Rocket.chat and MongoDB (not) on an RPi4
10/05/2023
Failing to run a chat program on an ARM processor
I tried to install Rocket.chat today but failed/gave up due to hardware limitations with RPi4 (Raspberry Pi 4)[1]. However TIL about ARM instruction set (micro server architecture) in the process.
First Boss: MongoDb
The problem began when I was trying to get MongoDb running on the RPi4. Not the
latest version, but recent version would not start. After a while I understood
that MongoDb targets a
minimum instruction set of (ARMv8.2-A)
which is later instruction set than what
RPi4 implements (ARMv8-A).
However I could still run a previous version of the major 4 version (4.2.18)
which was before the switch (as of writing 6.0.5 is the latest version)
However this solution is not very future proof and probably means that updating
Rocket.chat is limited.
Second Boss: Rocket.Chat (spoiler alert: Game Over)
After MongoDB was up and running my focus shifted to rocket.chat itself where I ran into the same issue. There were no support for ARM when running the latest version Rocket.chat. I thought it was a bit weird since it’s just a node.js program... However there is a 3 year old half decent instruction to run an older version, but it wasn’t working out of the box. After some searching on their GitHub issues and their website forum I realized that ARM support was not a priority nor something the core team was interested in.
Side Quest: Mini-PC
As a side quest I started looking into mini-pc since I remember a
comment on hacker news giving a
tip about
MeLe Quieter3Q
(intel N5105 processor). It costs ¥35.000-¥40.000 which is more than double
the RPi4 (there are cheaper mini-pc but they have a loud fan) but it’s a x86-64
processor which just makes everything so much easier for server development...
What makes this something interesting is that the wattage is supposed to be very
similar to RPi4 which is one of the main reasons I went for the RPi4 as my home
server solution, while also having a virtual (x86-x64) server at Digital Ocean
as my main server.
RPi4 - 5W (idle 3W) source: source1, source2
Quieter3Q - 11W (idle 3W) source: source1
At this very moment I don’t have the need (nor the time #dad) to tinker with a mini PC but it’s definitely something to note for future needs.