Raspberry π

I've been using pihut mostly. The 400 starter pack is reasonably priced and delivery of that and other orders has been spot on every Time, I do pay for next day at £3.50 iirc though.

https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-400-personal-computer-kit

That’s perfect, that’s the one I’ve had my eye on. Thanks for the confirmation 👍

Always had good service from pihut over the years, recommended.
Pimoroni always worth a look for something a bit different as regards cases and accessories

https://shop.pimoroni.com/collections/raspberry-pi

Somehow, I have two RPi Zeroes with the same MAC address on the eth0 adapter

I'm going to assume they didn't come like this out of the box, and that I've done something to them.

But what though? I set up the newest one earlier this week, but only changed dhcpcd.conf to give it a static IP - I changes no MAC addresses

Plugging the 400 into our wall mounted telly with no dedicated desk is getting annoying. Got a couple of old flat screen vga monitors, is it best value to get an adapter or should I consider n+1 for a hdmi monitor - will they be better?

So is usb booting all sorted on the Pi 4 now?

Tempted to set one up running Ubuntu off an nvme.

Pi400 intermittently misdialing t'internet and ending up with a 169. prefix ip address. Other devices still connecting fine.

Only solution so far is to reboot WiFi & PiHole, it reconnects fine for a few days then. Anyone else experienced this & found a solution?

This is happening again. Annoying.

Edit. Just connected to phone via hotspot, fine. It's defo either virgin media router or pihole issue, but affects no other devices.

Edit2. And now it has connected. Mystery.

Additional Micro sd cards for backup question.

Where's best to buy a batch? Say half a dozen, 32gb, reliable? Ideally not Amazon.

Thought RS components would be ok but the named brands i recognise are twice the price of the noobs sd cards at pihut.

Alternatively, is backing each pi sd up to a single USB drive a better option provided I name them to make it clear which is which to restore any device the sd fails on?

I currently have no backups so it's only a matter of time before one of my devices fails and I have to start over.

How're you getting on with the pi400?

Get a network drive and automatically perform backups of everything over the network?

Manual backups strikes me as the type of thing that are bound to get forgotten.

Network Drive is an option which would suit other needs too... any recommends?

Re: sd it's a backup of the configuration that matters most & ability to plug in a fresh sd card to get going again quickly. Each pi (5 now) has a different set-up for it's purpose so it'd be good to have that on sd ready as that side is unlikely to change along moving forwards. Only one of these pi's is for storing files long term, the 400, so that has a little SanDisk usb drive plugged in at present which isn't long term good idea either I guess.

Argos have decent prices for that kind of thing and probably a better chance of not getting counterfeit cards than a random eBay listing.

I guess the obvious answer is a Pi with a USB drive. There are plenty of other options out there but the one I'm using is about 10 years old so I'm a bit out of date.

So long as you can mount it and it's reasonably quick it shouldn't be an issue.

The backup script that I use creates a disk image that you just write to an SD card if you need it.

(Huge knowledge gap alert claxon)

Where is it best to learn more about these? Is there an equivalent of what gsmarena offers for mobile phones? Seems to me it's the kind of subject Google can provide billions of answers around.

It sounds like it'd be best to backup locally on a drive then backup the backup too?

I don't really understand what you are trying to do but I wouldn't try to backup a Raspberry Pi including the OS.

I'd work on your build/install process (write Raspberry Pi OS to SD card, apt-get install foo, copy config file to /etc/whatever) and then backup the config files and user data to your favourite cloud storage thing.

I'm looking to get into a Raspberry Pi, partly as a little project to try and do some stuff while in isolation when i move across the world shortly, and partly to actually try and achieve something useful (was thinking of a pihole for instance).
What is the best route in?
Was thinking new Pi 4 (not sure what size?), and would likely ssh and then vnc in via my mac rather than dragging a screen, keyboard, mouse etc all in my luggage?
What else do i need?
Also what is a good source of project ideas, useful ideas for pi?

I don't really understand what you are trying to do

There's two parts really now:

1) simplest way to restore any one of the devices should the sd corrupt

2) where can I best learn about options for reliable home network file storage? Most likely pi based i guess as I'm down this well now.

On 1, it might be worth deciding if you want to restore or rebuild? Is there data you need backing up, or is it just being able to set a pi up the same way if the SD card falls over?

1) Copying a live filesystem isn't a very good way of running a backup. You can end up with corrupt files because the OS/app had them open at the time, missing boot partitions etc. Hence I don't think it is a good idea to try and clone the running system.

2) The trouble with a Pi based thing for storage is by the time you connect a couple of drives you end up with a mess of cables and power supplies. Much easier to buy an appliance. I've got a Synology (DS420j) which just works. I have 3 drives and a RAID config (actually SHR) so if one fails I can replace one and not loose data.

Rebuild for sure, the pi400 data is being saved to mini USB dongle for now, the others aren't saving owt I need to keep.

Another option is to netboot the Raspberry Pi. Then there is nothing on the device to get corrupted.

I've just used a Windows server so never got into the world of all the different NASs and what the difference is. The PC Tech thread may be able to cast some more light.

I back up to a couple of drives. Nothing is that critical that if the whole thing dies I'll be distraught.

Making whole disk images isn't the most efficient way of doing it. As @jellybaby says it's better to just back up your config files, etc but I create a disk image as I'm lazy. When it dies you just write another image and stick the card in and off you go again. Storage is cheap so I'm not fussed about images being generated every couple of weeks.

(Remember my claxon earlier)

1) is what your describing restore or rebuild in terms of what atk asked?

2) cool, this is useful thanks. Where can I reliably better learn about these? Googling the DS420j suggests this'd be huge overkill here. When you say you have 3 drives, is that 3 of the DS420j's - my budget wouldn't cover that kind of spend. I appreciate I'll get what I pay for / buy cheap buy twice etc.

1) I think what atk and I are suggesting is plan to rebuild if a Pi fails. Just back up your data (whatever that is).

You don't need a local copy of your word processor, you do need a copy of the novel you are working on.

2) I have one DS420j with 3 drives in it. The drives are the expensive part IIRC.

The 'calculator' is worth a play with to get an idea of options for number of drives and data redundancy in any NAS. https://www.synology.com/en-uk/support/RAID_calculator

The RAID options are standard, SHR1/2 are Synology specific.

You can get 1 and 2 bay NAS systems. which are cheaper but might not have enough slots for your desired data redundancy.

In no particulat order

1. a decent power supply for the pi4
   
2. a good speed microsd card, with a USB adaptor comes in handy when writing to the card from your pc/mac.
   
3. Look at pihut and pimoroni for accessories.
   
4. As for ideas, they are everywhere.
   
   

Currently running openmediavault on a pi4 and Kodi on a pi3 with tv headend as the PVR