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[nickolsj]

I am looking to move from windows home server (2003) to amahi.  I have zero experience with amahi and a small amount of experience with Linux.  Before I attempt to do so I want to be sure I am, in some form or another able to access media from amahi within jrmc.  Would prefer to install jrmc on amahi to use its built-in media network capabilities.  Has anyone installed jrmc on amahi?  How difficult is it?

[JimH]

I am looking to move from windows home server (2003) to amahi.  I have zero experience with amahi and a small amount of experience with Linux.  Before I attempt to do so I want to be sure I am, in some form or another able to access media from amahi within jrmc.  Would prefer to install jrmc on amahi to use its built-in media network capabilities.  Has anyone installed jrmc on amahi?  How difficult is it?

If you have no Linux experience, it would be best to start with Debian.

[mwillems]

If you have no Linux experience, it would be best to start with Debian.

Seconded.  The easiest way to run JRiver on Linux is with Debian.

I've never heard of amahi (and I haven't seen anyone mention it on the forums before), but it looks like one of those "web interface only" type custom linux setups that hides the guts of what's going on from the user.  Those can be nice if you want to do exactly what they're made for, but if you want to customize them (say by running JRiver) they can be a real pain. 

Assuming the Amahi does it's filesharing using Samba, you could probably access files on the Amahi server from another computer running JRiver fairly easily.  The harder part would be running JRiver on the Amahi server itself.  It looks like Amahi is fedora based, so you might want to check out the fedora install thread here for some ideas.  JRiver needs a working x11 server, which amahi may or may not ship with (it's designed to run headless so it may well not), but you could potentially install and configure x11 yourself.

Or you could install debian and have a JRiver server up and running in a basic way in about an hour.  There's nothing Amahi does that can't be done in Debian (filesharing, vpn, etc.), you'd just need to configure it separately.  Depending on which features you need, that might take a little or a lot of time, in part based on your linux comfort level. 

If you decide to try and get it running on Amahi, I'll be interested in how it goes (and if you succeed, you should write up your method so others can follow!).  I'd offer to help, but I don't personally run fedora anything, so I could only provide generalized assistance at best.  If you do go the Debian route, I can probably be more help, as I'm running JRiver on a homemade Debian server right now.

[nickolsj]

Thanks for the info.  After further consideration i've decided to look into some other distro.  I'm currently playing around with ubuntu server but it is intended to be run w/o a gui.  i was looking at the no gui install for jrmc, but unsure how practical that would be.  ideally what i am looking for is something that will not only run media server, but also be used as an all around file and backup server.  looks like i'll have to check out debian.

[mattkhan]

You could try unraid. The core product is a linux based nas (runs on slackware) that requires minimal, if any, cli experience. The latest version ships with docker and kvm though so it would be easy to run up a VM (windows or Linux) to host jrmc.

[mwillems]

i was looking at the no gui install for jrmc, but unsure how practical that would be. 

Not sure exactly what you mean by this, but once you have it configured running an MC server on a headless machine is pretty easy.  You need a running xserver for MC, but you definitely don't need a monitor attached.  Using VNC or other remote desktop software it's actually about as easy to administer a headless machine as it is a machine connected to a monitor.  The "hard" part is getting it set up on the front end, but there are tutorials around here on that. 

If you do install debian and plan to run the machine headless, I wouldn't recommend installing the default desktop environment (Gnome).  It's nice for a workstation, but it's resource intensive and doesn't work well with remote software (not at all with VNC, not well with other protocols) which makes it ill suited for a headless server.  Installing something light like LXDE or XFCE will work better for a machine that you plan to administer headlessly (even those may be more than you need, but they're easy to install because they're available as choices during the mainline debian installation).

You could try unraid. The core product is a linux based nas (runs on slackware) that requires minimal, if any, cli experience. The latest version ships with docker and kvm though so it would be easy to run up a VM (windows or Linux) to host jrmc.

What Matt's suggesting would definitely be easier, provided OP is comfortable with docker and/or kvm. 

[nickolsj]

cool, thanks for all the advice.  i think i will check out some of the suggestions provided and see what works.  i do not really have any problem working in a cli, just thought it might be easier to work from a gui.  But then again, once i have it set up i wouldn't be on the server much, so a gui would kinda be a waste.  i think i'm gonna setup a couple of VMs, play around, and see what i like.

Thanks again

[mwillems]

cool, thanks for all the advice.  i think i will check out some of the suggestions provided and see what works.  i do not really have any problem working in a cli, just thought it might be easier to work from a gui.  But then again, once i have it set up i wouldn't be on the server much, so a gui would kinda be a waste.  i think i'm gonna setup a couple of VMs, play around, and see what i like.

Thanks again

Just to be crystal clear:  JRiver currently requires a running X11 server to start; that means some kind of minimal GUI is required to even run MC.  Now you can do it with a GUI environment that has very low memory overhead (like openbox, or something even more minimal), but some kind of xserver (whether running on physical or virtual hardware) is required for MC to run. 

Having a persistent GUI environment allows you to more easily interact with the MC server instance, which you will need to do for a variety of reasons (it won't be every day, but you will have to interact with it regularly because of the way JRiver's library system works).  The memory and CPU overhead can be very low.

For example, I run MC in LXDE on a tightvnc-generated virtual DISPLAY on several raspberry pi devices (which are highly memory and CPU constrained) with no issues (low CPU usage, and acceptable memory usage). 

On my actual Debian server, I run openbox and it uses substantially less CPU/system memory than MC does.  If actual measurements would be helpful, I can provide some numbers/graphs.