Ras Pi: Installing an OS

Installing the Raspbian image to your SD card from Linux. 

[windows/OSX users click here] - I can write these instructions up, but I feel like most of you who are playing with a Pi must already be using linux machines. However my blog stats show that almost all of you readers are win/mac guys so I continue to try to include Windows instructions... I strongly suggest checking out my guide to installing linux for beginners! You wont regret it!

Download the Raspbian image here and save to your home directory.

Open your terminal and get ready for a few simple commands:

Automatic TV, Music, (and possibly Movies) Download Server on Raspberry Pi

I have been playing with the raspberry pi rev.1 for a few days now, and I have decided that it has just enough power to run a SABnzbd+, Sickbeard, Couchpotato, Headphones server.

With the extra memory on the rev.2 board I figure I can allocate it to the CPU and probably squeeze out a little more speed in the unrar process for SABnzbd.

So... I ordered a new board from modmypi and am awaiting shipment at the moment.
I have made some progress on the rev.1 pi, but have run into lots, and lots of permissions issues with my nas4free 7.2 file server. Hopefully as time goes on I will be able to compile a nice easy guide to setting up a PiServer for all of you.

Lets get started:

RasPi Server [2of2] - Installing mySQL

After a little searching I used the instructions found on this blog  to install the mySQL server to my Raspberry Pi.

Right now it looks like his blog is down so I can't finish this writeup!

The process is pretty easy though. Since mySQL is already listed in normal debian repositories, you can just run a few generic commands and fix any dependencies as you go!

SSH into your pi [windows users use putty]

ssh root@ip.address.here

apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client

mysqladmin -u root -h localhost password 'your root password here'

mysqladmin -u root -h 'your hostname here' password 'your root password here'

mysql -u root -p

This should ask you for the password you just set up and the mySQL terminal interface will appear.

You now have mySQL running on your Pi!!!

Further Configureation

I don't think I have the mySQL skills yet to write up an effective guide for configuring a new database from scratch on the command line. However, you should be able to do it pretty easily. You are already 99% of the way there. The only remaining steps to synchronize your XBMC installations are creation of a new database, uploading a config.xml to each XBMC box, and populating the database by scanning in a new library. Check out the XBMC wiki on the subject.

RasPi Server [1of2]- Installing Raspbian to your Raspberry Pi

After toying around with Raspbmc, the XBMC distribution for RasPi, I decided that I would try turning my Pi into a mySQL server for syncing jailbroken apple tv 2's running XBMC throughout my house.

Why? Because my server currently runs freeNAS 7.2 which uses sqlite rather than mySQL. I have not been able to get a solid mySQL server running in freeNAS 7.2, and I want one. Rather than installing to one of my windows/linux terminals, I wanted to utilize a low power always on device... thus the Raspberry Pi mySQL server.

Building a Keyboard computer from a Raspberry Pi

Here is another great idea for using a Raspberry Pi as a low power, low profile computer. The guys over at Hack A Day found this cool rundown about cramming a Rasp Pi into a nice Cherry mechanical keyboard.

The original page is in German, but the google translate is good enough to read most of what is going on, and the idea is simple enough that you can infer from pictures.

Raspberry Pi - Unboxing

My Ras Pi finally arrived a week or two ago, but my summer courses have been killer!
By now you have almost certainly seen about a million unboxing videos and other such posts.

Well here is another one...

(Bonus: you don't have to go to youtube and listen to me talk like an idiot while I open a box!)

Printable case for the Raspberry Pi

I finally got around to making a case for my Raspberry Pi board and I think that it is a good enough design to recommend to others who don't have access to a 3d printer or a laser cutter.

Using Raspberry Pi with XBMC

Since I finally found the time to try out my new Raspberry Pi, I gave the specialized Raspbmc image a try.

My original goal was to use my new Ras Pi as a replacement for the somewhat less than stable Apple TV 2 running XBMC in my living room.

In it's current iteration I found Raspbmc to be a bit too laggy and a buggy for immediate implementation. The menu system is a tad laggy compared to the ATV2 xbmc port and the ARM processor cannot process DTS sound without lagging the video and audio every few seconds. The Pi seems capable of decoding full 1080p H.264 video in mkv, but too many of my files are in dts for audio.

This is a known issue and is being worked on by the developer.

If you do not have a large dts library and would like to try installing the image to your own Pi then lets get started below!

My Raspberry Pi Has Shipped!

My Raspberry Pi has finally shipped!
RS Components finally sent me the confirmation that my order has shipped! yay!

After ordering on the 7th of June, the order shipped on July 20.

July 20, 2012		14:38		Birmingham - UK		Shipment picked up
July 20, 2012		15:32		Birmingham - UK		Processed at Birmingham - UK
July 20, 2012		19:40		Birmingham - UK		Departed from DHL facility in Birmingham - UK
July 20, 2012		20:49		East Midlands - UK		Arrived at DHL facility in East Midlands - UK
July 21, 2012		00:20		East Midlands - UK		Processed at East Midlands - UK
July 22, 2012		10:01		Cincinnati, OH - USA		Arrived at DHL facility in Cincinnati, OH - USA
July 22, 2012		11:06		Cincinnati, OH - USA		Processed for clearance at Cincinnati, OH - USA
July 22, 2012		11:06		Cincinnati, OH - USA		Clearance delay
July 22, 2012		16:11		Cincinnati, OH - USA		Clearance delay
July 23, 2012		11:18		East Midlands - UK		Departed from DHL facility in East Midlands - UK
July 23, 2012		09:04		Cincinnati, OH - USA		Clearance delay
July 23, 2012		09:04		Cincinnati, OH - USA		Processed for clearance at Cincinnati, OH - USA
July 23, 2012		14:05		Cincinnati, OH - USA		Clearance delay
July 23, 2012		14:05		Cincinnati, OH - USA		Processed for clearance at Cincinnati, OH - USA

DHL's shipping tracker is pretty terrific!
I can see my order flying back and forth across the Atlantic ocean!
HAHA!

Hopefully I'll have the board soon and you will get a nice little unboxing with some tutorials on seting up rasbmc...

ChromeOS on Raspberry Pi

Get ready to be inundated with Raspberry Pi build articles!
As the production and shipping ramp up, more and more developers are getting their hands on the little $35 ARM powered miracle.

Little more than a proof of concept at the moment, ChromeOS is being ported to the Raspberry Pi by Hexxeh. This is a very cool step forward! I would love to see a really solid little homebrew chrome box built from the Ras-Pi. Currently, chrome does little more than boot, but we hope to see the lightweight OS running fully on the Ras-Pi very soon!

Via - liliputing
Source - chromium.org

Turn a Raspberry Pi into a netbook for under $100

I read about a pretty cool franken-thingy project yesterday and decided I should share it with the masses!

Ras-Pi Lapdock via Hack A Day

Using a Raspberry Pi and a Motorola Lap Dock you can turn build a netbook of sorts. The design is very rough, loose wires and a dangling brain, but it produces cheap functional results.

Since we know that the raspberry pi is capable of running a myriad of modern operating systems and only costs $35, many of us question why so many personal computers have to be so dang expensive! Especially Hobo-Geek readers, who are notoriously poor and jaded! Most of us have wondered why we couldn't just stick some old phone guts into a netbook shell. Then we would have a nice portable device to read emails and surf the web, without the mobile page hating, claw hand inducing, experience that is internet on a cellphone.

As it turns out there have been lots and lots of persuasive geeky engineers at various companies who thought the same thing at one point or another. This has led to the development of the dumb terminal or dumb tablet. A dock with a screen, keyboard, and other laptop accouterments. The Motorola Lap Dock is just such a dumb device. It looks and acts just like a netbook except that it is totally dead until you shove a Motorola ATRIX 4g cellphone up its ass! Then it lights up with joy!

A super cool guy named Alexander Glenn posted a pretty clean set of photos detailing his ras-pi docking solution here! It is by far the slickest I've seen so far.

As you can see rather than shoving a cellphone up its backside, we shove a raspberry pi up there!

The whole thing is pretty cool!
I would like to see a drop in cartridge style slot for the ras-pi attached to the dock lid. I feel like simply sticking the pi to the connectors on the back is a bit flimsy. Why not build a plexi case and epoxy it to the lid of the dock. That way the pi board can be dropped in and the case can be locked. Thus securing the board and connectors from damage.

More lapdocks using the Rikomagic MK802 here and here.

Continue reading via Hack A Day or liliputing

The dream of a low cost 1080p HTPC

You have a sweet ass media server, containing all of your ripped blue-rays, DVDs, laser-disks, and other now defunct forms of physical media.
Your awesome $5000 toy can handle 15 terabytes of redundant data and can push ones and zeros at gigabit speeds across your home network.

Now what?

How do you watch all that sweet, sweet TV goodness?
On your laptop? Lame...

Enter the Home Theater PC...

XBMC Eden