Multiple Audio distro in one SD card for raspberry pi

[Audoophile]

Hi to all music lovers,

Not rocket science.

Lots of assistance from Deepseek, many trials and errors and tonnes of perseverance, I managed to put 4 audio distros (piCorePlayer, Archphile, rAudio, Moode Audio) in a single 32gb SD card on raspberry pi 4 platform.

I used SSH Button app to switch from one distro to another.

No need for many SD cards, remove/insert, switch on/off the raspberry pi.

I don't know whether this has been accomplished before but I'm more than happy to share my experience and tips.

Along the way, I managed to stabilise the internet connection for Archphile. This distro is one of my favourites (minimalist) but unfortunately has not been maintained since 2020 and has issues to establish internet connection. I needed to power on/off up to 7 times to get at last an internet connection.

If anyone has put many distro in one single SD card please share your method so that I can improve mine.

Let me know your thoughts and enjoy the music.

Cheers.

 

[Apesbrain]

Interesting, but why?

 

[Audoophile]

@Apesbrain, Archphile sounds different than piCorePlayer. Archphile is based on mpd and PiCorePlayer on squeezelite. And there are differences in how the distro implement the audio processing (real-time, CPU isolation etc.). To me it can affect the sound. The more options the distro offers the less "engaging" the sound.

I have one SD card for each distro and each time I want to switch distro, I need to switch off the raspberry pi, remove the SD card, insert another one and switch on the raspberry pi. It is quite a hassle.

Having many distros in a single SD card, it save me a lot of hassle.

 

[Apesbrain]

sounds different

Ok, we'll just leave it there then. Glad it works for you.

 

[somebodyelse]

I've not tried it, but from what I've read it sounds like PINN would do it. Or the multiboot script.

 

[Audoophile]

PINN and berryboot work only with general Distro but not with specifically optimized distros like moode audio, PiCorePlayer ,,,

multiboot script looks interesting. I'll investigate further. Thanks

 

[somebodyelse]

PINN works for any OS image that has been packaged for it, even non-linux ones like RISCOS. That includes piCorePlayer, moode and volumio, although they aren't all up to date. See https://pinn.mjh.nz/ when you follow the process to the 'Select your systems' stage and go to the 'Media' tab. You could file an issue about the out of date or missing ones, or package them yourself. It's not great if you want to use the Pi headless, but it is possible.

 

[somebodyelse]

Berryboot has instructions for custom distros too.

 

[Audoophile]

I have tried berryboot but could not manage to boot any distro. Maybe I did a wrong manipulation or I should have persevered further.

After few internet search, I though that PINN could not handle customised distro. So I did not pursue further.

Also, my concern is that having berryboot or pinn will add another layer of "services" running in the background on the top of the audio distros and therefore injecting "delays" and "noises". I may be completely wrong on that matter.

Since my raspberry pi is headless and I also want to be able to select the distro from my tablet, The only way is to write myself a script.


What I found out is that:

1. All the mentioned distro will boot only of the boot partition is of vfat F32 LBA file system. Do the SD card has to be formated as MBR instead of GPT.

2. piCorePlayer will load the root partition to the CPU ram. No access or writing to the SD card afterwards until a reboot or a switch off. So an extra procedure is needed if you need to make any change persistent.

3. There is different treatment whether cmdline.txt or fstab files use PARTUUID or mmcblk0pX to point the partition.

4. Different procedures whether the distro fully expand the root partition or not.

5. Volumio create 3 partitions unlike others distro.

6. Understanding better how each distro load, allows me to optimise the script and arrange the partitions order.

It was a knowledgeable journey. I have learned bit of Linux, understand better how the raspberry function, bootloader, systemd, daemon etc ...

Thanks for referring me to the multi-boot script. I don't know why it did not pop up during my internet search. It could have led me to another path.

Cheers and enjoy your music.

 

[ctakim]

This is interesting. I'm using Raspberry Pi streamers throughout my house and I've played with Moode, Volumio, PiCorePlayer, Hifiberry OS, and Ropiee as streaming systems but all on different SD cards. I did not do any sound comparisons and the multiplicity of settings for each may impact this. But Ultimately I just settled on ease of use and clean interfaces to pick which ones I am sticking with. I still have a few different systems (Moode, Ropieee and Hifiberry OS) on my RPis mostly for fun, and Volumio is built into my MiniDSP SHD Studio. I use Roon as a source and all do very well as an endpoint. I also have a Wiim Amp and Wiim Amp Pro as endpoints, too.

 

[DVDdoug]

I did not do any sound comparisons and the multiplicity of settings for each may impact this. But Ultimately I just settled on ease of use and clean interfaces to pick which ones I am sticking with.

Yeah, the digital audio data usually doesn't get "accidently" changed, and when it gets corrupted or interrupted, things usually go VERY BAD with clicks, pops, and dropouts, etc.

...One bit in your bank account "flipped" from a 1 to a zero (or vice-versa) is equally likely to cause a 1-cent or a billon dollar error. Digital tends to be very robust.

 

[ShadowBoxer]

But Ultimately I just settled on ease of use and clean interfaces to pick which ones I am sticking with.

I'm curious as to which ones were the winners?

 

[ctakim]

I'm curious as to which ones were the winners?

Ropieee and Hifiberry were the cleanest and are fully capable as Roon endpoints. But all worked well to be honest once I got them installed and running. No need to curate my own music library since Roon takes care of that.

 

[audio_tony]

All the distros mentioned claim to be bit perfect IIRC. Therefore they will all sound the same.

MPD and Squeezelite are also bit perfect.

If any one distro sounds different, then it is not bit perfect.

 

[ShadowBoxer]

I was interested in ease of install & UI.

 

[ctakim]

All the distros mentioned claim to be bit perfect IIRC. Therefore they will all sound the same.

MPD and Squeezelite are also bit perfect.

If any one distro sounds different, then it is not bit perfect.

To be clear by cleanest I am referring to the interface not the sound. They all sound the same to me.

 

[Audoophile]

I have tried volumio (free version), but it could not handle large libraries and all type audio file format etc. Every time, I update the library, I will lose the library cache.

My subjective perception is that Archphile sounds more engaging, then piCore Player, rAudio and Moode Audio.

Archphile is really minimalist. It is no more maintained, unfortunately. I needed to fix myself some bugs due to the new Raspberry Pi firmware. Furthermore installing Archphile is not as easy as ABC.

piCorePlayer also sounds better. Maybe, it is because of its implementation. All the codes are uploaded to the ram of the CPU and therefore no access to the SD Card.

The less engaging sonically is Moode Audio. However, the interface is top notch.

The difference between Archphile and piCorePlayer is maybe the difference between MPD and Squeezelite.

At the end, although I have 4 distros installed, I only switch between Archphile and piCorePlayer.


Just to share my experience on the latest purchase. Recently I have bought an iem the Simgot EA1000 (less than 200 USD).
I own headphone such as Sennheiser HD600 and HD800S etc. They are driven by the RME 2 DAC. So I know what transparent sounds like.
However the Simgot EA1000 is tuned as brightly colored and put emphasis on the mid-range and clean and "elevated" bass compared with the Harman 2019 curve for headphone. In terms of pace, details and musicality it hit the real sweet spot for me. It is FUN to listen to music again. This iem is easy to drive and accompany me everyday on smart phone.

Enjoy the music.

Cheers and wish all good health