Recording PLUTO using Raspberry PI

I have the Pi server up and running. Works great! I see quite a bit of stuff in the forum about Pluto and Stirr. I loaded Pluto, I see all of the channels, but can't figure out how to record Pluto. I see comments about using something called Docker--not exactly sure what it is. Also, I saw something about this being included in the Pi image. Can anyone walk through the steps regarding how to set up my PI so I can record Pluto?

I just got mine up to and read that it was in the PI image but I don't think its there.

I’m in the same boat. RPi 4 with Channels DVR image installed and working great. Would like to know how to enable Docker and install Maddox’s Pluto container image.

Anyone care to help us three posters? We are grateful if you would!

Docker is already enabled and running on the image. The problem is that the image has a small root partition, so adding additional software can quickly fill up your partition and impact performance.

Bottom line: if you want to do this, you can. But, it's unsupported, so do so at your own risk. And if you do plan on running additional software, then your best option is to use a real operating system, not a purpose-built image.

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This is how i got it working on mine:

  1. Enable SSH with a USB stick on the pi.
  2. Once you do that, follow the setup at https://github.com/maddox/pluto-for-channels
  3. Add pluto as source with your local URL's from the setup step

The ssh is tricky the first time you do it, if you don't know linux, but it's a one-time thing.

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This is a more comprehensive instruction set.

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i think @tmm1 snuck a partition in for docker, so space shouldn't be an initial concern. Here's what mine looks like with pluto installed:

/dev/sda8 8191416 3114688 4640916 40% /mnt/data
/dev/sda8 8191416 3114688 4640916 40% /var/log/journal
/dev/root 138752 138752 0 100% /usr/share/zoneinfo/posix/Etc/UTC
/dev/sda9 3897796224 628288128 3269508096 16% /media/DVR
/dev/sda7 91099 3967 80251 5% /etc/docker
/dev/sda8 8191416 3114688 4640916 40% /var/lib/docker
overlay 8191416 3114688 4640916 40% /mnt/data/docker/overlay2/907caf5e78a60979b946e38f71b04bd2dfc6e319024dc28c8a2ddd9cba284780/merged
overlay 8191416 3114688 4640916 40% /var/lib/docker/overlay2/907caf5e78a60979b946e38f71b04bd2dfc6e319024dc28c8a2ddd9cba284780/merged

If you look at that listing, all of those partitions are just references to /dev/sda8. The additional entries are bind mounts, or OverlayFS types. So, everything is still going into the /mnt/data partition.

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For those not familiar with ssh, putty is a free and relatively easy way to go: see https://www.ssh.com/academy/ssh/putty/windows/puttygen

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Yes, but my point is that there is more than enough space there. Mine is 40% full with 2 TVE sources and 3 HDHR devices and pluto.

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Is SSH enabled by default on my Channels DVR imaged Pi?

Enabled yes, but you need to authorize a key for it.

Basic steps:

  1. create and save a key pair using puttygen
  2. paste the public key contents puttygen gives you into a file called authorized_keys
  3. Copy that file into a USB key, per other link:

SSH access

If you would like SSH access (for instance, to SFTP recordings), format a small USB disk as FAT/NTFS with the label "CONFIG" and place an authorized_keys file on it. Plug this into the RPi. You should be able to use ssh root@<ip> -p 22222 to access the system.

  1. Create a session for the pi in putty, like the below:

    4b) Place a reference to your saved private key file in the SSH --> Auth section
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This is SO helpful. I’m on it!

This continues to work great but two things I observed. One, you periodically need to run docker ps--likely after updates and the like. I pre-shared SSH keys with my personal Mac and added this cronjob on my Mac:
*/30 * * * * /usr/bin/ssh [email protected] -p 22222 docker ps

Might be overkill. Two, eventually the disk gets into a bad state and remounts RO due to errors. I thought the WD was toast but Disk Util / First Aid fixed it easily enough. Unfortunately I did not write down exactly what I ran into as I didn't expect the disk to pop back to life. I did submit a support info FWIW (But the issue was resolved so I didn't follow up).

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