DietPi: creating a lean-and-mean Roon Bridge

Dan_Knight · December 11, 2016, 5:46pm

We will pull the required Stretch packages (.debs) from online source, rather than modifying /etc/apt/sources.list to stretch.
Not much we can do in regards to gcc-6-base, as that is required for libstdc++6:6.2.1, which in turn is required for networkaudiod

We currently have a Raspbian Stretch image available for DietPi. Its in Alpha/testing at the moment, more details here: http://dietpi.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=986#p4264

RBM · December 11, 2016, 5:53pm

You seem to be covering all bases, Daniel – great to see you’re on the ball! Now go find yourself a Cubox…

Dan_Knight · December 11, 2016, 6:14pm

Hehe, I’ll put Cubox on my Son’s Xmas list to Santa

Initial code for NAA Daemon is done (https://github.com/Fourdee/DietPi/commit/f9e5b6f8d64bd536031f2feefe5650a9cfa4e00c), now for some testing

RBM · December 11, 2016, 6:18pm

Don’t do that to your kid – he’ll be scarred for life…

If I had a spare I’d send you one, but alas – they’re running overtime in our household.

Mike_Pinkerton · December 11, 2016, 9:42pm

Wow, great turnaround! I’ll definitely install DietPi once the NAA install gets verified as working!

hifi_swlon · December 11, 2016, 9:50pm

What’s the cleanest way to get the latest Dietpi?

Start afresh with an SD card, or can you update from the existing Dietpi install via ssh?

Actually, ssh’ing in I believe the answer is in print right before my eyes

dietpi-update

Using ‘Terminus’ app on the iPad (forgot I had it). All going well so far.

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All done. Worked a treat. The longest part was moving around the menus via the iPad app, to find the pertinent settings (in my case RoonBridge and host name).

It gives nice feedback about what it’s doing, autodetected the iqaudio (unless it picked that up from my previous settings), and it’s done.

As soon as I get a window the pi2 in the bedroom will get moved over to Dietpi too, and any future pi zones will surely be Dietpi where possible.

hifi_swlon · December 12, 2016, 3:41pm

ok, so here’s a question.

If you’re running another OS on a Pi, can you switch over to Dietpi via ssh and command line? Or is that a reformat job?

RBM · December 12, 2016, 3:57pm

Nope, you’ve got to flash a new SD card. While DietPi is based on Raspbian, it is so heavily customised that it is a whole different distro.

Dan_Knight · December 14, 2016, 6:24pm

@andybob

NAA Daemon is tested (works great with Roon and HQPlayer). Will be available in DietPi next update (v140). We still have alot of open tickets for v140 (https://github.com/Fourdee/DietPi/milestone/42), so may be some time before its released.

In the mean time, you can test the installation using our testing branch.

github.com

Fourdee/DietPi/blob/master/TESTING-BRANCH.md#steps-to-use-the-dietpi-testing-branch

## Steps to use the DietPi "testing" branch.
#### Please note, this is the active development branch. Its potentially unstable, unsupported and should not be used by end users.

1. Write the DietPi image to SD card.
2. Open the file on the 1st partition ```/boot/dietpi.txt```
3. Change ```DEV_GITBRANCH=master``` to ```DEV_GITBRANCH=testing``` (located at the bottom of file)
4. Save the file, eject media and power on.

Andy, would it be possible to add VST support to HQPlayer? That would be the icing on the cake, would allow for something like this (iOzone audiophile heaven, master in realtime):
This uses the bass API library

andybob · December 14, 2016, 7:17pm

Thanks @Dan_Knight !

I’ll try out the test branch over the next few days and let you know of any issues. Really impressive turnaround on the request and it will be great to be able to refer folks to DietPi for menu driven installation of Roon Bridge, NAA and the various HAT boards. The low process count and logging to RAM (making it robust to power down corruption of the SD card) means it ticks all boxes for audiophile users, no matter what level of technical knowledge they have.

I’ll drop a flag for @jussi_laako so he can see your suggestion regarding VST support. I think it’s fair to say Jussi has developed HQP with great attention to sound quality and avoided any unnecessary “bells and whistles” in pursuit of that goal. His success in that regard can be guaged from his customer base, which include people whose passion for SQ make monomaniacs look like dilettantes !

VST/AU support has been requested by a number of users for Roon but while not ruled out, there are no current plans to implement it.

There are plans to include a convolving engine and other DSP functions in Roon and to release an API.

hifi_swlon · December 14, 2016, 7:39pm

I kind of thought it was on the roadmap? Or at least somewhere between unplanned and on roadmap

andybob · December 14, 2016, 7:53pm

Hi Steve,

You may be thinking of this thread, which includes some nice discussion by Brian and Jussi about plug ins, Roon and HQP respectively.

I don’t understand that the discussion by @brian of a possible implementation has resulted in any definite plans (but I wouldn’t know if it had). I think your suggestion that it is somewhere between unplanned and on the roadmap is likely to be correct.

hifi_swlon · December 14, 2016, 8:04pm

Yep, that was the one… well, in my head it’s on the roadmap, and I feel better for it.

jussi_laako · December 15, 2016, 5:09pm

VST has quite a number of limitations why it is not supported. One is lack of Linux support (which is my primary development platform), another is lack of DSD support. Many plugins also pose limitations on supported sampling rates. In addition it poses severe architectural limitations on how the processing is managed (things like GPU-offload, etc).

I want HQPlayer to support all DSP processing for both PCM and DSD for any sampling rate.

Mike_Pinkerton · December 16, 2016, 9:03pm

I tried this today, replacing my existing hand-crafted stretch install for RoonBridge and NAA.

OMG it was so easy. So. Easy. !!!

Mad props to @Dan_Knight. I can’t wait for the update with NAA built-in, I can live without it for the time being.

-mike

Ruud_Verrijk · December 18, 2016, 5:30pm

I am not succeeding in getting it working. My goal is to have a Roon bridge on my RPi 3 B with a HifiBerry Digi+ Pro hat.
I installed the self installing DietPi image, mentioned here, it is V139. After a while, the RPi presents itself as two alsa endpoints in Roon. However, the HifiBerry is not found, only the (I guess standard) alsa soundcard and the alsa HDMI output. The list of audio devices gives a no-show for the HifiBerry (also no sound from the HifiBerry while Roon is sending data to the RPi).

When I re-install the SD card, copy dietpi.txt again to \boot, and change the soundcard entry:

#Soundcard
soundcard=hifiberry-digi

or I make another fresh SD card install, and I choose the HifiBerry-digi from the dietpi-config (sound) menu, then Roon does not find any RPi endpoint anymore.

I suspect I am missing something simple, but I can not find it.

Does anyone know what I can do to get it working?

Ruud

Ruud_Verrijk · December 19, 2016, 11:02am

My Roon bridge with DietPi V139 is working. I had to choose the HIFIBerry dac+ in dietpi-config as sound card. The digi and digi+ drivers didn’t work. Quite happy with the SQ. The background is dead quiet. Nice work, @Dan_Knight.

The next step is to include a parametric equalizer such as alsaeq in the signal path for onboard room and speaker correction.

Ruud

Dan_Knight · December 19, 2016, 1:13pm

Hi,

You can install AlsaEQ and configure it with the following program:
dietpi-justboom

Originally designed for JustBoom sound cards, will work with others.

Ruud_Verrijk · December 19, 2016, 1:15pm

Hi Dan, that sounds easy! Thanks you for helping out.

Ruud

Dan_Knight · December 19, 2016, 4:09pm

I forgot to mention, Roon is not currently controlled via dietpi-justboom yet, so after enabling EQ, if Roon is currently playing audio (ALSA stream), you will need to restart Roon for ALSA reload and changes to take effect.
systemctl restart roonbridge

EQ levels from alsa EQ mixer are applied in realtime