this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2025
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Hiya!

I have a Raspberry Pi 4B set up as a print server, so it has to run 24/7. But it irks me that it's mostly idling.

I'd move my website to it, but I don't want to deal with it being open to the internet. The same goes for an e-mail server.

I was also thinking of running a Minecraft server on it. (Being able to play on the same world from different devices is kinda cool.) Alas, my RPi only has 4 GiBs of RAM. I worry that such a load would interfere with the print server.

Any ideas what I could run on it?

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[–] slacktoid@lemmy.ml 32 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Pihole, homeassistant, a music server using moodeaudio

[–] b72@lemmy.ml 18 points 4 weeks ago (6 children)

Another vote for Pi-hole here. I don’t know how I lived without it before!

[–] winety@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

I use an adblocker on both my PC and my phone. Does a Pi-hole have many advantages over that?

[–] thejml@sh.itjust.works 21 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

PiHole is DNS based ad blocking and local DNS for everything on your network. So, even things that can’t run their own adblocker.

[–] winety@lemmy.zip 5 points 4 weeks ago (4 children)

So it can block ads in Google Chrome on my moms phone? Then I'll have to figure out how to set it up!

Do you often run into issues when blocking traffic like this? I can imagine some software (i.e. Samsung's or Google's bloatware) kicking up a fuss.

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 8 points 4 weeks ago

Sometimes it can. Google and Samsung never had an issue though. The more ad lists you setup the more false-positives you get.

But 99% of the time it's fine. The other 1% you open the dashboard and look at the last few blocks and whitelist whatever it causing issues.

[–] thejml@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 weeks ago

Sometimes I’ve found a site that gets partially blocked and causes a fuss. There’s an option to allowlist domain(s).

Also, some sites try to use ad domains to serve legit traffic, and some use legit domains to serve ads, so it’s not perfect, but it works pretty darn well overall.

[–] slacktoid@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 weeks ago

Depends on the level of block lists you add. The defaults are pretty sane and it doesn't need any configuration, you configure your router to use it

[–] oktoberpaard@feddit.nl 4 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Ive been using the OISD list for myself and family members for the past couple of years without issues. It’s specifically made to to be unnoticeable, by whitelisting hosts that would cause issues.

One thing to note is that it’s not a full replacement for adblockers, as DNS blockers can only block full hosts and not all ads and tracking are served from dedicated hostnames. Things like YouTube ads will be unaffected by DNS based blocking. It does really make a difference, though, including for apps with banners.

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[–] b72@lemmy.ml 8 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

One major advantage is that on the domestic TV channels here in the UK which have ad breaks (essentially all of them except the BBC) it removes the ads altogether and the programmes run seamlessly from the part before the ad break into the part after. I still smile every time it happens!

[–] winety@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

That sounds cool as heck! But I am very confused about how television broadcasting works in the UK. This only works with some sort of over-the-internet TV, right?

[–] b72@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 weeks ago

Yes, that’s right. It would only work with TV over the internet and not with a digital signal transmitted direct to the TV via aerial.

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[–] Quazatron@lemmy.world 15 points 4 weeks ago

Another vote for PiHole. It keeps your home network cleaner by ignoring the ads.

[–] tkw8@lemm.ee 14 points 4 weeks ago

On my Rpi4B I run syncthing 24/7. It acts as my sync hub. All other machines are connected to it.

[–] Cobrachicken@lemmy.world 9 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

SANE scan server? Paperless ngx also comes to my mind, find it pretty useful.

[–] winety@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 weeks ago

I was trying to set up a scan server last week. No luck yet. 😅

Paperless ngx looks looks amazing. I was actually thinking of finding a solution for this type of thing as pdfgrep was getting kinda slow.

[–] sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.today 8 points 4 weeks ago

Paperless ngx

[–] grantorinowhiskey@lemmy.ml 7 points 4 weeks ago

Some great light lightweight apps for a 4GB Pi:

  • Homeassistant
  • Fresh RSS
  • Paperless NGX
  • Syncthing
  • PiHole or Adguard home
  • Syncthing
[–] MangoCats@feddit.it 6 points 4 weeks ago

PiHole is a pretty light load, as are Home Assistant and Music Assistant. Frigate starts to make some heat, so don't expect to get a full blown video classification / recording system.

[–] Kidplayer_666@lemm.ee 6 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Maybe Nextcloud? Jellyfin?

[–] winety@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

I'll add Jellyfin to the list! Do you need a specific client to receive a stream or can say VLC or mpv do it?

[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Typically a web browser or dedicated app, but it's open source so there are options. You might be able to stream directly with VLC, not sure.

[–] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 4 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

You can use VLC if you get the stream url via a web browser, first. MPV can do the same.

The problem is VLC/MPV don't have a built-in way to browse and pick what you want to play.

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[–] troglodytis@lemmy.world 6 points 4 weeks ago

Get yourself and adsb antenna and feed flightaware, flightradar24, and adsbexchange. Help track the skies!

[–] randombullet@programming.dev 6 points 4 weeks ago
[–] pitiable_sandwich540@feddit.org 5 points 4 weeks ago

You could also setup a git repo for your config files. That way you could revert changes, if you break something.

If you don't want do open your pi up to the internet you could take a look at tailscale. I use this script on my laptop and home pc to share files with sshfs while having any other traffic go through mullvad. Set this up on your pi with it as an exit node and you basically have access from anywhere.

[–] dan69@lemmy.world 5 points 4 weeks ago

You could pihole

[–] boydster@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 weeks ago

PiHole, PiVPN, maybe a reverse proxy like nginx proxy manager to make connecting to your various web management portals you have an easy way to map it to a human readable url

[–] melroy@kbin.melroy.org 4 points 4 weeks ago

qbittorrent (docker) 😁😎

[–] ravermeister@lemmy.rimkus.it 4 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Nextcloud is very useful, or a lemmy Fediverse Instance

[–] winety@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 weeks ago

Nextcloud seems a be an alternative to the G-Suite, did I get that right? That move to the cloud kinda missed me. I'm happy with LibreOffice and having everything stored locally.

Do you have experience with running a single-user Lemmy instance? I remember trying out some smaller instances, and they weren't as federated (i.e. I could see less content) than on the bigger ones.

[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (4 children)

Another vote for a music server. Gonic/Navidrome is pretty low power and super useful!

Home assistant is another option, but I'll say that if you're serious about home automation you'll quickly outgrow a Pi. It'll run if you only have a handful of devices though.

[–] winety@lemmy.zip 4 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

I like the music server idea! Where do you get your music? Many artists don't even sell CDs nowadays.

Home assistant is probably not for me. The house I live in is still very analogue. I enjoy not having to debug software when investigating why there's no hot water.

[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (5 children)

Plenty of artists still do sell CDs though. I often buy them at the merch stand at shows. Many also sell DRM free digital files on sites like Bandcamp. I also buy a lot of music at the thrift stores and rip them. If all else fails, there's always the high seas.

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[–] StrawberryPigtails 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

For CDs, Amazon, ebay, or discogs. Digital music I usually get from the artist's webstore if possible, otherwise I'll buy it from Amazon or BandCamp.

One heads up, Buying and downloading digital music from Amazon is a pain in the butt if you have an Amazon Music subscription. Easy and straightforward though without.

Apple music is also possible but you have to burn the tracks to CD using itunes to move it out of Apple's ecosystem.

I also hear good things about Tidal but I've never used them.

[–] winety@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

I did not know that Amazon sold digital music. But it kills me that Amazon and Apple are the two big choices. Out of the frying pan into the fire...

I thought that Tidal was a streaming service, and that you can rip music from there like you can from Youtube or Spotify.

[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 weeks ago

There's also a lot of smaller solutions, like smaller record label websites, and legacy music stores in whatever country you are.

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[–] haych@feddit.uk 4 points 4 weeks ago (4 children)

AdGuard Home (I prefer it to PiHole)

OtterWiki

Wireguard

Forgejo

Tandoor

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[–] thespcicifcocean@lemmy.world 4 points 4 weeks ago

let it run dwarf fortress from within the terminal, then ssh into it from wherever you are so you can play df from anywhere in the world. i did this at work.

[–] Brewchin@lemmy.world 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I run AdGuard Home, WireGuard and a couple of other things on my 4B, all in Docker.

I used to run HomeAssistant on our for a while, but they stopped supporting that architecture (armhf?). Also used to run Unbound on it.

[–] Schlemmy@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

HomeAssistant is still supported on Pi4b

It's support for the rpi3 that is getting fased out.

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[–] boydster@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Another idea: dokuwiki, to document your process setting up various service for future reference

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[–] eugenia@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

Jellyfin music server. It needs about 1.2 GB of RAM for itself, plus the system.

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[–] gonzo-rand19@moist.catsweat.com 2 points 4 weeks ago

Kavita, Komga, or calibre-web? I love having a book and comics server.

[–] 0x520@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 weeks ago

Airsonic music server... There are a few quirks getting it all set up properly, but once it works, it just seems to work forever. Samba file sharing server. Also miniDLNA server can make it easy to watch your movie collection on a tv. The airsonic DLNA doesn't seem to be working currently. I also have a few mastodon bots running from a Pi4. Also could run a tor relay node, which would make it so it's less idle. I have a lot of stuff on my Pi4 and it is still mostly idle most of the time. Thats fine though. For me it's not a huge problem, since overall, my goal is to make it use as little power as possible for all those things. I think thats the whole point is to really use the most lightweight computer that can do what you need. If you just need the print server, you could always get a lower power Pi so you can really optimize how much power needs to be used and maybe even do some sort of Wake on LAN setup so it can be sleeping while not in use.

[–] Cris16228@lemmy.today 2 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

I was also thinking of running a Minecraft server on it. (Being able to play on the same world from different devices is kinda cool.)

The latest versions won't work. It has problems loading the chunks.

Source: Tried it myself

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[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago

So I have a smart plug set up on my printer and print server (old HP 4P with separate network print server.

I have NodeRed watching my CUPS queues via HTTP scraping, and if it sees a job in the queue for that printer, it turns on the print server and printer via the smartplug over wifi. I have seen someone link a project that does something similiar.

[–] passenger@sopuli.xyz 2 points 4 weeks ago

Check out BOINC: https://boinc.berkeley.edu/

Raspberry Pi I'm not sure if it's worth it. But in short you can advance some science with spare CPU hours. Should be possible to limit it so it doesn't heat up and use just a bit of the cycles depending on other load...

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