Vortexbox Alternative

[garym]

If one is seeking a music server that can run LMS (and is not interested in the ripping function or other programs such as BLISS or movie streaming etc.) then running an rPi3B+ or rPi4, with the piCorePlayer OS (a stripped down linux) with an attached USB HDD (or link to a NAS) is dead simple. Lots of instructions and support at the slimdevices.com forum. One does have to setup the rPi SD card (and put in a case if one desires), but I was able to do it with no knowledge and just following the simple step by step instructions. I run an rPi4 with attached 4TB USB drive, feeding 4 squeezebox zones in my house. The rPi can also serve as a squeezebox player too (running squeezelite). See https://docs.picoreplayer.org/

p.s. I loved my many vortexboxes over the years and they served me very well. The software was way ahead of its time. But the piCorePlayer on rPi setup has proven to be very stable, easy to maintain, and only requires a few mouseclicks to keep the LMS version (or OS version of piCorePlayer) updated.

[SeanMiddleton]

I played around with Daphile. I have somemajor issues with Daphile, that prevent me from wanting to really use it:
1. No acces to the system. No login (only with the beta versions is it possible). So you do not have control over the system
2. I could not find a way to mass import music. I have 2 TB o music files, and can not import them (drag on drop in the website only works for limite number of files).
3. I do not think Daphile is actively supported anymore, nor are there any active users groups

Some valid points I guess.
I have used the latest beta version, which does have SSH, so remote console logging is available. I haven't found any problems or issues with the beta. I also have about 2TB of music and managed to import these OK, either using the Daphile GUI based file manager, Windows File Manager or Bitvise - SSH Client (Putty with a better left/right file management capability and console capability - highly recommended). RSYNC also works fine.

Its such an easy product to install and set up that I don't see forums as that important. Its LMS based, whcih is great and it has CIFS/SMB etc capability, so using it as a NAS works fine. The install process is the easiest I've ever done for software of this type and it runs fine either from a USB thumb drive or internal drive. I'm happy with it.

But if you want anything more sophisticated, were you can add Transmission, Subsonic, Bliss etc etc (as per VB) then openmediavault is better. I have both OMV5 and OMV6 running all this stuff fine. The Docker capability on OMV is excellent, there are so many Docker apps available to install its insane. The learning curve for OMV is a lot steeper than Daphile. RAID on OMV is built in and very easy to set up, with a lot of options

My take is that if you just want an excellent music media server with NAS capability that's easy to install/use then try Daphile. If you want all the functionality of VB (plus a lot more) then go the OMV route. I'm now running OMV5, OMV6, Daphile, Daphile beta and 2 VB's on my LAN with all NAS and media files synced. At some point, once I've really tested them all out for long term reliability and support etc I will decide whcih is my best solution. I'll retain 3 of these and do CRON RSYNC's between them so no no backups needed.

I'm now happy that there are viable long term alternatives to VB

[Serge]

Installed Daphile in Virtualbox on my Linux system. Added Music from a USB and tested ripping a Music CD.

i am able to connect to it by IP and it works very well as an Audio Player

I played around with Daphile. I have somemajor issues with Daphile, that prevent me from wanting to really use it:
1. No acces to the system. No login (only with the beta versions is it possible). So you do not have control over the system
2. I could not find a way to mass import music. I have 2 TB o music files, and can not import them (drag on drop in the website only works for limite number of files).
3. I do not think Daphile is actively supported anymore, nor are there any active users groups

[pclinux1]

Installed Daphile in Virtualbox on my Linux system. Added Music from a USB and tested ripping a Music CD.

i am able to connect to it by IP and it works very well as an Audio Player

[SeanMiddleton]

please have a look at https://www.daphile.com/, as an alternative.

Looks really good. I'll give it a go !!

Installed very easily and works really well. As far as playing/ripping music goes it does all that Vortexbox does. Not sure if it has DNLA server built in (I need, but can easily install at command line if its not built in to Daphile). Also Transmission and Subsonic not present but again I could probably install from the command line. So, yes indeed, this is a very credible alternative to VB. Its probably the easiest/smoothest install I have ever done of any linux app !! EXCELLENT

[Vroderick]

please have a look at https://www.daphile.com/, as an alternative.

[SeanMiddleton]

Did you install OMV on a USB flash drive or a partition on the storage drive?

I used a USB thumb drive .iso to boot from and installed OMV5 onto a SATA SSD. I used a 120GB ssd in fact but only 16GB is required I believe to hold OMV5. I just had the 120GB ssd to hand. I used 3 x 8TB HDD's for my storage in a JBOD (RAID 'Linear') arrangement. I followed this video on Utube to get it all up and running (plus a couple of others for transmission and LMS)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_oxzpvMPTE

I now plan to build a second OMV machine and in this I will use RAID 5, so that I can recover if 1 HDD fails. I will setup an RSYNC CRON job on the two OMV machines such that they sync up a couple of times per week, or whatever. The OMV5 admin GUI has fill in boxes for scheduled jobs such as this. I'm always paranoid about HDD failure and losing all my movies/music etc so I'm a bit OCD about maintaining backups

[pclinux1]

Did you install OMV on a usb flash drive or a partition on the storage drive?

[SeanMiddleton]

I've been using VB's since they very first appeared. I've built more than 10 over the years, but I'm now getting quite fed up that there is no development or updating going on. We are 10 versions behind the current version of Fed !! Fed 25 has a HDD limit of about 16TB. Basically Andrew doesn't have the time or the interest to bring it up to date and at some point I imagine it will just grind to a halt. The 16TB limit is a pain for me too, because I have a very large music collection and I also use the VB as my NAS and media server, so I have a lot of stuff on VB (about 14TB currently) . So, I got to thinking about an alternative to VB, something that does all the same things but which is regularly updated and based on a modern revision of a Linux distro that has solid support. My solution was OpenMediaVault (OMV). So I knocked up a 24TB (with RAID) OMV box and installed their OMV Extras, which gave me Docker/Portainer and a few other bits and pieces. I then installed LMS, Transmission, Nextcloud, Subsonic, Bliss, OpenVPN and a couple of DNLA servers and other bits and bobs. And there you have it, basically all the functions of a VB with a current latest Debian and LMS and some great other features. It works superbly and the whole thing is running on a basic Mini ITX motherboard (ASrock J5005) with only 8GB RAM. There's loads of how-to videos on Youtube covering OpenMediaVault, so none of this was at all difficult. I even have the Nextcloud app on my phone so I can talk to my Nextcloud