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Software selection
This page should just give you an overview about software that is often used by HiFiBerry users. Except for HiFiBerryOS, we are not the developers of these software packages and support is handled directly by the developers of these distributions. If a software isn’t listed here, it doesn’t mean that HiFiBerry sound cards are not supported. As the HiFiBerry sound card drivers are parts of the standard Raspberry Pi Linux system, they should work on almost any distribution.
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HiFiBerryOS
HiFiBerryOS is our version of a minimal Linux distribution optimized for audio playback. The goal isn’t to add as much functionality as possible, but to keep it small. It is based on Buildroot.
At the moment, the following services are supported:
Spotify
Airplay
Squeezebox
Bluetooth
Roon
MPD
LibreELEC
LibreELEC is ‘Just enough OS’ for Kodi, a Linux distribution built to run Kodi on current and popular mediacentre hardware. We are an evolution of the popular OpenELEC project. LibreELEC software will be familiar to OpenELEC users, but the project follows its own path.
piCorePlayer
piCorePlayer is a very small system (piCore Linux) which is running in RAM and not writing to the SD card. It is very robust and will not corrupt your SD card, therefore you can simply cut the power without any risk of corruption of the system.
piCorePlayer can be used in three ways:
1. As a Squeezebox player that connects to your existing Logitech Media Server (LMS).
2. As a LMS server
3. As a combined LMS server and Squeezebox player.
OSMC
OSMC (Open Source Media Center) is a free and open source media player based on Linux. Founded in 2014, OSMC lets you play back media from your local network, attached storage and the Internet. OSMC is the leading media center in terms of feature set and community and is based on the Kodi project.
RuneAudio
RuneAudio is a free and open source software with one specific objective: to transform an embedded platform (a cheap, silent and low-consumption mini-PC) into an Hi-Fi digital music player. It offers a lot of features and aims to be easy to use, flexible and future-proof.
Max2Play
Max2Play allows for simple and comfortable control and configuration of single board computers like the Raspberry Pi directly via any local internet browser (using laptop, PC or smartphone). This makes the connection of a mouse, keyboard or screen obsolete.
Main Application Areas:
Play Audiophile Music & HD Videos
Music Server & Home Automation
Please note, some advanced functions need a software license key which can be bought through the Max2Play website.
Roon Labs
The music player for music lovers
Forget everything you know about music players. Music is an experience, and Roon reconnects you with it.
Please note, to use this software a Roon Core needs to be installed and a Roon subscription is needed. Please find their price model on their webpage.
To use the Raspberry Pi with our audio boards as a Roon player, please install HiFiBerryOS.
Moode Audio
Moode Audio is an audio player which shares some roots with Volumio and RuneAudio, but due to its fast ongoing development it supports very quickly new hardware and adds new features all the time.
Raspbian
Raspbian is a free operating system based on Debian optimized for the Raspberry Pi hardware and is the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s official supported operating system. It is a general purpose distribution with a graphical user interface (GUI) and comes with software like Python, Scratch, Sonic Pi, Java, Mathematica and more included.
Raspbian Lite is a minimized version of Raspbian without a GUI and additional software (which can be still installed by yourself). This makes Raspbian Lite a great choice for headless applications like remotely controlled audio players. Due to the nature of this distribution, users should have at least some experience using the terminal. Project Webpage
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