dgwharrison Posted October 2, 2018 Share Posted October 2, 2018 (edited) Hi, I'm just wondering, has anyone made a nice guide for using UnRAID as a HTPC? So for example, installing plex player, how to get a remote working with it ( I have harmony for example), that sort of thing. Is it just a case of use a package manager like apt-get? is there a gui for it like Ubuntu? Does it work very well as a basic desktop supporting multiple user accounts? Or, alternatively to all that, can you just create a nice VM that does all that (say a windows 10 one) and get the console full screen all the time? Would that support 4K video playback? Usually I think headless seems to be the major use case is all. Whereas I would like to use it with my big screen as I have a cupboard it can go into with all the AV gear which is hidden away so the noise of a dozen HDDs doesn't bother me. Edited October 2, 2018 by dgwharrison Quote Link to comment
itimpi Posted October 2, 2018 Share Posted October 2, 2018 Unraid is basically a NAS and not a desktop system. As such it does not support GUI based applications directly. You can run a variety of apps as docker containers as long as they are suitable for running in the background and being administered via a browser. You can also fun full fledged VMs and in that case the os you use is up to you. However if you want to use a locally attached screen in conjunction with the VM you do need hardware that can support pass-through of the GPU to a VM. This needs the appropriate virtualisation support on the motherboard and CPU. Quote Link to comment
dgwharrison Posted October 2, 2018 Author Share Posted October 2, 2018 Yeah, that's kinda what I thought... I know I can pass through discrete graphics, but it seems to be shame that I can't use the capability I'm paying for anyway in the main board. It's a coffee lake Xeon E-2146G (which I won't receive for 2 weeks it's so new) and a Asus WS C246 Pro motherboard. Anyone know if it's possible to pass through the integrated graphics to a guest? Quote Link to comment
dgwharrison Posted October 2, 2018 Author Share Posted October 2, 2018 Reading this https://davidyat.es/2016/09/08/gpu-passthrough/ I think it might be possible if I use another graphics card (old one I've got lying around) that will do VGA for the host, configure the host bios to initialise the card, then tell the system not to load the drivers for the integrated graphics, then pass it through. Here's hoping. thoughts? Quote Link to comment
whipdancer Posted October 2, 2018 Share Posted October 2, 2018 (edited) I moved away from an HTPC to unRaid and am far more happy with it. I run Plex in a docker and use either an Apple TV or Roku to play the movies/tv I have stored on the server. Is your cabinet ventilated? A dozen HD's can generate a good bit of heat on their own. Edited October 2, 2018 by whipdancer Quote Link to comment
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