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10-Dec-2020

4. Headless software

Many of the software packages used with the Raspberry Pi simply turn the Pi into a

“Headless” end-

point. That is to say that it doesn't need, or expect, a screen/display to be physically attached to the

Raspberry

Pi’s HDMI socket

So if

there’s no screen how do you control it?

Well in some cases you

don’t need to do anything with the Pi at all. Take the RoonLabs images, that

turns the Raspberry Pi into a Roon Certified end-point. The Pi is then controlled form the RoonLabs

PC/Mac application which connects to and plays music through the IQaudio sound card on your

Raspberry Pi. No screen needs to be attached to the Pi itself.

Other

“headless” applications install a web server onto the Pi, so to control it you simply open a

browser window on your PC / Mac / Tablet or similar and interact with the Pi based application

through a web page. Applications such as Max2Play, MoodeAudio, Volumio and RuneAudio work

this way.

Max2Play - visit their getting started page here: Max2Play

Volumio: