Griffin radio SHARK + icecast2 on Debian GNU/Linux

I have been meaning to get a Griffin radioSHARK with the intention of getting it running on Linux. Since it has a nice discount over at amazon I ran out of excuses for not buying one, so I finally ordered it.
Once the sweet sweet parcel arrived the radio SHARK sat for a couple of weeks gathering dust while I got a moment to play with it. Trying to get it to run in Windows XP was totally fruitless. The only way I got it to spit any sound at all was while in audio “test” mode. Not really an option, but at least it meant that that the hardware was working fine.
So now it was time to move it over to Linux. The definitive guide for the radioSHARK under linux is at LinuxQuestions.org. They recommend ecasound to transcode the audio input to the sound card in a single computer, but I rather use icecast2 to stream the signal to different computers around the house — even to the office or while I’m on the road. I don’t care much for the time-shifting feature of the Windows/Mac client, and the record function can be replicated with VLC save to disk function or using command-line tools.
The program that controls the radioSHARK lights and change the current station is shark.c, but if you get it from LinuxQuestions.org you’ll have to copy+paste and clean it up a bit, so you might want to use this ready-to-go shark.c instead.
This is the list of packages for Debian GNU/Linux:

So how do you get a full-functioning, live-streaming, all-singing radioSHARK working under Debian?

1. Plug the radioSHARK in the USB port you’ll get this in dmesg:

   usb 1-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
   usbcore: registered new driver hiddev
   input: Griffin Technology, Inc. RadioSHARK as /class/input/input2
   input: USB HID v1.00 Device [Griffin Technology, Inc. RadioSHARK] on usb-0000:00:10.0-2
   usbcore: registered new driver usbhid
   drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.6:USB HID core driver
   

2. Compile shark.c using
   gcc -g -o shark -lhid shark.c

3. Copy shark to /usr/local/bin
   # cp shark /usr/local/bin

4. Check that your brand-new shark is working:
   # /usr/local/bin/shark -blue 60

5. Edit /etc/icecast2/icecast.xml and fill out at least the authentication and hostname sections.
6. Copy /usr/share/doc/darkice/examples/darkice.cfg to /etc/darkice.cfg and edit to taste. My own configuration goes something like this:

   [general]
   duration        = 0
   bufferSecs      = 5
   reconnect       = yes
   
   [input]
   device          = /dev/dsp
   sampleRate      = 22050
   bitsPerSample   = 16
   channel         = 2
   
   [icecast2-0]
   bitrateMode     = vbr
   format          = vorbis
   bitrate         = 32
   quality         = 0.8
   server          = localhost
   port            = 8000
   password        = icecastPassword
   mountPoint      = radio.ogg
   name            = Radio MexicoDF
   description     = Radio from Mexico, D.F.
   url             = http://your.url
   genre           = misc
   public          = yes
   

7. Start up icecast2 running /etc/init.d/icecast2 start and check out that it’s running by opening http://localhost:8000/ . You should get a status screen without any streams.
8. Start up darkice with /usr/bin/darkice -c /etc/darkice.cfg . When you reload http://localhost:8000/ in your web browser you should get a stream mount point with your newly defined stream. Tune in to the stream URL using XMMS, VLC, WinAmp or your favorite audio player, and you sould hear something, at least some white noise.
9. To change stations use
   # /usr/local/bin/shark -fm 102.5
   After a few seconds -depending on your audio player buffer size- you should hear the new station.

My next weekend project will be to create a web front-end to shark — perhaps even implement a record-to-disk option.