[BETA] Raspberry Pi boot from USB/NVMe

[Phil]

After my test from two days ago, I redid an installation on a Samsung 850 Pro 256 Gb.

SFTP transfer of music worked without problems.

After choosing SSD boot in the RPi configuration, it now boots in 22 seconds. it’s super cool !!

In the general playback options, I set the Audio buffer size parameter to 8 Mb for better reception of web radio, It seems to me that this setting gives the best possible result.

The “Autostart” plugin triggered an error message when it was installed, but it works, I think it will require a small update…

In the “Artists” folder, I am missing photos of artists. It’s a shame because at the root of each artist folder I have a cover.jpg file with an image for each artist. I cannot force the use of my images, unfortunately it is the Volumio database which has priority for the display of this type of images.

The list of artists concerned is :

Chelsea Cullen, Aaron Neville, Alessendro Scarlatti, Amar Nath Mishra & Kuber Nath Mishra, Depeche Mode, Geneviève Calame, Houria Aichi, Jacques Guyonnet, Johann PACHELBEL, Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet, Mafalda Arnauth, Mateo Flecha el Viejo, Niccolo Paganini & Guiseppe Tartini, Nicolas Gombert, Orchestre royal du Concertgebouw, Trio Mediaeval & Arve Henriksen, Whitney Houston.

There is another list that is also missing images of the artists. In this case, Volumio created its own classification, without taking into account the organization of my personal files :

Beethoven & F. Mendelssohn, Dogma Chamber Orchestra, George Harrison with Eric Clapton and Band, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole and the Mãkaha Sons of Ni’iihau, Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra, Michel Petrucciani & Tony Petrucciani, Pachelbel, Albinoni Bach - Pachelbel ~ Canon Albinoni ~ Adagio - Bach, A Gozar

It would be desirable if we could configure the volume so that it respects the organization of our personal files and uses our images if they are present…

In the “Albums” folder I still have a problem with the merger made by Volumio of 2 of my albums, Fame (Fame album) and Louis Armstrong (Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra album (1938-1939)). As I realize that Volumio is reorganizing my music without my consent, I fear that the problem comes from there in this case too…

Everything else works really well !!

Regards.

[Steve1]

It’s early days but I bought a Geekworm X1003 for my Pi 5 and did the necessary eeprom update and configuration as per “Nerd’s” community post.

Arrived today and installed a fanxiang M.2 2230 SSD and followed exactly the instructions above. However, I cannot see “install to disk” as an option so further delving around is required. Not sure what the problem is yet but will report back.

[nerd]

@Steve1

I cannot see “install to disk” as an option

Can you generate logs and share link?

How to send a log link for a bug report?

[gkkpch]

@Phil Best not to wish for features and or corrections in areas that are outside the scope of this thread (which is “boot from usb/nvme”), they might get read by some (not necessarily core devs) and 2 weeks later all is forgotten.
Please open separate threads for those!

[Steve1]

The problem appears to be the Fanxiang M.2 SSD. It can be seen on my PC but is not seen by the PI. I temporarily used a Samsung SSD which is seen and appears to be working fine with “install to disk” appearing in the menu. I tried formatting the Fanxiang to NTFS and exFAT … I’ll keep tinkering to see if anything helps - if not then it might be a different PCIE board and case.

[Wheaten]

For this reason a separate topic has opened, where the community can reports those that works and those that are not.
In the top of this topic are some basic rules or what we know so far.

PCIe NVMe compatibility

With the rise of popularity of the PCIe NVMe storage on Raspberry Pi latest devices starting this thread to share our experiences. As a starting point please explore excellent overview and write-up with the caveat that the NVMe boards are now readily available and variety is increasing on the daily basis. We also have a quick guide discussing how to prepare Raspberry Pi5 to interact with PCIe storage boot process. Volumio implementation Active-State Power Management (ASPM) saves power in the P…

[Steve1]

Will re-post the findings there.

Thanks Wheaten

[Josh2000]

I encounter issues with v3.635 pi-uuid

PI4
headphone jack used

Webradio - different stations start to play and stop after a few seconds

http://logs.volumio.org/volumio/7fwVDZ1.html

edit: Also happens with 3.623 pi-uuid on HDMI output
http://logs.volumio.org/volumio/nCJUGXY.html

Also the same with 3.632 pi uuid

Will try another pi

Same thing with a PI3 . pirate dac
http://logs.volumio.org/volumio/iVejC8E.html

Anyone has the same issue - or do i have a bad day ?
Brand new sandisk SD

[nerd]

@Josh2000

Webradio - different stations start to play and stop after a few seconds

In the logs there are events that standout related to Bluetooth renegotiating Volalpha.
Don’t see anything related to jack - bcm2835_audio
Can you run further test and capture occurrence in logs again?

[Josh2000]

sure - did not do anything with bluetooth on both PIs

what test scenario other then starting with v3.623 pi-uuid would you recommend ?

[nerd]

@Josh2000

what test scenario other then starting with v3.623 pi-uuid would you recommend ?

Try to switch few times between different outputs if possible. I hope this will show what alsa and mpd are doing.

[Josh2000]

it’s a ISP provider thing - just found out - everything is good - sorry for confusion

yes, for sure - anybody here to proove it’s working ?

so sorry for confusion

internet is working for me - just webradio doesn’t at all (German O2 connection)
Will restart my router now

[Valdemir]

Moved Volumio to NVME. Loads and works quickly.
Sees media files on USB. Doesn’t see media files located on NVME.
How to make these files visible for Volumio?

[nerd]

@Valdemir

Doesn’t see media files located on NVME.

How did you transfer your media files?

[Valdemir]

With help WinSCP. Сreated a folder Media in home folder Volumio. I recorded several tracks in the created folder.

[nerd]

@Valdemir

Сreated a folder Media in home folder Volumio

Unfortunately this is not right placement for the Volumio music library. SCP or WinSCP is not recommended method as in addition it transfers files with the session user volumio, whilst files and folders in the music library need to be own by user nobody and group nogrup.
Recommended method for transferring media files:
First time when you using smb client (like MS Windows network file share); upon file transfer an internal “/data/INTERNAL” folder is created and this is where you media folders and files are stored.

[Valdemir]

I also tried creating a separate partition on the disk and recording media files there.

[naimnatnod]

I am thinking of loading a series of songs that I usually listen to on the NVME (all the necessary parts will come tomorrow) so I did try it with a 64gb USB 3.0. How do I find out the space that I have after Volumio OS on the USB?

Thanks.

Andy

[nerd]

@naimnatnod

How do I find out the space that I have after Volumio OS on the USB?

The overlay is the available storage. However, “the devil lives in the details” storage is shared between your Volumio user data, music files metadata scrubber like album’s art, etc. and your stored music library.

[nerd]

@Valdemir

a separate partition on the disk

It will still need to be available under “/data/INTERNAL” folder. NVMe SSD partitioning beyond Volumio installer default layout my result partition loss upon upgrade.