setup

Raspio Setup

A working Raspio system requires the Raspio Server program to be installed on a Raspberry Pi. This folder contains the necessary files to install Raspio Server.

Installation Methods

Install script

curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bickoSiTiEff/Raspio/dev/setup/install.sh | sudo bash /dev/stdin dev

The above command will download and execute a script that installs everything necessary to run a Raspio Server. You can replace the two occurrences of dev in the above snipped with a different Git branch name.

It will:

• Create the required folder structure
• Install system updates
• Create a virtual audio device (used internally)
• Install and configure MPD
  • Additionally to the radio broadcast, you can listen to the current transmission using the 3.5mm jack on the Raspberry Pi or via the audio streaming server running on port 8000.
• Install additional dependencies (PiFmAdv, Node.js, Yarn)
• Download and compile the Raspio Server
• Install a Systemd Unit that automatically starts the Raspio Server after the Raspberry Pi finished booting
• Install a Avahi service that is used by the Raspio App to detect the Raspio Servers IP address
• Look fancy.

Prepared SD-Card image (easiest)

In the future there will be a ready-to-use SD-Card image available that you just need to flash to an SD-Card and insert it into a Raspberry Pi.

Created files

/raspio/              # The main folder used for persistant storage
/raspio/install.log   # A log file containing the output of the installation script
/raspio/pi_fm_adv     # The actual FM transmitter binary used by the server
/raspio/music/        # This folder contains all music files that are saved locally
/raspio/playlists/    # A folder used internally by MPD to store playlists
/raspio/repo/         # A clone of this repository that contains the server code

/etc/avahi/services/raspio.service  # A DNS-SD service definition for Raspio
/etc/systemd/system/raspio.service  # A Systemd Unit file for Raspio
/etc/mpd.conf                       # Custom MPD configuration

Virtual Audio device

The snd-aloop kernel module is used to create a virtual audio device. This is needed to redirect the MPD audio output to the PiFmAdv transmitter.

Service Discovery

After the smartphone running the Raspio App and the Raspberry Pi running the Raspio Server are in the same network they need a way to find each other. A common way this is solved is using DNS-SD (Domain Name System Service Discovery). Google Cast and Spotify also use this to detect compatible devices.

The preinstalled Avahi server is configured to send a service advertisement that can be picked up by other devices. The service name is configured as _raspio._tcp.