Using an SSD HD as your music Library to replace your USB HD

[eldarvanyar]

Thanks a million Paul for the instructions. I can access the Vortexbox vis ssh at root level.

Vortexbox is just the software not the physical box or hardware. It has all the unnecessary bloatware such as printer spooling etc stripped out of it. It can rip and steam CDs, Blu Ray and DVDs depending on software license and is grate for old pcs.

I built a dedicated one some years ago and it works a treat.

Here is the webpage to find out more and download the free software.

https://www.vortexbox.org/forum/main-forum

[PaulBarnett]

Thanks a million Paul for the instructions. I can access the Vortexbox vis ssh at root level.

Vortexbox is just the software not the physical box or hardware. It has all the unnecessary bloatware such as printer spooling etc stripped out of it. It can rip and steam CDs, Blu Ray and DVDs depending on software license and is grate for old pcs.

I built a dedicated one some years ago and it works a treat.

Here is the webpage to find out more and download the free software.

https://www.vortexbox.org/forum/main-forum

Just had a quick look at vortexbox - I installed the 2.5 beta in a VM. Some things that would put me off using it: (but all probably fixable)
1) based on a very old fedora (v25, 5 years old) and appears not to have been updated for some time (2019?)
2) some things (for me) missing - nfs? streaming?
3) media storage is in the root partition

If you still want to use vortexbox on your current server, I'd be tempted to just take out the old hdd, put in a new ssd, install latest vortexbox version, then copy your media files
back onto the ssd (maybe from the old hdd, maybe via a usb-sata cable)

Or install (say) a minimal fedora, and just the software packages you need (LMS, squeezelite, etc) - This is not as simple as installing vortexbox :-)

I use picoreplayer (https://www.picoreplayer.org/) as my music server & player. it differs from vb mainly in that
1) it runs on a raspberry pi, not a pc.
2) it has current versions of relevant software (o/s, LMS, squeezelite player), and is maintained.
3) it does NOT have the ripping from CD ability that vb has. (I just use a laptop for this)
4) it only supports one output device, rather than the up to 5 that vb supports
5) it has a plugin architecture, so that it can be updated as new things arrive (eg spotify, qobuz, bbc radio, etc etc)

My music files are on a usb drive attached to the Pi, copied from the master copy on a nas.