Do you guys know about DietPi? I use it on two Raspberry Pi, just installed it on a Wyse mini-PC and I think it’s really great:
Truly Optimised
DietPi is an extremely lightweight Debian OS, highly optimised for minimal CPU and RAM resource usage, ensuring your SBC always runs at its maximum potential.
Simple interface
DietPi programs use lightweight Whiptail menus. Spend less time staring at the command line, more time enjoying your Pi.
DietPi-Software
Quickly and easily install popular software “ready to run” and optimised for your system. Only the software you need is installed.
DietPi-Config
Quickly and effortlessly customise your device’s hardware and software settings for your needs, including network connection and localisation setup.
DietPi-Backup
Quickly and easily backup or restore your DietPi system.
Logging System Choices
You decide how much logging you need. Get a performance boost with DietPi-RAMlog, or, rsyslog and logrotate for log critical servers.
DietPi-Services Control
Control which installed software has higher or lower priority levels: nice, affinity, policy scheduler and more.
DietPi-Update System
DietPi automatically checks for updates and informs you when they are available. Update instantly, without having to write a new image.
DietPi-Automation
Allows you to completely automate a DietPi installation with no user input. Simply by configuring dietpi.txt before powering on.
big fan. used it on a pi zero w that I had hosting my PiHole for years. when the hardware finally died, I just installed dietpi on a VM in my proxmox server and used it for pihole again.
sure, I could’ve used another distro but it only seemed fitting for this use case.
I use it and love it, but still think the logo is a bit weird, reminds me of some evil message you see after a virus crashed your PC 😁.
Agreed. The phrasing “lightweight justice” always sounded strange to me as well. They could definitely go with a friendlier, more mainstream design.
I run it for my pi-hole. It’s been great. It tells you when there are package updates when you log in, which I find helpful.
A gui is unnecessary for something like pi-hole. As for updates, you can easily automate installation of security updates via unattended-upgrades.
Given pihole’s recent record with updates, I’m not sure I want them firing automatically.
Whether you automate pihole upgrades is separate from whether you automate debian package updates. I recommend at least automatically installing security updates for the OS, unless you want to manually keep track and do this for all your devices.
Got a tutorial link to set up the piehole with it? In the process of setting up my piehole with the default instructions from their website.
- Flash DietPi
- Boot
- Run
dietpi-software - Search for pi-hole
- Select and install
Thanks but I was hoping for a link with some more breakdown of the installation process and more resources to learn.
Ah, I see. Have you tried the official docs?
Currently reading them while you posted 😊
They have images for all sorts of devices, and for virtualization platforms (I run mine in VMware).
I ran a different one once before (built a Linux VM, installed Pi), this one was much easier, and it just works.
Unfortunately I can’t remember whether I downloaded pihole from some package manager within DietPi, or whether I used the instructions on pihole’s site. It’s not hard either way, it’s really just one package.
It’s great. I’ve been using it for nearly a year and it just works brilliantly.
@tenebrisnox @Teppichbrand Would you recommend #DietPi for a #RPi Zero running a slim #HomeAssistant that will be dedicated to drive a kiosk? (no camera feeds)
I have been running Hassio on my rpi2 dietpi (supervisor mode) for 3-4 years now. Surprisingly, it’s alive still. I am mot sure hassio still support this method (all docker managed), but if you’re comfortable with linux you can make it work.
Yes I agree it is great. I am using it on a Raspberry Pi 400 for pihole. It’s lean and conveniant.
I’ve been using DietPi on my SBC home servers (NAS, media service, pi-hope, etc.) since 2017 or so.
It’s an excellent distro for headless operation and makes CLI easy to use for somewhat casual users.
For media, I use Jellyfin on an M1 MacMini.
How do you get around RAM requirements on SBC home servers with little devices like this? I am often streaming 4K files and the encoding/decoding can sometimes be mildly intensive depending on the file.
I have a Raspberry Pi 4B. Clients can directly play the media without any need for realtime transcoding. I could 4K transcoding being challenging for older Raspberry Pi SBCs.
Alpine all the way for me, but Dietpi was my gateway drug
I run DietPi on an OrangePi5+ to run Jellyfin on. It’s brilliant
How does it handle kernel updates? Can it do live patching?
I’ve been running DietPi for years. Its so lightweight and stable. I love GUI-less Debian and its chefs kiss on a Raspberry Pi.
