I need some help… I just ordered a Mini PC to use with Volumio, but after I made the order I saw that Volumio should be used with SD Card. Unfortunately, it turned out that particular Mini PC doesn’t have card reader.
So my question is - will Volumio work from on SD Card connected to the Mini PC with USB to SD Card adapter? If yes, any downsides to using it that way?
The booting from SD card is meant for running Volumio on single-board computers, like a Raspberry Pi.
The x86 version of Volumio can be installed directly on a HDD, check out the guide for that here: volumio-x86-install-hdd-t5058.html
Yes, you should be safe, in fact it is the other way around.
Booting capability from an internal card reader is rarely offered, personally I have not seen an x86 that was able to.
Most users initially boot from a usb SD card reader or usb stick and then copy Volumio to an internal drive (not SD) using the copy feature in the system menu.
It’s great news that Sd Card is not needed. I checked the HDD install thread and it seems it’s not always trivial to do such install, but the weekend is near and I think I’ll manage. My hardware arrived tomorrow.
Probably, I could just hook the HDD to my laptop with an SATA to USB adapter and install Volumio that way as someone suggested. Also, I will try the system menu option.
What worries me a bit is that it was noted the HDD has to be wiped when installing Volumio. That is not a problem now as it will be a brand new HDD. But what about Volumio updates?
Will it be possible to update Volumio on the HDD without wiping it?
By the way, it’s great to get such fast responses directly from the Volumio developer/s. I’m a programmer myself so appreciate your efforts even more. I’ll be sure to buy you beer/coffee/whatever, just let’s first make it work
For the initial install, you write the image onto the HDD which indeed wipes the drive. After that, Volumio has a built-in updater (make sure to give them a beer for that) which leaves all your settings and preferences intact during an update.
(As long as you don’t tinker any system files yourself, that annoys the updater.)
