Install

This takes about half an hour, most of it waiting. Every step says what you should see when it worked. This page describes a Raspberry Pi; on a PC or laptop see On a PC, laptop or mini PC.

1. Write the SD card

1. Download the Raspberry Pi Imager and start it.
2. Choose your Pi model and the system Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64 bit). “Lite” means no desktop, which is what the box wants.
3. Choose the SD card and click next. When it asks for customisation, choose Edit settings and enter:
   • a name for the box (for example lauschkiste),
   • a user name and password (write them down),
   • your WiFi name and password,
   • and under Services switch on SSH with password.
4. Write the card. Put it into the Pi, connect the power and wait about two minutes.

2. Log in to the box

Open a terminal on your computer (on Windows: PowerShell) and type, with your user name and the box’s name:

ssh <user>@<name>.local

Answer yes when it asks about the fingerprint, then type your password. You see a prompt such as pi@lauschkiste:~ $. If the name is not found, look up the box’s address in your router and use that instead of <name>.local.

3. Install

Caution

Administrator rights (sudo) are needed. The installer and lauschctl setup install system packages, set up services and change the boot configuration, and they use sudo for that. The user you log in with must be allowed to use it; on Raspberry Pi OS the user created in the Imager is. If sudo asks for a password, the installer and the setup ask for it once at the start (it is the password of that user and is not stored). Without sudo rights they stop with a message, before they change anything.

Paste this line and press Enter:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ladidadida/lauschkiste/main/install.sh | bash

It installs a few base packages and Lauschkiste itself. At the end it says Lauschkiste is installed. Open a new shell (or type source ~/.profile) so the new commands are found.

4. Set up the box

lauschctl setup

lauschctl setup asks a few questions, one after the other. Press Enter to accept the suggestion in brackets. If you are not sure, accept it: you can run lauschctl setup again at any time to change something. If the connection is unreliable, run it in screen or tmux.

All questions come first. Then lauschctl setup shows what it is going to do and asks Go ahead?; only after your yes it installs, which takes a while, and you can leave. At the very end one or two questions come back that need what was installed (the audio output, the RFID reader); you answer them when you come back.

Question	What to answer
What kind of machine is this?	Raspberry Pi on a Pi. On a computer: On a PC, laptop or mini PC.
Upgrade all operating system packages now	No is fine for a first try.
Which sound card sits on the header	If you plugged a sound card onto the Pi, pick it (HiFiBerry boards are recognised). Otherwise none.
Use ‘Pimoroni pHAT BEAT’ / ‘Power button’ / ‘Battery’ / ‘GPIO buttons and knobs’?	No, unless you have them. These come after the questions about the box itself, together with your own hardware plugins.
Start Lauschkiste at boot, without anyone logging in	Yes. The box then starts by itself when you plug it in.
Serve the web app on port 80	Yes. The address is then just http://<name>.local.
Configure an RFID reader now	Yes, and choose your reader. A USB reader is the simplest. See RFID readers.
Share the library on the network with Samba	No for now. You can upload music in the web page; see Music.
Show the web app on an attached display	No, unless you attached a screen: A screen on the box.
WiFi hotspot when no known WiFi is in range	No for now: Away from home.
Quiet boot	No. It only hides boot messages.

Some steps change the boot configuration. At the end lauschctl setup tells you if a restart is needed:

sudo reboot

5. Check

Wait a minute, then open http://<name>.local in a browser on your computer or phone. You should see the Lauschkiste web page with the player. If you did not choose port 80, add :5556 to the address.

If it does not work, run lauschctl setup --check: it lists what is missing. More in When something does not work.

Next: The box is running: what now?.