Roon Bridge for ARM: a beginner’s guide to Raspberry Pi and Cubox-i

Well, well, well these must be excellent, fool proof instructions, many thanks Rene.

Had some worrisome moments when I had no sound but it turned out to be an optical cable issue.

SJB

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Oh that little purple dot - makes it all worthwhile…

These instructions were incredibly easy to follow! I’ve got roon installed and successfully outputting to my USB DAC without issue. One big problem though. Enabling Wi-fi has been impossible for me.

This is with a new Raspberry Pi just bought today and downloading the OS from the links in the first post. I haven’t done any modifications or suggestions from the web. I’ve also tried to reload the OS 3 times and get stuck at the same point. I see wlan0 but it doesn’t get an IP.

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ ifconfig wlan0
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr b8:27:eb:9f:1a:97
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:9 errors:0 dropped:9 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1140 (1.1 KiB) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo ifup wlan0
wpa_supplicant: /sbin/wpa_supplicant daemon failed to start
run-parts: /etc/network/if-pre-up.d/wpasupplicant exited with return code 1
Failed to bring up wlan0.

Anyone have any ideas?

I too had problem getting wifi to work. Did you see this post from Christopher above? This worked for me. Sorry I can’t seem to post a link to that part of the thread so its all copied below again.

When I setup my wifi on the pi I use the wpa_passphrase command:

You can test the output by entering

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ wpa_passphrase “Your-Wifi-Name” “Password”
network={
ssid=“Your-Wifi-Name”
#psk=“Password”
psk=842a4c81f1579f3bf4b03eee105bb5a2ae77140637aa6ff7645eed4f2b2c8b61
}
pi@raspberrypi:~ $
You can also directly output this into a file (e.g. ~/my_wifi.conf). The “~” indicates your home folder.

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ wpa_passphrase “Your-Wifi-Name” “Password” > ~/my_wifi.conf
Then just replace the wifi config with this new file by:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo cp ~/my_wifi.conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
Restart your network device (or reboot the pi):

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo ifdown wlan0
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo ifup wlan0

Worked perfect! Thanks!

Fantastic writeup! Got it to work on my first try. Thanks a bunch.

edit - My pi 3 is now not showing up as a device. This first happened when I tried to switch from ethernet to wifi. I wasn’t haven’t any luck with wifi so i went back to ethernet but now Roon won’t see the pi even hardwired. My Pi is connected to an external DAC. Any thoughts? I’ve tried rebooting the pi, the computer, Roon and even reinstalled the Pi software without any luck. Roon and the pi ran 9 straight hours today without a hiccup until I tried wifi.

Can you still log in to your Pi? If so – you can issue

sudo systemctl status roonbridge.service

to see whether Roon Bridge is running OK.

For now, you may also want to undo the changes you made to wpa_supplicant.conf and reboot the Pi afterwards.

If Roon Bridge is OK, you can issue

aplay -l

to check whether your DAC is still seen by Alsa. If your DAC is not seen (for whatever reason) or is turned off, the Pi-zone won’t be visible in Roon.

Thanks RBM. Got a little too excited with my extra thread. Here is what i have got

pi@LivingRoom:~ $ sudo systemctl status roonbridge.service
● roonbridge.service - RoonBridge
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/roonbridge.service; enabled)
Active: active (running) since Thu 2016-06-02 14:00:04 UTC; 5h 20min ago
Main PID: 749 (start.sh)
CGroup: /system.slice/roonbridge.service
├─749 /bin/sh /opt/RoonBridge/start.sh
├─795 RoonBridge --debug --gc=sgen --server RoonBridge.exe
├─832 RoonBridgeHelper --debug --gc=sgen --server RoonBridgeHelper…
├─879 /opt/RoonBridge/Bridge/processreaper 832
└─883 RAATServer --debug --gc=sgen --server RAATServer.exe

Jun 02 14:00:04 LivingRoom systemd[1]: Started RoonBridge.
Jun 02 14:00:07 LivingRoom start.sh[749]: Initializing
Jun 02 14:00:07 LivingRoom start.sh[749]: 00:00:00.039 Info: Starting /opt/…r
Jun 02 14:00:07 LivingRoom start.sh[749]: 00:00:00.080 Info: ConnectOrStart…r
Jun 02 14:00:07 LivingRoom start.sh[749]: Not Running (.o)
Jun 02 14:00:09 LivingRoom start.sh[749]: Running
Hint: Some lines were ellipsized, use -l to show in full.
pi@LivingRoom:~ $ aplay -l
aplay: device_list:268: no soundcards found…

I powered cycled the dac and get the same thing. No soundcard found. If i connect dac straight to dac Roon sees it no problem.

After removing “#” from the above line the raspberry can now be seen. But no audio through the dac. Reran aplay -l and got the following:

List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA], device 0: bcm2835 ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA]
Subdevices: 8/8
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 0: ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA], device 1: bcm2835 ALSA [bcm2835 IEC958/HDMI]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: X20 [XMOS USB Audio 2.0], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Seems like it sees the usb dac… If i go to config and try to force the audio output, usb isn’t an option.

The ‘dtparam=audio=on’ line does not apply to your DAC – it’s only for enabling/disabling the onboard audio (analog/HDMI).

Try disabling that line again and reboot your Pi with the DAC powered on and try running aplay again.

When your DAC is visible in Roon – can you post a screenshot of the Playback tab in Roon (Settings > Audio > Gearbox icon next to your DAC > Settings > Playback)?

Thanks Rene. Working now. That explains why I couldn’t see the Pi. Onboard audio off and Pi not seeing DAC. I guess the only unanswered question would be why the Pi wasn’t recognizing the dac. Is there a specific order I should connect and power up the dac?

Screen shot attached.

Hmmmmm, just put my raspberry pi plus hifiberry digi+ in a nice new case and now I’, not seeing it as an option in Roon.

I can access it in putty, I had the pi shut down for the past few days waiting for the case but I could log in no trouble and it remembered my previous log in last Sunday.

Is there anything diagnostically I can do to help me figure out where the issue may be?

Thanks

SJB

Oh no… Just when things were going so smoothly… You just had to break it, didn’t you? :wink:

Important stuff first: is it a nice case?

To help diagnose things: can you issue the commands I mentioned a few posts above:

sudo systemctl status roonbridge.service

To check that Roon Bridge is running OK; and

aplay -l

to check that your Hifiberry still is seen by your Pi.

If you can post the output of the above commands, I’m sure we’ll work it out. In the mean time: enjoy your new case. :slight_smile:

it’s a stupendously terrific case, even if the Pi never again works my life shall be enhanced by its mere presence in my house.

can’t understand the first and don’t like the look of the second!

SJB

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Well… Roon Bridge appears to be OK… But your Digi+ is not seen by Alsa. You could try

sudo aplay -l

to be sure, but this does not look good.

Are you certain the assembly of the Digi+ on the GPIO headers is OK? Can you try to take it apart again and reassemble? Perhaps even try Pi & Digi+ outside of your brand spanking new life-enhancing case? And to be absolutely certain, check if

dtoverlay=hifiberry-digi

is still present at the end of /boot/config.txt?

still no soundcard.

dtoverlay - present

If Roon bridge is working should it not be showing up anyway ans an ASLA output irrespective of the hifiberry?

I’ll try the physical stuff now.

thanks

SJB

No – Roon Bridge only appears as a zone when it can see a soundcard / USB DAC.

This may change in the future, but this is what is for now.

While checking the config file I decided to un - # the dtparam =audio on and after reboot

and now I have

more positive, but I don’t remember having 2 choices, I’ll plug in the optical cable and see if I have sound.

thanks for the help, back soon!

SJB

I’m afraid this will not help: you have now loaded the onboard sound modules (analog minijack and HDMI), but still no sign of the Hifiberry. As the onboard sound is not in use, it’s better left commented-out.

Time to crack open that case… :fearful:

Well it seems to have all been physical connection issues.


Thanks for all your help and humour Rene as usual.

Regards

John.