Run the hub on a Raspberry Pi

A Raspberry Pi makes a quiet, low-power hub that’s always on.

What you need

• A Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 with 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS (Bookworm). Any Debian or Ubuntu machine works the same way.
• A wired network connection if you can. Cameras stream continuously, and Ethernet is steadier than Wi‑Fi.
• Storage for a few days of local footage: a large microSD card works, a USB SSD is better.

Install

From the Unicam hub folder, run the installer with sudo:

sudo ./deploy/raspberry-pi/install.sh

It installs ffmpeg and Node.js if needed, creates an unprivileged unicam service user, sets up the hub as a system service that starts on boot, and enables hardware video decoding. When it finishes it prints:

• the hub address, like http://192.168.1.20:7700
• the pairing code for your first device

Open the Unicam app, enter the address and code, and you’re paired. See Pair a device.

Useful commands

# Follow the hub's log
journalctl -u unicam-hub -f

# Restart the hub
sudo systemctl restart unicam-hub

How it’s locked down

The service runs as its own user with a read-only system, no privilege escalation and private file permissions. The hub’s data folder is readable only by that user. Camera passwords and cloud tokens are encrypted at rest.

Recording to a USB drive or NAS

Mount the drive or share on the Pi, then add it in the app under Storage → Folder / NAS / USB using the mount path. See Storage destinations.

Next

Add your cameras, then turn on remote access with Tailscale.