Yes, I had already followed every step in that guide with the same result. I mean, something is supposed to show on the screen after the boot screen that says it’s loading, right? But nothing does.
Let me recap, as your last post is confusing me.
And before you think; “Why all these stupid questions” 
For us it’s a black box so we can only ask things to get a clear picture as you’re the only one that can see it…
(Raspberry OS can’t be compared to Volumio. As the 1ste is a desktop OS and Volumio a mediastreamer which doesn’t come default with screen drivers)
- You’re running a rPi4 with a screen and it’s not working for you.
- What kind of screen are you using? (HDMI screen, External Monitor, DSI,…)
- What gave you the conclusion it’s not working?
- You mention something should show after the boot screen.
- What do you mean with “after the boot screen”. Are you referring to the screen with the Raspberry logo or the Volumio logo?
- If we forget about the screen and you use the Volumio app, the device doesn’t show up after a couple of minutes?
- You’re also not able to access it via the web browser?
Maybe I assumed that it is a customized version of the Raspberry Pi OS that boots to just an audio player with its own GUI, but I just inserted the card again, and this time after the screen went blank, I saw a QR code, and all this tiny text (it’s a Dell 32" 4K monitor that for some reason the Pi 4 defaults to 4K even though it’s not a machine for 4K by far). When I scanned the QR code with my phone and tapped on the link, it was an IP address, which then I typed on my PC because I hate typing on the phone.
So after doing the initial signup and all that, now I can see that there is a GUI, it’s just that it’s in my browser on my PC, not the screen connected to the Pi 4. That screen is getting no signal from the Pi 4 at all.
I assume this is the way it works?
You’re almost there.
If you login to the plugin store, there is a plugin called “Touch Display”.
Install it and see the magic happen. It will enable a kiosk with the GUI as you see in your webbrowser.
When you say enable a Kiosk, does that mean that it needs to be connected to a touch screen, no mouse or keyboard? Because the GUI appeared, but the mouse doesn’t do anything, neither does the keyboard. Correction: the mouse pointer does things, but it’s invisible. I found out by accident. So it’s absolutely useless. It also defaults to 4K, and not zoomed, so the text is tiny.
Now, let me ask you, what is the advantage when it comes to sound quality? When it comes to digital music, I’m using Universal Media Server running on my Mac, which is a DLNA server. From there I can play in most of my devices, but normally I use my Panasonic UBP9000 because it has a horrible GUI. Well, it has a horrible GUI, but an amazing sound quality. That’s connected to my Onkyo TX-RZ50.
I would assume that the chip that processes digital audio (no DAC because the DAC is in the Onkyo, the Panasonic goes to the Onkyo via HDMI) is much better in the Panasonic than in the Pi 4 B. So as far as audio fidelity, does the software contain anything that would improve the sound quality over the Panasonic? Otherwise it’s just adding another device to my already crowded list of HDMI devices.
Please look in the settings of the plugin. There you will find mouse visibility, virtual keyboard settings and display scale. Play around and have fun.
Yeah, I was able to find that when using the browser GUI, so I could change those things. But my question about the audio quality is the main thing for me, and now that I think about it, if there’s a remote control that can operate it, because if I connect this to my receiver, I’m not going to operate it with a mouse.
Is there a remote control that can be paired to the Pi 4 via Bluetooth or something like that?
Maybe use the forum search engine. There are plugins for IR remotes, but you need to dig into it yourself a bit.
I quickly set up a Pi5 to test it out.
Pi5 4GB base / NVME SSD / hi-fi-Berry audiophonics DAC.
The plugin collection is already very interesting.
I find it more stable than Volumio 3.XXX, perhaps due to the fact that it’s a fresh installation.
In terms of speed, I can’t comment on SD vs NVME as it’s not a fair comparison for my Pi4.
I need to get this damn screen working and then I think I’ll migrate!
Well done to the whole team for all your hard work, your involvement in this community is remarkable.
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Hi @PluggedIn -
If your main interest is as an audiophile (as is mine), I’d suggest you start with a minimally configured Volumio image on your RPi4 and do your exploring via the web UI in a browser on another machine. That’s generally simple to get working. Save setting up a locally attached screen for after your audio questions are resolved to your satisfaction and you know your way around better. I’ve built several Volumio / RPi (3 or 4) systems, both headless and touchscreen, and generally prefer the web UI anyway.
Volumio is built on top of a standard Linux core, and leverages many standard components - mpd, alsa, and others. It contains configuration and initialization code for setting up these and a range of services appropriate for music streaming/playback, along with a nice UI for configuring and operating the whole thing.
Apart from optional plugins that may involve DSP operations on the music itself, nothing in Volumio code should really affect audio quality one way or the other. If you know what you’re doing with the underlying signal chain you could in principle do just as well setting up a RPi on your own using either digital out to an external DAC (or receiver etc with a DAC in it) or to a directly attached I2C DAC HAT. Nothing in either Volumio or a DIY configuration should degrade (or improve) the digital audio. Audio quality will of course be affected by your DAC, with or without Volumio. (Note that one can use the RPi internal DAC / headphone output for analog out, but no one claims that’s audiophile-quality.)
I’m a user, not a Volumio developer or contributor, but I tip my hat to those who are. I find Volumio very useful. It isn’t perfect but it’s pretty darn good.
2 Likes
Hey @rabuchanan,
Appreciate the well-intentioned summary for new users - the advice to start headless and explore via the web UI first is solid practical guidance.
However, I need to correct a key point. Volumio is not simply a convenient wrapper around standard Linux audio components. It is purpose-built for bit-perfect audio reproduction from the ground up.
Everything in the system is audio-optimised - from kernel-level optimisations, WiFi and Bluetooth handling, network priority configuration, through to the shortest audio paths and fastest digital audio stage achievable. AAMPP - Advanced Audio Modular Processing Pipeline - is Volumio’s own sound engine architecture with tailored mpd and mpc, allowing plugins to process audio from any source while maintaining bit-perfect signal integrity. Noise sources like PulseAudio or PipeWire have no place in the Volumio ecosystem at all and are deliberately excluded.
Volumio uses Debian Bookworm as its base, but the result is nothing like any other OS built on it. A DIY Raspberry Pi setup using stock Raspberry Pi OS with standard mpd will not achieve the same result - the difference is in the engineering of the entire audio chain, not just the UI on top.
Kind Regards,
2 Likes
Anyone?
I get an error message: ENOENT: no such file or directory, stat ‘/tmp/.X11-unix/X0’
Thanks for the tips. In the little time I’ve been testing it, I found good and bad things. The sound is great, and it gets better with the FusionDSP plugin. I especially like the parametric EQ, even if it’s text based, but well, I can’t really expect Fabfilter Q4 Pro from a free plugin of course. And the sound being so good to start with, I only need one EQ band if that much. I want to test the presets, since recently I got the The Alan Parsons Project boxset collection and ripped them all to FLAC to put in the media server SSD, and many of them sound awful from the time he fell in love with digital recording, but a good EQ preset can take care of those excessive mid-highs.
But I had watched some videos that said it can be a bit buggy, and I saw that yesterday. It seems like changing some things, like the EQ, or enabling or disabling things makes the audio stream to the HDMI port disappear, and while usually a reboot takes care of that, it got to a point where it wouldn’t no matter how many times I would reboot.
But well, so far I like it enough to keep using it. But I wonder, is there a way to configure it so that the screen it’s connected to doesn’t show the QR code and the text? My TV set is an OLED, so if I leave that on the screen all the time, it’s bad for the screen and can cause permanent retention. Of course I can turn off the screen with the TV remote, but I would prefer if when I switch to that input in my receiver, the screen is totally blank, so I don’t need to reach for the remote.
And when using the kiosk plugin, it sets the screen to 1080 120 Hz, and this tiny machine can’t handle 120 Hz. If I scroll the playlist in my computer in the browser, it’s totally smooth, but in the kiosk plugin, it’s very slow and laggy. Isn’t there a way to force it to 60 Hz? I can’t find that in the settings anywhere.
Something is coming! 
1 Like
Easter bunny?
Please excuse brevity of my post. I’m hoping that will actually make it easier to troubleshoot.
Wireless issue with Volumio 4 on Raspberry pi 3 B+
Raspberry Pi 3 B+
Volumio 4.096
No Wireless HotSpot visible
Configure via Ethernet cable – Switch on WiFi – no WiFi networks visible – 10 seconds later WiFi switches off.
Log File http://logs.volumio.org/volumio/p4HjTAl.html
Pi Revision a020d3
Boot – Micros SD (New – tried re-burning)
Gustard USB DAC
No other devices attached.
Reverting to Volumio 3 - all work well.
Everything fine over Ethernet - but no WiFi.
TIA
Ok, I moved to 4 because of the Display no longer showing weather in v3.
I have a RPi 4B feeding a Topping E50 via USB.
When working, sounds great.
I’ve noticed a few issues recently…
a) Here’s the log … http://logs.volumio.org/volumio/ljy0c6S.html
- When playing music, the interface via Safari browser on my iPad becomes unresponsive regularly.
- I also use the app on my iPhone. Connecting to my RPi 4B regularly says “connection error”. Usually if I haven’t used Volumio for a while…let’s say overnight.
- If I’ve not used Volumio for a while (again, let’s say…the next day) when I hit play for a loaded playlist, I get an error indicating the output device is not configured, yet it shows which device it tried…On the screen the playback counter starts…alas no music. It is at this point that the issue in “1.” above happens. Once wrestle back control some how, music will play fine. It’s like “something” went to sleep but didn’t wake up fast enough.
- At least Volumio now shows me the weather screen!
Obviously I had none of these issues with V3 on the same devices etc.
Not sure if anyone has reported similar issues.
Oh yeah and then there’s "5.“mysterious missing album art”…
…yet…
Regards
D
Hey @pieronip,
Thanks for the clear report - that made this straightforward to trace.
Your WiFi problem is caused by an rfkill soft block race condition during boot. The log shows this sequence:
- 18:31:18 - Volumio’s rfkill unblock script runs and successfully unblocks the WiFi radio
- 18:31:21 - systemd-rfkill service starts afterward and restores a saved “blocked” state, re-blocking the radio
- 18:31:27 - wireless.js tries to bring wlan0 up, fails with “SIOCSIFFLAGS: Operation not possible due to RF-kill”
- From that point forward, every scan attempt fails with “Network is down (-100)”
This cycle repeats on every wireless.service restart throughout the log - at 10:10, 10:12, 10:34, and 10:35. Always the same rfkill failure.
The underlying cause is the raspberrypi-sys-mods package, which ships a configuration file that sets radios to blocked by default for regulatory compliance. Volumio’s unblock script runs too early and gets overridden by systemd restoring the saved blocked state.
This is a known issue affecting Pi 3 B+ (and potentially other Pi models with onboard WiFi). A fix has been implemented that resolves this at the kernel module level rather than relying on the boot script. This fix is present in alpha 4.100, but alpha builds may be unstable and are not recommended for general use. The safer path is to wait for this fix to reach a beta or stable release.
If you want to try the alpha channel at your own risk, the update channel is changed at http://volumio.local/dev under “Update Channel Selection” - not in the Settings menu.
Separate issue - your log shows repeated undervoltage events throughout the session. Eight occurrences across the log period, each triggering the kernel warning “Undervoltage detected!” before normalising seconds later. This means your power supply is marginal for the Pi 3 B+. This is not causing your WiFi problem (the rfkill issue is), but an inadequate power supply can cause unpredictable behaviour including USB and WiFi instability. I would recommend replacing it with a quality 5V 2.5A supply rated for the Pi 3 B+.
Kind Regards,
1 Like
Hey @dmonds,
Thank you for the log and the detailed description. Volumio 4.097 on Pi 4B with Topping E50 via USB - got it.
I have gone through the full log. There are several things happening here, and they are connected. Let me walk through what the log shows.
1. Your Topping E50 is repeatedly disconnecting and reconnecting on the USB bus
The kernel log shows 7 USB disconnect/reconnect cycles for the E50 between Feb 16 and Feb 26. The USB device number escalates each time (device 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12), confirming these are genuine bus-level disconnections - not software glitches.
Each disconnect triggers a cascade: ALSA pipe breaks, MPD fails to open the audio output, Volumio detects the detachment, then re-detects the attachment, restarts MPD, restarts Shairport Sync, restarts Tidal Connect. This is what you see as the “output device not configured” error and the playback counter running with no audio.
The specific errors in your MPD log:
ALSA lib pcm_volumioswitch.c:912 - PCM volumioMultiRoomServer cannot write to target PCM volumioOutput as it has failed its update check.
Failed to play on "alsa" (alsa): snd_pcm_writei() failed: Broken pipe
Failed to open audio output
These appear at 20:22 on Feb 25, at 12:15 on Feb 26, and at 17:21 on Feb 26 - each one immediately preceded by a kernel USB disconnect.
2. The idle period correlation and the E50 auto-standby
Two of these disconnects occurred after extended idle periods with no preceding system activity - only the periodic time sync service running every 10 minutes:
- Feb 25 at 23:50 (after no activity since 21:49)
- Feb 26 at 17:15 (after no activity since 15:38)
The Topping E50 has an automatic standby feature that is enabled by default. When the E50 receives no valid signal on its selected input for approximately 60 seconds, it enters standby and disconnects from the USB bus. This is a known characteristic of this DAC - it has been documented as causing identical problems with piCorePlayer/squeezelite as well.
The 23:50 disconnect is particularly telling. The kernel shows two failed re-enumeration attempts (error -32) before successfully reconnecting 7 seconds later:
Feb 25 23:50:44 kernel: usb 1-1.4: USB disconnect, device number 7
Feb 25 23:50:49 kernel: usb 1-1.4: new full-speed USB device number 8 using xhci_hcd
Feb 25 23:50:49 kernel: usb 1-1.4: device descriptor read/64, error -32
Feb 25 23:50:49 kernel: usb 1-1.4: device descriptor read/64, error -32
Feb 25 23:50:49 kernel: usb 1-1.4: new full-speed USB device number 9 using xhci_hcd
Feb 25 23:50:49 kernel: usb 1-1.4: device descriptor read/64, error -32
Feb 25 23:50:51 kernel: usb 1-1.4: new high-speed USB device number 10 using xhci_hcd
The error -32 (EPIPE) during re-enumeration suggests the E50 was still transitioning between power states when the kernel attempted to read its descriptor.
3. Your iPad/iPhone connectivity issues
When the USB disconnect cascade fires, Volumio’s backend becomes very busy - restarting MPD, Shairport Sync, Tidal Connect, rewriting ALSA configuration, and pushing state updates to all connected clients simultaneously. Your log consistently shows 9 socket.io clients connected. During the cascade, the backend response times spike (MPD status commands taking 300-600ms, pause command taking 1753ms). This is what you experience as the interface becoming unresponsive on Safari.
The “connection error” on the iPhone app after overnight idle is consistent with the same pattern - the E50 auto-standby triggers a USB disconnect, which triggers the full service restart cascade, which temporarily disrupts websocket connections to all clients.
There is also a stale CLOSE_WAIT TCP connection from the kiosk process to port 4004 in the netstat output, which indicates a connection that was closed by the remote end but not yet cleaned up locally.
4. Additional observation: display rendering load
Your system is driving a 4K HDMI display (3840x2160@30Hz). The Chromium renderer process has accumulated 46 minutes of CPU time and the GPU process 15 minutes. On a Pi 4, this is a meaningful CPU load that reduces headroom available during the service restart cascades described above. This is not a problem by itself, but it contributes to the responsiveness issues during the disruption events.
Questions I need answered:
(a) How is your E50 powered? Via its DC 5V barrel jack with a separate power supply, or solely via the USB cable from the Pi?
(b) Have you changed the E50’s automatic standby setting? By default, it will enter standby after 60 seconds of no signal. This can be changed via the E50’s setup menu (enter standby, hold the front panel button for 3 seconds to access setup, navigate to the automatic standby setting using the remote control). If you have not changed it, this is very likely the primary driver of everything you are experiencing.
(c) What is the GreenAsia device connected to USB? The log shows a device with ID 0e8f:2517 on Port 3 of your USB hub - is this a remote control, game controller, or other input device?
(d) Your NAS at 192.168.1.20 - MPD shows intermittent “No such directory” exceptions. Are all five NAS shares reliably accessible, or have you noticed any issues with NAS availability?
Kind Regards,
Wow!
Thanks for the detailed technical observations…I really appreciate it.
a. DAC is powered by a dedicated, decent power source (ifi 5v)
b. No changes to the DAC config or standby settings (did not even know this was possibe).
c. Yes, the “GreenAsia” device is a usb remote control dongle I rarely use.
d.“NAS” is Windows 11 NUC which shares folders for the various sources.
Last but not least…I have made no other changes in my audio connections and had no issues of this sort for any of the above whilst on v3.x which is why I thought I should post.
Again, really appreciate the most obvious excellent technical rsponse.
Cheers