What you're attempting is impossible. The documentation clearly states that there is no provision for connecting a monitor and keyboard. These interfaces have been stripped out in the interests of achieving optimal audio quality.
There is no point in being concerned about the internal drivers. Volumio is designed to work out of the box and it normally does. If you suspect there is a problem with your Raspberry Pi, just flash the SD card with a graphical Raspbian build and you can log in with a keyboard and monitor and test everything.
I asked you to try connecting to the Pi using Volumio's hotspot. Why haven't you tried this yet? If you don't read the documentation, I cannot help.
Edbarx, sometimes you can find what you are looking for, even when it's not actually there.
I was trying to help you, but that's now how you see it.
Have a good day!
-Gnobuddy
I succeeded to connect to a wireless hotspot by installing Raspbian and then Devuan for Raspberry Pi. As I suspected, no driver was loaded for the I2S DAC Pro sound card. "cat /proc/asound/cards" does not list it. This means, I have to find a kernel module for the card provided the driver is provided for other distributions. I particularly like the look of the XFCE4 desktop: the colours and graphics relax the eyes and it reminds me when I started to use Linux with Debian Sarge and Debian Etch. I have installed mplayer, a CLI media player. The desktop will only be loaded on demand with startx. If there is a desktop manager I will remove it. There is pulseaudio installed which overrides many audio settings. If I remember well, Devuan provides a way of elegantly eliminating it.
Notwithstanding that I did not successfully configure VolumeIO, I thank all those who tried to help me.
P.S.
I found the source code for the I2S DAC Pro. Now, it is a matter of a harsh fight with the GNU C compiler to compile and build a kernel module/driver. Once that is done, I will load the driver first manually, then place the driver where it is automatically loaded on boot. This way I will have a fully customized setup.
Notwithstanding that I did not successfully configure VolumeIO, I thank all those who tried to help me.
P.S.
I found the source code for the I2S DAC Pro. Now, it is a matter of a harsh fight with the GNU C compiler to compile and build a kernel module/driver. Once that is done, I will load the driver first manually, then place the driver where it is automatically loaded on boot. This way I will have a fully customized setup.
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You are right. In other forums common members did not have the previlege to split their own threads.
It's unfortunate that you didn't persevere with Volumio because this offers a pleasant, customisable interface. The I2S DAC driver is built in and just needs enabling in Settings -> Playback Options: Choose IQaudIO Pi-DigiAMP+ as the output device, turn on I2S DAC and select the DAC model as IQaudIO Pi-DigiAMP+, click "Save" and you're done after a reboot. Why wheels have to be reinvented is somewhat beyond my comprehension. Good luck anyway.
There is no indication to whom your post was addressed. Being the thread's author, my reply was to *support* what you requested.
Finally, I am getting audio output from my newly purchased Raspberry Pi. The quality is 'delicious' to the ears, and this, is NOT the i2S DAC Pro that is producing it! That nut will be cracked when I install its driver, but it will work.
The setup is terminal based with all pulseaudio components removed. With pulseaudio the sound had intermittent clicks and the quality was rather degraded.
With this arrangement, I am hoping to test the amplifier after I build the pre-driver circuit, and after other tests to make sure it doesn't damage any signal source connected to it.
The setup is terminal based with all pulseaudio components removed. With pulseaudio the sound had intermittent clicks and the quality was rather degraded.
With this arrangement, I am hoping to test the amplifier after I build the pre-driver circuit, and after other tests to make sure it doesn't damage any signal source connected to it.
Good to hear your Pi has a voice at last. Pulseaudio doesn't exactly have a good reputation among audio purists but I expect you'll be even more thrilled to hear the DAC in its full glory. If you have any concerns about your signal source being damaged, just insert some ac coupling between the DAC output and your amplifier.
I am also trying some GUI mediaplayers to test how they perform with the limited power and resources. Both Parole and Audacious seem to be good candidates. Audacious also provides an equilizer, clip prevention and a library to name a few.
In Linux, the GUI is driven by the xserver or equivalent. The xserver can be remotely accessed from another computer. So, I can actually control Audacious running on the Raspberry Pi. This setup, however, has the disadvantage of requiring a GUI running. The terminal is far simpler and lighter than that. Yet another way is using an SSH and issue commands as a normal unprivileged user.
In Linux, the GUI is driven by the xserver or equivalent. The xserver can be remotely accessed from another computer. So, I can actually control Audacious running on the Raspberry Pi. This setup, however, has the disadvantage of requiring a GUI running. The terminal is far simpler and lighter than that. Yet another way is using an SSH and issue commands as a normal unprivileged user.
That sounds about as tempting as having to use a DOS command prompt to edit a video 
Then there's the OS latency caused by running a GUI. You're making life unnecessarily difficult! Volumio has a plethora of plugins, including: 10-band graphic equaliser, Tune-In Radio, YouTube Audio, rotary encoder interface and podcasts to mention a few. There is also multi-room capability built-in. Enough said.
Then there's the OS latency caused by running a GUI. You're making life unnecessarily difficult! Volumio has a plethora of plugins, including: 10-band graphic equaliser, Tune-In Radio, YouTube Audio, rotary encoder interface and podcasts to mention a few. There is also multi-room capability built-in. Enough said.
A local business uses a server powered with Windows Server with several Linux virtual machines running simultaneously. The virtual machines connect to corresponding Raspberry Pi computers which serve as thin clients. I have seen this setup. A technician who works there said, that setup is saving the shop a lot of electricity and the performance does not show any noticeable lags or latency.
The problem with VolumeIO is the fact it is locked down without root access. What is justifying such an unfriendly decision? This makes me think of an eventual lock-in.
The problem with VolumeIO is the fact it is locked down without root access. What is justifying such an unfriendly decision? This makes me think of an eventual lock-in.
I doubt whether any user would notice the effects of latency in such a setup. A delay in the order of milliseconds in a system response would easily go unnoticed. Digital audio on the other hand is far more critical as bit-loss and / or drop-outs can be audible.
Logging into Volumio with SSH as volumio user behaves exactly the same as any Debian-based distribution. Can use sudo to perform root tasks. The only thing I can think is that your SD card wasn't prepared correctly for some reason. I used "USB Image Writer" in Mint.
Logging into Volumio with SSH as volumio user behaves exactly the same as any Debian-based distribution. Can use sudo to perform root tasks. The only thing I can think is that your SD card wasn't prepared correctly for some reason. I used "USB Image Writer" in Mint.
I used dd, a simple, yet extremely powerful tool. After writing, I tested the partition thus written by mouting it and listing files.
I struggled for months to put together a Rasberry Pi 3 based system to take to music jams. The goal was to have a PDF reader (for sheet music), Hydrogen (Linux software drum machine), and Musescore (music notation editor including software MIDI synth playback of your music score). I either got no audio at all, or audio filled with dropouts. The system was also sluggish to the point of being unusable.
I tried Raspbian, then Raspbian with XFCE instead of LXDE, then Fedberry which was highly recommended for use with Hydrogen, but failed dismally for me.
I finally succeeded with a combination of two things: an external USB sound-card, and Ubuntu Mate for the Pi, which runs faster than any other Linux desktop I tried. Now I have both a working GUI and no audible drop-outs in the audio.
All that's left is to package the Pi up along with a 21" LCD monitor in a format that will fit on a music stand. I still haven't quite figured that out.
-Gnobuddy
That sounds like an interesting project, but is exactly the point I was trying to make. With the inherent limited resources of a Pi together with certain unnecessary kernel processes, some software combinations are far from optimal.
However, once the system has been customised and refined through careful choice of OS with a low-latency kernel, minimal applications and background services running, the story is very different. The advantages of the Pi are numerous: small footprint, low power consumption, low cost, remote-control.
For most audio applications, the developers of packages such as Volumio, Max2play, RuneAudio, Pi MusicBox, Moode etc. have spent considerable time optimising and refining their products. Most of these include online updates and customisation options. These products, when combined with a good quality DAC and PSU, can form a superb Hi-Fi music source.
I use Linux Mint MATE for that very reason, admittedly on a more powerful fanless PC. MATE is one of the best lightweight Linux desktop environments and has been my first choice for my HTPC for a number of years. Combined with an aging Arcam rDAC (USB interface), I am still very happy with the results.
Can you not mount the Pi & sound card on the rear or the monitor first, then attach that to a music stand? It would need to be a fairly sturdy stand to take the weight! Otherwise, adapt a camera tripod?
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Well you have confirmed that your Pi is working properly and if all you want to achieve is a good music source without having to make any effort, install a ready-made Pi player. I'm sure you'd rather be designing your 3-stage amplifier
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The fact that the Pi is capable of playing music without issues means it is can be used as a music player. Therefore, it satisfies my purpose of using it as a reliable multiformat music player. Yes, it will look something like a computer from the 1960s. I am contented with this, as terminals have extreme flexibility, but at the cost of having to learn a weird language, that makes heavy use of symbols instead of whole words, making learning more challenging and slower.
I will take the advice of resuming my amplifier design adventure. At this point, the best I could get are these parameters:
a) continuous power at 8 Ohms, 250W
b) distortion at this power, 0.017%
The circuit does not have a 10 Ohm resistor between power ground and signal ground. Helpful comments about this are welcome.
Using voltage droppers to implement a low voltage input stage brings in the temptation of using a pseudo-signal ground that is isolated from the power ground. However, there is the negative feedback network that requires a ground reference at the input, making this idea look impossible.
One thing that does not convince me about this circuit is whether it is robust enough to reject ground parasitic signals. Both leaks to/from ground and ground loops can be a great nuisance.
a) continuous power at 8 Ohms, 250W
b) distortion at this power, 0.017%
The circuit does not have a 10 Ohm resistor between power ground and signal ground. Helpful comments about this are welcome.
Using voltage droppers to implement a low voltage input stage brings in the temptation of using a pseudo-signal ground that is isolated from the power ground. However, there is the negative feedback network that requires a ground reference at the input, making this idea look impossible.
One thing that does not convince me about this circuit is whether it is robust enough to reject ground parasitic signals. Both leaks to/from ground and ground loops can be a great nuisance.