Install OMV Guide

Guide by Greg Rodriguez.

In this guide we’ll cover how to install OpenMediaVault (OMV) on the ODROID H4+/H4 Ultra. OMV is a lightweight Linux based operating system designed to turn your device into a full-featured NAS. Not only does it make creating network shares simple, but also supports advanced features like Docker allowing you to easily setup and run software turning your H4 into a Plex, Jellyfin, or OpenVPN server.

Prerequisites:

• A computer running Windows/macOS/Linux
• 2GB or larger USB flash drive
• Latest stable OpenMediaVault ISO from https://www.openmediavault.org/download
• balenaEtcher from https://etcher.balena.io/

1. Creating A Bootable Installer

Begin by installing balenaEtcher on your computer from the link provided above. Etcher provides a simple method of writing images to removable media. We will use this to create a bootable USB flash drive to install OMV on the H4.

Before opening Etcher make sure to connect the USB flash drive to your computer. Then, with Etcher open, click Flash from file. Browse to where you’ve downloaded the OMV ISO and select it. Next click Select target and choose your flash drive. Note that the selected drive will be completely erased, so make sure to choose the correct one. Lastly, click Flash! to begin writing the image. Etcher will need admin privileges to do this, so depending on your computer you may have to allow the app to make changes or enter an admin password. Once the process is complete we can close Etcher, eject the flash drive, and move over to the H4 to begin installation.

2. Booting From USB

If you haven’t already, begin by installing the RAM, NVMe SSD or eMMC flash storage, and hard drive(s) on the H4. In this example we’re using an NVMe SSD as the boot drive where OMV will be installed and a single hard drive for media storage. Connect a monitor, mouse, keyboard, and ethernet cable to the H4. Note that the ethernet port closest to the HDMI port is considered the first ethernet port and the other is the second. Plug the bootable flash drive into one of the blue USB 3.0 ports on the H4.

With all our peripherals connected, plug the power adapter into the H4. It may power on immediately once power is connected, but if not, press the power button. When the HardKernel logo appears on screen begin repeatedly pressing the Delete key on your keyboard. Keep pressing the Delete key until you see Aptio Setup – AMI load. This is the BIOS and it controls various hardware level parameters of the device, including boot devices, so make sure not to change any settings that you do not understand.

To navigate the BIOS you’ll use the Up, Down, Left, and Right arrow keys on the keyboard to move around and the Enter key to select items. Using the Right arrow key move across the tabs at the top to Save & Exit. Once there use the Down arrow to move down to the Boot Override section. You may only see one option at this point, but if there’s multiple choose your USB flash drive and press Enter. Note that the name your flash drive has in the BIOS may be different than it is in Windows or macOS, but usually has some form of the manufacturer’s name in it.

3. Installing OpenMediaVault

The H4 should now reboot from the USB drive and come to a blue screen with the option to Install. Use the arrow keys to select that and press Enter to begin. Select your preferred language with the arrow keys and press Enter to confirm. Next select your location by country and press Enter. Lastly, configure your keyboard layout and press Enter.

The OMV installer should now begin to load and you will need to select which network controller you’ve plugged your ethernet cable into. If you plugged it into the first ethernet port then choose enp1so. If you plugged into the second port choose enp2so. The installer should now attempt to obtain an IP address automatically from your router using DHCP. Once successful you’ll be asked to choose a hostname for the device. This is an easily identifiable name that the H4 can be accessed by over the network. For this example use omv.local as the hostname.

In the next step you’ll set a password for the root account. The root account is what you’ll use to login and administrate OMV over SSH or from the command line, so make your password secure. Type in your password and press Enter, then retype your password and press Enter again to confirm. In the next step set your time zone to match your location. The time zones OMV displays should be filtered to the country you chose earlier when selecting your location.

When Partition disks comes up press Enter to load the partitioner. Next we need to select the disk that OMV will be installed on. You will see a list of all connected disks; in this example we’re installing to the NVMe SSD, which should be listed as something similar to /dev/nmve0n1. Select the NVMe SSD and press Enter. In the next step you’ll configure the package manager that OMV will use. Choose your country or the country closest to yours if not listed. In the list of mirrors that follows select the first option. On the next window leave HTTP proxy blank, you most likely do not need to configure one, and press Enter.

Finally you should get a message that installation is complete. Remove the flash drive and press Enter to reboot into OMV. When the system is fully booted it will come to the prompt omv login:. Note that omv is derived from the hostname chosen in a previous step, so if you chose a different hostname it will use that instead. We don’t need to do anything more here, but note the IP address listed above the login prompt. If we can’t connect to OMV by the hostname in the next step, we’ll use that IP address instead.

4. Initial Login And Update

Now that OMV is installed and running we no longer need to do anything directly from the H4 itself. Instead we’ll open a web browser on our computer and type omv.local in the address bar and press Enter. If that doesn’t work, try using the IP address taken from the previous step. Either way you may get a warning the first time trying to connect that this is an unsafe website. This is because OMV uses a self-signed certificate that your browser doesn’t trust. You may have to click on advanced to continue to the webpage. Next you’ll be prompted to log into to the web interface. The default username is admin and the default password is openmediavault.

Once logged in the first thing to do is change the default password for the web interface. To do this click the icon in the upper right corner that looks like a person’s head and shoulders, then choose Change Password. Type your new password, then again to confirm and click Save. Note that this password is different from the root password set during installation, but should be equally secure.

The next step is to install the latest updates for OMV. To do this navigate to System→Update Management→Updates. Click the icon that looks like a magnifying glass to check for updates. When it’s done checking the number of updates will appear on the button next to the magnifying glass that looks like a downward facing arrow. Click that button to install updates, check Confirm, and then click Yes. The system will begin downloading and installing updates. When it’s finished the final line of output should say END OF LINE. You can now click Close. The page may reload and you may also see a big yellow banner across the top saying there are pending configuration changes that need to be applied. Click the checkmark on the right of that banner, then click Yes to apply changes. After the initial updates are finished installing the system will likely need to reboot. To do this click the Power button in the upper right corner. Select Reboot, check Confirm and click Yes to reboot. After OMV reboots, log back into the web interface. Remember to use the new password you set this time.

5. Connecting And Formatting Drives

From the web interface, navigate to Storage→Disks, and verify that your hard drive(s) are listed. Keep in mind that the drive that begins with /dev/nvme is the SSD where OMV is installed. SATA hard drives should begin with /dev/sd*. In other words, /dev/sda is the first hard drive, /dev/sdb is the second, and so on... Since we’re only using a singe hard drive in this example we’ll be looking for /dev/sda. At this time if your hard drive is already formatted with an unsupported filesystem, click on /dev/sda to select it, then click the wipe button that looks like an eraser to wipe the entire drive. Check Confirm and click Yes. Note that this will erase everything on the disk. When asked whether to erase the disk securely or quickly, choose Quick. When you see the message END OF LINE you can click Close

Now that we have a blank, unformatted drive we need to format it; create a filesystem to store data on. To do this navigate to Storage→File Systems. Click the blue plus sign icon to create and mount a new filesystem. As we only have a single drive for this guide we’ll be selecting EXT4 as our filesystem. On the next window click under Device and select /dev/sda. Click Save to begin formatting the hard drive. It may take a few minutes, but will display the END OF LINE message when complete. On the next window click under Select a filesystem and choose the newly formatted hard drive, which should now be /dev/sda1. Leave the other settings alone and click Save. Finally apply pending configuration changes.

OMV is now ready to create shared folders and setup Plex, which will be covered in the second part of this guide, Installing Plex Media Server on the ODROID H4 with OpenMediaVault.