Table Of ContentRaspberry Pi Server Essentials
Transform your Raspberry Pi into a server for hosting
websites, games, or even your Bitcoin network
Piotr J. Kula
BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Raspberry Pi Server Essentials
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First published: February 2014
Production Reference: 1030214
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
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Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-78328-469-6
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Cover Image by Piotr J. Kula ([email protected])
Credits
Author Project Coordinator
Piotr J. Kula Sageer Parkar
Reviewers Proofreaders
Teemu Lätti Maria Gould
Warren Myers Paul Hindle
Acquisition Editor Indexers
Kunal Parikh Monica Ajmera Mehta
Tejal Soni
Commissioning Editor
Manasi Pandire
Graphics
Ronak Dhruv
Technical Editors
Shubhangi Dhamgaye
Production Coordinator
Nachiket Vartak Shantanu Zagade
Copy Editors Cover Work
Alisha Aranha Shantanu Zagade
Roshni Banerjee
Gladson Monteiro
Adithi Shetty
About the Author
Piotr J. Kula developed an interest in computers when he was six years old.
He was introduced to the world of technology by his father who came from an
electronics engineering background. Piotr has lived, studied, and gained experience
in three countries. Today, he is a Microsoft Certified Professional and works with
reputed companies offering complex software solutions. In his spare time, he
enjoys working on electrical engineering projects and also enjoys doing some
home improvement projects with his wife.
I want to thank my wife Katarzyna Kula for always supporting me
during my projects.
About the Reviewers
Teemu Lätti works as a software specialist for Elektrobit (http://elektrobit.com)
in Kajaani, Finland. He has over 15 years of experience as a professional Java and C++
developer. He is specialized in embedded software on different platforms, for example,
Raspberry Pi, Android, and Windows Phone. He has a wide experience in various
software, from device drivers to user interfaces and web development. He hosts a
private web page (http://cupla.net) and builds home automation experiments
with Raspberry Pi and Arduino.
Warren Myers is a Data Center Automation and Management Engineer with seven
years of experience with the HP automation stack. He has an extensive background
and interest in technical arenas. He started programming when he was 10, and has
always strived to learn new things on a regular basis. He currently works for Avnet
Services as a Solutions Architect in the Cloud & Automation Practice. He has also
written Debugging and Supporting Software Systems (http://cnx.org/content/
col11350), a freely available e-book.
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Table of Contents
Preface 1
Chapter 1: Getting Started with Raspberry Pi 7
Hardware requirements 7
Extra peripherals 9
Essential peripherals 9
Wireless USB network adapters 9
USB hubs 9
Keyboards and mice 9
Useful peripherals 10
Internet 3G dongles 10
Sound cards 10
IR receivers 10
TV and radio receivers 10
Webcams 10
Multicard readers 11
Alamode 11
HDMI to VGA 11
Fun peripherals 11
Joysticks 11
USB to SATA 12
CAN bus 12
Home automation 12
USB missile launcher 12
Fingerprint scanners 12
Installing Raspbian on the Raspberry Pi 13
Understanding the design of the Raspberry Pi 14
Boot process 14
Other capabilities 15
Hardware limitations 15
Network speeds 16
USB bottlenecks 16
Time 16
Summary 17
Table of Contents
Chapter 2: Preparing the Network 19
Local Area Network (LAN) 19
The eth0 port 20
The wlan0 interface 21
The lo interface 21
Wireless configuration – Wi-Fi 21
Recommended wireless adapters 21
Setting up from the desktop 22
Setting up from the console 22
Using wicd-curses 24
Static network address 25
Testing and benchmarking your network 26
Basic tests 26
Advanced benchmarking tools 27
Speedtest application 27
Iperf 28
Recommended bandwidth 28
Internet configuration 29
ISP packages 29
Home packages 29
Business packages 30
Dynamic DNS 30
Installing the client 31
Dynamic DNS domain workaround 32
Summary 33
Chapter 3: Configuring Extra Features 35
Updating the Raspberry Pi 35
Updating firmware 36
Updating packages 36
Outcomes 36
Hardware watchdog 37
Enabling the watchdog and daemon 37
Testing the watchdog 38
Enabling extra decoders 38
Buying licenses 39
MPEG-2 39
VC-1 39
Hardware monitoring 39
Summary 40
[ ii ]
Table of Contents
Chapter 4: Using a Fast PHP Web Server and Database 41
Working with nginx 41
Installing nginx 42
Configuring virtual hosts 42
Installing PHP 43
Installing a database 45
Installing MySQL 45
Installing SQLite3 46
Nginx with custom modules 48
Summary 48
Chapter 5: Setting Up a File Server 49
Preparing the storage medium 49
Listing the available drives 49
Formatting a drive 50
Mounting the drives 51
Remounting a disk after reboot 52
Accessing files 52
FTP service 52
Connecting with FileZilla 53
Connecting with WinSCP 53
Samba service 54
Installing and configuring Samba 54
Network shares 55
AFP for Macintosh 56
Installing and configuring 56
Shares and Time Machine 57
BitTorrent Sync 57
Installing Sync 57
Autostart 59
Hardware RAID 59
Configuration 60
Massive storage 60
Redundant storage 61
Summary 61
Chapter 6: Setting Up the Game Servers 63
Updating to Jessie 63
Selective settings 63
Games servers 64
OpenTTD 64
Installing OpenTTD 65
Configuring OpenTTD 65
Playing OpenTTD 65
[ iii ]
