I need to setup Linux machines for streaming audio to an Icecast2 server from time to time and I always forget how to do it. This post will outline the install process on a machine with a minimal Debian Lenny system.

After you first boot into a fresh system, log in as root and install a couple things to make the next steps work.

$ apt-get install openssh-server sudo htop alsa g++ gcc oss-compat

You need to add your username into the sudoers file by running visudo and adding yourusername ALL=(ALL) ALL

once that’s done, find your IP address by

$ ifconfig

write down whatever eth0 says and you can get rid of your keyboard and monitor attached to the target machine.  SSH into the box with your username and download source code for lame, then compile it.

$ tar xfz lame-3.91.tar.gz
$ cd lame-3.91
$ ./configure –with-fileio=lame –without-vorbis –disable-gtktest –enable-expopt=full –prefix=/usr
$ make
$sudo make install
     

For the last step, you need to be root or have write permissions in the target directories.

You might as well use ogg vorbis too.  Go find libogg +libvorbis tarballs somewhere.

$ tar xfz libogg-1.0.tar.gz
$ cd libogg-1.0
$ ./configure –prefix=/usr
$ make
$ sudo make install
$ cd ..
$ tar xfz libvorbis-1.0.tar.gz
$ cd libvorbis-1.0
$ ./configure –prefix=/usr
$ make
$ sudo make install

You need to be root to make install.  Now, grab the darkice source code and compile.

$ ./configure –with-lame –with-vorbis –with-alsa
$ make
$ make install 

You should probably make a configuration fie in /etc as well.  A sample config file is in /usr/local/etc/

Here is my config file for your reference.

[general]

duration        = 0        # duration of encoding, in seconds. 0 means forever
bufferSecs      = 5         # size of internal slip buffer, in seconds
reconnect       = yes       # reconnect to the server(s) if disconnected

# this section describes the audio input that will be streamed

[input]

device          = /dev/dsp    # OSS DSP soundcard device for the audio input
#device = hw:0,0
sampleRate      = 44100   # sample rate in Hz. try 11025, 22050 or 44100
bitsPerSample   = 16        # bits per sample. try 16
channel         = 2         # channels. 1 = mono, 2 = stereo

[icecast2-0]
format          = mp3
bitrateMode     = vbr
bitrate         = 128
quality         = .8
server          = (your server)
mountPoint      = conway128
port            = 8000
password        = (your pass)
name            = rev.mook
description     = rev. mook
url             = mookserve.com
genre           = Mix
public          = yes

[icecast2-1]
format          = mp3
bitrateMode     = vbr
bitrate         = 320
quality         = 1
server          = (your server)
mountPoint      = 320
port            = 8000
password        = (your pass)
name            = rev. mook
description     = rev. mook
url             = mookserve.com
genre           = Mix
public          = yes

I was having issues with my WordPress installation running very slow.  In addition there were problems when sending updating from my mobile device.  It took me a minute to note that things were working just fine until I installed the Facebook plugin.  A bit of digging on the ‘net revealed that curl “might” needed, however I didn’t really find anything in the documentation that would suggest otherwise.  I was able to fix this problem on my Debian server by installing a few new packages.

$ sudo apt-get install curl libcurl3 libcurl3-dev php5-curl

After everything installs, restart Apache.

$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Now the Facebook plugin is playing nicely within WordPress.