Public Alpha Test: Audio Without Compromise - Volumio on Bookworm Begins

nerd · May 14, 2025, 4:50pm

Volumio Bookworm Alpha 0.066

What’s new in the land of brave testers and sleepless dev:

Core Additions:

Time Gets a Grip:
We now tell the clock what time it is - properly. Say hello to setdatetime-helper, our polite little service that waits just long enough to avoid racing your router’s NTP server.
USB WiFi: Laziness Tolerated:
Some WiFi dongles like to take their time. Now Volumio won’t throw a fit when they do. More patient hotspot setup logic included.

x86 Side Adventures:

Realtek Goes Upstream:
Packed in the full upstream rtw88 family - yes, including the obscure cousins and the ones Realtek forgot about. Works with more Realtek devices than ever.
Firmware Buffet:
All firmware now aligned to upstream. More bits. Less guesswork.
Kernel Regression With Flair:
Still chasing the elusive perfect KMS behavior. Expect some splash quirks or mysterious 800x600 existential crises - I’m on it.

As always: flash it, break it, test it, log it. Your weirdest bug might be tomorrow’s solved mystery.

Kind Regards,

Wheaten · May 14, 2025, 4:58pm

@SimonE

He Simon Volumio did think of you Curious if it solves it for your rPi4.

balbuze · May 14, 2025, 5:31pm

once again, great job @nerd
Edit: update on Higole After reboot, still on v.065

Wheaten · May 14, 2025, 7:23pm

@nerd

Date after Initial install:

Date after reboot:

2nd reboot:

log: http://logs.volumio.org/volumio/Z5IK93q.html

Seems the date cuddling is working.

nerd · May 14, 2025, 8:05pm

Hey @balbuze,

Really odd. Mine just… updated. Will give it a closer look.

Kind Regards,

Robert.Hecht · May 14, 2025, 8:59pm

Hi @nerd ,
OTA 0.065 to 0.066 just worked fine here at my AMD64 platform. I’ll test some features tomorrow.

edit: OTA did NOT work. See post below.

Cheers,
Robert

rkorell · May 15, 2025, 7:47am

Update (OTA) to 0.066 has worked without any problem - even reboot has worked directly.

Pi5, Raspi 2 Display (DSI), BT remote & two rotary encoders on several GPIOs
Mainly using spotify, works.
Touch display (and corresponding plugin) works
Rotary encoders are working
BT remote is working
WiFi is working (can acces from laptop / phone).
“Now Playing” plugin works
Great work!

Regards,
Ralf

gkkpch · May 15, 2025, 12:16pm

Hi Robert,

could you please check the version number in “System”, is it really 0.066?

gkkpch · May 15, 2025, 1:39pm

Quick V0.066 test with HP X2 detachable P10-p0xx:

Wireless works OK
usb-to-eth adapter not working (missing driver for AX88179 Gigabit Ethernet, http://logs.volumio.org/volumio/inbSeD9.html),
SD card reader works OK
Booting from eMMC OK
Media button “Vol-”/“Vol+” OK
Media buttons Prev/Pause/Next OK
Note: prev/next button cause a loud click, while using the UI to select next or prev there is no artifact
Mute not OK (didn’t work with current buster version either)
Brightness control not OK (didn’t work with current buster version either)
Autoswitch headphone/ speakers OK (ACPI event handling for bytcr-rt5640)
Touchscreen OK
Touch pad OK
BT playback OK
BT volume control OK
Library playback OK
Scanning the library: with Intel Atom devices it is critical playing music from the library and scanning at the same time. Best do one or the other, not both.

Robert.Hecht · May 15, 2025, 1:43pm

Hi Gé,

damned - you’re right - it’s still the 0.065. Here the log shortly before the reboot:
http://logs.volumio.org/volumio/zO8Elf7.html

Even after cleaning the ...fallback and ...part files in /imgpart the OTA did not work:

volumio@smx:/imgpart$ ls -al
total 1249369
drwxrwxrwx 3 root    root          4096 May 15 15:45 .
drwxrwxrwx 1 root    root          1024 May  1 23:17 ..
-rwxrwxrwx 1 volumio volumio   92692480 May 10 21:28 kernel_current.tar
drwxrwxrwx 2 root    root         16384 May  1 15:10 lost+found
-rwxrwxrwx 1 volumio volumio          0 May 15 15:42 rcksum-5dUpJA
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root    root           141 May  1 15:12 remoteConfig
-rwxrwxrwx 1 volumio volumio 1186631680 May 10 21:28 volumio_current.sqsh
volumio@smx:/imgpart$ df -h
Filesystem              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev                    1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /dev
tmpfs                   379M  6.2M  373M   2% /run
/dev/sdc2               3.7G  1.2G  2.3G  35% /imgpart
/dev/loop0              1.2G  1.2G     0 100% /static
overlay                  50G   91M   48G   1% /
tmpfs                   1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs                   5.0M  8.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
efivarfs                128K   61K   63K  50% /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
tmpfs                   1.9G   32K  1.9G   1% /tmp
tmpfs                    20M   48K   20M   1% /var/log
tmpfs                   1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /var/spool/cups
tmpfs                   1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /var/spool/cups/tmp
/dev/sdc1               241M   89M  152M  37% /boot
//192.168.178.56/nase2  3.7T  1.6T  2.2T  42% /mnt/NAS/nase2
/dev/sda1               932G  781G  151G  84% /media/T7
tmpfs                   379M  4.0K  379M   1% /run/user/1000
volumio@smx:/imgpart$

http://logs.volumio.org/volumio/4yQqlON.html

Sorry for the first enthusiastic post.

Cheers, Robert

Robert.Hecht · May 15, 2025, 1:55pm

I think there is no way without a fresh flash, right?

Looks like the space is still not sufficient for the current, fallback files and the unpacking of the new version…

volumio@smx:~$ cd /imgpart/
volumio@smx:/imgpart$ ls -al
total 3643213
drwxrwxrwx 3 root    root          4096 May 15 15:48 .
drwxrwxrwx 1 root    root          1024 May  1 23:17 ..
-rwxrwxrwx 1 volumio volumio   92692480 May 10 21:28 kernel_current.tar
-rwxrwxrwx 1 volumio volumio   92692480 May 10 21:28 kernel_fallback.tar
drwxrwxrwx 2 root    root         16384 May  1 15:10 lost+found
-rwxrwxrwx 1 volumio volumio          0 May 15 15:48 rcksum-SJ4xyq
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root    root           141 May  1 15:12 remoteConfig
-rwxrwxrwx 1 volumio volumio 1186631680 May 10 21:28 volumio_current.sqsh
-rwxrwxrwx 1 volumio volumio 1185173504 May 15 15:47 volumio_current.sqsh.part
-rwxrwxrwx 1 volumio volumio 1186631680 May 10 21:28 volumio_fallback.sqsh
volumio@smx:/imgpart$

Wheaten · May 15, 2025, 2:39pm

Dell-3198

Initial setup with V0.065
Network detection failing when HS is active. Needed to turn down HS to configure Wifi (Issue already present with Buster)
Local browser (x86) doesn’t show icons for the V0.066 update (shows a boxed ?)

OTA V0.066 => Fail. System stays on V0.065
log: http://logs.volumio.org/volumio/YIXBeZA.html

Will flash V0.066 manually.

gkkpch · May 15, 2025, 2:41pm

The cause for the OTA error has been identified, @nerd is addressing the problem.

gkkpch · May 15, 2025, 2:45pm

Correct, this is an existing issue, but there is nothing that can be done about it.
Some wireless devices are not able to be in hotspot mode and scan for ssid’s at the same time.
On x86 devices this is less of a problem when you have a keyboard and display or when it concerns a notebook.
Your workaround is the one that usually works

Wheaten · May 15, 2025, 2:54pm

I know, but will report it every test run.

nerd · May 15, 2025, 3:04pm

Hey @Robert.Hecht, @gkkpch, @balbuze , @Wheaten

Thanks for the detailed analysis and follow-up. You’re absolutely correct in your observation - kernel 6.12.28 and the shift to upstream firmware and modules has increased the overall storage footprint, particularly for x86 builds. We’ve added support for newer GPUs, CPUs, and more complete Realtek rtw88 coverage, along with twice the firmware blobs compared to earlier versions. While this massively improves compatibility, it also breaks the 4GB ceiling.

With the new kernel and image size:

.sqsh grows beyond 1.1 GB
Kernel packages are nearing 90 MB+ each
OTA must carry current, fallback, and a partial build during apply - that’s close to 3.7 GB just in /imgpart

In current images where /imgpart is ~3.7 GB, we’re operating exceeding any safety margin. OTA cannot proceed once space is consumed by fallback and partial files, even after clean-up.

Current status:

I am working on a layout update for 0.067 and later
OTA to 0.066 is blocked due to the above limits
Fresh flashing is required for upcoming 0.067 on x86

This is a tough call, but Bookworm has pushed the platform harder than expected. We’re not just bumping kernel versions - we’re moving the whole stack forward, and x86 needs the same room to grow as ARM builds.

Important Note:

4GB USB sticks are no longer viable for modern x86 Volumio.
If you’re flashing from scratch, we now strongly recommend at least an 8GB or 16GB device - not just for installation, but to ensure OTA and fallback functionality work correctly in future builds.

Thanks again for helping confirm this behavior and your continued contributions to testing.

Kind Regards,

gkkpch · May 15, 2025, 3:12pm

Has anyone scanned a larger NAS library using cifs? Am I the only one noticing that scanning is terribly slow compared to the x86 buster version?

Wheaten · May 15, 2025, 3:17pm

Tested with V0.066

Brand: Dell Latitude 3189 (x86)
Native resolution: 1366x768 (WXGA Wide)
Connected: eDP-1
SanDisk Corp. Ultra Fit 15GB
Rotation: 0Deg
iFi Zen DAC V2
Internal Sound card

Failing:

Network detection failing when HS is active. Needed to turn down HS to configure Wifi (Issue already present with Buster).
Keyboard FN function
Brigthness Up/Down
Mute
Rotation

Working:

Keyboard FN functions
Vol. Up/Down
Hardware
Vol. Up/Down
Power Button
Touchscreen
Gui Shutdown/Reboot
DSD64, DSD128, DSD256
MP3
Flac
Webradio
Tidal
Tidal Connect
Qobuz
Qobuz + BT
Qobuz Connect
Local files phone + BT
Spotify
NAS Mount. Scan speeds is about 50% slower then before. Now it updates with approx 50 tracks previous at 150. Some times during scan it drops to only one track per screen refresh.

Wheaten · May 15, 2025, 3:17pm

Yes see my list

I know some changes have been made as with the kernel upgrade, the network mount failed when Guest account has been disabled. CIFS just failed with the Password encryption.

But @Nerd is way better with words

gkkpch · May 15, 2025, 3:37pm

I removed the drive as it defaulted to vers=3.11, which I had not seen before.
My NAS was set to max protocol SMB3 and minimum protocol SMB1, never had to add a protocol version.

Then a new drive was added, same user and pwd, but I added “vers=1.0”
Et voilà, I have my speed back, any thoughts?