I don’t experience with your issue specifically. This is a guide that has come up for me. The last time I tried making a torrent streaming box like that was with a Raspberry Pi 3, and it was constantly problematic.

Possible alternatives I would suggest would be:

1. Set up the R.Pi as a Jellyfin media server and as a torrent box.

2. Maybe look at another solution like a Fire TV stick with Stremio.

I’ve shoved my Switch to the back of a cupboard somewhere and don’t use that hardware at all. I use Eden emulator to play Switch games on my Steam Deck and my Retroid Pocket 5, and also my PC (if my kids want their save game progress there). Syncthing is set up on my home server and all these devices. The save data gets synced across all devices. I’ve been loving it. I’ve ditched the shitty Nintendo hardware and always refused to pay for Switch online since it didn’t work for a bunch of games anyway. The emulated games get better performance with better screens and controllers on these devices, and all games sync reliably at no extra cost.

I’ve got Switch games on my phone as well (Into the Breach works great with touch controls alone), but I haven’t figured out synchronising save data from here since Android locked down app data folders.

I can give you more details or resources with instructions if you want, but this won’t apply to actual Nintendo hardware and certainly not Switch 2.

Normies don’t get it. Privacy means nothing to most normies. I tell them about things they would understand an appreciate:

I don’t need to pay for the following anymore because I have my personal version of Netflix, Spotify, Dropbox, Google photos, etc.

I can tell them about a home server also saving me from Onenote, Google Calendar, etc as well; but they tend not to understand this and say “but that’s free anyway”. In which case it becomes a more prolonged conversation of trying to explain why privacy and data ownership are important.

There’s also the hobby/interest/learning aspect of this. But even my wife sees what I do and says she doesn’t understand how I can stand troubleshooting server problems; because she gets hugely triggered if tech doesn’t immediately work as intended. Tinkering and troubleshooting tech is most people’s idea of hell (the equivalent of saying it is fun to have to unclog a public toilet).

Also I can get services not possible otherwise, like Nintendo Switch save game sync across devices (emulation on a number of devices and Syncthing with save data folders).

How do you use it in you setup?

Others explained what it is. To implement it, I basically followed this guide: https://drfrankenstein.co.uk/qbittorrent-with-gluetun-vpn-in-container-manager-on-a-synology-nas/

My organisation is going through this right now. The overarching management “corporation” is looking at our numbers and saying that we’ve got more employees and spending than 5 years ago, but have the same output metrics… So we’ve got to cut back staff and spending because there’s dead weight that’s not adding to productivity. The problem is that these will be small ineffective parts of people’s otherwise useful jobs. You can’t do what Elon Musk did and start firing people across the board to correct the numbers. It’s a complex problem to solve.

I don’t know much about Home Assistant, but you could keep that separate on an R.Pi of its own. Or install it as a native app on Debian if you use a desktop OS on your server.

Tinkering is fun. Home server is one of the few projects that have gone through to full completion. Silksong will take up my time for now till I find a new project. Might just make a new macropad for work.

Let me know if you want any details of my setup. I basically used 2 weeks off in July to set this whole thing up. There are lots of great Docker apps once you learn to set it up. AI has made this much easier to get into now.

I’ve heard of Docker Desktop, but sounds like it was not well received.

Don’t know what this means. Docker is universally loved and works perfectly on desktop OSs.

I’m running Debian on my server mini PC. Docker will work on any installation of Windows, Linux, etc and work perfectly well. I played around with it initially by setting up a virtual machine with Debian on my gaming computer and seeing if I could get Docker apps working.

Fast forward to now, and I’m kinda sad that my server is all set up and stable and I have nothing to tinker with.

Don’t do it on a machine that holds valuable data or one that you need the machine to stay functional for work. I repeatedly fucked up my installation trying to get dual boot setup initially. Bootloader are easy to mess up. Even on a working installation, a Windows update would sometimes break the dual boot.

Its not difficult to set up a virtual machine inside your Linux installation. That way you don’t have to reboot and lose your other workflow to access your windows apps.

I started with a 2 bay Synology NAS (still have this as storage only and no computing) and added a 12the gen i5 mini PC I got on eBay for £230. That’s worked out great and I would highly recommend it. If you’re on a budget then look for some older hardware.

Docker is also not that difficult to get started with and worth messing around with to learn. I started on with Docker on my Synology and out grew that quickly and have been really happy with my mini PC.

Looks good. I’ve put it on my server.

This looks a lot more complicated that Watchtower. Is this something different or add other functionality?

The secret ingredient…is crime.

Its recent in being a month old now, but:

• set up a dedicated server mini PC that really let me expand my self hosting beyond my Synology
• switched from Plex to Jellyfin (including for music)
• found out I can hard link files with my Arr’s setup so I can seed without having to keep duplicate copies of files, so that’s a win for the network. The privacy aspect is that I’m happy to get rid of data mining services I was using before my Arr’s setup.
• started using Immich for photos. So far so good
• Self hosted notes (Joplin)
• got remote desktop working on my home server, so if I’m at work and need to do a personal task, then I can do it on my own PC rather than the work browser.
• I use a chat app to make groups in which I’m the only participant. This is for sharing things across devices (links, files, notes, etc). Even on locked down work PCs I can open the web chat app and access my self-shared content. I used Telegram for this before. Now I’m self hosting an Element server.
• I’ve got syncthing running on my Retroid Pocket 5 + PC with Switch emulation. So Now I can ditch my Nintendo Switch completely and keep control of my save files. Fuck you Nintendo.

Security from the evil villains who want to block ads. Jesus would have wanted everyone to watch ads as god intended, and these degenerates need to be taken down.

There are going to be a lot of good machines that should hit eBay for cheap as companies dump their old stock. Grab home servers, media machines, secondary devices, emulation rigs, etc as the opportunity presents itself.

Sounds like normal UK freeview terrestrial TV. I think there are freeview streaming sites and apps if you search.

These handhelds will die down when they don’t sell well. The low end retro gaming handhelds are in an amazing place right now. The high end PC handhelds will be great to buy on the secondhand market in a few years as they come onto eBay. They’re great for patient gamers. PC gamers are obsessed with running AAA games bat top settings and they’re going to have a rude awakening after wasting their money on these devices. The patient gamers are going to capitalise on this.

I know. That’s why I’m saying it’s worth trying…for the improved UI.

Which distro should I use?

Them’s fightin words round here. Fuck [Distro 1] and its fanboys. [Distro 2] is clearly superior.

For real though:

Things for you to decide:

Which desktop environment do you want (KDE, Gnome, Cinnamon, cosmic, etc)

Do you want it to be super up to date all the time (quick updates, but may break something)? Or are you OK with slower updates for a more stable system?

Difficulty: How hard do you want things to be? Do you want things to be set up out-of-the-box and lots of solutions online? Or are you willing to dive deep, do stuff yourself and figure stuff out from wikis?

I wanted KDE (objectively the best desktop environment obviously) and started with OpenSUSE Tumbleweed and loved it. Highly recommended. I didn’t know about TuxedoOS at the time and that seems like a good place to start too. Now I know more and am on CachyOS and am super happy with it.