Introducing RoPieee - A RoonBridge-to-go image for the Raspberry Pi

Audio Gear Talk RoPieee
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Hi, I want to introduce Ropieee with you. Ropieee is an ‘Roon-ready-to-go’ image for the Raspberry Pi: http://www.ropieee.org

Over the past year I’ve been using a Raspberry Pi as a RoonBridge endpoint. A hard/software combination with a difficult to beat price/value ratio. However, during this year I’ve found out that we’ve got a lot of fellow Roon’ers that aren’t willing or capable of ‘managing’ a Linux OS on a Raspberry Pi. And although DietPi is a fantastic piece of software (I’ve been using it for many months now), I can imagine that it’s still ‘too technical’ for some users. DietPi also serves a different purpose I guess: it’s a generic image that supports a wide variety of software besides Roon (and does a fantastic job imho).

So out of a pure “let’s see” mindset I’ve constructed a RPi image that requires no setup whatsoever. Out of the box it runs RoonBridge and if something needs to be configured it provides a simple web interface where the user can change it’ settings. The idea is that for users this is merely a ‘RoonBridge appliance’ which you can run, without having any knowledge about Linux, operating systems in general and other tech stuff.

It’s far from done, and right now rather limited. It only supports USB DAC’s and wired ethernet for now. But I wanted to release it as it might be useful for someone else. The coming weeks I’ll place everything on github so other people can contribute if they wish.

For the tech savvy: it’s Archlinux based, runs a custom 4.9.x kernel with the latest DSD patches, runs completely in RAM, uses the F2FS file system for preserving the flash card as much as possible, supports native DSD for a reasonable set of DAC’s (i’ll need to document that), and updates itself automatically. For that I’ve (for now at least) implemented a crude mechanism where the RPi reboots once every 24 hours and after that checks for updates. So basically it follows Archlinux rolling release model, with on top of that Ropieee’s software and the custom kernel.

So… yeah. It’s limited. And far from done. And if no one else but me uses it… I’m fine with that as well :wink: For now the next feature will be support for HAT’s, because I think that supporting USB only is too limited. I’ve got a HifiBerry HAT lying around, so that’s something I can test I guess.

Looking forward to feedback!

Regards Harry

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Interesting.

Will check it on my Pi 2 when I get home.

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I too will check it out, a couple of questions though

Does it support DSD over USB to capable DAC’s?

Is the time it restarts configurable?..I like to listen to music late at night and wouldn’t want it rebooting at say 01:30 am … so local time settings would also be ideal.

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To your first question: yes it does. The kernel is patched and has almost all patches from https://github.com/lintweaker/xmos-native-dsd. I’ll update the documentation to list these DAC’s.

To your second question: yes the reboot time is configurable. If you got the image running you can go the website of the Ropieee and configure the time there.

Regards Harry

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@spockfish Harry I did a topic edit just to give the users a heads up without having to dive in :smiley:

One thing you might like to post here are some ways to find the web address of the pi once it’s up if it’s fully headless.

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Yeah… I’ve been thinking about that one. I’m experimenting with zeroconf (avahi) to get that in place.
Right now you should be able to reach the Ropiee by just entering

http://ropieee

in your browser, but I admit this is also dependable on your local DHCP configuration.

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I would back this statement out,… This is going to create lots of headaches for you.
This all depends on your router/dhcp config and dns.

I would instead explain to go to your routers dhcp and find the address in there and browse to http://IPHERE

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Yeah. Certainly for now at least that seems the most simple way forward.

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First update.

For those interested: there’s an update available (The RoPieee will update on reboot) that extends the webinterface to configure audio: you can configure a HAT besides the default USB. For now I’ve added the HifiBerry HAT’s (as I got one of those), but more to follow of course. I also updated the documentation a bit on this topic.

Feedback as always welcome!

BR

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Harry, how big is the SD card required to burn the image…many of my cards I like to keep alive and labeled for different builds so I don’t have to seethed up again. Im keeping my fingers X for something no bigger than 1GB

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Unfortunately I’ve not been able to squeeze it in 1 GB. It requires 1.4.

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I haven’t seen an SD/Micro SD card less than 4GiGs for years… :smiley:

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Another small update:

  • a few DAC’s added that support native DSD
  • fixed a minor issue where the audio setting was not remembered in the web UI

As before these updates will be pulled in automatically.

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Great project, thanks for sharing. I moved away from Arch Linux for audio to simplify troubleshooting but heck… if someone was maintaining it for me! :smile_cat:

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Harry -

Is SSH supported? If so, what is the username and password?

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Hi Jim, it is.

Username is root, password is root.

This is going to change in the near future btw.

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Could this run on the MicroRendu ?

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No. This runs on Raspberry Pi only.

Besides the technical boundary I really don’t see the point in running this on a MR, as it already has it’s own OS that’s capable of Roon.

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Another update.

I’ve added support for some HAT’s from IQaudIO.
As I don’t have one of these it would be great if someone can test this :wink:

As usual the update is being pulled in automatically.

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I’ve been meaning to try out your piece of art – can do so this weekend when I’m back home from holiday. One my Pi’s wears an IQAudio HAT.

Two details:

  • Formally, the term ‘RoonReady’ is reserved for appliances and images that have run the course for RoonReady certification by Roon. You may want to change the thread title to ‘A RoonBridge-to-go image…’
  • Is the RoonBridge software reeled in at first boot or distributed with the image? If it is the latter, you may want to speak to @mike or @danny about the proper way of distribution. (Please forget my words if you have already done this and be assured that no-one is out there to block fun initiatives like this. :slight_smile: ).
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