pi home server

8/17/2019 Pi Home Server

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What we need

We need some hardware and software to get started. We

need the latest Raspberry Pi 2, a 5V, 2mA charger, a microSDcard (minimum capacity 8GB), external hard drives which will

be used as storage and optional keyboard and an HDMI

monitor (for initial set-up only). We will be using the Pi

headless.

Connect all the hardware and burn the Raspbian image on the

microSD card.

How to install Raspbian

Raspbian is a Debian based distribution optimized for

Raspberry Pi that is powered by an ARMv7 processor.

Download the OS from the official site (Don't download any

software, even if it's open source, from unknown sources).

Extract the .zip file to get an .img file.

Then plug in the SD card to the PC and runlsblk command,

which will give you the device node for your card. It should besomething like /dev/sdX. Instead of X it would be something

like a,b,c,d...in my case it was /dev/sdc. Once you have

determined the device node, run the dd command to convert

and copy the operating system files to the sdcard:

sudo bs=4M dd if=/path_of_raspbian.img of=/dev/sdX

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Go

One important note: While running the above command, do

not use any number followed by the device node, so it should

not be /dev/sde1, it must be /dev/sde.

Once the image is written to the SD card, plug it into the Pi,

connect the device to the ethernet cable, connect the monitor,

power cable and keyboard and mouse.

Once you boot into Pi, it will throw some instructions tooptimize the OS for the device. Just follow the instructions.

Step 1, 2 are important so don’t skip them, the second step

will allow you to create a password for your Pi. If you want to

give a custom name to your Pi (the name that will show up on

your local network) then also click on the step 8 [Advanced

Options] and click on A2 to change the Hostname. You are all

set and just click on .

If (and only if) you don't have a monitor and keyboard tospare, you can manage your Pi from a different PC via ssh. To

do this, first find the IP address of the device from your

modem settings and thenssh into the Pi. You may need to

install openssh packages on your main PC:

ssh pi@IP_ADDR!!

Example:

ssh pi@"#.#.#.""#

In order to run the Raspbian configuration via ssh, just run

thesudo raspi$%onfig command and you will be greeted by

the configuration window.

Update the OS and install the needed software

By default, the system user is pi and the password is root.

Now update and upgrade the OS so it's secure.

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sudo apt$get update

sudo apt$get dist$upgrade

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Once your system is fully up-to-date, install samba server

sudo apt$get insta&& samba samba$%ommon samba$%ommon$bin

Then add the user 'pi' to samba group:

sudo smbpass'd $a pi

Mount the external hard drive

Now we need to mount the external hard drive where all your

data is saved. I am assuming that the drive is formatted in

'ext4' format. If the drive is NTFS (which I won't recommend)

then you also need to installntfs-3g packages.

Connect the hard drive and find the UUID of the partition

where your data is stored:

b&(id

It will give you an output similar to this:

pi@s'api ) * b&(id

/dev/mm%b&(#p"+ !,_-P=msdos 0A10=boot

22ID="4#A$"413 -P=vfat

/dev/mm%b&(#p+ 22ID=f4a4545$f4b$4%ad$a36#$a"76859#35e% -P=e:t4

/dev/sda"+ 0A10=;I 22ID=837$"3D -P=vfat

/dev/sda+ 0A10=M


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Now we have to mount the partition with proper permissions.

sudo mount $t ntfs$7g $o uid="###gid="###umas(=##3/dev/sda" /media/storage

In the above command replace 'ntfs-3g' with the format of yourpartition and and 'storage' with your mount point.

All we have to do now is add the mount point tofstab so the

drive auto mounts between reboots. Open the fstab file:

sudo nano /et%/fstab

Then add the following lines at the end:

22ID=#A,4D8#3,4D9;947 /media/storage ntfs$7g

uid="###gid="###umas(=##3 # #

You have to make three changes in the above code: change

UUID’s number to the one you found for your partition,

exchange ‘storage’ with the mount point you created and if not

using the NTFS partition, change it to the appropriate file

system. Save and close the file then reboot the system. Your

drive should auto mount now.

Configure Samba server

Now edit the Samba config file to add the partitions that we

want to share over the local network.

sudo nano /et%/samba/smb.%onf

At the end of the file add a section for shared directories using

the following pattern. If you have different kinds of data and

you want to restrict access and keep things clean, you can

create different sections for each data type. In my case I have

created different sections for movies, music, pictures and

documents:

>Movies? -he name of the shared dire%tor<path = /media/storage/movies -he path of the shareddire%tor<read on&< = o nsures that itBs not read on&<bro'sab&e =


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Now restart the Samba server:

sudo servi%e samba restart

You are all set. Now you can access all the files on the

storage drive from any of the devices connected to the same

local network.

If you are on Android, install theE S File Manager from the

Play Store, go to LAN settings and give the ip address,

username and password for the samba server. You have your

files on your Android. You can play videos, listen to music, see

pictures and edit and read documents.

If you are on iOS you can grab any file manager that supports'Samba' such as FileExplorer. Open the app click on the ‘+’

icon and then select the ‘Linux/UNIX’, it will show you the

‘Pi' server in the list. Click on it and choose ‘Registered user’,

and then give the samba user and password. All of your files

are there on your iPad.

If you are on Linux (unfortunately each desktop environment

deals with it differently), open the file manager and then go to

the ‘network’ option. Provide the IP address, username, andpassword when asked. If you are on Mac OS X, then go

toFinder > Go > Connect to the server option.

You can also use the current set-up as a media streaming

server. I have earlier written two articles onhow to use Samba

as media server, check them out.

Build your own Netflix, Pandora at home without wasting the bandwidth

on watching the same shows over and over again.

I bought an Amazon Fire TV Stick last year, even though I

already had the Google Chromecast. While the Chromecast is

plugged into the TV in the living room, the Fire TV Stick (FTS)

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is plugged into the TV in my office - for productivity reasons, of

course.

Both devices have their pros and cons, Amazon certainly has

more channels than Chromecast, however there was one areawith which I struggled: Playing local content.

There can be many solutions to this problem, I am picking a

solution that provides me with more flexibility and control.

The solution lies in a little known secret of Fire TV Stick.

Similar to Android devices, there is a feature that allows users

to install apps from 'unknown' sources. It doesn't require a

super-geek knowledge of Linux.

These are the steps to take in order to extend the features of

the Fire TV Stick:

• Get the apps you want to install on FTS.

• Enable FTS to install apps from other sources

• Install Android tools on PC

• Install apk files on FTS

• Install Samba

• Use Kodi

Get the apps you want to install on Amazon Fire TV Stick

First let's grab the apk files of the apps that we want to installon Amazon TV stick, just keep in mind not all apps will work

on the device, even if they installed just fine. Here we are

going to install Kodi (formerly XBMC), which will take care of

multi-media needs. Download the latest .apk file for Android

ARM from'download' page of the official site.

The fact is, you can also install apps like ES File Manager

alongside Kodi, which will make it easier to scan local

networks for multimedia files. It doesn’t stop there, you can

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also install Firefox and many other such apps on your FTS (I

will cover that in a future post).

Work to be done on Amazon Stick

Go to Amazon Fire menu:Settings > Developer Options and

enable both ' ADB Debugging’ and ' Apps from unknown

sources' options.

Enter the developer mode of the Amazon Fire TV Stick.


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Enable dubugging and installation of apps from unknown sources options.

Then move up to the ' About' section and note the IP address

of the Stick.

Note down the IP address of the Stick.


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RESOURCES

Install 'Android tools' on your Linux distribution; it's in the

official repository of every major distro. Now head over to this

Amazon site and download the Android SDK platform-tools. It

should be a ‘zip’ file, extract the file content, open the

‘Terminal’ and change directory to the 'Android SDK platform-

tools' folder.

First stop the adb server:adb (i&&$server

Then start itadb start$server

Now start a connection between the Stick and your PCadb %onne%t IP_ADDR!!_C;_!-I,

If there is no error message, check if the connection is

established:adb devi%es

It should give you the device number. We are almost there.

Now run the following command to install apps on the stick

adb insta&& /path_of_(odi.ap(

If the apps successfully installed on your Amazon stick, you

will see the 'success!' output.

Open the ‘Settings’ option on the Fire TV Stick and go

to Applications > Manage All Installed Apps.

There you will see your newly installed Kodi app.

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Kodi installed successfully!

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Turn your Linux PC into file and media share server

Our local ‘Netflix’ or ‘media empire’ depends on the file

sharing capabilities of our PC. You must have Samba installed

on your Linux box so that we can share the files that we want

to access from the Stick.

Plex could be a potential candidate instead of Samba but it

has its own limitations: I am building a media server using the

newly launched Raspberry Pi 2 and Plex is not yet available

on the ARM platform. Then Plex does all transcoding on the

host machine, which means it’s resource hungry for low-

powered device. A third problem with Plex is that if you have a

huge amount of media files, it will take forever to scan and

index those files. Every time you add new files you have to run

an index again.

All of these issues are muted with Samba server. One of the

biggest advantages of Samba is that you can passwordprotect the server and restrict your kids from accessing your


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movies. You can easily create a ‘Kids’ section for their movies

using a new Samba ‘user’. On Plex, whatever is added to it is

accessible to everyone.

Every Linux distribution has its own method of installingSamba, in this article I will talk about Ubuntu and openSUSE.

Install and configure Samba on openSUSE

First install Samba and then add system user to the Samba

group:

sudo EMovies? $G -he name of the shared dire%tor<path = /media/4tb/movies $G -he path of the shareddire%tor<read on&< = o $G nsures that itBs not read on&<bro'sab&e =


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'riteab&e =


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It will show you the name of shared workgroup (you can

change that name in the smb.conf file), which would be either

WORKGROUP or HOME. Select the group and it will show

you the name of your PC.

Choose your shared work group.

Click on it and there you have: the directory that you shared in

Samba settings. When you select the directory it will ask you

to enter username and password for the Samba server.

Provide it with the username and password we created earlier.

Also select the option 'Remember for this path' so you don't

have to add it again.


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Give username and password to access the shared directory.

Click on the ‘OK’ button at the bottom and if that’s the only

directory you want to access, click on the ‘OK’ button on side

which will bring you to the ‘summary’ window. If everything

looks fine, click on OK at the bottom.

Summary of the directory added to Kodi.


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Now you can simply open the video files stored in that

directory and start 'streaming' it on your Amazon Fire TV

Stick.

You can also stream images, and music to your Amazon FireTV Stick, just add those directories to the samba config file.

Enjoy your private Netflix!

pi home server

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