Hi,
I acquired last week the brand new Allo Boss2 streamer/DAC, based on RPi4+. Unfortunately, Allo announced that they prefer Moode audio for the DAC, while still emphasizing that it would be – of course – compatible with Volumio. I tried Moode for a week, but would like to use the Boss2 over Volumio, as my other 2 Boss 1.2.
So, I flashed Volumio in its latest version on a micro SD, but the Boss2 is not listed in the I2S devices. When I try to play, I get the famous hm:2,0 error.
In there, you can see the mention of Volumio and of the dtbo file called “allo-boss2-dac-audio.dtbo”. I mention from the manual “Boss2 dac Driver is included on RPI 5.4.77 kernel onwards. In some players (Moode and more) Boss2 is configurable through GUI.”
Could you help me on this? How can I add this dtbo file to make Volumio work with the Boss2?
Can someone from Volumio explain why the Allo Boss2 is not supported yet? I don’t understand it, because it’s supported in the Raspberry Pi OS, just not in Volumio.
I would like to use Tidal Connect and other improvements made in Volumio since version 2.853 (the only workable hacked Volumio image from the thread in the Audiophile Style link above), but I can’t upgrade/update from within the Volumio interface (fails integrity checks).
I would rather not use unauthorized versions of Volumio downloaded from random websites (even if it is from Allo). In more current (official) versions of Volumio, I’ve tried copying the allo-boss2-dac-audio.dtbo file from a base RPI image into the Volumio /boot/overlays folder, and adding the the dtoverlay=allo-boss2-dac-audio line into the config.txt file but I can’t get Volumio to recognize the Boss2 DAC.
Is there something else I must for to get a current version of Volumio working with this DAC? I’m not afraid to dig around and have familiarity with the command line.
Hi,
we did not even know Boss2 existed…
We used to have a very good relationship with Allo, so I don’t understand why they don’t even communicate with us when they launch a new product.
So you can report to Allo to follow this guide and send us a PR.
If their DAC is not available for Volumio’s current kernel, they can send a PR to the new buster branch:
Just tried buster, doesn’t see it. The overlay is in there, but it doesn’t appear to be listed in the dacs.json. I may try a test build of it later and add it myself to the dacs.json to see; I have the text from the Allo hacked build for it. Thanks.
Thanks for this, but I couldn’t get it to work, I was getting the dreaded “alsa not found” errors. I tried rebooting, enabling/disabling & rebooting, but couldn’t get it to work.
However, I was able to get it running using Allo’s procedures they added (see the end of the thread in the audiophile style post linked above), but that involves modding the kernel I believe.
is there any new news on the topic?
Really interested in this, as based on this would depend my purchase… I liked Voluimio very much, and now with Tidal connect in there, I would love to use it with Boss2 DAC.
From what I’ve understood, Allo Boss2 DAC is supported from kernel 5.4.77 onwards.
Volumio2 has the kernel 4.19.xx, so adding the dtbo will not be enough, the Boss2 driver module should be added as well.
On the other side, Volumio3 (Buster beta) has the kernel 5.4.83, so the driver and the dtbo are included already… adding the proper string on dacs.json should make the Boss2 working.
I don’t have this DAC available, someone who has it could please have a look to this thread and provide the required information, for adding compatibility?