SOLVED: A bunch of beginner questions

[nixel]

While trying out Amahi got a few more questions. It's ok to just point me in direction of search, or write an answer right here, could not yet find information myself. It's a bit scarce or scattered.

1. I'm just trying out Amahi, installed it on a Fedora where I had Root password set up during installation. Amahi did work actually, not sure about all features yet however. And I'm thinking if I should re-install it properly, as described in instructions, NOT setting ROOT password during installation? Is it really required, and if it is, what for? Can I set up ROOT password after installation, will it break any of Amahi features? Thanks!
2. Can I set up a home domain as, for example, just 'home', NOT 'home.com'? Since it's local DNS, will it work? Or whatever domain I pick it should still end with .com or .org or something? Or .com particularly? 
3. How do I create additional shares from a non-system drive? In my server setup I want to have it like this:
   - 1 system SSD for Fedora and Amahi, 120GB of size
   - 2 separate disks, 1TB and 3TB respectively. These are just to store files, which don't require redundancy or anything like that.
   - 2 or more large disks in RAID 1, for secure data storage
   
   And I want to just be able to access each of those drives' root folders from any machine in my home.
4. Is it possible to control Amahi with Python somehow? For example, I want to be able to control music through python voice assistant, any ideas on how can this be achieved with Amahi \ Any of Amahi Apps \ servers?

Thanks.

[bigfoot65]

I'm just trying out Amahi, installed it on a Fedora where I had Root password set up during installation. Amahi did work actually, not sure about all features yet however. And I'm thinking if I should re-install it properly, as described in instructions, NOT setting ROOT password during installation? Is it really required, and if it is, what for? Can I set up ROOT password after installation, will it break any of Amahi features? Thanks!

Setting a root password on install will not hurt anything. We recommend not setting one as many users unfamiliar with Linux get into trouble with it.

Can I set up a home domain as, for example, just 'home', NOT 'home.com'? Since it's local DNS, will it work? Or whatever domain I pick it should still end with .com or .org or something? Or .com particularly?

You can do pretty much whatever you want. Keep in mind a domain name is not just one word. I recommend sticking with the domain naming convention.

How do I create additional shares from a non-system drive? In my server setup I want to have it like this:
- 1 system SSD for Fedora and Amahi, 120GB of size
- 2 separate disks, 1TB and 3TB respectively. These are just to store files, which don't require redundancy or anything like that.
- 2 or more large disks in RAID 1, for secure data storage

Create the shares using the HDA Dashboard. Then move the directory from /var/hda/files to the desired location and change the path to the share in the Dashboard to the new location. You may need to restart the File Server via the Dashboard, Settings->Server area. You can do it by creating the directory in the desired location, then create it via the HDA Dashboard. Ensure you change the path to the share to the desired location.

Is it possible to control Amahi with Python somehow? For example, I want to be able to control music through python voice assistant, any ideas on how can this be achieved with Amahi \ Any of Amahi Apps \ servers?

No idea. There are no apps in the Amahi store for such a device.

Not sure if you have found it, but the Amahi Wiki is a good source of info as well as tutorials. If anything has been tried on Amahi, it should be described there.

[nixel]

Thank you, bigfoot65, for reply.

Most of the questions are answered. Yeah, I saw Amahi creating the shared folder for me, and thought that it is a restriction of how it works. I'll try the suggested way, thanks.

As for the wiki, of course, I always search myself wherever I can. Before posting to this particular forum I always google first, then go to the wiki, then search forums, and only if I can't find the information then I post a question here.

Don't get me wrong, but I still can't quite get a familiar enough with Amahi Wiki and how the information is sorted there, I spend hours searching it before just giving up and posting a question here. Apart from some regular installation and setup questions, everythnig else... I have to go through a lot of text, and my eyes really start to hurt. I hope I will get more familiar with it with time, and find information quicker. 

As for python, I guess I can install some other server, not a web-app, but just a regular linux solution, like Mopidy or something. Or maybe just send commands to the web-app by openning them through python and clicking buttons there

Thanks.

[bigfoot65]

Key to finding info in the wiki is using the search feature.

Also the main landing page organizes things in categories.

[nixel]

bigfoot65, I know you're trying to help and thanks for advice, and I don't want to appear rude, but I am not a 10 year old who needs to be taught how to use table of contents or search field in wiki. It just sounds offensive, I am only posting in "Beginner" section, because I am a beginning user of Amahi, and I don't have a lot of experience with Linux. But I've been working with IT for years, and nowadays even people who are far from IT don't really need to be taught to use wiki. 

In the meantime:
1. Solved
2. Solved, trying out a single-word domain... I feel like I may run into problems, but all seems to be working so far. The only problem I encountered is that if you enter it without .com or something in the end, or http in the front, most browsers will try to redirect it as a search query, rather than domain address. But no biggie.
3. Solved, more or less. At least amahi-side of things, still working out some linux specific quirks.
4. Well, this was a question which could be rephrased as "Does Amahi have a Python API?". I think it can be a simple answer of Yes or No. I think my example only messed things up a bit. With that example I was just asking if there is some music server compatible with amahi, with Python API or web api. I think Ampache is capable of doing it, I've seen some Python api mappings for it, still need to check them out.
If not - then I'll have to find a work around, but thats another story, out of the scope of this question.

With that last 4th one answered (Amahi Python Api) this thread can be also closed. Thank you for you support and time. I appreciate it.

[bigfoot65]

I know you're trying to help and thanks for advice, and I don't want to appear rude, but I am not a 10 year old who needs to be taught how to use table of contents or search field in wiki. It just sounds offensive, I am only posting in "Beginner" section, because I am a beginning user of Amahi, and I don't have a lot of experience with Linux.

Sorry if I offended you as that was not intended. Since it's hard to gauge the experience of the person asking questions, we try to be basic with replies. I feel this comment was unnecessary and irrelevant. You could have just thanks and moved on.

I've been working with IT for years, and nowadays even people who are far from IT don't really need to be taught to use wiki.

That is a false assumption. I have been working IT for over 30 years and there are many who don't know what a wiki is or how to use it.

Well, this was a question which could be rephrased as "Does Amahi have a Python API?". I think it can be a simple answer of Yes or No. I think my example only messed things up a bit. With that example I was just asking if there is some music server compatible with amahi, with Python API or web api.

If you would have asked if there was a Python API, you would have gotten a yes/no answer. Amahi does not provide a Python API, but as you mentioned some apps might.

With that last 4th one answered (Amahi Python Api) this thread can be also closed. Thank you for you support and time. I appreciate it.

Happy to assist, but there are a few things you might want to consider for future posts.

A. Amahi is not a funded project, so there is no salaries paid to the staff. We work for free in our spare time.

B. Amahi is provided virtually free.

C. Our staff consists on 1-2 developers and me for all other support.

My point here is we'd appreciate users understand that we are small and do our best to make this a simple solution for the home user. While we can't make everyone happy, we do try. We also rely heavily on the Amahi user community to help out as well.

Hope this clears things up. BTW, if you would like to help out please let us know. It can be adding guidance to the wiki, packaging apps, or just helping out in the forums.

[cpg]

Good thread. I would like add a couple of notes, if I may.

Domains with just one word are called top-level domains. In so far as we can tell, the DNS server in Amahi does support top-level domains, though probably not ones with special characters like emojis, accents, etc. ... generally plain ascii names. I think a dash is supported in the name but anything else may not work well. We do not test for this, so if you find any issues that you are relatively certain please file a bug and we can take a look.

You should not need to restart the SAMBA server when making changes, however, you may need to re-login on the client to see the changes (it depends on the OS the client runs, specifically the SAMBA client).

I think @bigfoot65 may have misunderstood the question about python. But to answer about how to "control Amahi with Python" ... not sure what you mean by that exactly, but Amahi provides a dashboard to "control" some of the core aspects of the server. That dashboard is built in Ruby on Rails, and we do provide a way to develop plugins for the dashboard. Those are in Ruby, and there is an API for them. That API is not available in python, though there is nothing stopping anyone from developing a small API in python to do similar things.

You are correct in that you could develop a webapp (in python or others) and then do commands to control things (processes and services from there).

Hope that clarifies things.

[nixel]

Some of them, yes, thanks.

I'm still not sure if I should stick with Linux though, I'm worried about my experience with it, which may lead to all pros of Linux turning into cons. For example it's security, I may just leave a lot of open holes with my actions. Or stability - the fact that I have to always correct fstub drive before removing a drive sounds a bit quirky to me.

I'm really worried about data safety. I was planning to build a fail-safe system for data storage, important for me data, family albums included. I am fairly certain that with windows, NTFS and RAID 1 it will be safe. Even if windows fails, or even if i remove any drives.

WIth Linux - not so sure yet. How will NTFS behave in it? What if I use EXT4 and lose my linux machine and have to restore data with Windows? I don't have any other linux machines and don't plan to (rapberry pi excluded, no sata ports there ).

On the other hand Windows does not have some alternatives, for example for ownCloud, no free alternatives for that one, nothing found so far at least.

So... It's a very hard descision to make.

Anyway, still test-driving amahi, so we'll see how that goes. I'd love some more help with setting up svn though.

[bigfoot65]

For example it's security, I may just leave a lot of open holes with my actions.

Linux is pretty secure. There is a lot of guidance on the internet for hardening a system. Also Linux appears to be less susceptible to viral infections unlike Windows.

Or stability - the fact that I have to always correct fstub drive before removing a drive sounds a bit quirky to me.

Yes that is a bit odd, but then again it's not Windows (plug-n-play). It's not often that one would remove a disk drive from a machine.

How will NTFS behave in it? What if I use EXT4 and lose my linux machine and have to restore data with Windows?

NTFS should be fine in Linux. As for being able to retrieve data from an EXT4 partition in Windows, there is software that allows you to read files. I use Free Linux Reader and seems to work fine.

So... It's a very hard descision to make.

I understand. I was skeptical to buy into Linux, now I prefer it. If it weren't for the fact I already had Windows, I would use Linux. There are many Desktop based distros that work well.

[nixel]

I see.

Well, I can't use just linux anyway. I work with CG, VFX and animation for games and movies, and a lot of software just does not work with linux. 3ds max - only through virtual machine, Maya - is a huge pain in the ass to install on anything but enterprise redhat... Did not even try others.

Well, sounds a bit reassuring. But right now I realized the fact that most Amahi web apps are very outdated. Ampache version 3.5.x when there is already 3.8.x which is a huge improvement. There is HTML5 support, and 3.5.x has only Flash player. Nowadays flash is almost dead. I managed to update it, but still. It could've been simpler to just install it, port-forward, and write a local DNS name for it in some stand-alone DNS server, rather than Amahi... 

Btw, can I issue my own DNS names\redirects to specific IPs and ports in Amahi? Myself, by hand? Like in UI or text file? Honestly, did not search wiki for this one yet. I bet there should be info about it...

Then, Plex... Plex seems outdated too. And most apps were updated months ago last time...

I prefer to use up-to-date apps, at least while i'm setting the server up. So far it's a huge down side of Amahi for me.
But I'm not giving up on it completely. While starting to lean more towards clean Ubuntu (I feel a bit more comfortable with debian), or even Windows 10 as a server, I'll keep running amahi for a while, to see how it works out... Knowing that all of it looks more scary at first than it actually is.

Especially when your other PC's system SSD drive DIES on you all of a sudden... After 8 years of working without fault, well, for OCZ SSD it's actually a lot of time, haha...