[Announce] 'MediaServer' *certified* Alexa skill for LMS

[castalla]

What exactly is the perceived benefit of a pi with pCP on it vs the same pi with Raspbian + LMS + Squeezelite on it? pCP is a very stripped down Linux which is only really intended to run LMS and Squeezelite and basically nothing else, which is why it's a pain to get this additional ngrok + updating going. Is the fact that it all runs in RAM really that significant?

I run KODI via LibreElec which is the same concept of a very barebones Linux propping up KODI. But if I needed anything more than a basic install I'd just switch to Ubuntu and run KODI as a service on that and have a base I could easily install anything on. Just saying.

Laziness? PCP is easy to install on a pi zero.

I've forgotten how to install raspian on the pi zero wifi - maybe I should bite the bullet. I had ngrok running under raspian on a pi 2 but it got repurposed.

[arressen]

Think of how you would secure the simple dynamic DNS approach.
LMS does not have HTTPS front-end.
Then also think about the instructions for port forwarding from the domestic router.

ngrok solves both.

Paul - your tenacity and determination have been exemplary on this. I just can't help thinking that there must (or should) be an easier solution.

Re-direct on router, proxy configuration over https, with backend user authentication before pass through. I'm not suggesting it's plug-and-play - very little in this space is really - but it seems to me to be a lot easier than jumping through these hoops.

That said, given the very limited usage scenario in focus right now I'm not entirely convinced that a straight redirect to port 9000 would actually be a complete non-starter. How significant a risk would it be really?


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[Paul Webster]

Re-direct on router, proxy configuration over https, with backend user authentication before pass through. I'm not suggesting it's plug-and-play - very little in this space is really - but it seems to me to be a lot easier than jumping through these hoops.

That is what I do for my own set-up.
I went down that route early on because I didn't want to have to redo the ngrok initialisation each time I (rarely) restarted the server and I didn't want to buy an ngrok service because I was not really sure that I would need it.
So ... I run it over nginx with a letsencrypt cert (I even helped resolve an issue with one of the renewal scripts - https://gist.github.com/Greelan/28a4...omment-3140115 )

However, when Phil came up with the automatic updater mechanism that meant that the ngrok free service could be used without having to re-enter authentication information which makes that route much easier.
I came up with some small changes to the Python script and Phil made some more in the script and back-end and it became even better.

That said, given the very limited usage scenario in focus right now I'm not entirely convinced that a straight redirect to port 9000 would actually be a complete non-starter. How significant a risk would it be really?

Take a look at the "Don't forward" thread from mherger
https://forums.slimdevices.com/showt...o-the-internet

[mecouc]

I picked PcP because it looked easy - someone has spent a lot of time making something that works really nicely. I didn't want to spend days learning how to use linux. All my previous experience of linux has ended up taking hours or days of my time to do apparently the simplest things due to my ignorance, and I was hoping to avoid that :-)

I'm willing to try installing on full Raspberry linux if that is in fact straightforward to do. I'm sure I can make a backup image of my PcP so far and have another try one day.

[philchillbill]

That is what I do for my own set-up.
I went down that route early on because I didn't want to have to redo the ngrok initialisation each time I (rarely) restarted the server and I didn't want to buy an ngrok service because I was not really sure that I would need it.
So ... I run it over nginx with a letsencrypt cert (I even helped resolve an issue with one of the renewal scripts - https://gist.github.com/Greelan/28a4...omment-3140115 )

However, when Phil came up with the automatic updater mechanism that meant that the ngrok free service could be used without having to re-enter authentication information which makes that route much easier.
I came up with some small changes to the Python script and Phil made some more in the script and back-end and it became even better.


Take a look at the "Don't forward" thread from mherger
https://forums.slimdevices.com/showt...o-the-internet

I'd muse that setting up ngrok without the pCP limitations is a breeze compared to getting certs and DNS names and opening router ports. Plus, an ngrok installation is portable. Take @mecouc who wants to send off a pre-installed pi to his parents. No need to open ports on his parents' router as ngrok will happily tunnel its way outwards from any network. That would not 'just work' with an apache/nginx approach.

[castalla]

Laziness? PCP is easy to install on a pi zero.

I've forgotten how to install raspian on the pi zero wifi - maybe I should bite the bullet. I had ngrok running under raspian on a pi 2 but it got repurposed.

Well, Pcp 1 : castalla 0

I've given up and installed Pi Os Lite - should be straightforward (famous last words!)

Thanks to Paul Webster for all the suggestions.

[Paul Webster]

I have it /nearly/ working on pCP 6.1.0 ... ngrok starting on boot and updater running ... but updater not quite working (I think because of the pcp startup mechanism). I have asked for some advice on pCP 6 thread.

[philchillbill]

I have it /nearly/ working on pCP 6.1.0 ... ngrok starting on boot and updater running ... but updater not quite working (I think because of the pcp startup mechanism). I have asked for some advice on pCP 6 thread.

Paul,

I've written a tiny shell script (in sh, not bash because pCP does not have bash natively) which will update a single tunnel (enough for pCP) and give it the name 'false' (string) which will work fine as default in my back-end. The code is

#!/bin/sh
UUID="a84fb223c34002944701a9a70e5e82b65e01cda21b6e8914"
URL="`wget -qO- http://localhost:4040/api/tunnels | grep -Po https://.+?\.io`"
DATA=[{\"name\":\"false\",\"url\":\"${URL}\"}]
RES="`wget -qO- "https://smartskills.tech/linking/updateNgrok.php?uuid=${UUID}&data=${DATA}"`"
echo $RES

All you need to do is change the value of the UUID variable to match the uuid shown when you link the skill. Might be worth having a try with this as no installs needed.

[Paul Webster]

Thanks.
Unfortunately, the BusyBox (as used by pCP) version of grep does support -P so the regex part will not work.

However, I do have the Perl updater working - but not when it is run during the startup process.
My suspicion is that it is network related and it is really ngrok that had not finished setting itself up properly so the call to its api does not work properly.
Not resolved by a simple "sleep".
I'm still digging.

[philchillbill]

Thanks.
Unfortunately, the BusyBox (as used by pCP) version of grep does support -P so the regex part will not work.

However, I do have the Perl updater working - but not when it is run during the startup process.
My suspicion is that it is network related and it is really ngrok that had not finished setting itself up properly so the call to its api does not work properly.
Not resolved by a simple "sleep".
I'm still digging.

Pity.

By the way, in other applications I've seen a pi take up to 90 secs to have networking fully available after boot. So maybe a /bin/sleep will work if you give it say 60 or 90 secs.