Raspberry π

Once you compress the image, it shouldn't matter if you included unused space or not.

duplicity is the standard backup tool, but it doesn't sound like it's what you're after. It would be a lot more space efficient though

problems on writing to a samba share.

My fstab is a testament to how awkward samba share is.

I'm having some success with mounting using cifs, but permissioning was a little bit trial and error, and even now, some of permissions of the files being written are a bit off kilter.

If it's across a samba share, wouldn't rsync not care what the filesystem of the network drive was? It's cifs that's doing all of the work moving from one fs to another (or the same type). SMB permissioning notwithstanding...

Anyone got a spare Zero with Wi-Fi?

Cheers.

Somewhat inevitably, I have totally corrupted my PiHole (and DHCP server) Raspberry PI after an unexpected power shutdown. It was fun explaining to the family that I "broke the internet whilst trying to fix the dishwasher".

I really wish I had done some more research into ways of avoiding this before last week, but hey ho, you live and learn.

Guess what? It turns out that since the end of last year, you can turn on OverlayFS in raspi-config to make your SD card totally read only. No more corruptions. After a reboot it just comes back up how it was when you turned on last time.

This sounds brilliant and I think I now need to rebuild my PiHole and DHCP and then test it out.

It may be of use to others in this thread who are providing services on PIs?

I'd be interested in this.

Doesn't that mean your pihole wouldn't be able to download updated definitions?

Or updates full-stop

Yes, my Plex server on Ubuntu has loads of samba shares and fstab that should work but writing is still hit and miss.

I have a vague memory of reading something about errors coming up with permissions and dates when writing files from Ext4 to NTFS.

Yeah, I'd have to do updates by hand, turning off overlay first then re-enabling it.

But that is a lesser of two evils, versus breaking the internet when I reboot the dishwasher.

Turned a spare Pi + USB DAC + cheap amp into a pretty decent Airplay setup.

Next up is making a neat case for it, need to decide if I'm attaching a 5v buck converter to the amp's 12v or if I want to keep it separate. Also need to sort out a decent way of switching it off, don't want it on 24/7 and SSH'ing isn't the most elegant solution.

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[Edit] had wrong image

[Edit2] here's the link, in case it was useful

https://lowpowerlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/ATXRaspi_GPIO_software_shutdown.png

How about a momentary switch soldered to the headers on the pi.

I'm trying to find a link i have saved that shows how to do it

That's quite neat, is the transistor for software shutdowns? It is. I could use the 5v to Pi to also switch a MOSFET powering the amplifier.

But just any momentary switch would also do the trick I believe: https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/77905/raspberry-pi-3-model-b-dtoverlay-gpio-shutdown

Got a new Pi 4 (with 4GB RAM) for my daughter has her existing 1GB Pi 3 was creaking a bit under Scratch, TuxPaint or Minecraft.

Of course I didn't notice it had moved to USB-C for power and so I've had to place another order for a power supply (and some MicroUSB->USB-C adapters just in case) and also a new case (since it doesn't fit in my existing Pi 3 case). The only USB-C cable/power I have in the house is my work laptop power adapter and that's not being moved!

If you're planning on selling the pi 3 let me know as I'm in the market for one.

Sorry, it's earmarked for my 5-a-side scoreboard/filming project.

Sounds cool.

So having bought an Allo Vana, I've realised I need more programming knowledge than I have (i.e. some not none) - if it runs on dietpi, assume that my starting point should just be basic Linux stuff, is that right? Anything else I should look for?

What do you think you need programming skills for? What specifically are you trying to achieve? Would help to know this to advise.

If anybody has any old pi bits and pieces sitting around unused, I'd be very glad to take various things off their hands for a good price. Anybody got any unwanted screens in particular?

Just making it work as a media player + DAC - the instructions it came with don't work and I'm stuck at a command line.

Only really aiming to make Max2play work and play music, but it would be nice to have enough basic understanding to know roughly what's happening if it doesn't do what I expect (hence thinking I need a proper noob guide to using this type of machine)

I'm not familiar with the hardware or the OS but a quick glance hints that it might not be as in depth as you might think.

I'm heading to bed now but I'll take a look tomorrow and see if I can find you some pointers.

Thanks! Yeah I'm sure it shouldn't be as tough as it seems but not even knowing the basics makes me feel more useless than I should do...

As with many things like this, one of the first challenges is just throwing yourself in and giving it a go. Whats the worst that could happen? Its really quite hard to break hardware like this.

Just doing some reading into what the Sparky is (the dev board in the Allo Vana). Will see if I can find a good tutorial.

I can't actually find any online instructions for putting max2play on a Sparky device!

Ah well, thanks for looking though!

I am told it is pre installed but can't get it to work and my search has been pretty fruitless - part of the issue is that I've realised just how little I know so am not sure how to really look. I thought understanding some Linux command line prompts would help me at least know roughly what is going on!