How I Use My Raspberry Pi

Productivity Sauce
Inspired by the Things I Do With My Raspberry Pi article, I thought I'd share with you how I use my Raspberry Pi. Actually, I use at least two Raspberry Pis on a regular basis: one serves as a hacking and prototyping platform, while the other one acts as a server on the local network. The latter performs a variety of tasks.
File Server
I connected two external USB hard disks to Raspberry Pi via a powered USB hub. The usbmount utility takes care of automatically detecting and mounting the connected disks at the /media/usbX mount points. One disk is used for storing all files and documents, while the other one is reserved for rotating backup. I don't use any dedicated file server software to serve files on the network. Instead, I simply mount the first disk via SSH using the sshfs tool.
Backup Server
Nothing fancy there: Raspberry Pi uses two rsync-based scripts for local rotating backup and off-site backup. A cron job performs the off-site backup hourly and runs rotating backup action daily.
Email Backup
Storing email in the cloud is good, but having a local copy of all emails is even better. So I installed and configured the excellent OfflineImap tool on my Raspberry Pi to pull emails from my IMAP account on a regular basis.
Photo Gallery
Although I use a variety of photo sharing services, I also host a tiny photo gallery on my Raspberry Pi using the Pygmyfoto application which I cobbled together in my spare time.
RSS Aggregator
While NewBlur is my web-based RSS aggregator of choice, I installed Miniflux on Raspberry Pi as a fallback option. This lightweight RSS reader is easy to deploy and maintain, and it's perfectly suited for keeping track of a handful of favorite RSS feeds.
Bookmark and File Sharing
My Raspberry Pi also runs the excellent Shaarli application for storing and sharing bookmarks. When I occasionally need to upload and share a file, I use the file hosting PHP script running on Raspberry Pi for that.
Photo Station
Finally, my Raspberry Pi acts as a photo station. Using an Eye-Fi SD card and Eye-Fi app for Android, I push photos from my camera to Raspberry Pi. It then organizes photos using the fotobasher script and backs up the photos.
This is how I use my Raspberry Pi, and I'm eager to hear what you do with your tiny machine. Hit the comments to share your Rasberry Pi projects.
comments powered by DisqusSubscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
LibreOffice Tested as Possible Office 365 Alternative
Another major organization has decided to test the possibility of migrating from Microsoft's Office 365 to LibreOffice.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.