My introduction question is which version of Debian should I install on my Oracle VirtualBox that resides on Windows 10? I think 9.2 is the latest but I wold rather go with the most common version. I am very new to Linux. I stayed up until 4AM this morning install everything on Windows 10 Linux subsystem to find out that USB is not supported. Uhg lol
My laptop is connected to my Monoprice Select Mini v2 via USB.
I am googling for Debian versions but there are so many to choose from and so many code names lol
Which version to use?
Other than an intellectual exercise, this configuration will be identical to installing OctoPrint on Windows directly. IMO, the biggest reason for using OctoPrint is the ability to separate the variable performance of the desktop from the needs of the printer to have a reliable and steady stream of commands.
With the advent of small, inexpensive, but relatively powerful systems like the Raspberry Pi, it becomes economically feasible to separate the needs of the printer from the general purpose desktop workload.
If you still want to pursue this exercise, then I'd pick the most current stable release of Debian or Ubuntu.
You can spend $60 or less, buy a Raspberry Pi 3B+, a case, and a power supply designed for use with the RPi. You don't need a monitor, keyboard, or mouse. You just need access to an SD card reader on another machine (and USB SD card readers are also inexpensive).
Unfortunately the plugin fix for communicating with the Monoprice Mini is not available on Windows OS. I contemplated going Pi route and building one from scratch for the experience but I also wanted to teach myself Linux and thought this is a great intro to that end. I still have a TronXY x5s to finish building lol
Imagine the scenario where you've kicked off a timelapse video of a ten-hour print. Do you really trust Windows to stay on that long (without going to sleep, locking the current user, putting the drive(s) to sleep, putting the network adapter to sleep, auto-installing updates, ...)?
The Raspberry Pi 3 is a $35 computer (plus cost of microSD card and power adapter) which will cost less than $8 for a year's worth of electricity if you left it on 24x7. The Windows computer will cost you over $200 for the electricity.
Well, I make my living being a senior systems engineer for a large corporation configuring and maintaining Windows servers, so yes to the trust how I have Windows setup lol
This laptop is my home security DVR, all that has been setup. And a pi or two will come but not until I have this down pat.
I know this is an old thread but did you have success in running OctoPi (OctoPrint) via VirtualBox or VM on Windows 10? If so, how? I've gotten Rasbpian to run as VM but don't know how to get OctoPi to run!
