r A u d i o

Audio player for

• Raspberry Pis:
  • 64bit: 5 4 3 2 Zero 2
  • 32bit: 2 (BCM2836)
  • Legacy: 1 Zero
• BeagleBone Black
• CubieBoard2

• Based on Arch Linux Arm
• Control via GUI
  • Remote with any browsers
  • Android - rAudio app
  • Local screen
• Share data and files between multiple rAudios
  • Server rAudio : clients (Easy setup with server IP address only)
  • File server : clients
  • Live data update - refresh across all rAudios
• Live display update - refresh across multiple GUI clients
• Metadata Tag Editor - kid3-cli
• Album mode with coverarts
• File mode with thumbnail icons
• Coverarts and bookmarks - add, replace and remove
• WebRadio coverarts - online fetched
• *.jpg, *.png and animated *.gif applicable
• *.wav - album artists and sort tracks
• *.cue - virtually as individual tracks in all modes and user playlists
• VU meter as coverart (for remote screen)
• Wi-Fi connection can be pre-configured for headless mode.
• Access point - hostapd
• File sharing - samba
• Easy update and extra features with Addons
• Support boot from USB drive without SD card (DIY)
• Local files
  • USB HDD
  • USB Audio CD
  • NAS
  • SD card
• Renderers / Clients - with metadata and coverarts
  • AirPlay - shairport-sync
  • Bluetooth audio receiver
  • SnapClient - snapcast Multiroom audio client
  • Spotify Connect - spotifyd
  • UPnP - upmpdcli
• Streamers
  • Bluetooth audio sender
  • HTTP (no metadata)
  • SnapSever - MPD snapcast
  • Web Radio
  • DAB Radio (Addon)
• Digital Signal Processors
  • DSP - camilladsp
  • Equalizer - alsaequal

Supported devices

• Bluetooth:
  • Audio - Receiver / Sender
  • Keyboard and mouse
• USB:
  • Bluetooth
  • DAC
  • RTL-SDR (for DAB radio)
  • Wi-Fi
• GPIO:
  • I²S audio module
  • Character LCD (16x2, 20x4)
  • Power on/off button
  • Relay module
  • Rotary encoder
  • Spectrum OLED (128x64)
  • TFT 3.5" LCD (320x420)
  • VU LED (7 LEDs+Rs)
• Not applicable on Raspberry Pi 1 or Zero:
  • GUI on local screen
  • DSP
  • RTL-SDR (for DAB radio)

Default root password

• ros
• If enable SnapClient, Multiple rAudios or Shared Data, do not change password from default.

Q&A

• rAudio Discussions - Questions, comments and bug reports

Image files

• Raspberry Pi - Release i20240408
• BeagleBone Black - DIY
• CubieBoard2 - DIY

DIY Image file

• rOS - Build image files with interactive process

How-to

• Write an image file to a micro SD card (8GB or more):

  • Install Raspberry Pi Imager
    • Windows, MacOS, Ubuntu: Raspberry Pi Imager
    • Manjaro: pacman -Sy rpi-imager
    • Others: Build and install
  • Download an image file.
  • CHOOSE OS > Use custom (OR right click the image file > Open with > Raspberry Pi Imager)
  • CHOOSE STORAGE:
    • Select SD card - normal boot
    • Select USB drive - boot from USB drive without SD card
      • For Raspberry Pi 2B v1.2, 3A+, 3B, 3B+, 4B
      • USB mass storage boot must be set.
      • Should be used only when USB drive is faster than SD card.
  • Do not set anything in Advance options
  • WRITE
  • Verify is optional.

• Existing users:

  • Keep current setup SD card.
  • Try with a spare one before moving forward.
  • Use only backup made from rAudio with the latest update

• Before power on:

  • Wired LAN connection is recommended
  • Wi-Fi pre-configure: (any of)
    • Edit template file:
      • Rename wifi0 in BOOT to wifi
      • Edit ESSID and Key.
    • From rAudio backup
    • From existing
      • Copy an existing profile file from /etc/netctl
      • Rename it to wifi then copy it to BOOT before power on.
  • Wi-Fi access point mode
    • Auto start: No IP address assigned from connected wired/wireless network
    • Force enable access point only: Place blank accesspoint file in BOOT before power on.
    • On client devices, select rAudio from Wi-Fi network list to connect with password raudioap.
    • On browser, open web user interface with URL raudio.local
    • Settings > Networks > Wi-Fi - search
    • Select access point to connect
    • Reboot
    • Browser refreshes when ready. (Manually refresh if it's too long.)
  • System pre-configure: (Run once)
    • Restore database and settings (Wi-Fi connection included.)
      • Copy rAudio backup file to BOOT
      • Use only backup made from rAudio with the latest update
    • Expand root partition:
      • By default, root partition will be expanded on initial boot.
      • SD card backup with shrunken root partition - Create a blank file expand in BOOT before backup

• Boot duration

  • RPi4: 20+ seconds
  • RPi3: 50+ seconds
  • RPi1, Zero: 80+ seconds

• After initial boot:

  • If there's a connected screen, IP address for connecting from remote devices will be displayed.
  • Before setup anything: Settings > Addons > rAudio > Update (if available)
  • Restore settings and database:
    • If not pre-configured, Settings > System > Backup/Restore Settings
  • Build Library database:
    • Automatically run on boot if database is empty with connected USB and NAS
    • Force build / update - Settings > update Library (icon next to Sources)
    • Tracks on existing database can be played during updating.
    • Before database is available, default WebRadio stations are available for playing.
  • Parse coverarts for Album and directory thumbnails :
    • Only if never run before or to force update
    • Library > Album > coverart icon (next to ALBUM heading)
  • User guide
    • Settings > last icon next to Addons

Not working?

• Power off and wait a few seconds then power on
• If not connected, temporarily connect wired LAN then remove after Wi-Fi setup successfully.
• Still no - Download the image file and start over again

Tips

• Best sound quality:
  • Settings > Player > Bit-perfect - Enable
  • Use only amplifier volume (Unless quality of DAC hardware volume is better.)
• Disable features if not use to lower CPU usage:
  • Settings > Features
  • Disable Browser on RPi might cause audio glitches on refresh / switch page
    • After system upgrade pacman -Syu which kernel linux-raspberrypi also upgraded.
    • On 64bit version - Very likely, kernel upgraded or not.
• Full screen UI
  • Android - rAudio app
  • Add to Home Screen (Safari on iOS, Chrome on Android)
• Coverart as large playback control buttons
  • Tap top of coverart to see controls guide.
• Hide top and bottom bars
  • No needs for top and bottom bars
  • Use coverart controls instead of top bar buttons
  • Swipe to switch between pages <- Library <-> Playback <-> Playlist ->
• Drag to arrange order
  • Library home blocks
  • Playlist tracks
  • Saved playlist tracks
• Some coverarts missing from album directories
  • Subdirectories listed after partial Library database update from context menu.
  • Subdirectories - context menu > Exclude directory
• Some music files missing from library
  • Make sure embedded metadata in each file is in UTF-8 encoding.
  • Settings > MPD > question mark icon -scroll- FFmpeg Decoder
  • Enable if filetypes list contains ones of the missing files.
• No albums found after update very large Library
  • Settings > MPD > Output Buffer - Increase by 8192 at a time
  • Update Library
• CUE sheet
  • *.cue filenames must be identical to each coresponding music file.
  • Can be directly edited by Tag Editor.
• Minimum permission for music files (on Linux ext filesystem)
  • Directories: rwxr-xr-x (755)
  • Files: rw-r--r-- (644)
• RPi to router connection:
  • With wired LAN if possible - Disable Wi-Fi
  • With WiFi if necessary
  • With RPi accesspoint only if there's no router
• Connect to rAudio with IP address instead of raudio.local
  • Get IP address: Menu > Network > Network Interfaces list
• Backup SD card which already setup
  • On Linux: bash <( curl -sL https://github.com/rern/rOS/raw/main/imagecreate.sh )
    • Shrink ROOT partition to minimum
    • Create and compress image file
• Custom startup / shutdown script
  • Copy custom script named startup.sh / shutdown.sh to BOOT