATAL: Could not start logging

Fix this by editing icecast.xml and change the logdir setting to /tmp which will solve the problem of inadequate write permissions and try again. Leave Icecast running for the time being.

Configuring IDJC

If not running Pipewire start the JACK sound server as follows in order to ensure unimpeded access to the soundcard by Pulseaudio.

$ jackd -d dummy -r 44100

Run IDJC and select Output from the View menu. In the Output window click Configuration so the configuration section is visible.

Click Connection, then New.

For Server type you want Icecast 2 Master, for Hostname, localhost, port number should be 8000, mount point can be what you like but choose /listen, login name needs to be source and the password will be the default password, which is hackme. Click Ok to add the server to the list.

Click Format. Select MPEG and click the right arrow repeatedly until all the option boxes appear.

Click Individual Controls so the controls section is visible and click the button that says localhost:8000/listen.

If the button stays in you have made the connection.

If the connection fails try 127.0.0.1 in place of localhost.

Streaming some audio

Click the + button on the left media player and using the file selector add a track to the playlist. Click play. Make sure the crossfader is set all the way to the left. Of the player's Audio Feed settings, make sure Stream is on and DJ is off and Monitor Mix is set to DJ. You should be able to see activity in the Str Peak meter.

If you can't hear anything right now it's because DJ is off and/or you are running a dummy JACK soundcard, which is what you want for the sake of this test.

Join the stream as a listener

$ mplayer http://localhost:8000/listen

After a brief moment audio should start to play and within thirty seconds the listener count in the main IDJC window should have risen to 1. It's possible to add more listeners up to the maximum number currently specified in the Icecast configuration file.