Raspberry Pi on Janusworx

Notes to Self, Compiling Qbittorrent on a Raspberry Pi 5

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 14:13:31 +0530

Update, 2024-08-20:
Added a missing step, to install the qBittorrent files to their relevant places
Also, it had to happen. No releases for close to three months and then just as I learn to compile, a new version has to release the very next day 😂
It gave me a chance to test my notes. It hardly took me a few minutes to get the new release in place. So all is good!

A compilation of letters, courtesy Cosmos

I wanted to always have the lastest stable version of qBittorent on my Pi.
So today, I sat down and followed the project’s excellent instructions and got it running.
I did however stray off the beaten path a teensy bit¹.
I didn’t want a gui and I wanted to be able to control it with systemd.

So here’s my checklist for next release. I’m currently running Bookworm on my Pi 5

In case you run into problems, compile instructions are here: https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/wiki/Compilation-Debian,-Ubuntu,-and-derivatives
Do all off this after switching to root. (or sudo)
Install build tools
sudo apt install build-essential cmake git ninja-build pkg-config libboost-dev libssl-dev zlib1g-dev libgl1-mesa-dev
Install Qt dependencies (qtbase5-private-dev is not part of the instructions, but compile will fail if you don’t include it)²
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends qtbase5-dev qtbase5-private-dev qttools5-dev libqt5svg5-dev
Qt requires Python at runtime, so: sudo apt install python3
Install the libtorrent library. I compiled from source. Check page for fresh instructions, if stuff here doesn’t work
```
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/arvidn/libtorrent.git
cd libtorrent
git checkout RC_2_0 # or a 2.0.x tag
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local
cmake --build build -j4 # the -j4 is to do on four cores at once. my addition.
sudo cmake --install build
```
If you ever want to uninstall libtorrent, then don’t delete this main folder. The build process would have created a install_manifest.txt in the build folder. So you can then uninstall with: sudo xargs rm < install_manifest.txt
Get qb source: https://www.qbittorrent.org/download.
Unzip: tar xzvf qbittorrent-4.6.5.tar.gz and then cd qbittorrent-4.6.5/
Create Build configuration (disabled GUI and enabled systemd. Those aren’t part of the defaults)
cmake -G "Ninja" -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local -DGUI=OFF -DSYSTEMD=ON
Build cmake --build build
Install all the files to their relevant locations cmake --install build

Install service to run for a specific user.

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable qbittorrent-nox@<some-user>.service
systemctl start qbittorrent-nox@<some-user>.service

We’re done.

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which the project does make provisions for. ↩︎
Target "qbt_base" links to: Qt::CorePrivate but the target was not found. or words to that effect ↩︎

My Raspberry Pi 5 Ran Hot

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 13:52:09 +0530

I got my greedy paws on a Raspberry Pi 5 last month.
Probably the Pi after this, will be the one at which I will say these are good enough and stop my “get ’em as soon as they are available” manic buying spree over the past few years.

I use it as a music jukebox (with Jellyfin), as a place to host my audiobooks/files, as well as a syncthing node. Occasionally I will download and transcode videos I find interesting, with yt-dlp.

The Pi is blazingly fast at these tasks. Stuff gets done in a third to half the time, they would take on the old Pi.
It also gets blazingly hot apparently.
Which reminds me of my time assembling 486 desktops in the late 90s. The DX2s needed only heatsinks (like the Pi 4) whilst the DX4 needed fans as well (like the Pi 5)
Like they say, everything old is new again.
It also reminds me of the time the fans would just up and die, after which the machine would then heat up and just go off.
The exact same thing is happening with my Pi 5. The fan in the official case is close to useless. It started whining loudly after only a week of use. But even when it did come on, the Pi would heat up and die.
I thought this was because of the power adapter I was using. Official chargers are not available here in India, for love or money. Which is why I was using the highest rated mobile charger I could lay my hands on. To eliminate this as a cause, I switched to a 65W Anker adapter. No dice.
I installed the sensors package, to get an idea of what was happening. The cores were spiking to 80°C plus. No wonder!
Went looking for heatsinks or fans that could assuage this issue and found an all metal Verilux Aluminium Alloy Case. Though calling it a case would be a slight misnomer. What it is, is sheets of aluminium, separated by spacers, topped with a fan.

It seemed overkill, but at the time, I had no other option available.
I got it, screwed everthing in, praying all the time, that I wouldn’t lose a spacer or screw. (They give one extra screw, nut and spacer)
That did the trick. Temperatures are in the high 40s to low 50s. And everything is zipping along and hunky dory again.

Raspberry Pi 4 Not Accessible After a Reboot

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Tue, 28 Dec 2021 14:00:00 +0530

Update: 28/12/2021
The solution? Move off the 64 bit Raspberry Pi OS and install Ubuntu. Everything below is now just for history and context :)

Every time I update my Pi, whether it be an kernel update or due to something goofy I do, it refuses to be accessible via ssh after it boots back up.
And everytime I bring it back to my desk, it just works.
And when I put it back into its niche, by the door, it continues to work.
But inevitably, sooner or later, comes a reboot, and we’re back to being inaccessible.
No ssh, no plex, no network.

The other Pi, my old 3 series, keeps chugging along like a champ in the meanwhile.
This was driving me up the wall.
So I got to thinking, and I realised, I was running the 64 bit edition of the Raspberry Pi OS.
And then I got to thinking some more, hmm, this is not a mature os. What if, it might be buggy? Or what if, something I do, is tripping it up the wrong way?
Logically then, that meant the network stack, or the network interface, or the port itself.
Because everytime I brought the Pi in, to where my desktop is, I connect it to a switch (that connects to my upstream router).
And then when I take it back, it changes back to connecting to the router directly.

So the next time it borked, I put the Pi off, then turned the router off and on and then finally, put the Pi back on.
And that did the trick.
I tried it again this morning, when the Pi went offline, after another update. The heuristic still holds!
I’m sure, I could go digging further to find the root cause, (dhcp release renew not happening correctly?), this just lets me get on with my life and I’m happy :)

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Thoughts on Running Plex on a Raspberry Pi 4

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 09:15:20 +0530

This is just a play post to do a few things.
One, I am now testing categories for the blog.
So that the tech folk can subscribe only to the tech rss feed if need be.
Second, I need to get into the swing of writing things again.
It’s only been close to a month of not writing, but I already feel rusty 😂

I have been watching a lot of Netflix and other online streaming media last year. Well lot is relative. Definitely not as many as the books.
But what I realise, is that I just spend my time endlessly browsing through what I want to watch rather than, you know, actually watching something.
I also realise that most of my watching is mostly stuff I already watched. I want my old Holmes, or Yes Minister, or Suchet’s Poirot.
Stuff I already have, offline.
But not easily accessible, since it lies on an external hard disk, which I need to plugin to my desktop and then watch.

Then I realised that my trusty little Raspberry Pi was always there, in the corner, running away silently, currently serving as a repository for podcast episodes.
I also had an external thunderbolt ssd, that I could no longer plug into my Mac, because my Mac is dead (sob)
The LaCie did however also have a USB interface too.

Lightbulb moment!

I formatted my external disk on the desktop with the ext4 filesystem, copied all the stuff that I always watch or have running in the background and connected it to my Pi.

Then went to the Plex site and got the armf distribution.
Copied it over to the Pi and installed it with a dpkg -i.
There are better ways to do it. Check the webz if you need better directions and handholding.

Decided that I did not need a Plex account to do what I needed.
Which basically was just reading a folder full of videos, presenting them and playing them.

The web interface is beautiful and functional.
It keeps pushing you to get a Plex account, which you might want … or not.
Added my folders as video sources and then after a few minutes, they showed right up.

I downloaded the Plex apps (on the iPhone and the iPad) and paid for the option to stream files and play them.

And that was that.

It works beautifully, if it is just a couple of devices.
More than that, and it struggles.
But most importantly, Plex handled darn near every video format, I had.

And so, every evening for the past week has been bliss, with an hour, solving crimes Poirot and his “littel gray sells” as I go off to bed.