DietPi Tools¶

• Begin by selecting Software Optimized in the main menu list and hit Enter.

• Scroll through the list of available software - for more details check DietPi Optimised Software.

The list of optimised software is long. You either browse the list or use the option Search.

• To install software on your DietPi, select it in the list and press Space to add it to the installation list. If you change your mind, hit Space again to remove it.

• Once you’ve selected the software you wish to install, press Tab to switch to the confirmation options at the bottom. Select OK, then hit Enter to confirm.

• To begin installing your software, select Install from the main menu list, then hit Enter. DietPi will ask you to confirm your choice(s). Select OK, then hit Enter to begin the installation.

The software you selected will begin to install at this point. Once the process is completed, you may be asked to restart your device. Press OK to confirm.

This section provides:

• software packages that are often used and installed via apt install <package>, without additional optimisation from DietPi team.
• or packages not directly required, but pulled as a dependency, like: build tools, libraries or runtime systems. E.g. packages like Python3, pip, tcpdump or midnight commander can be installed using the dialog.

DietPi supports a large number of software titles. Instead of scrolling through the Software Optimised list to find a specific software title, you may use the Search option. Type in the software ID or any keyword form its title or description and you’ll get a list filtered by matching results.

This lets you select your preferred SSH server. Also you can uninstall any SSH server to save memory and to exclude any external ssh based access.

DietPi-Software allows you to easily choose a method of accessing the files on your DietPi system. Installing one of DietPi’s file server choices will allow you to access and share files on your DietPi system.

DietPi will then automatically install and setup the file server for you. DietPi will also clean and remove any previous file server from your system.

The default destination directory for file servers is /mnt/dietpi_userdata.

The reasons for choosing ProFTPD over Samba may be:

• ProFTPD outperforms Samba in all aspects of performance.
• ProFTPD can max out the RPi 100 Mbit connection with minimal CPU usage.
• Samba server on a RPi v1 will hit 100% CPU usage at 40 Mbit transfer rate.

See file servers overview for further information.

Various logging methods can be selected from lightweight to full. If you don’t require log files, get a performance boost. If you need full system logging features, DietPi can do that too.

The Log System can be changed at any time by selecting a different “Log System” from the menu.

See also https://dietpi.com/docs/software/log_system/.

The DietPi Webserver Preference system allows you to choose your favourite webserver for use in DietPi installations. If not decided, read more on Which WEBSERVER to CHOOSE ?

In DietPi, we class user data as:

• Data storage for applications. Some examples are ownCloud/Nextcloud data store, BitTorrent downloads and SQL data store.
• The location where your File Server choice will point to, if you install one, like Samba Server or ProFTPD.
• The location where you can upload and store your media content, for other applications to use, like Kodi, Emby or Plex.

For all software you install in dietpi-software, you can access your user data with /mnt/dietpi_userdata. Regardless of where the data is physically stored, a symlink will automatically be created for you if needed.
To check where the physical location is, you can run the following command:

readlink -f /mnt/dietpi_userdata

You can move your user data to another location (e.g. USB drive). Simply run dietpi-software and enter the User data location menu option:

• If you need to setup a new external drive, select Drive Manager to launch DietPi-Drive Manager.
• Use the List option to select from a list of mounted drives, or, select Manual for a custom location.

DietPi will automatically move your existing user data to your new location.

Install software item(s) which have been selected via Optimised Software or Additional Software lists, or via SSH Server, File Server or Log System choices.

Select one or more software items which you would like to be removed from your DietPi system.

Beside the interactive software installation via dietpi-software with checking wanted software packages and installing them, there is the option of installing the software packages via the shell command line.
The usage of dietpi-software is:

Usage: dietpi-software [<command> [<software_id>...]]
Available commands:
  <empty>     Interactive menu to install or uninstall software
  install     <software_id>...  Install each software given by space-separated list of IDs
  reinstall   <software_id>...  Reinstall each software given by space-separated list of IDs
  uninstall   <software_id>...  Uninstall each software given by space-separated list of IDs
  list        Print a list with IDs and info for all available software titles
  free        Print an unused software ID, free for a new software implementation

The <software_id> which has to be given is the one which is present in the software list within the dietpi-software dialogues:

E.g. to install Chromium, LXQt and GIMP you have to execute:

dietpi-software install 113 173 174

Configure various system settings, from display / audio / network to auto start options.
Run dietpi-config.

Display Options¶

• Set your screen resolution, or go headless to save additional resources
• Control your GPU memory splits
• Enable/disable the RPi camera

Audio Options¶

• Change sound cards with ease (e.g.: HiFiBerry / Odroid HiFi shield)

Performance Options¶

• Overclock your system with a vast selection of overclocking profiles for your device.
• Change the CPU governor and tweak your ARM temperature limits.

Advanced Options¶

• Configure swap file size
• Update device firmware
• Toggle serial console
• Toggle Bluetooth

Security Options¶

• Change password and hostname

Language/Regional Options¶

• Set timezone, locale and keyboard options. Everything you’ll need to make it feel like home

Network Options: Adapters¶

• Scan and connect to your WiFi router with ease
• Change to a static IP address on your network
• Configure your proxy settings
• Test internet connection
• Toggle IPv6 support

Network Options: Misc¶

• Select an APT mirror to connect to the Debian (or Raspbian) APT repository.
• Select an NTP mirror to synchronise your system time.
• Choose timeouts for network and URL connection tests.
• Network Drives redirects you to the DietPi-Drive_Manager which allows you to mount Samba and NFS shares on your DietPi system.
• No-IP is a dynamic DNS provider which allows you to access your home network/server with a static domain name. The client is required to inform No-IP of your current dynamic external IP on a regular basis.

AutoStart Options¶

• Quickly and easily change what software runs after boot. Kodi, Desktop, console and many more

Tools¶

• Perform CPU, RAM, file system and network benchmarks, optionally upload your results and review statistics at: https://dietpi.com/survey/#benchmark
• Perform CPU/IO/RAM/DISK stress tests to test the stability of your system, e.g. after applying some overclocking.

Feature-rich drive management utility.
Run dietpi-drive_manager.

Defines software packages to start when the DietPi OS boots up. Example, boot into the desktop with Kodi running.
Run dietpi-autostart.

Provides service control, priority level tweaks and status print.
Run dietpi-services.

Change triggers for the status LEDs on your SBC/motherboard.
Run dietpi-led_control.

Modify the start times of specific cron job groups.
Run dietpi-cron.

Change the audio settings.
Run dietpi-justboom.

Sync or duplicate a directory to another.
Run dietpi-sync.

Update DietPi OS version to the latest version available.
Run dietpi-update.

Fully backups DietPi setup. It also includes the restore capability from an already made DietPi backup.
Run dietpi-backup.

Access the frontend for the Let's Encrypt integration.
Run dietpi-letsencrypt.

Run dietpi-nordvpn.

Displays CPU temperature, processor frequency, throttle level etc.
Run dietpi-cpuinfo.

This option will upload information on a anonymous base. The aggregated results of all uploads can be seen on the DietPi survey statistics website.
Run dietpi-survey.

Run dietpi-bugreport.

It converts a text file into morse code.
Run dietpi-morsecode.

There are a couple of general commands which have a shortcut in DietPi:

• cpu - Print CPU clocks, temperature and governor info. Sample output:

  

• G_OBTAIN_CPU_TEMP- print integer format CPU temp in degree Celsius (for monitoring probably better than full cpu output)

• G_OBTAIN_CPU_USAGE - CPU usage in percent in [x]y.z format
• G_TREESIZE - Shows current directory/file sizes, recursive

The following commands are non-interactive, but error-handled wrappers for apt-get commands, useful for scripts which shall run non-interactive but allow interactive repeat and solution attempts:

• G_AGI - apt-get install
• G_AGP - apt-get purge
• G_AGA - apt-get autoremove --purge
• G_AGUP - apt-get update
• G_AGUG - apt-get upgrade
• G_AGDUG - apt-get dist-upgrade

Lightweight file manager and explorer.
Run dietpi-explorer.

Clean up not necessary files from the operating system and free up valuable disk space.
Run dietpi-cleaner.

Clear log files in /var/log/.
Run dietpi-logclear.