Just wanted to share some stuff I’ve been tinkering with
I use several RPi’s around the house as Roon endpoints. I’ve tried several approaches, such as pure raspbian, DietPi and others. None of which I’ve been entirely happy with. I used to be a Squeezebox user, using RPi’s for endpoint there as well, specifically the PiCorePlayer distribution. This is really cool, as it runs entirely from RAM with no risk of SD card corruption, and very lightweight, but still very functional and optimized for audio playback, meaning native support for lots of USB DACs, RPi HATs etc. But until now, no direct support for Roon, only using Roon’s SqueezeBox support (EDIT: or shairplay-sync). But that doesn’t support stuff like native DSD, and it uses the SqueezeBox protocol, not RAAT. So I set about to rectify that. You can check out my efforts at GitHub: https://github.com/efoverskov/picoreplayer-roonbridge
I’d be interested to hear comments, suggestions, whether you find it useful etc.
But there is ropieee.org unless you are doing a lot of other things with RPi ropieee would be all most would need. Unless you really must have picoreplayer
I’ll take another look at ropieee, certainly Do you know which distribution it is based on? I can’t seem to find any info on this, maybe I just haven’t looked hard enough. One of the great things about picoreplayer is that it’s based on PiCore, a fork of TinyCore, and runs entirely from RAM, the SD card is never written to unless you explicitly ask it to, e.g. by pressing backup. But again, if you’re happy with whatever you’re running, no need to change that. This is just another alternative.
It based on Arch Linux. It really is a must if you used to picoreplayer. It’s very similar in its approach, it runs in Ram, both run just the music software needed, simple web GUI for configuration, both can use the Official Touchscreen as now playing displays as well as control playback for the device or remote control another device. It’s really well supported on here by the developer. It’s pretty damn reliable, works with most DACs if not Harry’s accomodating to add it of its possible. Also recently with Ropieee XL you get the bonus of it being an Airplay, UPnP and Spotify connect device to.
I used to use picore player for many years in my SB days and used it for Roon until I discovered this.
The only thing I recall pi player had was VU meter display on the 7” RPi display, I’m happy with now playing and all the other features like clock in sleep mode etc but would love a VU option in ropieee and maybe with a text now playing under it
Yeah, I’ve been poking around a bit, and see that it is Arch based. It’s just, I can’t see that it is running fram RAM, actually both partitions of the SD card seem to bee mounted R/W. That entails a significant risk of filesystem and/or SD card corruption if powered off ungracefully. This can not happen on PiCorePlayer which actually loads everything to a RAM filesystem, hence their desire to keep it as small as possible. But I must say, the experience with Ropieee is very smooth, I flashed a card, booted, and everything “just works”, including native DSD256 from my Topping D10 DAC, even though it’s not even listed as compatible. So kudos to @spockfish perhaps ypu can share some insight in the “runs from RAM” discussion?
Actually the version I tested was the ropieeexl, because I want the option to occasionally use AirPlay. Again, very cool experience, everything “just works”. One thing though, image size is huge compared to eg. Picoreplayer, but that would make sense if it’s more of a “traditional” Linux distribution.
Anyways, just to be clear, I had no intention of starting a pi…ing contest about which is the better choice, was just attempting to give something back. If what I made is useful to anyone, great. If not, well, I’m fine with that too, I might actually switch to Ropiee myself
Hi, thanks for trying it out Did you setup your audio as you normally would on PiCorePlayer? I.e. setup whether it’s a USB or HAT etc.? Roon Bridge will just use the devices available, I personally disable the internal audio (HDMI+mini jack PWM) just because I don’t need them.
I can confirm it is working !
RPi4 + Khadas Tone Board USB + pCP 6.0.0 b7
In order to have both Roon and Squeezelite running in parallel, should enable -C option in Squeezelite settings.
This will close the output after chosen number of idle seconds and permit ROON to access the DAC.
Otherwise, you should close Squeezelite in order to play via ROON.
I think piCorePlayer worked good as a Roon endpoint in itself, just enable support for Squeezebox in Roon (Settings -> Setup). Then you also have the option to up-sample with SoX in Squeezelite which in my opinion is better than Roon up-sampling.
@Aldos_Zx Cool! And thanks for pointing out the -C option, your’e quite right, I forgot to mention that. @Magnus I agree, it works fine. I just think that more choice is a good thing. Just goes to show, some like the mother, some like the daughter
Again, I’m just happy if someone finds it useful.
I am trying out your script to load Roon bridge on Pi core player.
I My purpose of trying bthis is to use my pi with Raspberry Pi original 7" touch display basically only as a Roon display to show what is playing on my main system and use the wonderful VU meters etc that Jivelite offers.
I intend to use it by grouping with the main system as both will use RAAT.
I find that if I load the roonbridge server using your command, the pi core player does not complete the boot up process and stops at the ssh prompt tc@picoreplayer and does not proceed
Is this normal? am I missing something?
I have installed PCP 4.1 and installed Jivelite on my Pi 3B +. I do not have a DAC HAT. But use Audioquest Dragon fly red connected to the USB port of the Pi.
Installing Roon Bridge was a breeze on this version of PCP. I had first started with PCP ver 5.0 but when I installed Roon Bridge using your links from Github, the installation would not complete. I downgraded down to PCP ver 3.2 and upwards. Each version had its own set of issues. - mainly relating to incomplete installations of Roon Bridge, or if Roon Bridge does get installed, it was not possible too use the “Adjust display settings” in Pi core player. I would get a message flash across the screen to say " Pi Core player is running - Do you want to proceed" but no where any button / command to cancel this.
Now the version in use is PCP 4.1. all adjustments are possible, The Roon Bridge is enabled. I can stream music to the attached USB DAC - Audioquest.
However the display just does not show “What is currently Playing” and shows something which was in the cache when I was trying out various combinations. It does not change with what is actually being played.
The whole purpose was to have the Pi as a Roon Display only and choose Pi Core player due to the better display features… It runs perfectly on Ropieee. I would like to use the PCP as display options are more.
I use the original Raspberry Pi 7" touch screen display.
That is pretty cool, I think it would be the best roon end point ever.
However, when I run the script now, with the latest version of Picoreplayer. It gives and error that pcp-functions directory is not found. Is it possible to update the script ?
Do you know which distribution it is based on? I can’t seem to find any info on this, maybe I just haven’t looked hard enough. One of the great things about picoreplayer is that it’s based on PiCore, a fork of TinyCore, and runs entirely from RAM, the SD card is never written to unless you explicitly ask it to, e.g. by pressing backup. But again, if you’re happy with whatever you’re running, no need to change that. This is just another alternative. 
perhaps ypu can share some insight in the “runs from RAM” discussion?