Trying to run Pi-hole on Debian

Operating Systems & Open Source Linux
1

Hey guys, Wendell’s recent video on Pi-hole inspired me to take on that project and I’ve run into some issues.

I had recently started playing around with FreeNAS to finally make my first home server and tried to create a VM with a Linux distro to run Pi-hole since FreeNAS doesn’t have an add-on for it.

Well, it didn’t work out, so instead I decided to wipe FreeNAS from to drive and just replace it with running Linux instead. I spent quite some time troubleshooting the VM so I figured it was better to move on.

I’ve tried installing 3 different distros: Ubuntu, CentOS, and most recently Debian

Debian is the one I’ve made the most progress with, but the end result of all 3 of them has finally led me to this conclusion: graphics drivers. Even if I’m able to complete a distro install, eventually I’ll get lines on the screen, so my best guess is that once Linux tries to load a GUI, the system doesn’t know what to do.

I’m using the motherboard graphics instead of a discrete card. Specifically this one:

GA-MA785GM-US2H

As you can see, it uses ATI Radeon HD 4200.

I found a page on AMD’s website where it basically says I’m out of luck since it’s an older GPU.

So, I figured, “Alright, if I can’t run Linux with a GUI, maybe I can just run it in command line mode since it doesn’t seem to need graphics drivers for that. Then I can use the curl command on Pi-hole’s website to install Pi-Hole which will at least let me manage it from the web ui.”

Welp, now the next brick wall I’ve hit is that I can’t even get it to connect to the internet.

I tried following the steps in a YouTube video called “Debian Network Configuration.”

No dice. Even after using VI to configure the network interface, and then use ifup in the CLI, it’s still down.

Are there any creative solutions you can think of for me? Or do I just need to upgrade my hardware?

Thanks in advance.

2

Debian is the one I’ve made the most progress with, but the end result of all 3 of them has finally led me to this conclusion: graphics drivers.

Debian’s Free Software Guidelines keeps certain device firmware out of the default distribution image. Try using the unofficial (but still from the Debian project) install image that includes the firmware.

https://cdimage.debian.org/images/unofficial/non-free/images-including-firmware/

Alternatively, if you want to do the same thing with your existing install, enable the non-free section in the Debian software repository, update your package list by running sudo apt update, and install the firmware-amd-graphics package.

Once the package has been installed, reboot.

Welp, now the next brick wall I’ve hit is that I can’t even get it to connect to the internet.

Again, try using the unofficial install image. Wireless and certain Ethernet interfaces also need firmware. If you can’t reach the internet, you won’t be able to selectively install the needed packages.

3 Likes
3

Thanks for replying, I really appreciate it.
So I tried using those images and I get the same thing.

So then I decided, why not hook it up to one of my TVs over HDMI?
Guess what, it worked!
So now my conclusion is that it’s the screen resolution of the monitor I’m plugging it in to. It’s a 30inch DVI monitor with 2560x1600 resolution.
Is there a way I can make Debian boot into a lower resolution before it reaches the log in screen?

4

Technically DVI-i does not support that resolution. 1080P is the highest that the DVI spec officially goes. You would need dual DVI to support that high of a resolution.

I assume 2560x1600 is the native resolution of your monitor? If so, you may need to set the resolution to a fixed value in your display settings on your machine.