Raspberry Pi basics

[Redrum]

When I first set up piCorePlayer I too followed the instructions to put the LMS files on the external hard drive. I understand that reduces the risk of data corruption during adverse events such as power cuts or blips. A downside is that the RPi will access the external hard drive while using LMS, even to do tasks that don't involve the user data on the hard drive.
I have since moved the LMS data back to the SD card, and the hard drive now only spins up when LMS is accessing my own music. Michael Herger reports (sorry, can't find a direct link to his post) that he has run an RPi set up like that for several years continuously with no problems.
The latest versions of pCP allow the user to set up multiple partitions on the SD card, making it possible to keep the LMS data separate from the operating system. That should minimise the risk of LMS data corruption during adverse events. But I've not been brave enough to attempt that yet.
And congratulations for getting your system up and running - I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy mine.

Ron, as Viragored and ChrisNY mentioned, some of us have had similar time problems with pcP and time display. Mine would occur after a power failure (frequent at my cabin). My touch time screen saver would be blank, boom and radio have the wrong time. Another symptom is the time based Radio Paradise FLAC interactive stream would not play. This never happened with LMS on a windows PC. Perhaps because Windows takes forever to boot. As both mentioned, it has something to do with pCP booting fast and looking for an internet connection before the router was up and connected. The result for me was my pCP would hang when I restarted. I had to go in and unmount, remount the HDD. I finally moved the LMS data back to a third partition on the SD. Now all I have to do is reboot pCP after a power failure. As mentioned above, the thought is this. PcP loads into RAM so the boot portion is not accessed during normal operation. Any corruption from LMS accessing its data during a power failure should be isolated to the 3rd partition, allowing PcP to at least boot. This was suggested by Paul-, and incorporated into pCP setup (as V mentioned)

Here is the thread that discusses this:
https://forums.slimdevices.com/showt...fter-power-cut

Here's my thread on timezone loss. Note that at the beginning, I had no idea what was going on
https://forums.slimdevices.com/showt...-Timezone-Loss

ChrisNY mentioned the thread where Michael (and others) mentioned they have used LMS on the SD card for quite some time, here it is:
https://forums.slimdevices.com/showt...installing-LMS

Somewhere in there, I think Paul- or Paul Webster suggested a cron job to reboot the time zone. I have not tried that, and am not sure it is relevant to my issue

Light reading! Yes, alot of posts, but all helpful info for where you are now.

Jim

[Redrum]

I'd have preferred to have access to the folder via Samba without using a password and username, since no one else is going to be accessing. Is that an option? I couldn't see how. This is of some import because I use dbPoweramp to rip CDs when I get them (not as often as in the past, but still do), and have it writing directly to the LMS music location, as well as to another backup location and MP3 versions of the files to a third location, all separate drives. I'm not sure I can do that with the LMS file location being password protected.

R.

If you are on windows, when you right click my computer->set network location->enter the server/location info you set in Samba, if all is right the shortcut is created. I assume you got this far, right? Once you try to access it, say with file explorer, it will ask for un and pw. Once you enter this once, you should be able to access it pw free from anything within windows from that point forward.

I use freefilesync to mirror my library on my pc to the pCP HDD, and also to another "traveling" HDD I take to my cabin, and do the same thing there to keep both locations mirrored. The point being, I only have to enter the UN and PW once to set it up. Once that is done, no pw required.

I do the setup as the administrator, just in case this isn't obvious. I imagine you being the sole user, you work as the admin, but I thought I would mention it.

Jim

[RonM]

Okay, time display on the radio is back to what it should be. Presumably a last reboot last night, or just the passage of time, has resulted in correct polling of the time server.

I do have the router and music server(s) on a UPS, not a big one but provides about an hour of power for these low-draw devices, or a bit more. We live in the country so do have more extensive outings from time to time, but I don't think it will be a big deal.

I'll leave the cache on the hard drive; I presume when I change the hard drive when I decide to permanently turn off my Windows server device that I will have to go through setting up the cache on the hard drive again.

Thanks again to all!

R.

[garym]

Glad you got it sorted.

[Redrum]

I'll leave the cache on the hard drive; I presume when I change the hard drive when I decide to permanently turn off my Windows server device that I will have to go through setting up the cache on the hard drive again.

R.

Remember when it comes time, its simple through the pCP UI, LMS page - move LMS data to SD, swap out HDD, mount new HDD, move LMS data to new HDD (if desired)

[RonM]

Things are going well, just a couple more questions for future reference:

• I've created a third partition on the SD card and moved the cache there. I'd already resized the original partition to 2000 mb, so didn't need to do that. The third partition took the rest of the 32 gb card, around 27gb, very big. I trust there is no problem with this?
• With the cache on the SD card, when I change my external drive do I just shut things down, remove the old one, add a new one and then mount it? Or do I have to unmount the original one in some way?
• Will I have to reconfigure Samba to give network access to the new drive?
• pCp installed LMS8.1.0; how do I check for updates or is this done automatically? I know that there is an update button, but don't know whether this accesses the V.8 sequence automatically, or would find the current "official" release.
• Are there any other things I should know about?

I'm updating my old FitPC3 Windows device to Win10, and assuming all goes well may continue to use it as the server. Or I might just switch up to the Pi. Haven't decided.

R.

[garym]

Things are going well, just a couple more questions for future reference:

• I've created a third partition on the SD card and moved the cache there. I'd already resized the original partition to 2000 mb, so didn't need to do that. The third partition took the rest of the 32 gb card, around 27gb, very big. I trust there is no problem with this?
• With the cache on the SD card, when I change my external drive do I just shut things down, remove the old one, add a new one and then mount it? Or do I have to unmount the original one in some way?
• pCp installed LMS8.1.0; how do I check for updates or is this done automatically? I know that there is an update button, but don't know whether this accesses the V.8 sequence automatically, or would find the current "official" release.
• Are there any other things I should know about?

I'm updating my old FitPC3 Windows device to Win10, and assuming all goes well may continue to use it as the server. Or I might just switch up to the Pi. Haven't decided.

R.

when you change external drive with your music, just shut down rPi, remove old HDD, add new HDD, then reboot. On rPi GUI page, select LMS tab, then go through the mounting procedure again for the new HDD.
You can update LMS with a few buttons, see the LMS tab I mention above. There's a spot where you select which branch you want. I pick stable with nightly updates. Then you click on UPDATE LMS. The first time you do this it will say no update available. Then click the "manual update" button and it will update. You should end up with 8.1.2 (last time I looked).

[Redrum]

Things are going well, just a couple more questions for future reference:

• I've created a third partition on the SD card and moved the cache there. I'd already resized the original partition to 2000 mb, so didn't need to do that. The third partition took the rest of the 32 gb card, around 27gb, very big. I trust there is no problem with this?
• With the cache on the SD card, when I change my external drive do I just shut things down, remove the old one, add a new one and then mount it? Or do I have to unmount the original one in some way?
• Will I have to reconfigure Samba to give network access to the new drive?
• pCp installed LMS8.1.0; how do I check for updates or is this done automatically? I know that there is an update button, but don't know whether this accesses the V.8 sequence automatically, or would find the current "official" release.
• Are there any other things I should know about?

I'm updating my old FitPC3 Windows device to Win10, and assuming all goes well may continue to use it as the server. Or I might just switch up to the Pi. Haven't decided.

R.

* Third partion is "remainder of card" so, no issues
* gary addressed changing drive
* if you keep the same mount details, names, etc you should not have to fix samba. But, if you do have a different file structure on the new drive, you will have to reconfigure LMS (obviously)
* what else? Enjoy the music But, something else to think about:
- you could do a clone of the SD, or an image to keep handy in case of a crash/SD corruption.
- I have a samba share to the 3rd partition to keep a backup of favorites, podcasts (everything except cache)

One thing that I know that I like (and others do as well) about using the Rpi as the LMS server (as opposed to a windows machine) is 24/7 whisper quiet/silent low power consumption operation. Just a lil' box on the desk, shelf, etc...

[RonM]

One thing that I know that I like (and others do as well) about using the Rpi as the LMS server (as opposed to a windows machine) is 24/7 whisper quiet/silent low power consumption operation. Just a lil' box on the desk, shelf, etc...

Yes, indeed, although my FitPC3 box is very small and fanless with no moving parts, uses very little power, and is much like the Pi in those respects. So it's more a question of avoiding Windows out of principle and for lower investment of time and thought. Although, I have to admit, the setting up of my Fit with LMS as a dedicated server was much less of a hassle than the Pi.

More expensive, of course (but not excessively). OTOH, I already have it.

R.

[garym]

though, I have to admit, the setting up of my Fit with LMS as a dedicated server was much less of a hassle than the Pi.
R.

In your case Ron, but that seems really unusual. Most people are up and running in 30 minutes from unpacking the rPi.