DIY Raspberry Pi 4 piCorePlayer Part III - Software

Software

Finally it comes to the software session after a complete assembly. After trying several headless software, namely Volumio, Moode Audio, Hifiberry OS and Picoreplayer, I decided to go to Picoreplayer. This is not only because of the outstanding sound quality, but also a very user-friend interface (touchscreen) and numerous plugins available.

Boot up sequence - Personally I like it quite much, it looks pretty cool on a 5" touchscreen :P

Setting up Picoreplayer

This guideline will walk you through the settings of Picoreplayer. The set up was based on Picoreplayer 7.0.0 but it would be pretty much the same for the latest version 8.0.0. I am not going to teach you how to flash the image to the SD card as there are lots of tutorials available. You may download the latest version 8.0.0 from Picoreplayer website:

https://docs.picoreplayer.org/downloads/

OK now let's go through the steps one by one.

1. Resize file system

Main Page >>> Additional functions >>> Resize FS Select "Whole SD Card" and then click "Resize"

2. *** OPTIONAL *** Asian fonts support for Jivelite (touchscreen)

If you are working on a touchscreen with Asian fonts support, then you may want to follow this step prior to other steps. Otherwise you may encounter weird issue such as Jivelite not booting up.

First of all, you may want to decide which font to replace the original font first. The selected font affects the look and feel of the fonts on the touchscreen directly. For me I like the Google fonts very much, so I used the NotoSansCJKtc-Regular.otf. These fonts can be downloaded from:

https://www.google.com/get/noto/

Now install WinSCP and SSH to piCorePlayer’s address (User: tc / Password: piCore)

a. Go to /mnt/mmcblk0p2/tce/optional/
b. Copy the NotoSansCJKtc-Regular.otf to the folder

In WinSCP, right click >>> new file and rename it to FontChanger.sh

Copy the following scripts to the editor:
#!/bin/sh
cd /opt/jivelite/share/jive/fonts
sudo rm /opt/jivelite/share/jive/fonts/FreeSans.ttf
sudo rm /opt/jivelite/share/jive/fonts/FreeSansBold.ttf
sudo ln -s /mnt/mmcblk0p2/tce/optional/NotoSansCJKtc-Regular.otf FreeSans.ttf
sudo ln -s /mnt/mmcblk0p2/tce/optional/NotoSansCJKtc-Regular.otf FreeSansBold.ttf

Save and then change the encoding to UTF-8.

In WinSCP editor, change FontChanger.sh execution right to 0755.

Back to piCoreplayer, under Tweak >>> User Commands, add the below script in User Command #1 and click Save.

Now you should be able to display Asian characters correctly later when Jivelite is installed.

3. Install and enable additional file systems

Under LMS >>> Install and Enable additional File Systems
Click Install
And the click Install exFAT

4. Install LMS

Under LMS >>> Beta, click Install LMS
Then Set Autostart = Yes

5. Set audio output

Under Squeezelite Settings >>> Audio output device settings, select from the dropdown box that the DAC that you're currently connected to.
If you're not sure what DAC type to choose from, usually the "HifiBerry DAC" would work.
Click Save when finished.

6. Install Jivelite

Jivelite is the touchscreen user interface and shows current music information.
Under Tweaks >>> Jivelite Setup
Click Install
Reboot
Set Autostart = Yes
Set Frame Rate = 60
Set Rotation = 0

7. Set up NAS

LMS supports directly connected external USB drive, but it is more convenient to have the music streamed from the NAS.

Under LMS >>> Set up Network Disk Mount
Input the Mount Point (name of the mounted location shown in your LMS)
Input IP address of your NAS
Input Share Name of your NAS
Select protocol type:
CIFS >>> Common Internet File System (aka SMB)
NFS >>> Network File System

*** Note that a special technique is required when setting up NFS in Synology NAS ***

8. Set up LMS

Type the IP address of your piCoreplayer in any browser, followed by :9000.
For example, if the IP address of your piCoreplayer is 192.168.86.82, then you should type 192.168.86.82:9000 in the browser address bar.

Sign in your mysqueezebox.com account (if you have any, otherwise click Skip at the right hand bottom corner).

Set up your local music folder, then click Next.

Set up your playlist folder, then click Next.

Check if your network drive is properly mounted. Under Settings >>> View Privious Scan Details.
If nothing is found, select Clear library and rescan everything. And then click Rescan. It may take some time while scanning your music folders.

9. LMS Tweaks

Under Plugin >>> Materials Skin, check the box and click Apply.
LMS will be restarted to take effect.

Go to Interface >>> Web Interface >>> select Material Skin and then click Apply.
Refresh the browser to take effect.

9. Other LMS Tweaks

There are some other LMS tweaks that can help better utlizing the processing power of raspberry Pi.
Under Server Setting >>> Behavior >>> Search within words
Under Server Setting >>> Performance >>> Database Memory Config >>> Maximum

Enjoy DIY! Enjoy music!