Ladies and gents, the silence of the past few months has a reason, and its a good one.
During the past year, while developing new Volumio features, I had the feeling that the system was designed in a way that made it really difficult to add new bits and pieces to it. The WebUI has proven to work great and efficiently, but since it was relying on PHP it felt a bit too “ancient”.
I recently fell in love with Node.js. For those of you living under a rock, Node is basically an extremely powerful JS development engine which works both server and client side (to make it extremely simple…). And comparing it to PHP reveals how much better this would be to run the entire Volumio ecosystem.
Guess what? Volumio is currently being completely rewritten in Node. And so is the Volumio OS underneath. This explains the lack of updates of the last times, as the concentration is on delivering a completely new, faster, better Volumio.
It is a major effort, and time consuming, but this will bring lot of benefits. And, since we are tackling this major task, the re-build process will benefit from all the experience gathered in those two years with Volumio, and the whole system architecture will be improved as well.
Let’s see what this will mean:
Speed
Using Socket.io, the WebUI now has a near real-time connection to the Volumio server. This means that the user interface will feel more responsive, real time data (such as visualization) may be streamed, and there will be no more connection hangs or drop-outs. Furthermore, the new Volumio OS (under a major rework as well) will be ported to Debian Jessie and it will feature the lightning fast and reliable systemd. As of now, the development builds of Volumio 2 boot in just 19 seconds on a Raspberry PI.
Modularity
We want Volumio2 to be easily expandable by nature, both from the team and the community. That’s why we’re developing a standard API for plugins. Users will be able to add their own plugins for new user interfaces (such as hardware buttons, direct control, etc), and their own plugins for new music services (there are always more out there).
The goal here is not to provide a system that does pretty much everything, but instead a modular and scalable music player that will grow thanks to its amazing community.
By integrating in a standard way all those plugins, we’ll be able to seamlessly show spotify songs on third party MPD clients, or add SqueezeClient capability as it was a native service, just to name few examples.
High Fidelity
Volumio2 continues to support a custom compiled MPD daemon for high quality local audio playback, and we are evaluating other local audio renderers as well. Due to the modular architecture, music playback daemons may be used interchangeably. This will allow users to perform true comparative listening, and use the audio renderers which sound the best.
As you know, sound quality is the first and most important feature of Volumio, and we’ll not compromise on that.
Future Proof
Volumio2 will be built with state of the art technology. Node.js, Angular, and Socket.io just to name a few. The goal is to create a system-environment that will be top-notch for many years to come. Also, the whole OS Image is built with build script, allowing faster release schedule and homogeneous builds. This will also mean that the number of supported devices will grow accordingly, and Volumio 2 will be released also for non ARM architectures.
This great effort is made thanks to the great Volumio community, and especially thanks to Jotak, Esseki, Ning-yu, Meryn, Sog Sussex, Gitaawerk who joined Volumio Team as developers. There’s lot of love, committment and expertise going on as you read. You’ll see the product of it in few month, at least this is what we hope.
I hope you are as excited about Volumio2 as we are! The code is currently in alpha state as we develop and test the architecture and interface. Come check out the code, and join the discussion in the forum!
Since Volumio works wonderfully with network drive (A USB disk connected to my PC), it would be interresting to add a second function to display a slideshow of pictures also located on a network drive and updated dynamically. Is it possible?
Volumio 2 webui is notworking with my old raspberry pi 1, always jumping to playbach after 2 seconds in search. I will go back to 1.55…
What about a dragable and sortable playlist? In Winamp I think it’s a feature since the first Version.
The image in your article is broken: https://cdn.volumio.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/volumio2.png
I am unsure if it’s me, but has sm1 compared the playback quality of volumio2 vs volumio 1 stable releases. I have a pi2 with an i2s dac feeding a yamaha avr. Earlier volumio 1 beat kodi hands down and I was hearing a lot of extra notes, playing the same file over volumio with dac vs kodi over hdmi. However now since upgrading to volumio version 2, v0.976 I feel there is no novelty left and the sound quality has dropped and on par with kodi . Has any1 else noticed this or am i losing it?
I have the same experience. Using Digi+. Finally I run runeaudio..
Excellent work guys – some ways to go eg software volume and odd behaviour – running latest Volume 2 + Pi 3 + Hifiberry DAC Plus + homebrew amp and speakers – just thrilled though – pls keep it coming!!!!
And Volumio 2 version Cubietruck?
IT WORKSSSS!! Dudes. Awesome. Friend bought me a Pi3 for my birthday… Just got it out now running Volumio2 0.928-2016-06-30-pi This is amazing.
When I’ve tested it all out I’ll report back how you can make it more awesome 😉
Love
Thank you Daniel!! Enjoy!
Will Ramplay be available?
When will Volumio 2 be released?
Is it now finally possilbe to sort the playlist with drag and drop?
Volumio2 Version 0.869 is still can’t control software volume.
my D/A converter chip is pcm5102A and it direct connected to Raspberry Pi with I2S.
I downloaded the rc1 img from bit.ty it all appeared to install OK. But my router will not assign an IP to it though the RJ45 port appears to be communicating. By some of the later notes I have read it may not supportfind my my DAC anyhow. Volumio2 appears to be a real dud at this point. So I’m back to 1.55 on a Pi2B
I have one of the new Pi3’s and put my Lucid Labs Pi DAC on it. From my research with the Pi3 only the beta of Volumio 2 will work, and it seems to work fairly well, however when I try to initialize our PiDAC via I2S the closest choice it gives me is “HiFiBerry DAC Plus” which does not let me select anything other than the ‘Headphone Jack’ as my output. Restarted several times all to no avail. Any thoughts?
Also, forgot to mention the Headphone Jack will not output anything either.
Is replaygain supported with RC1?
Any news on when the I2S Driver will be included? I am really looking forward to trying it and this is all that stops me.
Love the 1st version
Can I install it on a microsd card while using Osx? I plan to use it (after connecting a suitable external hdd) as a source for my integrated amp but Macbook Air is my computer.
I have tested Volumio 2 beta.
but i don’t know how to operate my USB DAC.
Can you teach me method of USB DAC setup?
I can’t find DAC setup in Volumio 2 GUI.
beta 1 is here ^^
HI guys any ETA on a beta version. I can wait to test it.
how add library or music ?
Does it support audio through bluetooth?
Is it possible to implement shairport-sync version 2.6? Very important fix of some timing issues in this release.
That would be great,
some good news ?
Yes, we are putting everything together (mainly working on update system), but infortunately not ready to release a beta yet…
Thank you for your quick reply, i’m waiting it to build a stand-alone audio player with the Rpi2 and a touch screen.
Are you planning to integrate chromecast audio receiver in volumio 2?
And maybe you can wait for the next master release of shairport-sync, there was an issue playing from synology to airplay, which will get fixed in the next version.
That would be awesome
First off, thanks for making this awesome piece of software! Now that development is in its final stages, can you tell us about the performance on the first generation Pis?
I plan to buy another batch to run with Volumio and due to their lower power draw I’d prefer ordering A+s over the 2Bs. Will I run into performance constraints?
Volumio 2 will run entirely on RAM (to maximize performances and reduce SD Card wearing), so the only issue I can see is memory footprint… We are doing our best to keep it low, but I think we’ll be just near the 512 mb limit of the A+…
So I take it is better to get 2Bs (or wait and see whether there’s going to be a 2A)?
Nevermind, I just realised the A+ has only 256 mb ram…
I have several a+ plus pi’s, hope to get Volumio 2 running on them!
That would be great.
When do you expect the release of v2?
With some opmitizations we should be able to make it also for A+
As for ETAs, I hope in this month I’ll release the first beta…
I don’t think the project is dead, trust meI just received a mail from them, apparently they are busy modifying the application to port it to x86 machines. Kudos to you devs
And not only… Lot of great news coming soon…
This project is dead ?
This project is really far from being dead… There are great news coming shortly. We are focusing every effort on development now…
Hi,
I installed “Volumio 2” on my RPI2 with DAC Hifiberry but the Network menu “Volumio 2” is off, it is normal for the moment?
Rgds
I have two things to say
1. It would been good that section play list to show us a boundary between albums.
2. After indexing a hard drive if you unplug and plug again the USB device to keep the index and not be forced to update again all the music from a HDD .
Hi can i install Volumio2 at my Intel PC?
Yes, the final release will be available also for x86…
Great! When will be ready final Volumio? =) Do you have Alpha for PC?
Hi can i install Volumio2 at my Intel PC?
Yes, the final release will be available also for x86…
Great! When will be ready final Volumio? =) Do you have Alpha for PC?
Your presentation above certainly raised a lot of interest, at least with me. What is the status of the development? Do you have an expected release date?
I can help with testing, if you want.
We are about at 50% and I do really hope to release in october…
Sure, any help in testing is appreciated, drop me a private in the forum!
Your presentation above certainly raised a lot of interest, at least with me. What is the status of the development? Do you have an expected release date?
I can help with testing, if you want.
We are about at 50% and I do really hope to release in october…
Sure, any help in testing is appreciated, drop me a private in the forum!
A quick question however is why is Volumio 2.0 not built on Arch Linux ARM? It is much leaner than Debian, uses newer software and has newer software in its repositories, and is just as stable.
As you mentioned, arch uses the rolling releases approach. This means that new packages version are released daily, and since Volumio needs lot of different parts of the system to be “synced” together, having new updates daily makes it extremely complicated…
I prefer debian because it has a more cautious approach to updates, and you’ll always be sure that you won’t break your system with updates or new versions…
This is the main reason, then I do really like debian and its philosophy!
As a long-tme Arch user, I can tell you that new packages aren’t released everyday. That usually happens once a week or less depending on the package. Arch stays close to the edge but is not on the edge. I have yet to have a system that was not in sync with its packages unless I had installed some packages from the Arch User Repository and failed to update them.
That said, I understand your viewpoint.
A quick question however is why is Volumio 2.0 not built on Arch Linux ARM? It is much leaner than Debian, uses newer software and has newer software in its repositories, and is just as stable.
As you mentioned, arch uses the rolling releases approach. This means that new packages version are released daily, and since Volumio needs lot of different parts of the system to be “synced” together, having new updates daily makes it extremely complicated…
I prefer debian because it has a more cautious approach to updates, and you’ll always be sure that you won’t break your system with updates or new versions…
This is the main reason, then I do really like debian and its philosophy!
As a long-tme Arch user, I can tell you that new packages aren’t released everyday. That usually happens once a week or less depending on the package. Arch stays close to the edge but is not on the edge. I have yet to have a system that was not in sync with its packages unless I had installed some packages from the Arch User Repository and failed to update them.
That said, I understand your viewpoint.
I’m afraid you don’t really understand the problem. A large development effort with a broad set of dependencies is developed against target versions. Once the software is released (and in reality, long before), these versions are no longer “new”, but must be updated in lockstep with the custom code or else methods and classes and libraries can change drastically, leading to exceptions and segmentation faults and memory leaks and kernel panics and guru meditation. You may have noticed with RuneAudio that you can’t really modify the image at all without it breaking, and that is precisely because the second you modify it you force yourself into updating the package tree and replacing a lot of core dependencies right out from under RA. Arch is a wonderful end-user system [which is good because that is the design goal], but it is truly a horrible target for an embedded appliance [fine, because the design goals that benefit embedded/server market wreak havoc on usability (CentOS….)
I am really excited to hear there will be a new Volumio out soon. Is there an estimate available when a functional version is ready?? Keep up the good work! I reall appreciate it!
I am really excited to hear there will be a new Volumio out soon. Is there an estimate available when a functional version is ready?? Keep up the good work! I reall appreciate it!
Great News !
i am so happy to hear about this.
Volumio is great and gets even greater -))
Great News !
i am so happy to hear about this.
Volumio is great and gets even greater -))
Very good news !
thx for your amazing work !
Very good news !
thx for your amazing work !
For the mono output, have you tried ”
audio_output_format “*:*:2″” ?
This will result in stereo…
For the mono output, have you tried ”
audio_output_format “*:*:2″” ?
This will result in stereo…
Any chance for an easy way to downsample stereo to mono? I’m using a hifiberry Amp+ and only one speaker. Can’t for the life of me figure out how to downsample to mono and that causes me to lose a channel…
Any chance for an easy way to downsample stereo to mono? I’m using a hifiberry Amp+ and only one speaker. Can’t for the life of me figure out how to downsample to mono and that causes me to lose a channel…
exciting stuff. i will check out the code and have a look right now.
exciting stuff. i will check out the code and have a look right now.
absolutely amazing stuff!
if i had some wishes to make:
replaygain + gapless would be great
absolutely amazing stuff!
if i had some wishes to make:
replaygain + gapless would be great
Great stuff.
Btw. is there any news on the collaboration between Audiophonics and Volumio that was anounce more than a year ago? I’d really love to see a volumio device with a display. Add to that an IR remote control to do stuff like pausing, forwarding to the next track, etc. and you got quite a convincing music player.
To be honest, that’s why I still like to have my Squeezebox Touch around: Being able to do basic playback controlling without pulling out my smartphone is just so much more conveniant – especially when you use a remote like Harmony that controls all your devices with just one remote. You can still use an app or web interface for more advanced stuff like editing playlists. But have the basic controls (like pause, forwarding, etc.) accessible without that, is quite nice. Unfortunately a lot of streaming solutions nowadays make the user fully dependant on an app or web interface.
Indeed – very much dislike needing a smartphone / computer to control Volumio….. Despite me loving this software, it stays on the shelf because of this.
I’m interested to know too if anything became of the Volumio / Audiophonics collaboration… I was looking forward to that!
We got something ready to release, but then the project was put on halt by audiophonics…
But you’ll may have good news in few months about that!
Great stuff.
Btw. is there any news on the collaboration between Audiophonics and Volumio that was anounce more than a year ago? I’d really love to see a volumio device with a display. Add to that an IR remote control to do stuff like pausing, forwarding to the next track, etc. and you got quite a convincing music player.
To be honest, that’s why I still like to have my Squeezebox Touch around: Being able to do basic playback controlling without pulling out my smartphone is just so much more conveniant – especially when you use a remote like Harmony that controls all your devices with just one remote. You can still use an app or web interface for more advanced stuff like editing playlists. But have the basic controls (like pause, forwarding, etc.) accessible without that, is quite nice. Unfortunately a lot of streaming solutions nowadays make the user fully dependant on an app or web interface.
Indeed – very much dislike needing a smartphone / computer to control Volumio….. Despite me loving this software, it stays on the shelf because of this.
I’m interested to know too if anything became of the Volumio / Audiophonics collaboration… I was looking forward to that!
We got something ready to release, but then the project was put on halt by audiophonics…
But you’ll may have good news in few months about that!
Excellent news! Glad to see the move to Node. One feature request… now that we’ll be running in Node, can we get [AirSonos](https://github.com/stephen/airsonos) support built into volumio? Would be so awesome to get Sonos AirPlay support for free with volumio.
BTW, I’ve got lots of experience with Node and Angular (but much prefer React these days ;-)… I’ve written large scale public apps with React). Hit me up if you guys need more hands.
Yep! Drop me an e mail at info at volumio dot org if you want to get involved!
Amazing! Yes, this is a great candidate to be included!
Excellent news! Glad to see the move to Node. One feature request… now that we’ll be running in Node, can we get [AirSonos](https://github.com/stephen/airsonos) support built into volumio? Would be so awesome to get Sonos AirPlay support for free with volumio.
BTW, I’ve got lots of experience with Node and Angular (but much prefer React these days ;-)… I’ve written large scale public apps with React). Hit me up if you guys need more hands.
Yep! Drop me an e mail at info at volumio dot org if you want to get involved!
Amazing! Yes, this is a great candidate to be included!
Thats great news, cant wait to give it a try
Thats great news, cant wait to give it a try
How can I install and try the version from GitHUB? I never tryed.
Just download the development images from Volumio2 repo:
https://github.com/volumio/Volumio2
How can I install and try the version from GitHUB? I never tryed.
Just download the development images from Volumio2 repo:
https://github.com/volumio/Volumio2
Great news!
Great news!