Like many others on here, I’ve finally had enough of the constant splintering of content into more and more separate services, each offering less value.

Anyway, so I have a new 8gb Pi4b on the way and I want to set up a “download box”.

Ideally something fairly automated using NZBs. Years ago I used to use Sickbeard + SABNZBD+ on a small windows box. But I wanted a small, simple, ultra low power fanless box, so I’ve gone for a Pi4.

I’m aware of the *arr apps, although I haven’t used any of them yet. I’m thinking a bunch of the *arr apps + SABNZBD+ and just keep using the Plex instance running on my Netgear NAS as the front end (got the lifetime Plex Pass). So I just need the download apps running in my Pi4 for now.

Question is: what do I put onto my Pi4 as the best base on top of which to build all of this?

Unfortunately I’m a Linux newb, so I want something fairly simple which can run all the apps I need and mount my NAS for storage.

What setup do people think is best for the Pi4?

  • @[email protected]
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    810 months ago

    If you want a headless setup, you should check out dietpi. It works really well and makes it easy to setup *arr apps

    • @[email protected]
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      210 months ago

      I second dietpi. Its dietpi or raspbian for me. Whatever you chose consider running everything in docker containers. Start with portainer, rly nice web gui that you can use to install everything else. Make a single docker-compose for all other services and load it as a stack in portainer. Enjoy the ride 😎

    • @MSKXOP
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      110 months ago

      Thanks, will look that up.

  • @[email protected]
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    610 months ago

    Any Linux distro should work for the setup you want. I have radarr, sonarr, sabnzbd, deluge and jellyfin running on an Arch setup, but something more accessible like Ubuntu or Debian should work fine (although I’m not familiar with whether the Pi4 can power those heavier distros). If you’re comfortable with the command line, it doesn’t matter much which distro you pick since you can install and configure all those apps over ssh.

    • @MSKXOP
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      210 months ago

      OK, thanks.

      Yeah I’d rather not be too reliant on my (limited) command line skills!

      Hopefully the Pi4 with 8gb is comfortable enough with a slightly heavier distro.

      • @[email protected]
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        410 months ago

        Plenty of mainstream distros have versions designed with an RPi in mind. They should be designed lightweight for that purpose, but also the default version for rpi is called raspbian, and it tends to have the most support for rpi applications. If you’re not committed to a particular distro for any reason that’s a good place to start. All the software should work regardless.

        If you want the whole setup to be headless (no screen), you’ll have to do a lot of work in the command line. If you want a screen to play things on, well then just the regular OS version should be fine.

        It’s also possible to set it up with VNC so you have a headless server that can give you a desktop over the network: https://desertbot.io/blog/headless-raspberry-pi-4-remote-desktop-vnc-setup

        Anything serving a desktop will be more resource intensive. I’m pretty sure the VNC option should have minimal impact whenever you’re not connected to it.

        Also though, no matter what you do, it’s linux so you should accept that you’ll need to spend some time in the command line to get things done. It’s getting better with making things accessible via GUIs but I think it may always have a heavier reliance on the CLI because of the hacker nature of it.

        • @MSKXOP
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          210 months ago

          It will be living in the home office pretty close to a monitor, so I’m happy enough to plug it in and use a screen to set everything up. But hopefully once it’s up and running, I’ll rarely need to use a screen and can check on the apps via a browser on my laptop/tablet/phone.

          In any case, I’ll check out the VNC option linked above, thanks.

          I guess it probably makes sense to start with Raspbian then and see how that goes first.

          I’ve also heard about OSMC, which is media player centric distro. Although given I am not actually using this thing as a front end (at least for now), that might be a waste.

      • @thepianistfroggollum
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        310 months ago

        Dietpi, which has already been recommended, has a web dashboard you can use to control a bunch of stuff so you don’t have to have a gui

    • @MSKXOP
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      110 months ago

      Out of curiosity, what hardware are you using?

      • Footnote2669
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        10 months ago

        Intel NUC, got it off eBay for £50 cos Pi is too expensive.

        8GB ram, 250GB ssd and 4th gen i3

  • Sirico
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    210 months ago

    My pi setup was Ubuntu or debian with mergerfs, docker and portainer running Plex arrs and such

  • @[email protected]
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    210 months ago

    Look into dietpi. I’m running a pi4 with dietpi, the *arrs, nzbget and kodi directly hooked up to my TV. It just works.

  • @[email protected]
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    -910 months ago

    I don’t condone piracy, but I do like Linux.

    Are you trying to setup your pi as a Linux distribution torrent seed box? I’m a little confused by your “apps” verbiage

      • @[email protected]
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        10 months ago

        Aye, aye, cap’n. Board the ship in the sea of all. Looks like I’ll be jumping off the ship now as the brig doesn’t suit me.