Category: Pi

January 25, 2024

CasaOS and LinkDing

Giving LinkDing a whirl. It isn’t featured in any of the stores I’ve found, so I rolled my own. Here’s a sample YAML:

name: courageous_kalyn
services:
  main_app:
    cpu_shares: 10
    command: []
    deploy:
      resources:
        limits:
          memory: 256M
    image: sissbruecker/linkding
    labels:
      icon: https://icon.casaos.io/main/all/linkding.png
    ports:
      - target: 9090
        published: "9090"
        protocol: tcp
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - type: bind
        source: /DATA/AppData/linkding/data
        target: /etc/linkding/data
    devices: []
    cap_add: []
    environment: []
    network_mode: bridge
    privileged: false
    container_name: ""
    hostname: ""
x-casaos:
  author: self
  category: self
  hostname: ""
  icon: https://icon.casaos.io/main/all/linkding.png
  index: /
  port_map: "9090"
  scheme: http
  store_app_id: courageous_kalyn
  title:
    custom: LinkDing

name: courageous_kalyn

services:

main_app:

cpu_shares: 10

command: []

deploy:

resources:

limits:

memory: 256M

image: sissbruecker/linkding

labels:

icon: https://icon.casaos.io/main/all/linkding.png

ports:

- target: 9090

published: "9090"

protocol: tcp

restart: unless-stopped

volumes:

- type: bind

source: /DATA/AppData/linkding/data

target: /etc/linkding/data

devices: []

cap_add: []

environment: []

network_mode: bridge

privileged: false

container_name: ""

hostname: ""

x-casaos:

author: self

category: self

hostname: ""

icon: https://icon.casaos.io/main/all/linkding.png

index: /

port_map: "9090"

scheme: http

store_app_id: courageous_kalyn

title:

custom: LinkDing

Once it’s up, hit the terminal and create a user with:

python manage.py createsuperuser --username=joe --email=joe@example.com

1	python manage.py createsuperuser --username=joe --email=joe@example.com

From there it will prompt for a password.

January 24, 2024

Persistent Windows SMB mount in Raspbian via CIFS

I’m using Navidrome in CasaOS on a Pi for music right now and I like it quite a bit. The one thing irking me was that the network storage mounts you can define within CasaOS (Files > Location > Connect network storage) don’t persist. At least they don’t for me – every reboot or update and they’re gone.

I’ve gotten around this by creating a persistent mount within Raspbian utilizing CIFS.

SSH into your Pi, and go ahead and

sudo su

sudo su

to avoid having to sudo every line you input. First, make sure cifs-utils are installed (they should be, but still):

apt-get install cifs-utils

1	apt-get install cifs-utils

Now create a credentials file for your mount to access using nano:

nano /etc/credfile

1	nano /etc/credfile

Populate the credfile with the credentials necessary to access your Windows share:

username=user
password=password
domain=domain (if applicable)

username=user

password=password

domain=domain (if applicable)

Save it, then set the appropriate permissions to keep it safe from prying eyes:

chown root: /etc/credfile
chmod 600 /etc/credfile

1 2	chown root: /etc/credfile chmod 600 /etc/credfile

Create a mount directory on your Pi to link the share to:

mkdir /mnt/linux_sharename

1	mkdir /mnt/linux_sharename

Now open fstab:

nano /etc/fstab

1	nano /etc/fstab

Add your mount to the bottom of the file, changing the first path to the Windows share and the second to the mount path you created previously:

//WIN_SHARE_IP/share_name  /mnt/linux_sharename  cifs  credentials=/etc/credfile,file_mode=0755,dir_mode=0755 0       0

1	//WIN_SHARE_IP/share_name /mnt/linux_sharename cifs credentials=/etc/credfile,file_mode=0755,dir_mode=0755 0 0

Finally, reload the daemon:

systemctl daemon-reload

1	systemctl daemon-reload

And mount the share using the details you defined in fstab:

sudo mount /mnt/linux_sharename

1	sudo mount /mnt/linux_sharename

To confirm, cd to the share and confirm you can see the contents.

January 9, 2024

Calibre Web in a Container, and Credentials

My Calibre Web installed via container in CasaOS decided to lose its admin account creds. To reset, access the container terminal from within CasaOS, navigate to:

/app/calibre-web

1	/app/calibre-web

and enter:

python3 cps.py -p /config/app.db -s admin:password

1	python3 cps.py -p /config/app.db -s admin:password

Where password is your updated passy. If you try to use ‘password’ you’ll probably be kicked back for it not meeting complexity requirements.

January 8, 2024

Cron for Dynamic DNS Updating

I use my commercial host, Ionos, for websites, including creating subdomains for ones I’m hosting at home. However, I don’t pay for a static ip. I was using a Windows Scheduled Task to curl the necessary URLs to keep the IP updated, but I’m switching everything I can over to Linux, and a Pi.

Start by creating your .sh file and making it executable. I created dnsupdate.sh in my home dir on my Pi, and populated it with my curl calls. I did this via Nano. Then make it executable:

sudo chmod +x dnsupdate.sh

1	sudo chmod +x dnsupdate.sh

Then I fired up cron by entering:

crontab -e

1	crontab -e

It’s going to ask you for an editor on first use. I say, stick with Nano.

no crontab for root - using an empty one

Select an editor.  To change later, run 'select-editor'.
  1. /bin/nano        <---- easiest
  2. /usr/bin/vim.tiny
  3. /bin/ed

Choose 1-3 [1]: 1
crontab: installing new crontab

no crontab for root - using an empty one

Select an editor. To change later, run 'select-editor'.

1. /bin/nano <---- easiest

2. /usr/bin/vim.tiny

3. /bin/ed

Choose 1-3 [1]: 1

crontab: installing new crontab

After this it will present you with a crontab file. Scroll to the bottom and enter:

0 * * * * /home/USERNAME/dnsupdate.sh

1	0 * * * * /home/USERNAME/dnsupdate.sh

This will run your sh file every hour at the top of the hour.

Save the file.

If you want to see what’s up with Cron, enter:

systemctl status cron

1	systemctl status cron

If it’s running, it’ll show you the files – your sh file – in use by cron.

January 6, 2024

CasaOS and bash in Docker

I installed ArchiveBox on CasaOS and came upon a problem – I couldn’t figure out what the default credentials are, or even if there were any, and I didn’t know how to generate them from the command line. ArchiveBox told me to create a new superuser by running

archivebox manage createsuperuser

1	archivebox manage createsuperuser

From the command line, but doing so within the container terminal resulted in this:

But I found my way into the container bash thusly:

SSH into your pi running CasaOS
search for your ArchiveBox container ID:

grep -Rnw '/var/lib/docker/containers/' -e 'archivebox'

1

grep -Rnw '/var/lib/docker/containers/' -e 'archivebox'
You’ll see a path in your return with a long, long directory name, something like

9296e127fe81605cdd5dfb546b9a66eefef4ce5529423f45eaf89eba40507646

1

9296e127fe81605cdd5dfb546b9a66eefef4ce5529423f45eaf89eba40507646
This is your container ID. CD to /var/lib/docker/containers/and run the following, where containerID is the above ID:

docker exec -u archivebox -it containerID bash

1

docker exec -u archivebox -it containerID bash
This will invoke a bash within that container. From within it, run:

archivebox manage createsuperuser

1

archivebox manage createsuperuser
And follow the prompts to create a superuser for ArchiveBox. To drop out of bash, just input exit.

January 4, 2024

CasaOS – Tinkering

Somewhere in my intertoobs wanderings I came across CasaOS and, given I had an idle Pi 4 laying around, I decided to poke at it. After all, if it works worth a damn it could help consolidate all the disparate systems I have running locally.

CasaOS is basically a slick Docker manager that rides atop another OS. Getting it up and running on the Pi with a fresh Raspbian install was painless. Simple configs, like mounting network shares, is a breeze. So far I have the following running in it:

PiHole – Installed without a hitch. If this runs well it’ll replace the standalone PiHole Pi 3 I have running.
Calibre Web – Also installed without a hitch. Love this, because I hate running the Calibre thick client full time on my server simply for its web interface. Not a lot of instructions on this one – just make sure you have your library mounted and defined as a volume in the container settings.
Jellyfin – Another painless install (make sure to mount your files volume as described in the above Calibre Web settings). I installed this as a replacement for my current Jellyfin music server, which runs standalone in a fully fledged VM, gobbling unnecessary resources. But I stopped it midway through indexing my gajillion files because I discovered:
Navidrome – Will it be better than Jellyfin for audio? I don’t know, but I’m giving it a shot. Currently still indexing – on directory number 12406. Heh. Now, Navidrome wouldn’t run initially, and CasaOS kept screaming that it was unhealthy. Its log filled with “exec /app/navidrome: exec format.” I discovered that the image I was pulling isn’t the most recent. I exported the ComposeFile from within the settings of the failed install, uninstalled it, and updated the image source in the ComposeFile to point to “ghcr.io/navidrome/navidrome:develop.” I then imported the file (Custom Install > Import from within the App Store) and it installed fine
Memos – Completely painless install. Came across this randomly and figured maybe it’d replace my TiddlyWiki instance running on my server. We’ll see.
Mealie – I ran across this neat app via some Youtubers Apps of The Year vid and was intrigued. An app that’ll scrape a online recipe page, pull the pertinent details of the recipe and ditch all the ads and fluff? Yes please! However, Mealie wasn’t in the default app store for CasaOS. I found CoolStore for Casa and added it as a source. From there Mealie installed no problem, and now I have a slew of other apps to sift through as well. Perhaps Casa can even replace my standalone VPN Pi. We shall see.