[SOLVED: Kind of] Which is best?

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#1 Tue, 10/17/2017 - 08:12
adelphia
adelphia's picture

[SOLVED: Kind of] Which is best?

OK, before anyone moans at me, this is just a question about installation options for an HTPC using Virtualmin and Webmin.

The scenario is, I would like my "server" (which will host emails and web sites) to also act as an HTPC. I wish to install Kodi (and thus require a GUI of some description) on the said machine.

The media is all stored on internal HDD drives which resides in the server, chained as a virtual group and shared via Samba.

My question is, what would be the best way to install this configuration?

  • Install Ubuntu Desktop then Virtualmin and finally Kodi
  • Install Ubuntu Server then Virtualmin then apt-get install ubuntu-desktop and finally Kodi
  • Install Ubuntu Server then Virtualmin then Kodi and finally apt-get install ubuntu-desktop
  • Install Ubuntu Server then Virtualmin then install XXX (where XXX would be some other suggestion you may have)

  • I look forward to your replies and suggestions.


    -------------------------------------------------------------
    Server OS: Ubuntu 16.0.4.2LTS
    Webmin/Virtualmin: Latest (updated daily)
    -------------------------------------------------------------
    Chris: Adelphia Interactive

    Tue, 10/17/2017 - 14:42
    scotwnw

    First, you don’t need virtualmin for this. You need webmin to manage the box. Virtualmin manages domains.

    With that correction, 1. and 2. will be the same. But Kodi needs a desktop, so 1 is way to go.

    3 wont work. Cant install Kodi before the desktop.

    1. No comment, I use Kodi also, except I have webmin managing the nas box while I have several raspberry Pi's running kodi/openelec hooked to the tv's.

    Good luck.

    Tue, 10/17/2017 - 16:11 (Reply to #2)
    adelphia
    adelphia's picture

    Thanks for your input but I do need Virtualmin as I'll be hosting domains and emails on the same server (perhaps you missed that part).

    I've just tried installing Ubuntu Desktop with Kodi (both version 17 and 16) and, to be quite honest, Kodi on Linux sucks compared to other versions. I have a high end system but this stupid PulseAudio simply refuses to allow me to use pass-through so I'll need to find a different solution and will be reverting back to Ubuntu Server.

    Unless anyone comes up with a better solution, I think I'll be putting Kodi back on my Fire TV but version 16 not 17 as 17 is far from stable like they say, and so many bugs too!

    Chris: Adelphia Interactive
    Desktop: Windows 10 Pro x64
    Server: Ubuntu 16.0.4.2LTS
    Webmin/Virtualmin: Latest (daily updates)

    Tue, 10/17/2017 - 19:53
    scotwnw

    Yes, I missed that part about emails,domains. Or I glanced over it because my ISP sucks so bad its impossible for me to do that!

    Tried Plex.tv? Its a media server backend. You watch media via a browser or via smartTV, firestick, roku, phone, etc.

    Wed, 10/18/2017 - 05:11
    adelphia
    adelphia's picture

    Is it any good? I've got so used to Kodi and it's easy to setup and the interface is nice (and visually appealing) to see what movies you have.

    Chris: Adelphia Interactive
    Desktop: Windows 10 Pro x64
    Server: Ubuntu 16.0.4.2LTS
    Webmin/Virtualmin: Latest (daily updates)

    Wed, 10/18/2017 - 06:25
    tycoon
    tycoon's picture

    I'd install Ubuntu Server, Webmin/Virtualmin, Ubuntu Gnome desktop and then Kodi. Should be fine for hosting some personal websites. Audio passthrough should be working, although I'm not sure about HDMI... I have Kodi running on a Debian box in my home theater and passthrough over SPDIF works just fine, although some audio formats get downmixed due to the receiver or the SPDIF connection not supporting the format or high bitrates.

    Wed, 10/18/2017 - 17:52 (Reply to #6)
    adelphia
    adelphia's picture

    OK. Any specific way to install gnome to get the desired audio output/passthrough? I've read quite a few horror stories about trying to get gnome off if it goes wrong. I intend to use sudo apt-get install ubuntu-gnome-desktop. Is that what you used? Thanks for helping out all by the way!

    Chris: Adelphia Interactive
    Desktop: Windows 10 Pro x64
    Server: Ubuntu 16.0.4.2LTS
    Webmin/Virtualmin: Latest (daily updates)

    Wed, 10/25/2017 - 08:44
    adelphia
    adelphia's picture

    I've decided to go a different route which is now working as required. Instead of installing a GUI on the server and also installing Kodi, I have installed Kodi on my Fire TV using version 16.1 (Jarvis) and using the server's Samba function to share my movies. Version 17 of Kodi is just too unstable to use right now on anything but a Windows PC.

    Chris: Adelphia Interactive
    Desktop: Windows 10 Pro x64
    Server: Ubuntu 16.0.4.2LTS
    Webmin/Virtualmin: Latest (daily updates)

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