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Basic Setup Guide

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Jason Gray edited this page Jun 24, 2023 · 58 revisions

Raspotify is built on and for Debian Stable and requires Debian Stable or a Debian Stable based/compatible OS.

armhf, arm64 and amd64 builds are provided. Support for ARMv6 (Pi v1 and Pi Zero v1.x) has been dropped.

This is a very basic guide that assumes you're starting from a fresh Debian Stable Minimal Server or Raspberry Pi OS Lite (Stable) install, as Raspotify is only intended to be used on headless systems.

These instructions will install and configure Raspotify.

It will NOT explain how to install Debian, use a text editor, set up Raspotify/librespot as a whatever-cast source or make you a sandwich.

Make your own sandwich...

Disclaimer

If following these instructions breaks your system you get to keep all the pieces.

Install

sudo apt-get -y install curl && curl -sL https://dtcooper.github.io/raspotify/install.sh | sh

List Compatible device

ALSA Backend (default):

As of Raspotify 0.43.47 the version of librespot built for Raspotify supports 44.1kHz, and though builtin resampling 48kHz, 88.2kHz and 96kHz.

librespot -d ?

Example output:

	Compatible alsa device(s):

        --------------------------------------------------------------------

	Device:

		hw:CARD=D10s,DEV=0

	Description:

		D10s, USB Audio
		Direct hardware device without any conversions

	Supported Format & Sample Rate Combinations:

		Format: S32   Sample Rate(s): 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz

	--------------------------------------------------------------------

	Device:

		plughw:CARD=D10s,DEV=0

	Description:

		D10s, USB Audio
		Hardware device with all software conversions

	Supported Format & Sample Rate Combinations:

		Format: S16   Sample Rate(s): 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz
		Format: S24   Sample Rate(s): 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz
		Format: S24_3 Sample Rate(s): 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz
		Format: S32   Sample Rate(s): 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz
		Format: F32   Sample Rate(s): 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz
		Format: F64   Sample Rate(s): 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz

	--------------------------------------------------------------------

	Device:

		sysdefault:CARD=D10s

	Description:

		D10s, USB Audio
		Default Audio Device

	Supported Format & Sample Rate Combinations:

		Format: S16   Sample Rate(s): 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz
		Format: S24   Sample Rate(s): 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz
		Format: S24_3 Sample Rate(s): 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz
		Format: S32   Sample Rate(s): 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz
		Format: F32   Sample Rate(s): 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz
		Format: F64   Sample Rate(s): 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz

	--------------------------------------------------------------------

PulseAudio Backend (unsupported):

Skip this and just use the default.

Configure librespot

Edit /etc/raspotify/conf

ALSA Backend (default):

If you want to use an output other then the system default, change:

# Audio device to use, use `librespot --device ?` to list options.
# Defaults to the system's default.
#LIBRESPOT_DEVICE="default"

To:

# Audio device to use, use `librespot --device ?` to list options.
# Defaults to the system's default.
LIBRESPOT_DEVICE="your output device"

For example:

# Audio device to use, use `librespot --device ?` to list options.
# Defaults to the system's default.
LIBRESPOT_DEVICE="hw:CARD=D10s,DEV=0"

To set the format, change:

# Output format {F64|F32|S32|S24|S24_3|S16}. Defaults to S16.
#LIBRESPOT_FORMAT="S16"

To:

# Output format {F64|F32|S32|S24|S24_3|S16}. Defaults to S16.
LIBRESPOT_FORMAT="match the audio output format"

For example:

# Output format {F64|F32|S32|S24|S24_3|S16}. Defaults to S16.
LIBRESPOT_FORMAT="S32"

PulseAudio Backend (unsupported):

Change:

# Output format {F64|F32|S32|S24|S24_3|S16}. Defaults to S16.
#LIBRESPOT_FORMAT="S16"

To:

# Output format {F64|F32|S32|S24|S24_3|S16}. Defaults to S16.
LIBRESPOT_FORMAT="F32"

Bitrate:

If you're not limited by data caps or connection speeds you may also want set the audio quality to 320kbps by changing:

# Bitrate (kbps) {96|160|320}. Defaults to 160.
#LIBRESPOT_BITRATE="160"

To:

# Bitrate (kbps) {96|160|320}. Defaults to 160.
LIBRESPOT_BITRATE="320"

Resampling

The 1st rule of resampling is; don't resample unless you have to.

Resampling is basically making an educated guess about what should be there, how educated depends on the interpolation algorithm, but none the less, it's still a guess. It will NEVER be completely accurate. It will NEVER improve the sound quality. It's a matter of how much will it degrade the sound quality.

That being said:

ALSA Backend (default):

To set the sampling rate if your device doesn't support 44.1kHz, change:

# Sample Rate to Resample to {44.1kHz|48kHz|88.2kHz|96kHz}.
# Defaults to 44.1kHz meaning no resampling.
# The option does not exist in upstream librespot.
# DO NOT file a bug with librespot about this.
#LIBRESPOT_SAMPLE_RATE="44.1kHz"

To:

# Sample Rate to Resample to {44.1kHz|48kHz|88.2kHz|96kHz}.
# Defaults to 44.1kHz meaning no resampling.
# The option does not exist in upstream librespot.
# DO NOT file a bug with librespot about this.
LIBRESPOT_SAMPLE_RATE="match the audio output sampling rate"

For example:

# Sample Rate to Resample to {44.1kHz|48kHz|88.2kHz|96kHz}.
# Defaults to 44.1kHz meaning no resampling.
# The option does not exist in upstream librespot.
# DO NOT file a bug with librespot about this.
LIBRESPOT_SAMPLE_RATE="48kHz"

You may also want to increase the interpolation quality if you're using a sample rate other than 44.1kHz:

# Interpolation Quality to use if Resampling. {Low|Medium|High}.
# Defaults to Low.
# The option does not exist in upstream librespot.
# DO NOT file a bug with librespot about this.
LIBRESPOT_INTERPOLATION_QUALITY="High"

PulseAudio Backend (unsupported):

The best option is to just set the LIBRESPOT_FORMAT to F32, leave LIBRESPOT_SAMPLE_RATE alone, and let PulseAudio handle format conversion and resampling for you.

Spotify credentials

Unless you have disabled zeroconf (mDNS) discovery, librespot does not need your Spotify credentials, zeroconf will take care of authentication.

However if you have disabled discovery for whatever reason and you provided your credentials you will also want to enable credential caching so that librespot will cache the auth token and not have to login every time you connect. Unless you like nag emails ofc?

To enable credential caching change this in /etc/raspotify/conf:

# Disable caching of credentials.
# Caching of credentials is not necessary so long as
# LIBRESPOT_DISABLE_DISCOVERY is not set.
LIBRESPOT_DISABLE_CREDENTIAL_CACHE=

To this:

# Disable caching of credentials.
# Caching of credentials is not necessary so long as
# LIBRESPOT_DISABLE_DISCOVERY is not set.
# LIBRESPOT_DISABLE_CREDENTIAL_CACHE=

Make Raspotify use tmpfs for /tmp

By default librespot "download buffers" tracks, meaning that it downloads the tracks to disk and plays them from the disk and then deletes them when the track is over. This practice is very common, many other audio frameworks and players do the exact same thing as a disk based tmp cache is easy to use and very resilient. That being said there may be cases where a user may want to minimize disk read/writes.

If you don't know what this means or understand the ramifications do NOT do this.

To make Raspotify use tmpfs for /tmp change this in /etc/raspotify/conf:

# Commenting this out will cause `librespot` to use a tmpfs so that provided there
# is enough RAM to hold the track nothing is written to disk but instead to a tmpfs.
# See https://github.com/dtcooper/raspotify/discussions/567
# And https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/filesystems/tmpfs.html
TMPDIR=/tmp

To this:

# Commenting this out will cause librespot to use a tmpfs so that provided there
# is enough RAM to hold the track nothing is written to disk but instead to a tmpfs.
# See https://github.com/dtcooper/raspotify/discussions/567
# And https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/filesystems/tmpfs.html
#TMPDIR=/tmp

UFW settings

If you run UFW on your pi, you'll find that you need to open some ports for it to work. First, specify the zeroconf port in /etc/raspotify/conf:

LIBRESPOT_ZEROCONF_PORT="65444"

Next, allow ports 5353 UDP and 65444 TCP. On a network running on the 192.168.11.0/24 space that looks like this

sudo ufw allow from 192.168.11.0/24 to any port 5353 proto udp
sudo ufw allow from 192.168.11.0/24 to any port 65444 proto tcp

If you're setting up UFW for the first time, make sure you also allow port 22 for ssh. If you already use UFW you will have this.

sudo ufw allow from 192.168.11.0/24 to any port 22 proto tcp

This is what your UFW config might look like if these are the only ports you've opened:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo ufw status
Status: active

To                         Action      From
--                         ------      ----
22/tcp                     ALLOW       192.168.11.0/24
5353/udp                   ALLOW       192.168.11.0/24
65444/tcp                  ALLOW       192.168.11.0/24

Wrap it up

To make sure all changes take effect you must restart the Raspotify service:

sudo systemctl restart raspotify

Revert Everything

Completely uninstall Raspotify:

sudo apt purge -y raspotify

Remove the repo:

sudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspotify.list

Delete the repo's key:

sudo rm -f /usr/share/keyrings/raspotify_key.asc

With the exception of fixing typos please do NOT edit this or any other Wiki page without at least opening a discussion.

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