Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- doc:appunti:hardware:raspberrypi_nas [2021/03/10 15:40] – niccolo
+++ doc:appunti:hardware:raspberrypi_nas [2021/04/02 13:47] (current) – [Home Mediacenter and NAS with the Raspberry Pi] niccolo
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ====== Home Mediacenter and NAS with the Raspberry Pi ======
-This is my recipe to build a mediacenter and NAS box using the Raspberry Pi. This is the list of components:
+This is my recipe to build a **[[wp>Home_theater_PC|mediacenter]]** and **[[wp>Network-attached_storage|NAS]]** box using the **[[wp>Raspberry_Pi|Raspberry Pi]]**. This is the list of hardware components:
-  * Raspberry Pi 4.
+  * **Raspberry Pi 4** Model B with 4 Gb RAM.
-  * Seagate IronWolf 3.5 inch Hard disk, 4 Tb.
+  * 4 Tb **hard disk** Seagate IronWolf 3.5 inches.
-  * Suptronics.com X835 exapnsion board to connect SATA drives.
+  * **Suptronics.com X835** USB to SATA adapter, to connect the hard disk.
+  * Ugreen **USB audio** adapter.
+  * **Gamepad** USB wireless (SNES-like) used as remote control.
+{{.:raspberrypi:rpi-nas-mediacenter.png?640|Raspberry Pi NAS and mediacenter}}
+{{.:raspberrypi:wifi-forbidden.png?90 |WiFi Warning}}
+**WARNING** :!: It turned out that the **Raspberry Pi 4**, when it uses the **USB 3** interface, produces **radio interferences on the 2.4 GHz** band. It is **impossibile to connect to the 2.4 GHz WiFi** access point which is only 5 meters far. It was also **impossible to use a wireless keyboard and mouse**, using one USB dongle which also operates on the 2.4 GHz. To operate a **wireless gamepad** (which also uses an USB dongle on the 2.4 GHz frequencies) I had to distantiate the dongle from the Raspberry Pi using and USB **extension cable of about 0.5 meters**. Due this **severe problem**, I can suggest the RPi4 solution only if you will use the **Ethernet** interface or an access point on the **5 Ghz** band. As an alternative to the wireless gamepad or keyboard, you can use the **[[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.leetzone.android.yatsewidgetfree|Yatse application]]** on an Android smartphone.
+{{.:raspberrypi:forbidden-mpg4.png?90 |MPEG4 Warning}}
+**WARNING** :!: There is another potential problem with the **Raspberry Pi 4**: due the increased CPU power, the designers decided to drop the **H263** and **MPG4** codecs from the hardware. That codecs were enabled in-hardware into the older Raspberry Pi models and the license price was included into the hardware price. In older models you could also purchase additional licenses, e.g. for **MPEG2** and **VC-1**; this is no longer an option on the Raspberry Pi 4. I experience a **[[https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/issues/4257|bug]]** with **Kodi** and **kernel 5.10**: software decoding of MPEG4 streams (e.g. the ones produced by the XviD library) were terribly jerky. I had to downgrade to **kernel 4.19** to solve the problem. Notice that the **LibreELEC 9.2** and **10.0 Beta** distributions play the same file smoothly.
 ====== Subsystems ======
   * **[[raspberrypi_nas_x835_sata_board]]**
   * **[[raspberrypi_nas_smart_hard_disk]]**
+  * **[[raspberrypi_nas_networking]]**
   * **[[raspberrypi_nas_kodi]]**
   * **[[raspberrypi_nas_audio]]**
-  * **[[raspberrypi_nas_networking]]**
   * **[[raspberrypi_nas_mail]]**
+  * **[[raspberrypi_nas_remote_control]]**
+  * **[[raspberrypi_nas_case]]**
-===== Networking =====
-Current release of **RaspiOS** (we are on Debian 10 Buster) uses **dhcpcd** to manage networking (see **[[https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/tcpip/|Raspberry Pi TCP/IP Networking]]**). This means that:
-  * Use **/etc/dhcpcd.conf** file to define static IP address or fallback IP address (if DHCP fails). The same file is used to e.g. disable **WiFi** (wlan0) interface.
-  * Do not use **/etc/network/interfaces** for static or dynamic IP assignment.
-  * WiFi ESSIDs and passwords are in **/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf**.
-  * Do not install **Network Manager**.
-  * If a gaphical interface is needed, use **lxplug-network**.
-  * If some package installs the systemd **wpa_supplicant.service**, disable it or you will have two conflicting ''wpa_supplicant'' processes running (execute the ''systemctl disable wpa_supplicant.service'' command and reboot).
-I want the **eth0** interface to have a static IP address beside the one eventually assigned by DHCP (i.e. I want an IP alias on eth0:0). This is useful when I wan connect to the host even in an unknown network. To achieve this when dhcpcd is running, it is necessary to create an **user defined hook script**. See this page for more details: **[[..:linux:sa:dhcpcd_ip_alias]]**.
-===== Mail system =====
-I want a working **mail system** on the NAS, mainly because I want to eventually receive error messages from the various subsystems, think e.g. at the **smartd** daemon watching for S.M.A.R.T. hard drive errors...
-In the following examples **pimedianas** is the hostname of my Raspberry Pi Mediacenter NAS. I istalled the **postfix** package and configured it as **satellite system** using a **SMTP relay host**. The relevant settings in **/etc/postfix/main.cf** are:
-<file>
-myhostname = pimedianas
-mydestination = $myhostname, localhost.localdomain, localhost
-relayhost = mail.example.org:587
-default_transport = smtp
-relay_transport = smtp
-myorigin = $myhostname
-# Rewrite some sender addresses.
-sender_canonical_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sender_canonical_maps
-# Relay host requires SASL authentication.
-smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
-smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
-smtp_sasl_mechanism_filter = plain, login
-smtp_sasl_security_options =
-smtp_tls_security_level = may
-</file>
-The content of **/etc/postfix/sender_canonical_maps** will force the **MAIL FROM** on locally generated mails:
-<file>
-root                       pimedianas@example.org
-root@pimedianas            pimedianas@example.org
-root@localhost             pimedianas@example.org
-root@localhost.localdomain pimedianas@example.org
-</file>
-Write the proper info about **localhost** in **/etc/hosts**:
-<file>
-.0.1.1  localhost.localdomain   localhost
-</file>
-Finally I had to put my **SMTP credentials** required by the relaying server into **/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd**:
-<file>
-mail.example.org pimedianas:MyVerySecretPwd
-</file>
-Last but not least, I redirected all the mail for root to my real email address in **/etc/aliases**:
-<file>
-root:   niccolo@example.org
-</file>
-Remember to compile all the files and restart the service:
-<code>
-postmap /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
-postmap /etc/postfix/sender_canonical_maps
-newaliases
-systemctl restart postfix.service
-</code>
-Now all the locally generated mails addressed to **root**, **%%root@pimedianas%%**, **%%root@localhost%%** or **%%root@localhost.localdomain%%** should have the **MAIL FROM** rewritten as above and forwarded to the external mailbox.
-===== Kodi =====
-Installed the packages:
-  * **kodi**
-  * **kodi-bin** - Contains the executable **kodi-standalone**, which is the one to execute.
-  * **kodi-peripheral-joystick** - Necessary to add support for the gamepad.
-  * **kodi-eventclients-kodi-send** - Contains the **kodi-send** tool, used to control Kodi from the command line.
-We create an user called **kodi** which belongs to the groups: **audio**, **video**, **input**, **pulse** and **pulse-access**. To execute kodi as a Systemd service we created an Unit file **/etc/systemd/system/kodi.service**:
-<file>
-[Unit]
-Description = Kodi Media Center
-# if you don't need the MySQL DB backend, this should be sufficient
-After = systemd-user-sessions.service network.target sound.target
-# if you need the MySQL DB backend, use this block instead of the previous
-# After = systemd-user-sessions.service network.target sound.target mysql.service
-# Wants = mysql.service
-[Service]
-User = kodi
-Group = kodi
-Type = simple
-ExecStart = /usr/bin/kodi-standalone
-Restart = always
-RestartSec = 15
-[Install]
-WantedBy = multi-user.target
-</file>
-The service must be enabled and started.
-===== Kodi Add-ons =====
-We don't want to depend on auto-download, audo-updates, etc. So we manually download the zip file for each app-on on the local filesystem. To allow installation in this way, it is required to enable **System Settings** => **Add-ons** => **Unknown sources**. Finally we can do **Kodi Main Manu** => **Add-ons** => **My add-ons** => **Install from zip file**.
-Despite installing the add-on from a zip file, any **required add-ons** not present into the system will be automatically downloaded from the net and installed. Fortunately you can find the zip files of this additional add-ons into the **$HOME/.kodi/addons/packages/** directory, so you can backup them for later use.
-===== Music =====
-Beside Kodi, which has its own functions to play music, I want also the functions offered by the **[[https://www.musicpd.org/|Music Player Daemon]]**; so I installed the Debian packages:
-  * **mpd** - The Music Player Daemon, the underlying daemon which actually plays music.
-  * **ncmpc** - It is a MPD client for text terminals, based on ncurses.
-===== Transfer rate =====
-We measured the **transfer rate** from other home NASes, just to figure out how much time is required to **transfer 500 Gb of data**. The receiving NAS is the **Raspberry Pi 4** with a **Seagate 4 Tb** IronWolf 3.5 inch hard disk connected through the **X835 USB3** interface. The network is limited to **100 Mbit** transfer rate, due to the limit of the LAN switch.
-^ NAS model          ^ Disk model  ^ Transfer rate (Mbit)  ^ 500 Gb transfer time (hours)  ^
-| LaCie d2 Network   | WDC WD10EFRX-68FYTN0, 1Tb, 5400 rpm       |   13 |  87.5 |
-| QNAP TS-120        | Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.B, 1Tb, 7200 rpm  |   98 |  12.7 |
-===== Web References =====
-  * **[[https://kodi.wiki/view/PulseAudio|Kodi with PulseAudio]]**
-  * **[[https://gist.github.com/bheisig/bf1a13a05cdb6a12ee805b00dc6d90bb|PulseAudio for Kodi, MPD and remote access on a Ubuntu host]]**
-  * **[[https://serverfault.com/questions/275364/get-drive-power-state-without-waking-it-up/|Get drive power state without waking it up]]**
-  * **[[https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/366438/hard-disk-not-going-to-standby-automatically|Hard disk not going to standby automatically]]**
-  * **[[https://serverfault.com/questions/305847/how-to-determine-disc-spindown-time|How to determine disc spindown time]]**