After the recent chaos I found on my Raspberry Pi server and its unstable performance I made a fresh attempt to build a simple ad filter in my home using rPi.
First, remember to change default password of pi user!
sudo raspi-configInstall PiHole from official script, set/reset password for web admin and add auto-update PiHole line to crontab
curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash
pihole -a -p
crontab -e
# 0 5 * * * pihole -upI have to admit that PiHole’s basic blacklists do a good job of filtering ads, but there are places on the web that require more url restriction (like scammer sites). I previously used firebog list for this and manually tried to add lists of blocked sites to the tool. However, as it turns out, someone smart has added their python script to automatically add the appropriate list option from both firebog (blacklist) and/or anudeepND/whitelist (whitelist).
Also consider adding blocklists focused on your home smart devices:
sudo pip3 install pihole5-list-tool --upgrade
pihole5-list-tool
# ┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
# │ π-hole 5 list tool v0.6.0 │
# └──────────────────────────────────────────┘
# https://github.com/jessedp/pihole5-list-tool
#
# ! docker not found running, continuing...
#
# ? Gravity Db to Update: /etc/pihole/gravity.db
#
# Blocks Enabled: All=0 │ Ours=0 │ Allows Enabled: All=0 │ Ours=0
#
# ? Options: Manage Blocklists
# ? Blocklist action: Add a list
# ? Where are the block lists coming from? Firebog | Non-crossed lists : Use when someone is usually around to allow
#
# Do not hit ENTER or Y if a step seems to hang!
# Use CTRL+C if you're sure it's hung and report it.
#
# ? Add 45 block lists? Yes
# 45 block lists added! 0 already existed.
# Ad/Blocklist Stats │ Top 3 by Comment
# ───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────
# Total : 45/45 │ Firebog | Non-crossed lists [ph5lt] 45
# Our Lists : 45/45 │
# Others : 0/0 │
# │
# ? Are you finished? Yes
# ? Update Gravity for immediate effect? YesThe final step is to auto-update the rPi itself. I wanted to use a standard crontab with the update+upgrade command to do this, but the problem here may be the occurrence of a dialog windows. A better solution to avoid this problem and update your rPi server with security payloads is to use the UnattendedUpgrades library
apt-get install unattended-upgrades
dpkg-reconfigure -plow unattended-upgradesThis is the most basic server setup, which should take no more than 30min. But it is also a good basis for future activities with the system that is currently set up and running smoothly. In the future, if I add something as a “base image” for the home server, I will add additional commands in the end of this post.