[BETA] Raspberry Pi boot from USB/NVMe

Volumio Development Developer's Corner
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Community outreach for Raspberry Pi devices functional storage change

Please read this section before proceed.

WARNING

This test version is meant to be temporary only. There are no plans to make any other releases unless a major defect is found requiring a rework. Once the test serves its purpose this test release will be discontinued.
It will be required to flash the regular pi image in the future, when the test phase is completed.

Why?

We need to change the way how Volumio OS uses underlying storage and enable USB and NVMe to act as boot devices. As a matter of fact, this already have been requested by our community on numerous occasions.

Risks?

The test is disruptive and there is no way around it. We need to keep master releases intact, whilst completing all necessary testing and preparing for release. The Volumio OS image will need to be downloaded and flash to the SD card. As such, you will need to take appropriate measures to ensure that you can return to your main Volumio installation without unnecessary risk.

Release?

Once all tests are successfully completed this approach will become an official release in the due course.

How?

Before testing the boot functionality, check guides and community discussions:

Description Community thread
Upgrade eeprom Prepare Raspberry Pi for boot from USB/NVMe
NVMe SSD LAB and findings to date PCIe NVMe compatibility

Preparation:

Description
Prerequisite A good quality SD card. If you do not have a spare, ensure you have a complete backup or image of the existing one before moving forward.
Recommendation Disconnect unnecessary devices. Take complete backup of your current settings, music library, etc.
Download Test Volumio OS image here Download the Volumio-3.623-2024-02-16-pi-uuid image and flash it to SD card using your method of choice.

Execution:

Steps Notes
Boot from SD card Complete setup disregarding update prompts. Configure your device as required, test roughly your Music Library, device functions.
At this point you should still be on version 3.623. Reboot your Raspberry Pi.
Intermediate OTA After reboot completes, ensure that the “Test” mode in VolumioHostName.local/dev or VolumioIPAddress/dev is set to false. Accept OTA upgrade to version v3.632 and perform upgrade in the usual manner. Your Raspberry Pi will reboot automatically.
Caution: if you are offered any other version than v3.632 the upgrade process will fail and you will need to start the procees again; double check that “Test” mode is disabled.
Target UUID OTA After reboot completes, without any further testing, ensure that the “Test” mode in VolumioHostName.local/dev or VolumioIPAddress/dev is set to true. Accept OTA upgrade to version v3.639 and perform upgrade in the usual manner. Your Raspberry Pi will reboot automatically.
Testing Execute any tests you like in the usual manner. If your Raspberry Pi is fitted with NVMe new function “Install to Disk” will be offered and ready for use.
Be aware that install to disk will irreversibly overwrite any present data on your NVMe, like any other fresh install will do.

Boot from USB

It is and it will be a manual process of flashing Volumio OS release directly. You can download image from the Prototype Volumio Images below

Please report the results in this thread.

Raspberry Pi USB or NVMe boot capable SBC

Devices in USB boot scope:

  • 2B Revision 1.2
  • 3B
  • CM3+
  • 4B
  • CM4
  • Pi 400
  • Zero 2 W
  • 5

Devices in NVMe M.2 boot scope:

  • CM4
  • 5

Prototype Volumio images

Download Notes
Version 3.639 RC-Testing LATEST: Testing release for testing purposes only. Includes new install to Disk and bug fixes to date. Do not use OTA with this build.
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Q&A

Question Answer
My Raspberry Pi is not booting from USB or NVMe Raspberry Pi’s eprom or eeprom need to be updated. There are numerous post available in public domain discussing each of the models. A quick guide for Raspberry Pi 4B and Raspberry Pi 5 you can find in Prepare Raspberry Pi for boot from USB/NVMe thread.
Can you recommend good NVMe SSD? It is an ongoing discovery in the PCIe NVMe compatibility thread.
I am going to install test now - will my data and library be intact? Unfortunately, the new image will need to be flashed as anew. Before flashing make a backup of your data and music library, playlists, etc outside of your Raspberry Pi.
Can I use OTA upgrade on this test for new releases? Upgrade OTA will overwrite settings and will break your Raspberry Pi Volumio installation. OTA is being worked on and once properly tested the release will follow. The only way is to wait for official release.
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a big thanks for the excellent work done by @nerd , who made this possible!

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Hi Team Volumio,

Thanks for this great step forward.
I’ve tested it on the follwing devices:
rPi4 4GB
rPi4 8GB
rPi5.

I experienced more stability (on radio streaming), faster browser response.

Well done!!!

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Hello,

Thank you for this excellent news.

I tested the installation on an RPi5 8 Gb and a Samsung 850 Pro 128 GB SSD on USB 3 port.

The boot time is now 32 seconds vs 1 minute 10 on SD card, I’m already delighted :slight_smile:

What can I say except that everything is working perfectly for the moment.

I will not hesitate to report any problems to you, if I detect any.

For the moment it is not easy to find small M.2 adapter cards for RPi5 on the market ;-(

Best regards.

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Thank you for your feedback.

Moved to PCIe NVMe compatibility thread.

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Hi, Installed to the Pimoroni NVMe drive/ ras pi5 . All working fine

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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.

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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.

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Can you generate logs and share link?

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@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!

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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.

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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.

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Will re-post the findings there.

Thanks Wheaten

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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

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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?

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sure - did not do anything with bluetooth on both PIs

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

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

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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

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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?