Raspberry Pi is a low-powered computer, making it great for always-on jobs such as running a print server. In this tutorial, we will add a Dymo LabelWriter 450 printer to a Raspberry Pi and use it as a server on the local network.

Step 1: Ensure the CUPS server is installed on the Raspberry Pi. If it’s not installed, run the following command:

sudo apt install cups

Step 2: Connect to the admin page. By default, you cannot access the admin page over the network. To change this, SSH into the Pi and edit cupsd.conf:

sudo nano /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

a. Update Listen line to

Listen 0.0.0.0:631

b. Update the restrictions to look like this:

# Restrict access to the admin pages...
<Location /admin>
  Order allow,deny
  Allow all
</Location>

# Restrict access to configuration files...
<Location /admin/conf>
  AuthType Default
  Require user @SYSTEM
  Order allow,deny
</Location>

c. Restart the service

sudo service cups restart

Now to go http://{IP OF THE PI}:631/admin

Step 3: Click Add Printer

Select DYMO LabelWriter 450 from your local printers list

Step 4: Update the name if you like, set a location and check the Share This Printer option.

Step 5: Review the settings and click Add Printer again.

Step 6: Add the printer to your computer’s printer utility.

Step 7: Open the DYMO Label Utility, and you should see your printer in the printer list.

Step 8: Print!

That’s it! Now you can have your printer available all the time over the network.

If you followed the previous post and started using Kodi, you might be wondering what else you can do with it other than sharing videos over the network. Kodi has great community support and offers many add-ons. One of those add-ons is for YouTube. The setup process can be tricky for some users, so I’d recommend reviewing the pros & cons at the end of the article. Also, skim through the steps involved before you start to have a good idea of what you are getting into.

Let’s get started with the installation.

Part 1: Install YouTube Add-On on Kodi

Step 1: Select Add-ons on the left menu.

Step 2: Click the Enter add-on browser button in the middle of the screen.

Step 3: Scroll down and click on the YouTube add-on.

Step 4: Click the Install button at the bottom right of the screen.

Step 5: If prompted to install additional add-ons such as InputStream Helper, click OK.

Step 6: Wait for the installation to complete.

Step 7: When prompted to Execute setup-wizard, select Yes.

• Select your language and region
• Decide if you want to perform geolocation. This is used in My Location settings.

Step 8: You should see a checkmark next to the YouTube add-on indicating that it has been successfully installed.

Step 9: Test your installation by clicking on Add-ons on the left menu and YouTube add-on. You should see a home screen like this:

Now that you have the YouTube add-on running on your Kodi let’s set up your Google account to generate API keys.

Part 2: Create YouTube API Keys

YouTube add-on requires you to enter your own API keys. This way, all the API calls the add-on makes will be made with your keys.

Step 1: Sign in to Google Cloud Platform with your Google account (If this is your first time, agree to the Terms and Conditions and continue).

Step 2: Click the Create Project button at the top right:

Step 3: Give your project a descriptive name and click Create.

Step 4: Click APIs & Services → Library on the left menu

Step 5: Search YouTube Data API in the API Library and select the first item in the auto-complete (youtube data api v3 in this example)

Step 6: Click on YouTube Data API v3 again

Step 7: Click the Enable button

Step 8: Click Credentials on the left menu

Step 9: Click Create Credentials and select API key

Step 10: Note down your API key and click the Edit API key button.

Step 11: As per the warning above, the key is unrestricted by default. Click on Restrict key option, select YouTube Data API v3 and click Save

Step 12: Click OAuth consent screen on the left menu

Step 13: Select External and click Create.

Step 14: Give a descriptive name to the app, such as Kodi YouTube AddOn and select your email as the User support email.

Then scroll down to the bottom and enter your email address again as Developer contact information, and click Save and Continue.

Step 14: Click Save and Continue on the Scopes and Test users pages and click the Back to dashboard button on the Summary page.

Step 15: Click Credentials again and Create Credentials. This time select OAuth client ID from the menu.

Step 16: Select TVs and Limited Input Devices from the list. give it a name (such as your Kodi instance name) and click Create.

Step 17: Note down your client ID and client secret. Then, click OK.

The next step is to enter the API key and the OAuth credentials in your YouTube Add-On. Since the add-on is running on your Raspberry Pi, entering these long random values is not easy. The easiest way to do that is to enter it by using the HTTP server. In the next part, you will configure your add-on and set up your user.

Part 3: Configure YouTube Add-On

Step 1: Enable the API configuration page by turning it on Settings → API

Step 2: Then, click HTTP server and note the port it’s running on.

Step 3: On your computer, go to the URL: http://{Kodi IP}:{HTTP Server Port}/api

You should see a page like this:

Enter your API key, client ID (as API Id) and client secret (as API secret). Then, click Save.

Make sure to turn off the Enable API configuration page after you’ve entered your credentials.

Step 4: Now, go back to your Kodi instance and open the add-on. Click Sign In.

Step 5: As the message says, you must sign in twice. Click OK to dismiss the message.

Step 6: You should see a code on your Kodi screen.

Go to google.com/device and enter the code on your computer.

Step 7: Select the account to use

Step 8: Click Allow

Step 9: You should see a successful connection message

Step 10: You should see a new code on your Kodi screen. Repeat steps 6 - 9 to authorize the app again. If all goes well, you should now see more items in the YouTube menu, such as My Subscriptions. You can now browse your videos, channels etc. 🎉

Troubleshooting Second Authorization: 403 Access Denied Error

If you got an error during the 2nd authorization that looks like this

Then, you have to follow the steps below:

Step 1: Click APIs & Services → OAuth Consent Screen. Your app should be in Testing status.

Step 2: Click Publish App and confirm when asked to Push to Production

Step 3: Go to google.com/device and enter the code again.

Step 4: You will see a warning message saying Google hasn’t verified this app. Click the Advanced link.

Step 5: Click Go to {YOUR APP NAME} (unsafe) link

You should now see on your Kodi screen that you are logged in and see My Subscriptions in the menu.

Part 4: Usage and Review

Congratulations on completing a lengthy setup. See below a list of pros and cons based on the setup and initial usage experience:

Pros & Cons

✅ Pros

• No ads (If you tried to get rid of in-video Youtube ads by using a Pi Hole, it looks like it doesn’t work: How do I block ads on YouTube?)
• No need for a separate streaming device

❌ Cons

• Setup is cumbersome
• User experience could be better

Even though the user experience feels a bit different initially, I hope it will grow on me.

👍 Multiple Users

You can create multiple users and easily switch between the users. You can create a new user by clicking Settings → Users → Add a user. Adding a new user involves Steps 4 - 10 of Part 3.

Then, you can easily switch between accounts by using the Switch User option.

Even though you sign in to a different YouTube account, it still uses the same API key to fetch your content, so you won’t have to generate new keys.

Conclusion

Setting up a home lab requires some work and maintenance, but in the end, it’s rewarding as well. In this tutorial, you learned how to install the YouTube add-on on Kodi and how to configure Google API to access your YouTube account. I hope you enjoyed it. See you in the next post.

I’ve been using Raspberry Pis since their first release for various purposes (I still have all of them, and they still work with the latest OS even after a decade).

Since 2014, I’ve been using them as a home entertainment system. In this project, I’m using a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 4 GB and LibreELEC as the operating system, and this post is all about showing how to set up your own home entertainment system with this hardware and software.

Hardware Requirements

• Raspberry Pi 4 (2GB should work, but 4GB+ recommended)
• microSD card (4GB and above)
• HDMI cable (HDMI to Micro HDMI or a regular HDMI cable and a Micro HDMI to HDMI Adapter) CableTV or monitor (with a built-in speaker or an audio port to connect to an external speaker)
• Raspberry Pi USB-C power adapter
• Remote control or keyboard/mouse
• (Optional) Raspberry Pi case with cooling
• (Optional) Ethernet cable

Software Requirements

• balenaEtcher

Installation

Step 1: Download the latest LibreELEC release for Raspberry Pi

Go to the LibreELEC Raspberry Pi page and download the latest release

Step 2: Extract the compressed archive

The downloaded file is a compressed archive. Extract the img file inside this by double-clicking on macOS. On Windows, you will need an external tool such as 7-zip.

Step 3: Run balenaEtcher

Click Flash from file

Navigate to the LibreELEC image and click Open.

Click Select target, select your microSD card and click the Select button.

Finally, click the Flash! button.

The flashing process shouldn’t take too long (it depends on the size of the card and your computer performance)

Wait until you see the successful completion

Now you can remove the microSD card from your computer.

Step 4: Insert everything into Raspberry Pi and power it on.

Make sure you’ve plugged in

• microSD card
• HDMI cable
• Remote control or keyboard

As listed on the hardware requirements, you should have a Micro HDMI to HDMI cable or an adapter:

I use a DroiX remote control:

Step 5: Configure Kodi

You should now see LibreELEC booting and resizing the SD card.

Wait until it reboots and comes back to the configuration screen.

A remote control is great for day-to-day use with Kodi, but for the initial setup, I’d recommend having a keyboard plugged in for faster typing.

Select your language and click Next.

On the next screen, focus on the hostname and press enter.

Give it a unique name so you can later identify it in your network.

Select your network. I used a wired network for simplicity and performance. If you are using WiFi, select your network and enter your passphrase.

Accept the default for SSH and Samba settings. They are not needed to consume shared content. It’s a good practice to keep these settings off if you are not going to use them for security purposes.

You should see the message for completion

Click the Next button to close the window, and now you have a working Kodi on your Raspberry Pi 4.

Conclusion

In this article, you learned how to install Kodi on Raspberry Pi 4.

You can now test your installation by plugging in a USB with some media on it. Also, you might want to backup your microSD card to an image file. This way, if your microSD card gets corrupted, you can flash your image to a new one and carry on without having to install it from scratch.

You will most likely want to access some shared content by a NAS or a file server over the network. There will be more articles about Kodi and its use as a media centre and home entertainment system. Stay tuned and enjoy your Kodi! See you at the next one!