Welcome in. This thread is the front door of d/sparkbox, so if you are new here, say hello. A few things people like to share: - Who you are, in a sentence or two. - What your box is (NAS, mini PC, old laptop, a VM somewhere) and what you run on it, or plan to run. - What you self-host for. Photos, movies, getting off the big clouds, a home lab to learn on, keeping your family's stuff in the house. All of it counts. Free or Legend does not matter here. Nobody is checking. A box that runs one app is as welcome as a rack. Please reply in this thread rather than starting a new post, so introductions stay in one place and people can find each other. If you have a problem to solve, that gets its own post and Chris or someone here will pick it up. Glad you are here.
43 replies
Ashford wrote:
Hello everyone. French Ashford here, I do a boring work and I just bought a Ugreen DXP4800 with only 1 disk for now, because my old laptop that I used as a server died so It was time to get a real NAS and not a shitty 8years old laptop ! I plan on buying 3more 8TB disk as soon as money permits i, and I use it mainly for Movies and series for my family. I'll add some photo storage when I get all 4 disks in, and probably try to also store some music to use with Finamp !
Wildwood32 wrote:
Hello Demox/Sparkbox community. Courtney (Male) state employed on thee West Coasst trying to afford life with homelab to cut out paying for I have for little to nothing, and loving it all. UGREEN Nas DXP4800 40tb 1tb SSD mwdia stack/ pinchflat/ersatv/immich/nextcloud/grafana, prometheus/plex/syncthing Raspberry Pi 4b Mobile server in my Truck camper, running plex (without media center) kiwix/ file server/ and some other light weight apps for offline use (cellular backup) Potential 3rd and final. 2012 Mac Mini running ubuntu server 16gb Ram/ 500gb ssd as strictly for the Local AI app. I do this to keep some money in the pocket, keeps me out of trouble and is great hobby for people who want to make the time forit.
mrga wrote:
Hello Demox/Sparkbox comunity. Mrga , bussiness owner here from Serbia. I am using Sparkbox because I wanted to make my own server for years , even trying to do so , and now finaly I manege to do some good stuff. I was using synology and now i stop using it , gone to linux server with SparkBox , made Nextcloud working for my team to colaborate OnlyOffice , personal chat with matrix (that I still having problem with shuting down) and sharing files trought team.
hulkberry wrote:
Hey everybody, I call myself Hulkberry, 38years, male, from Germany. I am pretty much a rookie in regards of using Linux and homelabing (I only switched from ms win to Bazzite like, 6 month ago), but my experience so far has been great. I'm looking forward to all the exchange with the other homelab nerds on here, and I really like the sparkbox project so far. Great job, Tom!! I treated myself with a UGREEN DXP6800 Pro, and stuffed it with second hand 6TB IronWolf HDDs, which were hard to acquire in this day and age. My Sparkbox's goal is to replace as many of the known paid services as possible, not only for me but also a small circle of family and friends (i.e. some cloud storage per user, Jellyfin/Seerr, Navidrome, Immich etc...), so I have a lot of work and learning in front of me :)
tomspark wrote:
Hey Wild / Courtney! Thanks for the introduction. Love your setup. Using all your devices is quite good. I myself have a strange collection of devices! I even bought this weird linux handheld and was using it to do the AI support here for a week or so Lol!
tomspark wrote:
Hey! I'm running my sparkbox on my ugreen device too! The same one! It's actually partly what inspired the creation of this project!
A-Dubb wrote:
Howdy My name is A-Dubb My setup includes a UGreen NAS DXP8800 Plus with 8 bays totaling 128tb i also use a Lenovo IdeaPad strictly to access everything on my server. I'm a family man with 5 children ranging from 11 to 28. I'm also a grandfather. I am a huge video entertainment junkie and recently started building my media empire and server that my entire family can access from anywhere in the world that they find themselves. That way we can cut the cord and stop paying there exorbitant monopoly prices. i just went from paying about $270 for cable on top of a bunch of other steaming apps to just $60 a month for Gig internet . I have 1,932 Movies and 354 TV series and growing so my family should be able to enjoy themselves for a long time.
tomspark wrote:
Welcome Serbian friend! Yes you are the perfect example. Self hosting can be super annoying but here we want to strip out the annoying part and leave the fun part. Let me know if you have any pain points we can address :).
tomspark wrote:
Hey Hulkberry! Agreed. I had to wait like a month for my HDDs to ship lol! Although I run the ugreen that is a step below yours. No worries! I myself am still learning. I might have made too many apps. 😂
kaufman51 wrote:
Good evening, I'm Brian, a RN in Houston. I have a Ugreen DXP2800 with 2 4TB drives. I use the Media Center 100%, I never got Lidarr or Chaptarr to work but no worries. Down the road I want to upgrade to a DSP4800 before getting Immich for more storage. I also have Pi-Hole but the Dashboard shows 0% add blocks, also no worries.
tomspark wrote:
What were your issues? I can escalate the issues for you and help you resolve them!
kaufman51 wrote:
For both Lidarr and Chaptarr, it opens a page that says This site can't be reached. I asked the AI for help, but did not resolve the issues.
Chris wrote:
Thanks for the detail. I can help, but I need to separate an app problem from an address or network problem. Which device is running SparkBox (for example, a UGREEN NAS, Linux PC, Windows/WSL, or something else), which SparkBox version is installed, and what exact address are you opening for Lidarr and Chaptarr? Also, do both addresses fail from the same device? Please do not include passwords, keys, or tokens.
kaufman51 wrote:
Ugreen nas is running SparkBox, Current version v1.6.708, Lidarr address http://192.168.1.101:8686/ Chaptarr address http://192.168.1.101:8789/
Chris wrote:
Thanks — those are the expected SparkBox addresses for Lidarr (8686) and Chaptarr (8789) on your UGREEN NAS. Because both fail from the same browser, let’s test whether the NAS answers at all before changing either app. From the same device where the browser fails, run these read-only checks: curl -sS -I --max-time 5 http://192.168.1.101:8686 curl -sS -I --max-time 5 http://192.168.1.101:8789 Paste only the first status line from each, or the error text (no passwords, keys, or tokens). A 200, 3xx, or 401 means the app is reachable and we’ll investigate the browser/app response; a timeout or connection refusal means the LAN path or service binding is the next thing to check.
mike wrote:
Hello I am 41 male from Canada. I have hosted jellyfin on my personal computer for the last year. I am looking into setting up a media box , jellyfin immich and some form of filestorage. The computer I have picked is a i5-8500 32gb 4tb + DAS. I am looking forward to getting this dashboard up and running as it seems very positive and looks amazing.
Chris wrote:
Welcome, Mike! That sounds like a great next step from hosting Jellyfin on your personal computer. What operating system are you planning to run on the new PC? That’ll help point you toward the right setup guidance.
mike wrote:
For easy of use I was planning to run windows 11 as I have never touched anything else.
Chris wrote:
That PC has plenty of room to get started, and starting with Windows 11 makes sense if it’s what you know. One detail before I point you to setup guidance: have you already installed Docker Desktop, or are you still deciding how to run Docker? Those are different setups on Windows.
mike wrote:
I was have already installed TSB from the download page for windows. I can see everything up nothing is working. I will work on trouble shooting this.
Chris wrote:
Thanks Mike, and sorry, my last question sent you the wrong way. SparkBox for Windows brings its own small Linux with Docker inside it, so you don't need Docker Desktop and there's nothing to set up there. On a fresh Windows install, "everything shows as up but nothing opens" usually comes down to the VPN. The download apps (Sonarr, Radarr, Prowlarr, qBittorrent, SABnzbd and a few others) run behind your VPN. Until a VPN key is saved and the VPN actually connects, they don't answer at all, even though the dashboard lists them. Jellyfin doesn't wait for the VPN, so it's a good app to test: from the same PC, http://localhost:8096 should open its setup page. One check tells us which case you're in. Open the dashboard at http://localhost:8443 and click the tile of an app that isn't working (Sonarr, for example). The dashboard shows a note explaining why it won't open, such as "waiting for the VPN to connect" or "hasn't started". Reply here with the app you clicked and the note's title, word for word. If no note appears and the browser just says "can't reach this page", tell us that instead. Please don't post keys or passwords.
mike wrote:
I currently only have Jellyfin installed. When trying to reach it from localhost:8097 and I get "can't reach this page" . Toms AI says it is up and running but I am unable to connect to it.
Chris wrote:
Sorry—I pointed you to the wrong port earlier. The Windows download you installed is the standalone Jellyfin module, which publishes Jellyfin on port 8097; 8096 is the Media bundle, so 8097 is the right address for your setup. Please click the Jellyfin tile in your SparkBox dashboard and tell me the status it shows (for example, running or stopped). I've corrected this guidance so it won't send the next person to the wrong port.
Chris wrote:
Hi PMC25, welcome! Glad you’re here. What kind of box are you running, and what are you hoping to self-host?
imcntv wrote:
Hey everyone! I’m a tinkerer at heart and an AI enthusiast, working on cutting the cord in my spare time. I have two machines: an Ubuntu Linux box for testing and a Synology NAS where I eventually move everything once it’s working. Right now, I mostly use the NAS for movies and photos. Glad to meet everyone! Tom, thanks for all the work you’ve put into this. Now, if I could just figure out how to move my Docker/Portainer setup over to Synology without breaking anything, I’d be in good shape! I also need to figure out how to switch from Jellyfin to Plex. I bought a lifetime Plex Pass years ago, so I’d rather put that to use.
Chris wrote:
Welcome! I can help you plan both, but moving an existing Docker/Portainer setup and switching media servers are separate changes, so I don’t want to guess and risk your files. What Synology model and DSM version are you using, and is SparkBox already installed on the NAS? Please don’t move or delete any Docker data yet.
imcntv wrote:
I don't mind setting up a new instance on synology container manager but I still want to remove the jellyfin component and point to my exist plex instance running
Chris wrote:
Good plan, and you can keep using your own Plex. Two honest notes first. Jellyfin can't be removed from Media Center. It's a fixed part of that app bundle, and there is no setting to switch it off. You don't have to use it, though. It just sits there, and nothing forces you to open it. Your existing Plex can serve everything SparkBox downloads. Sonarr and Radarr file finished shows and movies into two folders inside SparkBox's media folder: TV and Movies. (The media folder is shown as Media Root in SparkBox's settings.) In your Plex, add a TV library pointed at that TV folder and a Movies library pointed at that Movies folder. New downloads then show up in Plex like anything else. Your lifetime Plex Pass stays with your Plex account, so it keeps working. On Synology: SparkBox isn't installed from Container Manager. It's installed with the SparkBox install command over SSH and then runs on the NAS's own Docker. We officially support UGREEN NAS and Ubuntu/Debian machines. On a Synology the installer carries on with a warning: it may work, but we can't support it as fully. Your Ubuntu box is the safest place to start. One question so I can give you exact steps: which machine will run SparkBox, and is your current Plex running on the Synology or on the Ubuntu box?
stromapagen wrote:
Hi, New to sparkbox, i use it on a intel Nuc with ubuntu, mainly for media use.
Chris wrote:
Welcome to SparkBox! An Intel NUC running Ubuntu is a nice little home-media box. What are you planning to run on it?
stromapagen wrote:
Just planning to use media center
Chris wrote:
Nice! Are you leaning toward Jellyfin, Plex, or something else? If you tell me what you want to watch on (TV, phone, browser), folks here can help you pick a good fit.
Bozz64 wrote:
I have Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS on a Mele Quieter 2 Mini PC, it has an Intel® Celeron® J4125 × 4 with 8G of Ram, a 512GB SSD NVME drive ( gen 3) I have a paid subscription to NordVPN, ( for my area I found surfshark too slow) I am in Ontario Canada. I have been trying to make the sparkbox, legend version work and have a paid sub to NZBGeek for my indexer. I will admit. getting it work has taken days. and still having issues
Chris wrote:
Welcome, Bozz64, and I'm sorry it has taken days. Chris here (SparkBox's support assistant, an AI). I've answered your "where did it go?" post in detail. The short version: SparkBox runs its own NordVPN connection from the WireGuard key you saved in SparkBox, so the NordVPN app on the mini PC isn't needed. While that app is connected, it can cut SparkBox's apps off the internet and stop your other devices from reaching the dashboard. That would explain much of the VPN trouble you've had. Turning off the app's autoconnect (nordvpn set autoconnect off) and disconnecting it is the first thing to try. The steps are in that post, so let's carry on there.
ncputerman wrote:
Hi. My name is Darren. I have the legend on my server. But it is now showing that it is free. Any one knows how to fix it?
Chris wrote:
Welcome, Darren. Chris here (SparkBox's support assistant, an AI). Your Legend purchase isn't lost: the box shows Free when it no longer has your Legend key active on it, and that is fixed by entering the key again. The two usual reasons: 1. One key covers up to 3 SparkBoxes. Activating it on a new install (a reinstall counts) frees the oldest one's slot, and that box drops to Free. Settings → License then shows a note saying the slot was released. 2. The box was set up with a free key (just an email, no key pasted). Settings → License then shows LICENSED with "Free personal-use license". Use Remove License there first, and the activation form appears. Either way, the fix is the same: in Settings → License, type the email you bought with and paste your Legend key (it starts SB-PRO-), then press Activate. If you've lost the key, https://tomsparkbox.com/recover sends it again to the email on your order. Please don't post the key here. If it still says Free after that, tell me which of the two messages above you saw, or the exact error shown under Activate, and I'll take it from there.
ncputerman wrote:
If I remove the Key. It says that the key can not be removed.
Chris wrote:
Sorry—I gave you the wrong step. The Remove License control is only available when this box has a recognized paid license active; a free personal-use license doesn't have a key there to remove, so that advice won't fix the Free status. Please check Settings → License and tell me the status/message shown there (but don't post your key or purchase email). I've corrected this guidance so it won't send someone else to a control that isn't available in that state.
ncputerman wrote:
I am in Settings License Your License "Legend" Last night it was showing that is was Legend but this morning is Free
Chris wrote:
Sorry—I previously guessed this was a free personal-use key and suggested removing it. You’ve now confirmed the License page showed Legend and then changed to Free, so that was the wrong direction. This is an account/licence issue that needs a private check: please open a ticket at https://demox.world/support and Anthony will look into it there. Please don’t post your licence key or purchase email here.
Venom_Cask wrote:
Hey everyone! I'm a single dad from New Hampshire, currently studying IT and cybersecurity, and a longtime PC enthusiast who's finally taking the plunge into building a dedicated home server. Rather than buying a prebuilt NAS, I'm repurposing my previous gaming PC. It's running an Intel i7-7700K with 32GB of RAM, and I'm rebuilding it in a NAS-oriented case with an LSI HBA, dual-port 10GbE networking, and a collection of enterprise and consumer HDDs I've accumulated over the years. My plans go a bit beyond media hosting. I'm looking to create a centralized hub for my household with Jellyfin, automated media management, file and photo storage, LAN game caching, network-wide DNS filtering, and secure remote access. I'm also using the project as an opportunity to expand my Linux, networking, and virtualization experience alongside my studies. I'm currently leaning toward Proxmox as the foundation, with SparkBox Legend running inside its own Debian VM while other services operate independently. My main priorities are reliability, privacy, security, and having the flexibility to experiment without making the entire household dependent on any one application. I recently picked up Legend but haven't deployed it yet, as I'm still getting the hardware together and planning out the storage and networking. I've been reading through the documentation and community discussions, and it's been interesting seeing the different approaches everyone is taking. Looking forward to learning from everyone, sharing my own experiences as the build progresses, and seeing where SparkBox goes from here. It's certainly an ambitious project, Tom!
boba wrote:
Hi folks. I got tired of the streaming services buying up culturally-relevant content and then arbitrarily locking some of it away so people can no longer watch/listen to it. Netflix's "leaving soon" policy really burns me up because I like to watch things again after a few years. I find that as I mature, I often discover a deeper appreciation for certain movies and shows upon re-watching them. This frustration with Big Streaming™ got me interested in setting up a Jellyfin server, then I found out about the arr stack that supports it. I stumbled upon an old script of Tom's that installed the basics in Docker containers (I suppose the precursor to today's TomSparkBox) and gave it a go. It worked well on the mini-PC I had laying around. It's fortunate that I had installed Debian on it using LVM volumes because I quickly filled up its measly (by today's standards) 256 GB drive. I happened upon a 2 TB SSD and LVM made it quite easy to use a USB SATA adapter to move my working system from the 256 GB drive to the 2 TB drive without having to reinstall anything. As one can guess, it didn't take me long to fill up the 2 TB drive either. I'd had quite a bit of VMware experience but when Broadcom bought them and quadrupled our license cost, my employer started looking for alternatives. As part of that looking, I evaluated Proxmox. We ultimately went with a different virtualization solution but it left me wanting to get more experience with Proxmox. As luck would have it, a friend offered to sell me an old Supermicro 2U server with 8 hot-swap drive bays and 2 non-hot-swap bays. It already had a pair of 500 GB SATA drives installed and I already had a bunch of SAS drives hanging around without a computer that could talk to them. The light bulb turned on and I bought the server for a song before he could come to his senses and raise the price. It's at least 15 years old so it's not exactly a Ferrari, but I paid next to nothing for 16 cores, 96 GB of RAM, and a SAS RAID card. I replaced the internal fans because the bearings were starting to sound pretty bad, and I bought a brand new pair of Supermicro's quiet-series power supplies on eBay to replace the ones that were in the machine originally. That power supply and fan swap made a HUGE difference in the noise level, but I digress. I mirrored the two internal hard drives and installed Proxmox on them. Then I put six 4 TB drives into the hot-swap bays and created a RAIDZ2 pool to hold media. I installed SSDs in the two remaining bays and set up a mirrored pool to hold the VMs' virtual disks. I created a VM, installed Debian on it, and installed the then-current version of TomSparkBox in the VM. I have plenty of memory and disk left for other VMs, and I am still using the mini-PC as my Jellyfin instance because it has a newer CPU that can do hardware transcoding. I exported the media volume via NFS so the mini-PC's Jellyfin can read it and I can easily add content to it from other computers. I've since grown my media library from 1.7 TB to 12.5. It's so much easier to stream content to my TV from my own streaming server rather than keeping track of Blu-ray disks and CDs. And if a movie occasionally finds its way from a "real" streaming provider to my box, well then I don't have to worry whether they've locked it away later when I want to re-watch it. I'm still paying for the streaming services so in my mind it's just time- or format-shifting which the courts have already determined is permissible in my country. So there you have my accidental journey into the TomSparkBox world, and I'm loving it!