Raspberry Ninja documentation
Raspberry Ninja publishes, receives, records, and relays VDO.Ninja streams from Linux systems and single-board computers. Most Raspberry Pi users only need the short Quick start; the other guides are available when doing something advanced or diagnosing a problem.
Start here
| Goal | Guide |
|---|---|
| Set up a Pi as a sender or TV receiver | Quick start |
| Configure a Pi Zero 2 W as an unattended sender or HDMI receiver | Pi Zero 2 W unattended WebRTC |
| Validate recovery, soak behavior, and unattended readiness | Unattended validation checklist |
| Run and monitor publishers, receivers, and test benches | Operations guide |
| Record one stream, a room, or HLS segments | Recording guide |
| Diagnose installation, media, display, network, or resource failures | Troubleshooting |
| Understand board, OS, camera-stack, and GStreamer differences | Platform compatibility |
Platform installation
Documentation conventions
- Commands are run from the repository directory unless a guide says otherwise.
STREAM_ID,ROOM_NAME, device paths, usernames, and passwords are placeholders.--password falseis useful for an isolated test, but disables VDO.Ninja’s additional application-level encryption. Use the same strong password at both ends for deployment.- A GStreamer element being installed does not prove that its driver and memory path work. Probe the actual device and keep a software fallback.
- Hardware advice is a starting point. Confirm the actual board, OS, kernel, GStreamer version, plugins, camera stack, and device modes before tuning.
Engineering records
Files under dev_notes document dated investigations and test results. They are useful for reproducing a finding, but they are not current operator instructions. Use the guides above for deployment commands.
When reporting a bug, include the environment bundle from Troubleshooting, the complete command, and the first GStreamer error before any cascade of follow-on errors.