As a complete beginner, what can I do with a raspberry pi 4b?

I’m basically completely new to networking and currently setting up a NAS. I have this raspberry pi 4b that I got but now can’t think of a use case for it…

Any ideas of something that is very useful to host or have running on the pi4b?

Edit: I’m a complete beginner, and will use trunas on another server with jellyfin so my raspberry pi gets blown raspberries atm 👎

  • fubarx@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    7 days ago
    • Ubuntu desktop - the whole shebang including office apps
    • PiHole ad-blocker
    • Jellyfin video server
    • Minecraft server
    • Local LLMs
    • On-site VPN service
    • Home Assistant smarthome controller

    So many things, and much more…

  • BCsven@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    9 days ago

    There are some sites dedicated to suggestions, or if you download the pi image burner tool it has a bunch of OS suggestions in the menu, like Pihole, Kodi media box, home assistant, etc.

    I have a few running. One was setup as NAS and dlna music server using OpenMediaVault, one is a Volumio music player, my other one is Home assistant.

    If you like old 80s-90s games there is RetroPi.

    Too many choices really :)

    • yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      9 days ago

      For the NAS, what do you use for storage? Do you have an external drive hooked up via USB or something else?

      • BCsven@lemmy.caEnglish
        0·
        8 days ago

        Yes, I bought a rocketfish drive enclosure years back, so dropped a drive in that, and attached vias USB. Never had issues with it.

        Assign as data drive in Openmediavault.

        Openmediavault had some plugins and settings to set folders2ram so that the initial SDcard OS is writting to RAM instead of constant writes to the SDcard.

      • 0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        0·
        9 days ago

        A DNS service that gets all its DNS data directly from “root servers”, without the middlemen (like your ISP, Google, Cloudflare, etc).

    • mmmac@lemmy.zipEnglish
      0·
      8 days ago

      I’d recommend technitium over both pihole and adguard these days. Its an actual DNS server vs just a sinkholr, had recursive resolving out of the box, Root server mirroring at the click of a button, cluster mode etc

    • Eirikr70@jlai.luEnglish
      0·
      9 days ago

      I wouldn’t recommend network apps to a complete beginner. They might loose their network for a while and get afraid of tinkering. My 2p

  • DonutsRMeh@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    9 days ago

    Pihole+unbound, navidrome for your music. Tailscale for remote connection to your music. Setup your own photo library with immich. An invidious instance

  • fizzle@quokk.auEnglish
    0·
    9 days ago

    what do you enjoy doing online?

    my recommendation would be to start small, without having to trust yourself with your own data, at least not in the short term.

    maybe try your own instance of photon, it’s a frontend for lemmy.

  • pretty_pangolin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    9 days ago

    To build on all the great suggestions here, you can install DietPi (a pared down version of Debian), and then use Docker on top of that to run almost any of the services mentioned in this thread on a single RPI host machine.

    I run Adguard Home without any issue on an RPI Zero so installing only that on your 4b will leave some performance on the table.

  • bonenode@piefed.socialEnglish
    0·
    9 days ago

    You can easily run Jellyfin and Immich (I disabled the machine learning bits though) on this. As an extra I also run Metube for easy downloads of youtube videos.

  • sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.todayEnglish
    0·
    9 days ago

    Keep swapping the OS (or have different memory cards) and play around with whatever software you come across that peaks your interest.

  • KaRunChiy@fedia.io
    0·
    9 days ago

    I installed mainsail os and use it as my main controller for my 3d printer, sounds complex but it just needs a usb cable and the firmware can upload itself

  • Schlemmy@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    9 days ago

    I’m running Home Assistant on mine at the moment. It’s amazing. Really. Apart from being an great smart home solution I’ve found it a good solution to create dashboards for life.

    I have set up our family calendar, train schedules that change routes depending on the time. Waste collection notifications. It warns me to get a raincoat and umbrella in the morning. I get news headlines for my interests…

    Before that I’ve tried a lot. It was my first step into home labbing 2 years ago. It brought me back to my youth. Breaking the family computer and trying to fix it before anyone noticing it.

    Most of the stuff I ran used Docker.

    • Joplin notes
    • Mealie
    • Immich
    • Authentic
    • Wanderer
    • Homarr
    • pihole
    • portainer

    Within a year I grew out of my pi setup and bought a second hand mini Lenovo that now runs Proxmox. Minor investment, huge upgrade. Moved away from dockers also.

    The pi is a fun gateway drug.

    • lepinkainen@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      9 days ago

      Big +1 for second hand corporate mini PCs

      They’re cheaper and better in any way than the Pi

      Only get the Pi if you need a specific HAT or GPIO. And even then get a zero.

      • AtariDump@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        9 days ago

        Only get the Pi if you need a specific HAT or GPIO. And even then get a zero.

        Or if you want to run the machine via PoE.

  • jaybone@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    9 days ago

    I use mine to run RetroPi, it has a bunch of old console emulators. Get a big torrent of old ROMs and you are set for retro gaming.

  • rcmd@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    9 days ago

    What’s currently running on mine:

    • 10 commodity SSDs through a powered USB hub forming a poor man’s NAS with snapraid + mergerfs
    • Podsync for converting my favorite YouTube channels to podcast feeds
    • Syncthing for generic file synchronization
    • K3s for whatever projects coming to my mind
    • Retroarch for occasional gaming needs
    • MPD with a floppy disk interface as my music station
    • CUPS for printserver
    • yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      9 days ago

      10 commodity SSDs through a powered USB hub forming a poor man’s NAS with snapraid + mergerfs

      How did you end up with this setup? Did you just already have a bunch of SSDs from over the years? That’d be cool af if you posted a photo of it.

      • rcmd@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        3 days ago

        Here we gooooo, the king of all junk setups.

        Yeah, I’ve collected some used disks over the years.

        The housing has been drafted in FreeCAD and then sliced out of scrap plywood.

        And yes, the temperature is okay.

        altr