Raspberry Pi as simple NAS and DLNA server

Ok, thanks, that’s a shame.

Got some non-descript error which didn’t really help.

Time for more dabbling!

A RPi is an ideal Roon endpoint but I dounbt that it makes sense running a Roon server on a RPi. The Roon server requres a more powerful CPU, I believe.

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I have 4 pi’s in constant use as Roon endpoints, running Ropieee XL ,which work flawlessly they make superb little streamers and counter to some beliefs sound exceptionally good with the right DAC. Ropieee is a very light weight minimum interaction os, originally written just for Roon , but the XL version can now be be Roon, Spotify, Squeezebox or UPnP endpoints. It works amazingly well with Roon and offers really nice touch screen support for Roon. You can use it as simple remote or now playing screen to control playback on any zone or just the local one.

I use a two with little amp hats as I out them inside some old speakers to have wireless streaming speaker systems for the bedrooms and two via USB to DACs which are headphone stations.

I tried once to run one as a server but they are just too underpowered for anything taxing. I tried Volumio once and it was just awful user experience. Before Roon I used PiCore Player and DietPi.

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It wasn’t something I’d considered until I saw it in the software option screen. The 4b is a quad core ARM processor clocked by default at 1.5GHz - I suspect it might have enough power to work provided there wasn’t intensive processing of sound but seems no option currently anyway.

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From what I can gather from a quick look on the Roon forum, their devs simply have not compiled the core for the ARM architecture. Likely they believe the Rpi is not yet ready for it.

As for using an Rpi as a server, I think they can do the job if you don’t overload them by running too many applications on the same device. At their cost, it’s easy to split the tasks up. One pi runs AssetUPNP, another runs BubbleUpnp, etc. For me, they are rock solid and quietly doing their thing hidden out of sight. Great stuff for the tinkerers out there.

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No chance, it doesn’t have the power really to run Roon efficiently even with the latest version. They don’t support the server on Arm architecture anyway, so it would need some one to port it over like they did for NAS, it’s not supported by Roon on that platform officially. Don’t see the point of a low spec Roon server myself, it just hinders performance.

That’s what I typically do: I have one RPi4 wired to the router which runs MinimServer and transcodes FLAC files to WAV. This is located near the router and is connected to two USB drives. Further, I have an RPi3 (with DigiOne Signature hat) that is connected (via Naim DC1 BNC-BNC) to the nDAC and only runs upmpdcli (and, thus, MPD). This low power RPi3 consumes about 0.2A of current when I switch off all components that I do not need: wired Ethernet, USB, bluetooth, HDMI, internal sound card, etc. Additionally running MinimServer on this transport (with data stored on the internal micro SD card) brings the power consumption up to about 0.25A. Adding a 1TB Samsung T5 (and, thus, switching on the USB bus) drains another 0.20A of current for a total consumption of about 0.48A. Still very little but more than twice the 0.2A that are enough to power the RPi3 when it is used as a pure transport. This is also the default usage: I typically switch on MinimServer and the USB bus on the RPi3 only for testing purposes.

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I have 3 RPi3 doing music duties … 1 running Asset with a 1TB drive attached containing ripped FLAC files. The other two running Volumio in my office and bedroom systems. Overall Volumio provides a great set of services either natively or via plug-ins e.g. internet radio, Spotify Connect, UPNP, Shairport, Radio Paradise (incl. FLAC stream), 80s 80s Radio. I also pay the optional (minor) monthly subscription to get Tidal integration which now is able to pass MQA streams to the attached Meridian Explorer DAC.
The Volumio UI could be (a lot) better, especially for Tidal but it is evolving.

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Thanks - tried Volumio many years ago on a Mac, probably worth another look now.

Actually, I may not have though possibly a very similar sounding server.

I think the reality is Roon is becoming a bloated power hungry pile of crap that does it the Roon way not the way I want it to.

It’s a glorified media server on the basic level - that should not need massive processing power once the library has been catalogued with occasional additions.

It’s become completely unstable following a few recent updates on my Mac.

Sorry, I know you’re a Roon advocate and all that but it’s actually getting in the way currently for me. Back to Audirvana or something else for now.

Not sure where you get that. From launch they have had a minimum spec nothings changed since then other than you need a more up to date Android device for the remotes. It’s no more hungry than day one. It runs fine on every thing I have run it on. I would say the issue is MacOS not necessarily Roon. But stick with Audivarna, funny that doesn’t work on arm either I wonder why that is?

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This thread has piqued my interest. So I just ordered a Raspberry Pi 4B. Since I already have a server running Daphile (LMS) I am going to install picoreplayer (see here) and choose option 1 which enables the pi to be an endpoint to my Daphile server.

One could install the picoreplayer and choose option 2 or 3 which would enable a full LMS (Logitech Media Player) giving it NAS and DNLA capabilities.

There are so many excellent LMS plugins too. I particularly like the upnp bridge plugin which enables me to stream to my Muso, the Material Skin plugin which gives me a top notch controller that I can run on my smartphone, Music and Artist Information which includes lyrics too, Radio Paradise, Qobuz and Spotty (Spotify).

The forum thread for picoreplayer is here.

I’ll report back after I get it set up and running.

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I’ve been running Roon on a 2009 MacMini for 2 or so years. I can only recall one problem in all that time- it wasn’t indicating the current song playing and had frozen on a previous song. Connecting to it via an iPad I could see what was playing. A reboot (of Roon) fixed it.

I find it to be pretty stable running on MacOS.

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I’ve not had much time to play as yet.

Have enabled Minim Server and can reach its web interface.

I need to add an external drive to the Pi.

Hopeful that one of my many smnaller 2.5" externals will work.

Assuming it will and I can mount it, would you transfer files across the LAN using SSH or is there a way to mount a drive as a network share in GentooPlayer?

What’s the best disk format? ExFat of FAT 32? Can;t natively write to NTFS on Mac.

Finding the GentooPlayer documentation a bit scanty at the minute but this may be as I’m not sure what I want to try out!

So I’ve managed to mount a 1TB drive on reboot. Listed as /dev/sda1:

Screen Shot 2020-06-19 at 18.44.59

How do I get MinimServer to use it as the content directory???

Tried various permutations in this interface:

Screen Shot 2020-06-19 at 18.50.47

Stuck on specifying the mounted sda1 drive root directory.

Fixed - clear from 1st screengrab now - filesystem /dev/sda1 mounted on /media

Screen Shot 2020-06-19 at 19.08.40

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Their documentation is sparse. It looks like it’s more of a “player” distro, no file servers (like samba) appear to be included in the image. I think exfat or fat32 will be fine.

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FAT32 was fine on an old bus powered 1TB drive - got Minim working just failed to do some network file transfers to it - think I may have figured out why in my sleep, will test later.

What a fun little project. I received my tiny Raspberry pi 4 with 2GB of RAM. I copied the image of picoreplayer to a micro SDHD memory card, inserted into the pi. Then connected the pi to my switch and powered it up. I was immediately able to access the picoreplayer home page.

I then used the menu to turn on Squeezelite (this allows the pi to be an endpoint for my LMS server). I then set up wifi and pulled the ethernet connection and rebooted. The pi connected to my network wirelessly without a problem. Here is an image of the home page connected via wifi with Squeezelite running.

I had to tell picoreplayer that I wanted to use USB output and I had to fiddle with the ALSA volume parameter (thank you Google). I then queued up a few tunes via the LMS plugin called Material Skin. The screen shots are from my laptop. I also could use my phone as a Material Skin controller. These are songs playing from Qobuz:

So as an endpoint for a Logitech Media Server, picoreplayer works just fine. I plugged a cheapo dac/amp to the usb port and listened via my Sennheiser HD600s. The sound was remarkably good.

Next I’ll try to configure the pi as a full LMS server to allow access to a NAS or USB attached music and also enable the pi to act as a DNLA server. Since I already have an LMS server running (Daphile OS) I will not use the pi that way going forward. But I’ll give it a try to test it out and report back.

Here’s a pic of the hardware:

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The weekend is over :neutral_face: and my project to explore the capabilities of picoreplayer is completed. Additional hardware to my previous post was the addition of an 8GB USB thumb drive with some album folders containing flac files. My pi is now running Logitech Media Server (LMS) under picoreplayer. My findings:

  • Can picoreplayer running on a Raspberry Pi 4 be used as DLNA server? Yes.

  • Can picoreplayer running on a Raspberry Pi 4 be used as NAS? Yes, as far as reading and writing files, but I can’t vouch for performance.

  • Does the Naim app see the DLNA server and can I use it to stream music files stored on the server to my Muso-2. Yes.

  • Can I stream these files to the Muso-2 using a different controller like the LMS web interface or Material Skin? Yes.

  • Can I stream music from Radio Paradise and Qobuz to the Muso-2 via the LMS controller or Material Skin. Yes.

Most of the above functionality was enabled via LMS plugins. The possibilities are too numerous to mention.

The picoreplayer is inexpensive hardware. The 2GB pi, USB-C wall wart power supply and a mini SDHD memory card cost me $74 USD and picoreplayer is free. This kit enabled me to stream music from USB attached and online streaming services to my Squeezebox devices and to my Muso-2. It also functions as a DLNA server that allows me to use the Naim app to stream files to the Muso-2. I could also configure the picoreplayer to only act as an endpoint to my existing LMS server (my previous post). This allows me to easily set up an endpoint anywhere within range of my wifi and with a dac/amp USB dongle listen over my headphones. Overall I was very impressed with the software. Bravo to the picoreplayer developers.

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