Windows/XBMC frontend?

[Laser411]

Is there a way to run a virtualized (or otherwise) version of windows or XMBC as the front end for Freenas 9.3? So instead of the console shown on the display (in my case through HDMI), another OS would be displayed?

I have the hardware for it:

32GB of ddr4 ram
i7-6700k
and a z170 motherboard.

Please point me in the right direction, my end goal would be to use the nas to output movies and shows directly to the tv, preferably through windows media center.

 

[mattbbpl]

Help me understand what you want to do. That hardware would be to run a front-end client (XBMC or Windows) and NOT FreeNAS, correct? You don't want to use an i7 with FreeNAS because of the lack of ECC RAM.

I run XBMC/Kodi (many of them, actually) as front end clients to FreeNAS using the Emby plugin which integrates with XBMC/Kodi quite well. But the XBMC machines are separate physical machines from the FreeNAS box. FreeNAS requires pretty specific hardware that is WAAAAY overkill for XBMC/Kodi (I'm running most of these clients on AMD E-350s), so separating them is what you probably want to do.

 

[Laser411]

Unfortunately I already had the hardware and have no other use for it. So I'm accepting the possibilities for data loss. But I want to incorporate both freenas and windows into the same machine. Basically, I'm using a tv as a monitor for the machine and would like to have a vm output to the tv

 

[mattbbpl]

OK, fair enough. Do you need FreeNAS at all in that case? Or would Windows (which Kodi can run on natively) with a flat hard drive system be a better choice?

Edit: I'm not trying to be obstinate by asking, "Why FreeNAS?" again. This is very much a situation where you are staring down a potentially hazardous path, and knowing why you have chosen that path may reveal that it isn't necessary at all. There may be a rainbow and butterfly laden path that gets you where you need to be just a few paces to the right of this one.

 

[Laser411]

Because I do have many devices and the need to run other services as well as access my data remotely, it feels like freenas is a good fit.

Running transmission, couch potato, mineos, and some other stuff as well.

 

[Jailer]

You do understand that FreeNAS is a server appliance and not a desktop/HTPC correct? FreeNAS will run all those services but I do believe you'd be better served with a client computer connected to your tv and let FreeNAS run headless and do what it does best.

 

[mattbbpl]

You can run all of that stuff without FreeNAS. I think even on Windows directly. I KNOW that's the case with both Kodi and Emby (which would give you easy outside access to your media files).

I think you have the hardware for a pretty amazing media server - just not a FreeNAS server.

With Windows (and not FreeNAS) as the backbone, you could even double it as a gaming/Steam machine, making it even more amazing for your purposes since it will be hooked up directly to a TV.

Unless you have specific data-integrity and archival needs, I would stay away from FreeNAS for what you're going for. And if you do have those needs, then you need ECC capable hardware.

 

[cyberjock]

OK, fair enough. Do you need FreeNAS at all in that case? Or would Windows (which Kodi can run on natively) with a flat hard drive system be a better choice?

Edit: I'm not trying to be obstinate by asking, "Why FreeNAS?" again. This is very much a situation where you are staring down a potentially hazardous path, and knowing why you have chosen that path may reveal that it isn't necessary at all. There may be a rainbow and butterfly laden path that gets you where you need to be just a few paces to the right of this one.

Dude, you just made the most awesome post in all of the FreeNAS forums for politely saying "FreeNAS may not be for you". Most people would write something less eloquent and would probably turn off the reader, but you did an amazing job writing that!

 

[mattbbpl]

Dude, you just made the most awesome post in all of the FreeNAS forums for politely saying "FreeNAS may not be for you". Most people would write something less eloquent and would probably turn off the reader, but you did an amazing job writing that!

Haha, thanks. I understand where he's coming from. This stuff is HARD! (Especially if you aren't in IT and lack some of the foundational concepts and terms)

 

[mattbbpl]

OP, I gave this some more thought on the way home, and what I would do if I were you is install Windows as the base OS on this machine, install Kodi natively on the Windows OS, install your choice of Emby/Plex on the Windows OS to provide external access to your files (although Emby integrates better with Kodi), install all of the other clients you want on Windows that have Windows distributions, and then fire up some type of VM with a Linux/FreeBSD distro to run your desired applications that don't have a Windows client (if there are any at all that don't have a Windows distribution).

This is slightly more complicated than installing a bunch of apps on a single Windows OS, but it's way less complicated than trying to host a a tree of OSes three levels deep (which is what you'd be doing if you attempted to install Windows with a VM of FreeNAS with jails for these services in FreeNAS).

 

[Mirfster]

Dude, you just made the most awesome post in all of the FreeNAS forums for politely saying "FreeNAS may not be for you". Most people would write something less eloquent and would probably turn off the reader, but you did an amazing job writing that!

Makes me ponder how jgreco would have fashioned the response...

 

[RemyZ]

Inception three levels deep. I like the sound of that.

 

[mattbbpl]

Inception three levels deep. I like the sound of that.

And just like Inception, the deeper you go, the less sense it makes.

 

[Laser411]

I definitely want freenas as the main OS so it has full resources/access, my question is more on all systems, not specifically freenas. However, What I want to do is output the jail or virtual machine out via one of the graphics cards, maybe an extra mouse or keyboard assigned to it or something. In a similar fashion some embedded systems that use clients that don't have an actual disk but use a host to boot off, although cutting out the middle man and just outputting the VM directly to a monitor.

 

[mattbbpl]

You're request is stepping outside the bounds of FreeNAS and into the wider area of system architecture. Which is fine with me, I love that kind of stuff. However, you're likely to get less support/fewer responses on this board given it's FreeNAS centric nature.

It also carries with it the caveat that we need to design the system around the requirements and not try to shoehorn a system into something that it's not designed to do.

Let's start with analyzing your requirements. We need to separate what you want to do from the tech involved in this step, so don't think about FreeNAS at all. We established some requirements above that it seems are no longer valid (such as Windows support), so let's start fresh here.

What do you want the system to do?