How to Connect the Apple Superdrive to Your Volumio Raspberry Pi
I had spent hours figuring out how to get this marriage to happen. Working alongside my good friend Jiles from Home Theater Fanatics, we found a solution.
The Apple Superdrive has a USB interconnect for both power and information. So, I purchased a USB Y Cable and a USB Extension Cable. I connected the extension cable to a USB wall plug to power the unit. The other went directly to the Raspberry Pi.
The first step is ensuring you are on Volumio’s Premium Plan and updated to the latest version of Volumio. I was on their Virtuoso plan, which no longer exists, so it was an $18 upcharge to move on up; however, the Premium plan allows for CD Playback and Ripping, a pair of features I couldn't live without.
So here is the process of how to get your Superdrive to communicate with Volumio:
You must enable SSH (Secure Shell) via Volumio by typing the IP address belonging to your Volumio followed by a forward slash and then the abbreviation dev like this into your favorite web browser:
10.0.0.64/dev
To find your personal Volumio IP address simply open the Volumio UI and head over to the Network option in the drop-down menu and it will be displayed on the top left of the screen.
Go ahead and Press Enable SSH on the following screen; the button is located about halfway down the screen. It won’t indicate that it worked; know it did and close the browser.
You will then open Command Prompt on Windows by clicking the magnifying glass on Windows 11 and searching for Command Prompt.
When the command prompt opens, you are going to type ssh volumio@(enter your IP address here)
It will then ask you for a password; type: volumio and press enter.
It will then prompt you with a couple of questions to which you’ll either type Y or Yes as it requires.
Once you reach the point where you are in Volumio’s command prompt, you will type the following text exactly how it’s provided here and press enter to start the installation process:
sudo apt-get install sg3-utils
After the process, restart Volumio with your drive plugged in.
Once it loads up, go ahead and put a CD into the drive and check to see if it appears in your sources on the Volumio UI.
That is all you have to do to get it up and running.
Volumio has all the functions to play and eject the CD and ripping capabilities.