Cloudron on a Raspberry pi?

girish

It works for me here atleast. I am guessing that you are unable to connect to the container IP maybe? Can you try installing psql tooling and connect via IP address? You can put a log in connectClient to see the credentials.

$ npm test

> postgresql-addon@1.0.0 test /home/girish/yellowtent/postgresql-addon
> mocha --bail ./test/test.js



  Postgresql Addon
Error response from daemon: network with name cloudron already exists
    auth
      ✓ fails without access_token
      ✓ fails with invalid access_token
      ✓ succeeds
    add database
      ✓ succeeds (369ms)
      ✓ succeeds when added again
    remove database
      ✓ succeeds (125ms)
    use the database
      ✓ can create extension (82ms)
      ✓ can create table foo
      ✓ can insert into table foo
      ✓ can read from table foo
      ✓ restart (5091ms)
      ✓ can read from table foo
    backup and restore
      ✓ succeeds to create backup (443ms)
      ✓ succeeds to create new database (412ms)
      ✓ succeeds to clear new database (426ms)
      ✓ succeeds to restore backup (940ms)
      ✓ succeeds to check restore data
    restore of invalid dump fails
      ✓ succeeds to create backup (186ms)
      ✓ succeeds to clear new database (424ms)
      ✓ fails to restore backup (185ms)
    restore of existing dump
      ✓ succeeds (1721ms)


  21 passing (36s)

malvim

Hey,

So I commented out the remove database tests because I had trouble connecting from the container, but the next test, use the database, starts like this:

// psql -h localhost -U usetestuser  -d usetestdatabase
describe('use the database', function () {
    const data = { database: 'usetestdatabase', username: 'usetestuser', password: 'somepassword', locale: 'C' };

    before(function (done) {
        async.series([
            addDatabase.bind(null, data),
            connectClient.bind(null, data)
        ], done);
    });

So I ran "psql -h localhost -U usetestuser -d usetestdatabase", using 'somepassword' as a password, and was able to connect, both from inside the container and from my host machine.

connectClient still doesn't connect, and, I get this on the screen:

    auth
      ✓ fails without access_token
      ✓ fails with invalid access_token
      ✓ succeeds
    use the database
usetestuser somepassword usetestdatabase 172.18.0.2 5432
      1) "before all" hook

  3 passing (2m)
  1 failing

  1) Postgresql Addon
       use the database
         "before all" hook:
     Error: Timeout of 100000ms exceeded. For async tests and hooks, ensure "done()" is called; if returning a Promise, ensure it resolves. (/home/malvim/Projetos/Pi/docker/postgresql-addon/test/test.js)
      at listOnTimeout (internal/timers.js:551:17)
      at processTimers (internal/timers.js:494:7)

   
      2) "after all" hook

malvim

Also, it does not seem to be network-related, since I get the same behavior on an ubuntu 20.04 VPS I have...

malvim

I tried recreating the steps inside the container using node, and could connect. I'm really at a loss here right now...

Lonkle

@malvim Wish I had my Pi now so I could help test! Soon tho. ️

malvim

Hey, @Lonk! You mind testing this on your laptop? I'm not getting these errors only on the Pi, I'm getting them on my amd64 laptop and amd64 server as well!

Repo is here: https://git.cloudron.io/cloudron/postgresql-addon, it's just a matter of:

cloning it;
building the image locally (docker build -t cloudron/postgresqladdontest .)
installing dependencies (npm install)
running the test (npm test)

Could you run this somewhere and see if you have the same problem?

Thanks!

malvim

MAN, it seems I'm running into ALL KINDS of weird problems hahaha!

I started going into postgresql node client's code, and it seemed to be some weird behavior of EventEmitter, which was weird...

I installed nvm and tested with older node distributions, and it ran fine on my laptop! So it seems, @girish, that the test code for postgresql-addon does not run with node v14 or later on my machines. Tested with v12 and v13 and it was all fine. What version are you using for tests?

Moving on to the next hurdle, I guess hahah!

girish

@malvim said in Cloudron on a Raspberry pi?:

So it seems, @girish, that the test code for postgresql-addon does not run with node v14 or later on my machines

Aha! I feel like I have hit this issue before. Indeed, when we updated the box code to use node 14 lots of things fail (not sure why). We use node 10.18.1 everywhere. This is why the hotfix and code enforces it. For future reference, always use the node in scripts/createReleaseTarball in the box repo.

malvim

@girish okay, cool, I'll use that. It's good news, then, that the OTHER tests even ran!

So, for what it's worth, the code seemed to fail on the use of EventEmitter. A class was dispatching an event and the corresponding listener was not triggered, so if you ever need to investigate further, maybe that's a start.

nebulon

I have ordered a RaspberryPi 4 now as well and plan to use that as a home server, so hopefully we can get this supported well in the future Very curious to get my hands on what you have already managed to get working!

robi

There's the new keyboard that includes an rPi inside too.

nebulon

@malvim I've also got a Raspberry Pi 4 now. Can you give an update on where you are and do you have forked repos with arm changes somewhere?

nebulon

To give a short update from my side, with the information already posted here, I was able to get the box (the main Cloudron controller process) up and running on the Pi 4 as well as successfully install Cloudron as such. I have only just started on the base image and the other addons, so any patches here are welcome.

To collect the changes, I am creating arm64 branches in the relevant repos, for example https://git.cloudron.io/cloudron/box/-/commits/arm64 and https://git.cloudron.io/cloudron/docker-base-image/-/commits/arm64

On top of this, I am trying to implement a better provisioning workflow for development, this is similar to the hotfix, so it is still aimed towards developers porting stuff to arm. More info on this later.

Lonkle

@nebulon So quickly! Nice work.

I want to convert my app to run on ARM so I'll be getting the same board you got to verify the OpenVPN Client and all of its features are able to work in an ARM environment.

This is so cool, love ARM.

nebulon

Well it really remains to be seen how powerful such a board is to run common apps through docker

Lonkle

@nebulon True, but even if it could run 1. Not even that well, imagine a future with the Rasberry Pi 8. ARM CPUs are getting insane.

mehdi

@nebulon said in Cloudron on a Raspberry pi?:

Well it really remains to be seen how powerful such a board is to run common apps through docker

I'm running like 4 containers on my Raspberry pi at home, it's super smooth, and it's only a RPi 2 ! The RPi 4 is gonna be more than capable of running a few apps for home usage I think

malvim

@nebulon Great work!

I got really caught up with work and personal stuff over the last weeks, so I was not able to keep on working.

On most addon repos, I was creating arm64 branches as well, but most of them were just a matter of changing the base image to not have the hash. I was using cloudron/baseimage and building it on the pi itself before trying to install cloudron, so I had it tagged locally with that name, and others wouldn't download from docker hub, using the local arm64 one instead.

I'll search for any changes I have made over here, but they're not a lot.

I'll post a suymmary tonight.

nebulon

@malvim right, it was same route for me then. I have just managed to get all addons and nextcloud to run. The notes here about mongodb were helpful!

Overall I don't think it will be included in the next release though, maybe as something experimental, but while we have a proof-of-concept now, it will still take quite some time to actually make it proper and of course all apps have to be rebuilt...

Lonkle

@nebulon Let me know when you send are finished with your branch (and how we'd build it differently) and I'll make sure my OpenVPN Client is ready!

girish

@lonk Can you make a new post for the VPN Client with the current status? I would like to discuss a bit whether it should be part of the Cloudron box code or an app.

Lonkle

@girish On it.

Lonkle

@malvim / @nebulon - I just picked up a Raspberry Pi, I'm going to start working on this myself. Have either of you gotten any further since your last posts in Nov?

nebulon

@lonk I basically got this working already, there are only a few changes required to make the base system work. That is very minor and has more to do with Ubuntu setup rather than our code base.

However the main reason we have not pursued this further is, that in order to support arm (arm64 to be precise), we have to rebuild all addon docker images for a start and patch up the code which creates addon container accordingly with different image tags and even once that is done, we then have to rebuild all app packages for arm as well, which means a lot of testing and potentially fixing apps upstream. This is a lot of work and this has to be done and tested for every app package update of course.

To give one simple example, any app using the go language, where we take the release builds, has to get some logic or separate Dockerfile to deal with arm.

I do think it is worth it in the long run to support arm, also because VPS provider start adding arm options and at least the raspberrypi 400 showed okish performance while I was doing the proof-of-concept, however we will need a different way to build packages and run the selenium tests for both architectures reliably. This is currently done manually by us due to the lack of such CI/CD pipelines in place.

So all this is certainly doable but unless we see higher demand, it is hard to justify the extra work and for the time being essentially at least double the work per app update.

Lonkle

@nebulon Well, that sounds to me like like not much work needs to be done, I'll do some PoC stuff myself and see the difficulty of converting the app. Docker is supposed to support multi arch so it's a matter of getting all the developer's to support multi arch upstream. So, I'll start submitting tickets for those things. Thanks for telling me where you were at, do you have your POC up anywhere yet?

nebulon

@lonk for the core box code, essentially only two things were needed. The branch is at https://git.cloudron.io/cloudron/box/-/commits/arm64/

iamthefij

@nebulon said in Cloudron on a Raspberry pi?:

To give one simple example, any app using the go language, where we take the release builds, has to get some logic or separate Dockerfile to deal with arm.

I have some experience with this and have set up my own multi-arch go build pipelines using a single Dockerfile for some of my other apps: minitor-go, dockron, tag-checker, and for Python ones too: original minitor.

Here's a sample repo demonstrating my process: multiarch-pipeline-test. It's easier these days if your server has docker buildx though.

Also, since with Cloudron we're most often building things that exist upstream, here's an example multi-arch build repo I have for the Golang project cadvisor. It will auto build a particular cadvisor version on a git tag so I just need to create a release on my Gitea server and the build is started and deployed. With cadvisor, I have to clone the whole repo and cross-compile the cadvisor binary for arm becaue there is no pre-compiled binary. If there is, it should be even easier to just pull that binary.

Anyway, I'm happy to help if there are any applications that may be critical to be ported.

nebulon

@iamthefij nice thanks for the pointers, when we got started on this this will help. I tried to use docker buildx but I couldn't get it to work and produce binaries which would actually run on the raspberrypi, so I ended up using the raspberrypi to build the images itself, which surprisingly showed how beefy that board has become

robi

@nebulon careful with compiling on rPi's as they can overheat and burn out Having a small heatsink or fan handy helps a lot.

nebulon

@robi yup, I have a case for it with cooling

yusf

@nebulon You have that case that is the heatsink? It’s very nice.

malvim

@nebulon yup! I tried it as well, and could not get it to work. building on the pi itself proved to be
the easiest way...

nebulon

@yusf yes exactly that, makes it feel like a strong brick you could throw around

iamthefij

@nebulon would all binaries not run (eg. /bin/sh from within the base) or just Go binaries that you compiled within the buildx pipeline? If it's the former, it may not be using the right base image. If it's the latter and the former works, perhaps setting the GOARCH variable via a build-arg would solve it.

Note: I personally have not used buildx yet, but from what I can see it's a simpler, automatic version of what I'm trying to do with qemu that handles the manifest for you. So I think you should just be able to build without the muckiness of all the build-args I pass, but if not you can play with mixing those in until it works.

I think buildx is supported on my laptop, so I can give it a try, but it's not supported on my CI box yet, so I haven't switched.

MOrochena

I was wondering what the current state of this is, as I would be extremely interested in migrating my Cloudron setup to a Raspberry pi.

girish

The project has stalled a bit unfortunately So far, there's not much interest in ARM server (apart from hosting on pi), I was hoping we will see more ARM servers mainstream...

malvim

Hey! I was working on this, but stumbled upon two issues:

As @girish said, there's not much interest in ARM servers, so it would be very low priority to integrate having different architectures into cloudron main code; and
I wanted to do this so I could host my cloudron at home, but since mos ISPs where I live won't let you expose port 80, 443, 25, etc., I lost interest in pursuing this.

If cloudron would support having nginx on custom ports, that would be cool for people wanting to host at home and with the same problem, but I think this is also not a priority now, as not too many people seem to be interested in this.

It's not too hard to make cloudron's install script work on a raspberry pi, though, but you'd have to maintain a fork, which was also not my interest at the time. If you want to, though, DM me and I can give you a few pointers.

robi

@malvim There's a nice thread on all the different tools you can use to expose apps under dev or home run services:
https://forum.cloudron.io/topic/6231/ngrok-alternatives-awesome-tunneling

Even if you don't have a domain, any subdomain provider will work, and I'm sure many of the forum members could offer a container that does just that on one of their subdomains if you don't already have one and a VPS.

malvim

@robi hey, thanks for the reply!

I'll take a look.

I currently do own a domain and run cloudron on a rented server, but I'm from Brazil and stuff is pretty bad here right now, and it's starting to be a bit too expensive for my purposes.

I thought about hosting at home, but stumbled upon this problem. I'll take a look ad that thread and see what I can use. Thanks again!

robi

@malvim said in Cloudron on a Raspberry pi?:

I currently do own a domain and run cloudron on a rented server, but I'm from Brazil and stuff is pretty bad here right now

We also have a thread on that.. search for "cheap vps" ..
my profile has a link to the affordable VPS servers I use.

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Cloudron on a Raspberry pi?