Can i run other stuff parallel to octoprint?

i guess i leave the octopi and octoprint version alone and just use another SD card when i want to try some stuff with the raspberry.

i have not yet looked at the original OS that came with it to be honest.

I purchase the little microUSB cards in bulk from the manufacturer and I've installed Raspbian and OctoPi countless times.

Rasbian is basically Debian (Linux) as shipped with the Raspberry Pi specifically with their drivers. And the OctoPi image is Raspbian Lite, the mjpg_streamer, OctoPrint and haproxy. Both foosel and guy have done a great job of making this really easy to get going on this platform.

Sometimes I swap in four or five different microSD cards into the same Raspi, one for different projects. So it's easy to re-provision your computer in this way.

I have to confess, I have the desktop installed on the RPi 3B running OctoPi / OctoPrint controlling my LulzBot TAZ 6. I NEVER use it when I am printing and rarely use it when I'm not printing. I use Windows 10 Remote Terminal to connect when I do use it.

OctoPi is based on Raspbian Lite. Lite doesn't include the desktop by default nor does it have a lot of "extra" baggage. OctoPi has been optimized for 3D printing with OctoPrint.

You can, however, install a desktop and any of the other packages available for the Raspberry Pi. The more you add, the greater the risk of compromising the ability of the system to reliably produce high-quality 3D prints. As long as you are willing to accept this risk, then go ahead.

OctoPrint has a plugin manager and there are lots of plugins available including the ability to write your own. However, OctoPrint has "Safe Mode" which disables all but the bare essentials. If you have a printing problem and ask for help, you will often be asked if the problem still exists in safe mode.

Unfortunately, OctoPi doesn't have a safe mode. It may be wise to have two microSD cards one with just OctoPi configured for your printer and a second with all of your added packages. The first one becomes your "safe mode" should you have problems 3D printing with the second.

As @OutsourcedGuru has pointed out, there's not a lot of "Linux experience" required to use OctoPrint. Learn how to use SSH to connect to a "console" on your RPi. Learn just a few commands and/or learn how to use WinSCP so you can manipulate files more easily. This knowledge will prove useful if you experience problems and need help in the future.

I actually found this as I'm considering running piVPN in the background - which is an openvpn instance. One reason for this is so that I can access devices in my home network etc. Might additionally have liked to attach a portable HD to the pie, get apache up and running, set up some users, so that I can run a webdav server (pidav) and use it as cloud based storage. I like the added security that my webdav server could only be accessed by first initialising a vpn connection to the pi....

My only concern - will this play nice with octoprint? Wary of maxing out system resources and ruining print jobs (mind you I'm not yet launching everything from octorpint as I like being able to tweak settings on the control of my ender 3 v2 - if I start printing with pi those options aren't there - currently using octopi mostly for passive monitoring). Wouldn't intend running much more than webdav plus openvpn.

Perls of wisdom much appreciated!

That's precisely why it is recommended to leave it at OctoPrint and not add more software to the image left and right. My recommendation: Get a second Pi for your VPN endpoint, also due to the security implications (you don't want your gateway from the internet that thus needs to be reachable from the internet to be the same device that is connected to a machine in your home that has heating elements - think DDOS, think break in).

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