Somebody on reddit requested a Raspberry Pi 2 Media Server image. I have put together a ready to go image so you can test drive a Raspberry Pi 2 NAS media server. It is packed with programs and features made entirely from guides on this site. It is for those of you who are too pressed for time or just too lazy to install the software yourself. I used a minimal Raspbian base Minibian as the foundation for the media server. There are no WiFi drivers included because WiFi is unreliable and lowers throughput, however if you must use WiFi, you will need a keyboard or ethernet connection to install the drivers.

If you haven't heard of usenet read this and consider a UsenetServer account. If you are comfortable with torrents use Private Internet Access or PureVPN for safety and then make sure you can access Transmission outside your home network.

Image updated to version 10 May 18, 2015 now with HTPC Manager and nginx

You can now customize your own media server image on Minibian with the HTPC Guides Installer and ready made image

If you are trying to figure out which hardware would work best for you, consider reading the Pi benchmarks.



Pi Unit Processor RAM RAM Bus Network WiFi USB SATA Cost Raspberry Pi 3 1.2 GHz ARMv8

Quad Core 1 GB DDR2 450 MHz 100 Mbit Yes 4 No $35 Raspberry Pi 2 900 MHz ARMv7

Quad Core 1 GB DDR2 450 MHz 100 Mbit No 4 No $35.00 Raspberry Pi 700 MHz ARMv6

Single Core 512 MB SDRAM 400 MHz 100 Mbit No 4 No $25 Banana Pi 1 GHz ARMv7

Dual Core 1 GB DDR3 432 MHz Gigabit No 2 Yes $36.99 Banana Pi Pro 1 GHz ARMv7

Dual Core 1 GB DDR3 432 MHz Gigabit Yes 2 Yes $45.00

Raspberry Pi 2 Media Server Image

Here is a list of features, each link redirects you to a guide to configure each service

vsftpd for FTP Server

NFS included in v6

Samba for creating samba shares

SickRage for periodic show downloading

CouchPotato for feature length video downloading

Transmission as BitTorrent client

NZBGet for usenet downloading

Plex Media Server for streaming video – update using this ODROID guide

HTPC Manager for managing all services

nginx to set up reverse proxies for convenience and secure remote management

I recommend dynamic DNS for extra remote access ease and reverse proxies for security.

NTFS-3G is already installed as is the current tweak so you can power a 2.5″ external hard drive and mount it properly.

All software is running as the pi user to avoid permission conflicts except for Plex which has its own user that generally causes no issues. Plex is accessed at http://ip.address:32400/web where ip.address is the Pi 2's IP address.

Software Purpose Credentials

Login/Password Port Plex Media Server Streaming your media collection none 32400 NZBGet Usenet Downloader nzbget:tegbzn6789 6789 Sabnzbd Usenet Downloader none 8080 Transmission BitTorrent Client transmission:transmission 9091 SickRage Periodic Show Assistant none 8081 CouchPotato Feature Length Video Assistant none 5050 Mylar Comic finder none 8090 Headphones Audo file finder none 8181 Sonarr Periodic Show Assistant none 8989 Jackett Add custom torrents none 9117 HTPC Manager Managing Services none 8085 vsftpd FTP Server pi/htpcguides 21 SAMBA Sharing files over network pi/htpcguides none NFS Sharing files pi/htpcguides none Webmin Administer server pi/htpcguides 10000 nginx Reverse Proxy none 80

The image is currently in testing phase, in order to get the download link share this post using the unlocker below.

Turn off Adblock if you can't see the unlocker.

Expand the sd card with raspi-config after you log in, the image will fit on a 2 GB sd card. Follow the initial setup after the locker. The HTPC NAS Combo Image includes Kodi as well.

Note: SickRage has been updated so the /etc/default/ file needs to be changed, see the updated guide to make the changes.

Initial Raspberry Pi 2 Media Server Setup

The default password for the root login and pi login is htpcguides. Use PuTTY or an SSH client to log in to avoid getting wrong password errors because you use a non-US keyboard.

Expand your SD card first by choosing expand file system

sudo raspi-config

Change your password while logged in as the root and pi user

sudo passwd

Regenerate your SSH keys

rm /etc/ssh/ssh_host* dpkg-reconfigure openssh-server

Regenerate all the API keys in SickRage, CouchPotato and Sonarr

If you don't want to use both SickRage and Sonarr you can disable either service with these commands

The same logic appiles to NZBGet and transmission-daemon

sudo update-rc.d nzbdrone disable sudo update-rc.d sickbeard disable sudo update-rc.d nzbget disable sudo update-rc.d transmission-daemon disable sudo update-rc.d htpcmanager disable

If you regret disabling any of the services you can re-enable them so they start on boot again

sudo update-rc.d nzbdrone defaults sudo update-rc.d sickbeard defaults sudo update-rc.d nzbget defaults sudo update-rc.d transmission-daemon defaults sudo update-rc.d htpcmanager defaults

If you unlucky enough to need wifi tools then install these packages

sudo apt-get install wireless-tools wpasupplicant -y

I would like hear if the image works for you and suggestions to improve the image.

If you are installing extra software you may need to use this syntax if you get dependency errors