Raspberry Pi - help!

[mr sneff]

I use Sonos for streaming in the lounge and I'd been thinking about getting a second Connect for the bedroom. Having read Marco's road to Damascus experience with the Raspberry Pi I thought I'd get one, at just under £100 it's a lot cheaper than adding a second Connect for what would be only occasional use. So I've bought a Rasperry Pi started kit from Amazon and a Pi-DAC+ from IQAudio. I've installed a preconfigured Raspbian image with Pi-DAC+ support from IQAudio together with their Volumio v1.51 release for the Pi with IQaudIO Pi-DAC configured with hardware volume control.

Using the wireless adaptor that came with the started kit I can connect to the web with the Pi with no problem. If I connect the Pi to the router with an ethernet cable it shows up on the router as 'Raspberry Pi' but when I try to access Volumio with my iPad it says that the server can't be found. Similarly, if I try to connect via the IP address for the Pi I can't cconnect either via the iPad or a laptop.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I have no knowledge of Linux and have no idea what to try next. With Sonos I was up and running in about 10 minutes, so far I'm less than impressed with the Raspberry Pi.

Anyone got any suggestions?

[Marco]

Hi David,

You will be when it's all set up and you get to hear it [which is precisely why I've been raving about it]! ;)

However, I understand exactly where you're coming from. I was fortunate in that I had a friend come round and set it up for me, otherwise I'd have been like you, and wouldn't have had a clue...

The issue is most likely something simple, so if you don't get much response to your query here, feel free to jump on my bigger thread and ask the question, as that's where most of the 'Pi action' is happening at the moment.

Good luck, and I hope you can get things up and running soon, as you'll be in for a treat! :cool:

Marco.

[mr sneff]

Thanks Marco, that's what I'm hoping for, and if the SQ is better than what I have at the moment the Sonos will be regulated to the bedroom.

[Marco]

Sound advice, Alan (as the other forums listed have more active 'computer geeks'). I agree with what you've written, apart from this bit:


You may wish to visit and check out the Volumio forum...


I wouldn't bother, as I joined there and posted a query. Then waited hours, but received no reply. I gave up in the end and haven't been back.

Forums are only of any use for receiving advice if they're kept sufficiently active by enough members. The Volumio forum isn't.

Marco.

[Krisbee]

I've installed a preconfigured Raspbian image with Pi-DAC+ support from IQAudio together with their Volumio v1.51 release for the Pi with IQaudIO Pi-DAC configured with hardware volume control.

That bit puzzled me, as normally if you've written the Volumio image file to your SD card as per instructions on their web site, anything else would have been overwritten


Using the wireless adaptor that came with the started kit I can connect to the web with the Pi with no problem. If I connect the Pi to the router with an ethernet cable it shows up on the router as 'Raspberry Pi' but when I try to access Volumio with my iPad it says that the server can't be found. Similarly, if I try to connect via the IP address for the Pi I can't cconnect either via the iPad or a laptop.
Anyone got any suggestions?

It's generally thought easier to configure the Pi using a wired connection first. Did you use the Volumio settings page to configure its network connections? (See halfway down this page: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/computing/1000089/how-to-use-a-raspberry-pi-to-control-your-hi-fi-wirelessly-send-music-to-your-home )

It think it might be easier if you shut the RPI down, and started again. Re-write the image file to your SD card. Remove USB wifi dongle, connect the RPI to your router via ethernet cable, insert the SD card back in the RPi and then power on. Once you can access the Volumio Web interface you can go through the various settings pages to configure it with the USB wifi dongle plugged in and then disconnect the ethernet cable.

[mr sneff]

That bit puzzled me, as normally if you've written the Volumio image file to your SD card as per instructions on their web site, anything else would have been overwritten

I'm a novice at all this, do you mean that for Volumio to work that's all I need on the SD card? I don't need the Raspbian OS as well?

[Marco]

I can confirm a big NO on that one, David. I know that much!

Just buy an 8GB Class-4 SD card, from Maplins, which contains no Raspian OS, and use that. That's what Dunc fitted into my Pi, if you'll pardon the expression! :eyebrows:

Marco.

[Krisbee]

I'm a novice at all this, do you mean that for Volumio to work that's all I need on the SD card? I don't need the Raspbian OS as well?

All you need is Volumio. How did you put it on your SD card? Did you follow the instructions at https://volumio.org/get-started ?

If you do/did as instructed, you should only have volumio on your SD Card now.

[Oldpinkman]

For definite, if you are using volumio, you just "print" that system image to your sd card. It's a while since I set my two up, so I forget the detail, but I much preferred NOT using volumio (which was ok but not a pretty interface)
I now use Logitech Media Server on my PC, and create a virtual Squeezebox touch on the Pi with picoreplayer . This also makes it easy to synch players in more than one room (the challenge my stepson set me)

https://sites.google.com/site/picoreplayer/home

Use the ethernet to set up first and you should have no problems with just plug and play wireless afterwards (the settings page for the picoreplus is real easy to use compared with all that fannying about with linux)

If it doesn't just work for you - catch me on a good day, when I have got rid of this stinking cold, and I'll retrace my steps and post an idiots guide to configuration. But I managed it, and I am pretty idiot when it comes to computers

[mr sneff]

All you need is Volumio. How did you put it on your SD card? Did you follow the instructions at https://volumio.org/get-started ?

If you do/did as instructed, you should only have volumio on your SD Card now.

Yes, I've justb reformatted the SD card, put Volumio on it and the iPad is now 'talking' to the Raspberry Pi. Currently updating the library, so hopefully I might hear some music this evening!

I had asumed that, as with Windows (say) you needed an OS and that Volumio was a program that ran on the Raspbian OS. Obviously I was wrong.

Thanks for your help, everybody!

[Tim]

Maybe you'll take back the earlier "I'm less than impressed with the PI" comment, as there's nowt wrong with the Pi, just operator error ;)

[mr sneff]

Maybe you'll take back the earlier "I'm less than impressed with the PI" comment, as there's nowt wrong with the Pi, just operator error ;)

Yes, I've no problem with admitting that I was talking bollocks. Nothing unusual in that!

[mr sneff]

Well, listening to some music at last! Still haven't managed to play anything from either my USB hard drive or network drive, don't know why, perhaps it's still updating the library. Surprisingly Spotify was the easist to set up. Sounding pretty good.

[Tim]

Yes, I've no problem with admitting that I was talking bollocks. Nothing unusual in that!
:lol: top man . . . enjoy the music :D

[Oldpinkman]

Try the picoreplayer. Its pretty plug & play and a much better user interface.

[AlanS]

I agree with what you've written, apart from this bit:



I wouldn't bother, as I joined there and posted a query. Then waited hours, but received no reply. I gave up in the end and haven't been back.

Forums are only of any use for receiving advice if they're kept sufficiently active by enough members. The Volumio forum isn't.

Marco.

Marco

Forums can be useful in more ways than you want to use them - asking for answers from others and expecting someone to answer you in a time that suits you. One way of learning from a forum is to look for the answers. So few people seem to bother to do this, pity really. The Volumio forum is a wealth of information and users experiences. Just have to put a little effort in and look, search.

BTW a Class 4 SD card is rather slow, Class 10 is preferable. I started off using Maplins cards but they haven't the Class 10 in their range.

I have edited my original post down to a . - I remember why I don't post here.

Glad you got there Mr Sneff/David

[The Barbarian]

What the flaming hell is a Raspberry Pi?

[struth]

What the flaming hell is a Raspberry Pi?

A bit like a strawberry pi, just with a bit more rasp:eyebrows:

[Ronksley]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Raspberry_pie.jpg

[Marco]

Forums can be useful in more ways than you want to use them - asking for answers from others and expecting someone to answer you in a time that suits you. One way of learning from a forum is to look for the answers. So few people seem to bother to do this, pity really. The Volumio forum is a wealth of information and users experiences. Just have to put a little effort in and look, search.


Yes, that's all very well if you know specifically what to search for, and once you've found it, are able to correctly interpret the information! Not everyone is technically minded, simply because in the normal course of their lives they don't have to be, so struggle to all of a sudden adopt that mindset, simply to listen to music.

Furthermore, contrary to the belief of some arrogant 'computer geek' objectivists, not being technically minded or computer literate doesn't make one an "idiot".

Asking questions on forums that relate directly and specifically to what you want to know, in a way that you understand it, is far preferable to trawling though a forum reading stuff that is otherwise of no interest to you. That is, of course, providing that there is anyone around to respond.


BTW a Class 4 SD card is rather slow, Class 10 is preferable. I started off using Maplins cards but they haven't the Class 10 in their range.


Well, I've tried both here with the Pi/IQ-Audio DAC, and there is no difference whatsoever in the speed that the library updates, hence why I recommended a Class 4 card, from Maplins to David, as it's exactly what I'm using now to excellent effect. I've also compared it with 'official one' from Raspberry Pi, fitted with the Raspian OS.


I have edited my original post down to a . - I remember why I don't post here.


Well, don't feel that you have to come on and tell us that. If you don't want to post here, then don't. We certainly don't need your continually negative influence and desire to 'big up' your guru and his brainwashed acolytes elsewhere.

Marco.

[NRG]

Class 4 SD is what? 4 MBytes /s write speed (minimum)...I think its fast enough LOL!

[Canetoad]

I'm a novice at all this, do you mean that for Volumio to work that's all I need on the SD card? I don't need the Raspbian OS as well?

Volumio comes with an operating system (Linux) which has been tweeked for just Volumio use, so will be a pared down version.