Here's how I set up a media PC using Kodi (formerly XMBC) and a Raspberry Pi 4.

Hardware

The hardware is fairly straightforward, but here's what I ended up getting:

You'll probably want to add a remote control to that setup. I used an old Streamzap I had lying around.

Installing the OS on the SD-card

Plug the SD card into a computer using a USB adapter.

Download the imager and use it to install Raspbian on the SDcard.

Then you can simply plug the SD card into the Pi and boot.

System configuration

Using sudo raspi-config, I changed the following:

  • Set hostname (System Options)
  • Wait for network at boot (System Options): needed for NFS
  • Disable screen blanking (Display Options)
  • Enable ssh (Interface Options)
  • Configure locale, timezone and keyboard (Localisation Options)
  • Set WiFi country (Localisation Options)

Then I enabled automatic updates:

apt install unattended-upgrades anacron

echo 'Unattended-Upgrade::Origins-Pattern {
        "origin=Debian,codename=${distro_codename},label=Debian";
        "origin=Debian,codename=${distro_codename},label=Debian-Security";
        "origin=Raspbian,codename=${distro_codename},label=Raspbian";
        "origin=Raspberry Pi Foundation,codename=${distro_codename},label=Raspberry Pi Foundation";
};' | sudo tee /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/51unattended-upgrades-raspbian

Headless setup

Should you need to do the setup without a monitor, you can enable ssh by inserting the SD card into a computer and then creating an empty file called ssh in the boot partition.

Plug it into your router and boot it up. Check the IP that it received by looking at the active DHCP leases in your router's admin panel.

Then login:

ssh -o PreferredAuthentications=password -o PubkeyAuthentication=no pi@192.168.1.xxx

using the default password of raspberry.

Hardening

In order to secure the Pi, I followed most of the steps I usually take when setting up a new Linux server.

I created a new user account for admin and ssh access:

adduser francois
addgroup sshuser
adduser francois sshuser
adduser francois sudo

and changed the pi user password to a random one:

pwgen -sy 32
sudo passwd pi

before removing its admin permissions:

deluser pi adm
deluser pi sudo
deluser pi dialout
deluser pi cdrom
deluser pi lpadmin

Finally, I enabled the Uncomplicated Firewall by installing its package:

apt install ufw

and only allowing ssh connections.

After starting ufw using systemctl start ufw.service, you can check that it's configured as expected using ufw status. It should display the following:

Status: active

To                         Action      From
--                         ------      ----
22/tcp                     ALLOW       Anywhere
22/tcp (v6)                ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)

Installing Kodi

Kodi is very straightforward to install since it's now part of the Raspbian repositories:

apt install kodi

To make it start at boot/login, while still being able to exit and use other apps if needed:

cp /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/
echo "@kodi" >> ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart

Network File System

In order to avoid having to have all media storage connected directly to the Pi via USB, I setup an NFS share over my local network.

First, give static IP allocations to the server and the Pi in your DHCP server, then add it to the /etc/hosts file on your NFS server:

192.168.1.3    pi

Install the NFS server package:

apt instal nfs-kernel-server

Setup the directories to share in /etc/exports:

/pub/movies    pi(ro,insecure,all_squash,subtree_check)
/pub/tv_shows  pi(ro,insecure,all_squash,subtree_check)

Open the right ports on your firewall by putting this in /etc/network/iptables.up.rules:

-A INPUT -s 192.168.1.3 -p udp -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -s 192.168.1.0/24 -p tcp --dport 111 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -s 192.168.1.0/24 -p udp --dport 111 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -s 192.168.1.0/24 -p udp --dport 123 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -s 192.168.1.0/24 -p tcp --dport 600:1124 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -s 192.168.1.0/24 -p udp --dport 600:1124 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -s 192.168.1.0/24 -p tcp --dport 2049 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -s 192.168.1.0/24 -p udp --dport 2049 -j ACCEPT

Finally, apply all of these changes:

iptables-apply
systemctl restart nfs-kernel-server.service

On the Pi, put the server's static IP in /etc/hosts:

192.168.1.2    fileserver

and this in /etc/fstab:

fileserver:/data/movies  /kodi/movies  nfs  ro,bg,hard,noatime,async,nolock  0  0
fileserver:/data/tv      /kodi/tv      nfs  ro,bg,hard,noatime,async,nolock  0  0

Then create the mount points and mount everything:

mkdir -p /kodi/movies
mkdir /kodi/tv
mount /kodi/movies
mount /kodi/tv