How to install and run TIDAL Connect on your Gustard R/A26

RA26_TIDAL_HOWTO.md

For A26 users

This guide should work for your A26 too. just sed "s/R26/A26/g" and it's perfect!

Requirements:

• Will to practice witchcraft
• Patience (R26's CPU is really slow)
• Linux knowledge
• Windows 10/11 with WSL 2 (updated to latest Windows Store version) or Linux

Update to latest R26 firmware

1. Go to Gustard official site and download latest firmware.
2. Do update but don't disconnect USB-C after flashing and continue to next step.

Inserting SSH key to R26

1. If you're going to Windows WSL route, follow this to mount Gustard R26 to your WSL. Otherwise, just mount your R26 using mount on Linux.
2. Generate SSH key with ssh-keygen -t ed25519 if you don't have one.
3. Run cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub > authorized_keys && mkdir (your R26 mount path)/root/.ssh && cp authorized_keys (your R26 mount path)/root/.ssh but replace (your R26 mount path) to actually mounted directory. If you have other type of SSH key, replace id_ed25519.pub with appropriate file.
4. Unmount and power cycle (not standby) your R26.

SSHing into your R26 and expanding storage

1. SSH into your R26 with ssh root@(your R26's IP) but replace (your R26's IP) with your R26's IP address.
2. Change mirrorlist to use mirror that is close to you.
3. Install fdisk with apt install fdisk
4. Run fdisk /dev/mmcblk0 and type d<Enter>n<Enter><Enter><Enter><Enter><Enter>n<Enter>w<Enter> exactly.
5. Run partx /dev/mmcblk0 && resize2fs /dev/mmcblk0p1
6. Run apt update && apt upgrade to fully upgrade the system.

Installing TIDAL Connect

1. Run echo "deb https://deb.debian.org/debian stretch main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list && echo "deb https://security.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
2. Run apt update && apt install -y multiarch-support libavformat57 libidn11 git libportaudio2* libflac++6v5* libavahi-common3 libavahi-client3 alsa-utils
3. Run these lines:

curl -O http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/o/openssl/libssl1.0.0_1.0.1t-1+deb8u12_armhf.deb
dpkg -i ./libssl1.0.0_1.0.1t-1+deb8u12_armhf.deb
curl -O http://security.debian.org/debian-security/pool/updates/main/c/curl/libcurl3_7.38.0-4+deb8u16_armhf.deb
apt remove -y curl libcurl4
dpkg -i ./libcurl3_7.38.0-4+deb8u16_armhf.deb
apt install libidn11

4. Finally, run these lines:

mkdir /usr/ifi
cd /usr/ifi
git clone https://github.com/shawaj/ifi-tidal-release
chmod +x /usr/ifi/ifi-tidal-release/play
chmod +x /usr/ifi/ifi-tidal-release/bin/tidal_connect_application
chmod +x /usr/ifi/ifi-tidal-release/pa_devs/run.sh
./ifi-tidal-release/file-deploy.sh 
sed -i 's/passthrough false/passthrough true/g' /lib/systemd/system/ifi-streamer-tidal-connect.service
sed -i 's/mqa false/mqa true/g' /lib/systemd/system/ifi-streamer-tidal-connect.service
sed -i 's/HiTide RasPi Streamer/Gustard R26/g' /lib/systemd/system/ifi-streamer-tidal-connect.service
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl start ifi-streamer-tidal-connect.service 
systemctl status ifi-streamer-tidal-connect.service

5. All done!

Oki, thanks. Its the same high res buffer problem with Qobuz.