Tag: Raspberry Pi

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Logitech Media Server Raspberry Pi

Getting HiFiBerry Amp2 Working With Squeezelite for Logitech Media Server

Logitech Media Server Icon

This mini tutorial assumes you have installed your HiFiBerry Amp2 hardware to your Raspberry Pi and configured it using this tutorial:

https://www.hifiberry.com/docs/software/configuring-linux-3-18-x/

This tutorial also builds off these excellent web pages

and just makes their advice specific to the HiFiBerry hardware.

(This worked with this hardware list: https://mystupidnotes.com/desktop-audio-raspberry-pi-logitech-media-server-shopping-list/

and after an upgrade to Raspberry Pi 4.)

First, let’s list all soundcards and digital audio devices on our Raspberry Pi with:

aplay -l

The result should be:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: sndrpihifiberry [snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplus], device 0: HiFiBerry DAC+ HiFi pcm512x-hifi-0 [HiFiBerry DAC+ HiFi pcm512x-hifi-0]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Raspberry Pi list sound devices with aplay
There it is!

Let’s just double check that the HiFiBerry Amp2 is available to Squeezelite with:

sudo /usr/bin/squeezelite -l

Here it is:

Output devices:
  null                           - Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
  default
  sysdefault:CARD=sndrpihifiberry - snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplus, HiFiBerry DAC+ HiFi pcm512x-hifi-0 - Default Audio Device
  dmix:CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0 - snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplus, HiFiBerry DAC+ HiFi pcm512x-hifi-0 - Direct sample mixing device
  dsnoop:CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0 - snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplus, HiFiBerry DAC+ HiFi pcm512x-hifi-0 - Direct sample snooping device
  hw:CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0  - snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplus, HiFiBerry DAC+ HiFi pcm512x-hifi-0 - Direct hardware device without any conversions
  plughw:CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0 - snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplus, HiFiBerry DAC+ HiFi pcm512x-hifi-0 - Hardware device with all software conversions
That’s the line we will need in our Squeezelite config.

I like to kill Squeezelite before modifying the config with this:

sudo service squeezelite stop

Let’s modify our Squeezelite config with the nano text editor:

sudo nano /etc/default/squeezelite

If you followed the tutorials at the top to get started, you should see something like this:

# Defaults for squeezelite initscript
# sourced by /etc/init.d/squeezelite
# installed at /etc/default/squeezelite by the maintainer scripts

# The name for the squeezelite player:
SL_NAME="$(hostname -s)"

# ALSA output device:
SL_SOUNDCARD="sysdefault:CARD=sndrpihifiberry"

# Squeezebox server (Logitech Media Server):
# Uncomment the next line if you want to point squeezelite at the IP address of
# your squeezebox server. This is usually unnecessary as the server is
# automatically discovered.
#SB_SERVER_IP="192.168.x.y"

# Additional options to pass to squeezelite:
# Please do not include -z to make squeezelite daemonise itself.
#SB_EXTRA_ARGS="-a 180"
There’s our card that was shown earlier with “sudo /usr/bin/squeezelite -l”

Line 9 in the code above the image is the one we want to get the HiFiBerry card working for Logitech Media Server.

On this excellent site: http://www.winko-erades.nl/installing-squeezelite-player-on-a-raspberry-pi-running-jessie/ it’s mentioned that you should change:

#SB_EXTRA_ARGS=""

To:

SB_EXTRA_ARGS="-a 180"

Although, I am not sure if that is needed with the HiFiBerry card. I can’t tell any difference either way, so I tried it, but ended up commenting it out in the config above.

Ctrl+o to save and then Ctrl+x to exit the nano editor.

sudo service squeezelite start

A refresh of your Logitech Media Server screen should show your Squeezelite player!