Hi guys, question from complete newby, senior age 
It’s about SD card. I have my Pi4 up and running, seems to be OK so far. I have flashed new SD card with Volumio, according to instructions. Should probably no problem to run it in Pi: I remove the original SD card, replace it with the Volumio SD-card and power up, installing Volumio.
After that, must I remove Volumio SD card and replace with the initial card, or can I leave the Volumio card in the Pi, or can the SD slot be empty? Main goal is to have a music streamer, I added usb-dac that gives great sound so far.
Thanks,
Paul
Netherlands
The OS is on the micro SD card, it boots from there each time. You need to leave it in.
the sd card needs to be in the rpi to run the system without it will not run
Thank you for quick responds, I already imagined that it would be like that, but I wasn’t 100% sure and I could not find a confirmation in the many documents I read. Then it’s better to ask before you get fed up with more issues since PI is new for me. But I’m gone like it, that’s for sure, 
Br
Paul
Ai, too bad. I have put in the volumio card, it starts and then says:
Raspbian GMU/ Linux 8 volumio tty1
Volumio login: (I entered Volumio)
Password: (I entered volumio2)
but it keeps coming back with same questions on login and password.
I meanwhile created volumio-id, it was confirmed to me by mail, but it still asks for login and pasword. On my tablet I have volumio app up and running and my pi is connected over internet and following the manual from volumio site. Did I mis something somewhere? Checking the net now for some clues
BR
Paul
Volumio is designed to run “headless”, ie without keyboard, mouse and monitor.
It should be accessed either via the app on phone/tablet (as you are doing) or via a web browser on a PC or other machine on your network. On a device that’s on the same network as the Volumio Pi, open a web browser and enter the IP address of the Pi. You should see the web interface pop up, and you can fully control it from that (it should look very similar to the app).
The Pi itself is a fairly bare-bones install without a GUI (graphical interface) and is not designed for direct “hands-on” operation of Volumio that way. Generally speaking once Volumio is installed on the uSD card and in the Pi, there’s no further need to directly access (hands-on) the Pi at all.
Ah, ok, thank you Darren. So it means that Volumio is basicly installed? One would exprct message Ready or so, but maybe it’s not the way Linux works. I checked the UI from the app and it listed the IP, my Meridia Explorer2, so looks like they got connected. Allow me two more questions:
1 I have a HDD connected, I cannot see it in
Volumia, before I could play over VLC from the HDD. It is not a NAS yet, that would be a later step
2 How can I safely remove the Volumia SD and replace with OS sd? Now I’am stuck in the login page and when I entered login volumia and password volumia and got a nice ‘screen’ with VOLUMIO, free audiophilic linux music player aso. Hoe to quit?
BR
Paul
Dorry for all the questions
Last-first.
On the web GUI (or the app) open the menu and in there you should have an option for system shutdown (down near the bottom of the list). Select that and you can shutdown or restart the system. Once it’s shutdown (give it a minute or two to fully do so) you can then swap the cards.
Alternatively, if you are logged directly into the Pi itself, just type “sudo shutdown now” and it will shut down the system.
For the HDD, the OS underneath Volumio may automatically mount it if it’s in a suitable format. Have a look in the /mnt or /media folder (if they exist) and see if you can see it in there. If not then something else may need to be done to mount it.
(I don’t have a directly connected drive on my system so I’m not sure whether auto-mount is done or not.)
Editted to add the links below, which may or may not help perhaps:
Sounds like you have a screen connected to your Pi (by DSI, HDMI…?). If you want to show Volumio’s UI on this “local” screen you might give the Touch Display plugin a try. You find this plugin in the plugin store under the category “miscellanea”.
Edit: How to install a plugin is described here.
Thank you all, I think I understand. I will give it a try, I remove the volumio card, replace it by the OS card and fix the HDD.
BR
Paul
There is an excellent getting started guide that explains everything you’ve asked about.
Yes, that is the manual that I have been using, plus some more tips that I found on the net. On my ipad I have now Volumio and did all the settings as described in the manual. I selected Meridian dac etc, but somewhere in the part Music it then says ‘add a network drive’ or ‘add usb drive’. That is where I’am stuck right now. Most likely because I’am not familiar with concept Pi (yet).
The USB drive is installed, when I ran Pi with original OS-sd card, I see usb-drive and can play music from VLC, but my ipad with Volumio does not find it at all. When I put back the sd-card I used for volumio installation in pi, ipad with volumio recognises pi with dac etc but I have not been able yet to add/ recognise usb drive. UI seems to be ok, it finds all details on wifi and ethernet, my dac, IP etc but not the usb-drive. My first question now is on the two sd-cards I have now, understanding life of Pi 
BT
OK, I have replaced the HDD by a usb-stick that had some music on it and was connected to iphone 7 before. Tada… suddenly it showed me 50+ cd’s I earlier copied from my macbook to the stick. Volumio works OK now, I can select and play from the list, yeah. Question remains why the HDD (that is normaly connected to macbook) did not show up. I guess Fileformat issue or so, I’ll try to find out, but I will go for a new NAS with music only anyway. But sofar this newby is getting happy.
BR
Paul
Is that external USB drive actually spinning up?
Perhaps it isn’t getting enough power from the R Pi?
Or perhaps it has a file system that the R Pi can’t read?
I have an original 3A power hooked. I have the Usb HDD and a usb DAC connected. Prior to installing Volumio (so just after setting up new Pi), this set-up worked OK. No problem in accessing and playing music from the one HDD over VLC and my DAC. After installing Volumia I cannot see the one HDD any longer. No spinning at all. Replacing with usb stick was presented at once in the Music part, I can access directory and play albums. I was also in doubt about the 3A, but it did work OK in the initial Pi setup. Also on the file format I’am not sure since this wasn’t an issue in the initial Pi setup. Both hdd and stick had been connected to same macbook befire but I will check the file format. It is M4A on the HDD, I need to check file format on stick.
Tx and best regards
Paul
I think you’ll need to copy your music somewhere temporarily, then format your external USB drive as FAT32, then copy your music back to it. I think that M4A file system is why Volumio isn’t mounting the USB drive.
PS. Isn’t M4A an audio file type?
Maybe you meant EXT4?
I just put away the HDD to concentrate for the time being on getting webradio and usb-stick to work. In music library i see usb>sandisk>kraftwerk>technopop>various single files being the numbers from the cd, this is one of the cds I have added to the dos-fat formatted usb-stick.
I can click on them, but I don’t get any sound (I have external dac from meridian, no sound in headphone nor on stereoset.).
The same for internetradio. I can pick any station from the big list, but also here, there is no sound 
Did I mis a setting somehow, I think I followed the manual
BR
paul
I think you are better to organise the music with the band/artist as the parent, then albums as subdirectories.
sandisk
-Kraftwerk
–Autobahn
–Radio-Activity
What format are the song files in?
Volumio is designed for hi-fi sound, so you should aim for full quality files, such as flac.
If you use mp3, go for 320 kb/s and keep quality as high as you can.
Try and keep to a consistent file format if you can.
Use a tag editor like MP3Tag to get consistent tags in your song files, that will help with display sorting and ordering. It will keep genres, albums, artists, etc together correctly.
Have you been into the settings in Volumio and made sure you’ve chosen the correct output device?
Is your USB DAC on the list of supported devices?
Is it showing up for you to choose in the Volumio interface?
Is the DAC correctly connected to your amp and speakers?
Do you hear the Volumio start-up sound when the R Pi finishes booting into Volumio?
Sorry for delayed reply. I’ll come back to sound and DAC issue. I have been reading now a lot on mounting HDD, many manuals and movies on the net, basicly mostly the approach is a common one, but also some differences in commands etc. Makes it a bit confusing. Anyhow
- I will have a new HDD, out of the box, dedicated to my Pi and macbook, just for my music. Should I go for sudo mount -t vfat etc or is it recomended to go for sudo apt get install hfsplus etc and change the vfat to hfsplus?
- After updating fstab, it is controlX to save? I didn’t see commands it in the various manuals that I found. Is this the only step where it is saved?
Thanks guys for helping senior newby
Paul