Installation#

Every release ships:

v1 or v3? The amd64 builds come in two flavours. v3 is a little faster and needs a CPU from 2013 (Intel Haswell) or 2017 (AMD Zen) onwards; v1 runs on any 64-bit x86 CPU. A v3 build on an older CPU exits immediately with an “illegal instruction” error — pick v1 when unsure.

Debian package#

sudo apt install ./aether_<version>_linux_amd64_v1.deb

The package installs:

It also pulls in two optional helpers (apt installs recommended packages by default): ffmpeg, whose ffprobe reads tags from formats the built-in reader does not handle, and libchromaprint-tools, whose fpcalc powers track identification in the metadata editor.

Important

The packaged config starts with authentication off, so the server only listens on 127.0.0.1:8075. To reach it from other machines, either put a reverse proxy in front of it or turn on authentication.

The service runs in a systemd sandbox that can read your music anywhere but write only to /var/lib/aether. The metadata editor writes tags back into your files, so to use it, allow writes to your music directories:

sudo systemctl edit aether.service

[Service]
ReadWritePaths=/srv/music

Uninstalling with apt purge keeps /var/lib/aether, so your catalog database survives; delete it by hand if you want it gone.

Container image#

docker run -d --name aether -p 8075:8075 \
  -e AETHER_AUTH_ADMINBOOTSTRAP_PW='change-me' \
  -v aether-data:/var/lib/aether \
  -v /path/to/music:/music:ro \
  ghcr.io/andresbott/aether:latest

The image scans /music and has authentication on: sign in as admin with the password from AETHER_AUTH_ADMINBOOTSTRAP_PW, which is read on the first start only. ffmpeg and chromaprint are included.

• Drop :ro if you use the metadata editor — it writes tags into the files.
• For more than one music folder, or sign-in through a reverse proxy, mount your own config over /etc/aether/config.yaml.
• Tags: latest, <major>.<minor> and the exact version. Pre-releases get only their exact version.

Plain binary#

Unzip the archive for your system, put a config.yaml next to the binary (start from the packaged one) and start it:

./aether start

On Windows, run aether.exe start. See Configuration for where the config is looked up. For ffprobe and fpcalc, install ffmpeg and Chromaprint before starting the server; both are optional.

The web UI archive#

The server already serves the web player, so most setups never need aether-spa.zip. It is the same web UI as a standalone bundle, for hosting it on a separate web server: it must be served from the root of a domain, fall back to index.html for unknown paths, and have Aether’s /rest and /api/v0 on the same address (for example through a reverse proxy).