Raspberry Pi

Mopidy runs on all versions of Raspberry Pi. However, note that the later models are significantly more powerful than the Raspberry Pi 1 and Raspberry Pi Zero; Mopidy will run noticably faster on the later models.

How to for Raspbian

  1. Download the latest Raspbian Desktop or Lite disk image from https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/.

    Unless you need a full graphical desktop the Lite image is preferable since it’s much smaller.

  2. Flash the Raspbian image you downloaded to your SD card.

    See the Raspberry Pi installation docs for instructions.

    You’ll need to enable SSH if you are not connecting a monitor and a keyboard. As of the November 2016 release, Raspbian has the SSH server disabled by default. SSH can be enabled by placing a file named ‘ssh’, without any extension, onto the boot partition of the SD card. See here for more details.

  3. If you boot with only a network cable connected, you’ll have to find the IP address of the Pi yourself, e.g. by looking in the client list on your router/DHCP server. When you have found the Pi’s IP address, you can SSH to the IP address and login with the user pi and password raspberry. Once logged in, run sudo raspi-config to start the config tool as the root user.

  4. Use the raspi-config tool to setup the basics of your Pi. You might want to do one or more of the following:

    • In the top menu, change the password of the pi user.

    • Under “Network Options”:

      • N1: Set a hostname.

      • N2: Set up WiFi credentials, if you’re going to use WiFi.

    • Under “Localisation Options”:

      • I1: Change locale from en_GB.UTF-8 to e.g. en_US.UTF-8, that is, unless you’re British.

      • I2: Change the time zone.

      • I4: Change the WiFi country, so you only use channels allowed to use in your area.

    • Under “Interfacing Options”:

      • P2: Enable SSH.

    • Under “Advanced Options”:

      • A1: Expand the file system to fill th SD card.

      • A3: Adjust the memory split. If you’re not going to connect a display to your Pi, you should set the minimum value here in order to make best use of the available RAM.

      • A4: Force a specific audio output. By default, when using a HDMI display the audio will also be output over HDMI, otherwise the 3.5mm jack will be used.

    Once done, select “Finish”. Depending on what you changed you may be asked if you want to restart your Pi, select “Yes” and then log back in again afterwards.

    If you want to change any settings later, you can simply rerun sudo raspi-config.

  5. Install Mopidy and any Mopidy extensions you want, as described in Debian/Ubuntu.

Note

If you used the Raspbian Desktop image you will need to add the mopidy user to the video group:

sudo adduser mopidy video

Also, if you are not using HDMI audio you must set Mopidy’s audio/output config value to alsasink. To do this, add the following snippet to your config file:

[audio]
output = alsasink

Testing sound output

You can test sound output independent of Mopidy by running:

aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

If you hear a voice saying “Front Center”, then your sound is working.

If you want to change your audio output setting, simply rerun sudo raspi-config.