Owntone on Unraid as jukebox

2025-02-01

I want to play online radios with my own unraid server, use it as a jukebox. I find it really complicated, and eventually here comes the solution.

To use Owntone on Unraid:

You will need:

A cheap USB soundcard, buy it from Aliexpress
Sound card plugin
Make sure the nobody grouping has audio in it: usermod -aG audio nobody
Install owntone docker, note the following configuration:

Configuration

docker run
  -d
  --name='owntone'
  --net='docker-apps'
  --pids-limit 2048
  -e TZ="America/New_York"
  -e HOST_OS="Unraid"
  -e HOST_HOSTNAME="VC65"
  -e HOST_CONTAINERNAME="owntone"
  -e 'UID'='99'
  -e 'PID'='17'
  -l net.unraid.docker.managed=dockerman
  -l net.unraid.docker.webui='http://[IP]:[PORT:3689]'
  -l net.unraid.docker.icon='https://developer.asustor.com/uploadIcons/0020_117518_1620963351_owntone_icon_256.png'
  -p '3689:3689/tcp'
  -p '3688:3688/tcp'
  -v '/mnt/user/Vault/Multimedia/Music/':'/srv/media':'rw'
  -v '/mnt/user/appdata/owntone':'/etc/owntone/':'rw'
  -v '/mnt/user/appdata/owntone/database':'/var/cache/owntone':'rw'
  -v '/etc/group':'/etc/group':'ro' #ensure docker grouping matches with unraid
  --device='/dev/snd:/dev/snd'
  --group-add=audio 'docker.io/owntone/owntone:latest'
085f04172753cebe3b0e693b3a88d41408db9e4147655711e555566cd42fc681

Owntone’s configuration file should be something like this:

general {
        uid = "nobody"
        db_path = "/var/cache/owntone/database.db"
        db_backup_path = "/var/cache/owntone/database.bak"
        logfile = "/dev/stderr"
        loglevel = log
        trusted_networks = { "any" }
}
library {
        name = "Pyhnas Radio"
        port = 3689
        directories = { "/srv/media" }
        podcasts = { "/Podcasts" }
        audiobooks = { "/Audiobooks" }
        compilations = { "/Compilations" }
        compilation_artist = "Various Artists"
        m3u_overrides = true
}
audio {
        nickname = "Computer"
        type = "alsa"
        card = "hw:0"
        mixer = "Speaker"
}

Notes

You will need to figure out the content in audio to make sure it can be played correctly.

Use aplay -l in you unraid host to get the list of audio devices:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Device [USB Audio Device], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

The card 0 corresponds to the card = hw:0. Then you will need to figure out the mixer, use amixer on your host to find it out:

Simple mixer control 'Speaker',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 30
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 27 [90%] [-4.50dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 27 [90%] [-4.50dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined cvolume cvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Capture channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 14 Capture 0 - 28
  Mono: Playback 1 [7%] [-10.50dB] [off] Capture 25 [89%] [25.50dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Auto Gain Control',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]

Then it will be the Speaker.

#Tutorials