[Trebz]

I failed to mention, the display card in the Freenas server is an old PCI card with no fan. It's a really basic 'Put a picture on the screen' card I use when I need to access the system BIOS etc.

I planned to install the ATI Radeon 4800 if the machine gets converted into a media centre.

[Prof Yaffle]

I would have no idea as to how that should be setup.

Apologies.

Copy the script to /storage/.config/bin/WakeOnLan.py.

Then create an autostart.sh file in /storage/.config/autostart.sh and make it executable with chmod +x /storage/.config/autostart.sh

In that autostart file, you then need the line

python /storage/.config/bin/WakeOnLan.py 'xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx'

... where xx:xx... is the MAC address of your server.

I don't know FreeNAS, but I'm assuming it has some web admin tools that would allow you to configure wake-on-LAN and powerdown/sleep. Set that up and send the machine to bed.

When you switch on OE on your Revo, it will run the autostart.sh script, which calls the WakeOnLan script via python, building and sending a 'wakeup' packet to the server. You may need to build in a delay somewhere to make sure it has time to wake up, but otherwise your server should be up and running by the time you start navigating - and your sleep/powerdown options will put it back to bed some time after you finish using it for the evening.

That's the logic, anyway.

And if you're on a tight budget, I'd keep the Revo for now. It's not eating anything any more and still plays anything I throw at it.

[Trebz]

That helps a little.

The Revo I think will be relegated as the new HTPC case has arrived, I have already paid £55 for it so I can't just throw it away hehe.

I'll find a new replacement Freenas server and build a new HTPC based on the hardware I have listed.

I'll keep you up to date.

I may have yet more questions so forgive me.

:-)

[Prof Yaffle]

No worries, you know where we are.

And I love my Revos, so I'll hang on to them a little longer, I think. Get used every single day and have never skipped a beat - marvellous little boxes, despite their age.

[poofyhairguy]

No worries, you know where we are.

And I love my Revos, so I'll hang on to them a little longer, I think. Get used every single day and have never skipped a beat - marvellous little boxes, despite their age.

Amen. They were basically the HD Xbox for this stuff.

[Trebz]

I agree with you both on the Revo comments. Shame I just bought that Silverstone case PAH !

Hehe

:-)

[Trebz]

Right, I have been addressing cost and due to this being potentially quite expensive for me I'm back looking at a 'One box for all' solution.

I want to set my Kodi box like this:

1 x SSD with Kodibuntu installed.
1 X 2TB hard drive as my media store.

Will Kodibuntu simply see the 2TB HDD as a drive when I boot?

[Prof Yaffle]

Not until it's formatted and mounted. GUI tools will assist with that, though (gparted, for example)

[Trebz]

So I would attach the 2TB HDD to my Windows machine then format it with Gparted.

How do I mount it in Kodi and to which file system should it be formatted?

Is there a Gparted GUI for use within Kodi?

[Prof Yaffle]

You could attach it and format it in Windows - NTFS or FAT32/DOS - but you don't want to do that unless you'd be moving the drive to a Windows machine at some point or otherwise need it to be read locally by a Windows machine (note: that's different from reading it over a network, as that has a translation layer built in, i.e. the host computer).

You want to install it in the target system and use gparted there to format it as ext4 and set a mount point - I think you can do the latter through the same tools, but I'd need to check. Alternatively, you can do it all from the command line, although that's a little more daunting for most folks.

[Trebz]

It would be read by the Kodi OS and it would need backing up from time to time to an external drive via USB or LAN.

GUI or command line, I'm not fussed. I'm a little bit techie but not too much nowadays.

I need to format it, make it available to Kodi then be able to transfer all current backed up media onto it via the LAN or USB from an external drive.

[Prof Yaffle]

ext4 on the Linux box, then.

[joelbaby]

Understood but I'm doing this on a budget.

How much would you like to spend?
What kind of files do you need to play?
Do you really need a blu ray disc player?

[Trebz]

Understood but I'm doing this on a budget.

How much would you like to spend?
What kind of files do you need to play?
Do you really need a blu ray disc player?

1. Ideally no more than the cost of a new case, which I have bought already.
2. .mp3, .avi, .mpeg. General video and music files.
3. No, I would never dream of buying BluRay. I have 173,000.4 different formats to work with already :-) I have a DVD ROM.

[Trebz]

Hi Again

So, I have decided to use a fanless integrated CPU mini atx motherboard for this build.

Can you suggest a suitable motherboard. I'm not sure which motherboard would be best for the job.

HDMI output would be preferred and it has to be WOL compatible.

Thanks in advance.