Raspberry Pi Home Server Features

Practical, reproducible features to run on a Raspberry Pi (or other Linux host). Each feature is documented under features/ and can be enabled independently using the provided scripts and blocklists.

Prerequisites

• A Linux host (Raspberry Pi OS recommended) with SSH access.
• Docker and Docker Compose (for Pi-hole container).
• Basic familiarity with running shell scripts.

Prepare the host (quick)

Run these commands on the machine that will host Pi-hole:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh
sudo apt install -y docker-compose
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/raspberry-pi-home-server.git
cd raspberry-pi-home-server
cp .env.example .env        # edit .env to set a secure WEBPASSWORD
./scripts/setup-pi.sh

This installs Docker/docker-compose (if missing), creates persistent data directories and starts Pi-hole using the repository scripts.

Import blocklists

After Pi-hole is running, import the included blocklists:

./scripts/import-blocklists.sh

Network configuration

• Preferred: set your router DHCP to hand out the Pi IP as Primary DNS so all devices use Pi-hole.
• Alternative: configure DNS manually on specific devices.

Features & Quickstarts

Each feature contains a README with details. Below are concise quickstart commands to get the two main features working.

Ad-free YouTube on Google TV (Pi-hole + SmartTubeNext)

1. Ensure Pi-hole is running (see Prepare the host above).
2. Optionally import SmartTV/YouTube blocklists:

./scripts/import-blocklists.sh

3. On Google TV install SmartTubeNext via the Downloader app and the APK URL:

https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTubeNext/releases/latest/download/smarttube_next.apk

See features/ad-blocking/google-tv/README.md for testing and details.

Ad-free RTP Play (Pi-hole + device-level blocking)

If RTP Play shows ads on your device (mobile / Android TV / browser) you can follow this network-first workflow to identify ad domains and block them safely.

1. Preflight checks on the host:

chmod +x scripts/preflight.sh
./scripts/preflight.sh

2. Capture traffic while playing content that shows ads (example 120s):

./scripts/capture-traffic.sh <DEVICE_IP> 120

3. Extract candidate domains from the generated pcap:

./scripts/extract-domains.sh captures/rtpplay-<device-ip>-<timestamp>.pcap > /tmp/rtp-domains.txt

4. Curate and add ad domains interactively:

./scripts/review-domains.sh /tmp/rtp-domains.txt

5. Import curated blocklist into Pi-hole and update gravity:

./scripts/import-blocklists.sh
pihole -g

Notes: if ads are server-side stitched into the stream (same host as video) DNS blocking will likely break playback; prefer device-level filtering (AdGuard local VPN) or client-side solutions in that case.

Safety & Maintenance

• Edit ./.env to set a secure WEBPASSWORD before exposing the admin UI.
• Back up Pi-hole settings and DNS data: see docs/BACKUP.md and scripts/backup.sh.
• If using systemd to auto-start, update the example scripts/pihole.service with the correct working directory.

Files of interest

• scripts/ — installer and investigation helpers (setup-pi.sh, capture-traffic.sh, extract-domains.sh, review-domains.sh, preflight.sh, import-blocklists.sh, backup.sh)
• configs/blocklists/ — curated lists and per-feature placeholder files (e.g., rtp-play.txt)
• features/ — feature-specific docs and guides

Contributing blocklists

If you find ad domains for a feature, open a PR that adds them to the appropriate configs/blocklists/<feature>.txt and include a short note about how the domains were discovered (pcap/tshark lines or other evidence).

Enjoy your raspberry pi home server!