Sonos Desktop Controller

What works

Same functionality as Windows with exception noted below.

What does not

1. Adding local or other hard drive folders as music sources crashes the app.  (Adding networked share, ie, NAS works fine.)

On the Sonos Desktop Controller app, navigate to:

"Manage" -> "Music Library Settings ..." -> "Add Music Folder"

Option: "My Music Folder" (hard crash - no workaround)

Option: "Another folder or drive connected to my computer" (hard crash - workaround available)

Workarounds

1. Workaround consists of accessing local folder or other hard drive folder as Samba share.  Details in Additional Comments, #2.

2. Sonos can be unresponsive, and can be remedied by changing the scheduling priority of its running process.  Details in Additional Comments, #3.

What was not tested

Miscellaneous functions.

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU: Nvidia
• Driver: unknown

Additional Comments

1. Performed the following Wine post-install actions, Ref:  How to install and configure Wine?

winecfg

winetricks dotnet40
winetricks d3dx10
winetricks d3dx11_42
winetricks d3dx11_43
winetricks d3dx9
winetricks d3dx9_26
winetricks d3dx9_28
winetricks d3dx9_31
winetricks d3dx9_35
winetricks d3dx9_36
winetricks d3dx9_39
winetricks d3dx9_42
winetricks d3dx9_43
winetricks directx9
winetricks physx
winetricks vcrun2008
winetricks vcrun2010
winetricks wmp9
winetricks xact
winetricks xact_jun2010
winetricks xinput
winetricks xna31

Run winecfg once more, changing OS back to Windows 10.

2. Workaround details

Problem:  Cannot access local folder or other hard drive folder in "Manage" -> "Music Library Settings ... " -> "Add Music Folder
Solution:  Access folder(s) by means of Samba share(s).

Install Samba and (optionally) Samba Server Configuration, Ref:  Sonos with Linux detailed Howto

a. On the server create a new user:

sudo adduser sonos
sudo passwd sonos

b. Configure Samba:  create/update samba users file /etc/samba/smbusers

root = administrator admin
nobody = guest pcguest smbguest
sonos = sonos

c. Create Samba user shares: in Samba Server config create one or more local user shares, examples,

Directory                                              Share name           Permissions         Visibility           Access

/home/user/Music                                musicshare1           Writeable           Visible              Allow access to everyone
/media/user/InternalHD/Music              musicshare2           Writeable           Visible              Allow access to everyone

d. Add Sonos music share(s):

Get host name, run cmd:   hostname

On the Sonos Desktop Controller app, navigate to:

"Manage" -> "Music Library Settings ... " -> "Add Music Folder "

Select option: "Another folder or drive connected to my computer"

Example:

Path: //user-host-name/musicshare1

Username: sonos
Password:sonos

e. Result:

Name and Path are added to "My Music Folders on Sonos"

The Sonos Desktop Controller app is able to access content of the share(s) under "Select a Music Source" -> "Music Library"

f. Note: If unable to run system-config-samba, run cmd:
sudo touch /etc/libuser.conf

System-config-samba gui issue, Ref: [SOLVED] Samba won't run in (Mint)18.1? 

3.  If Sonos is unresponsive you may change its scheduling priority.  This script below will set its nineness to the max of -20.  Modify the value to suit your needs.  This will also modify the priority of all subordinate threads. Note that with this script the scheduling priority reverts to its default of 0 when the app is restarted.

#!/bin/bash
# sonos_renice.sh
PID=`ps -eaf | grep Sonos.exe | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}'`
if [ "" !=  "$PID" ]; then
  renice -n -20 $(ls -1 /proc/$PID/task)
fi

To run it issue the cmd:  

sudo sh sonos_renice.sh

You can verify this with the cmd top or htop if installed.  

For htop press F3, enter sonos.exe, then F5 to see all threads.

There are other ways to achieve the same result such as invoking nice on the app as it starts.

4. Note that this configuration works for Sonos Desktop Controller 9.2.  As Sonos periodically releases new versions you will most likely need to re-install.