Pages tagged with 'Linux'

Efficiently doing nothing in Linux

2023-08-15
5 minutes

Computers exist for doing work, usually useful, often not. In rare instances, it's useful to make a program do nothing at all. My primary use case for this is Docker containers, where it's useful to have the container do nothing, so it can be exec-d into as part of another…

Casting YouTube videos from Linux

2023-02-23
3 minutes

Over the past few months, I've been watching a lot more content on the TV, sat on the sofa, than at my desk like I used to. The bigger screen is much more enjoyable, not to mention it's a different seat to the one I work in 8 hours a…

State of the Apps 2023

2023-01-01
15 minutes

It's that time of year again, time to steal some of Cortex's search rankings to talk about my own "State of the Apps" - the applications and setups I use to make my life what it is. Since my last post, and in fact in just the last few weeks,…

Server CPU Replacement

2022-11-13
10 minutes

Power bills in the UK are starting to skyrocket, and the costs of self-hosting are going up as a result. The average persons bills are going up pretty fast, and I suspect they don't have a server in their cupboard on 24/7. For a while now, I've wanted to swap…

State of the Apps 2022

2022-01-01
14 minutes

It’s a new year, so it’s time to reflect back on the tools I used last year, how they’ll change this year, and how they might change in future. It’s still an idea I’ve completely stolen from CGP Grey / Cortex, but I think it’s useful, fun and interesting. I’m…

Storing Ansible Vault password in Bitwarden

2021-12-20
4 minutes

I’ve used Ansible for a number of years for the provisioning of both my servers and desktops. It’s versatile, it’s simple, it’s powerful, and has a number of great features. Personally, I make all of my “playbooks” public for all for all to see, but provisioning still requires some secrets.

LXC vs Docker

2021-10-29
4 minutes

Both LXC and Docker are great containerization technologies, brought to you by the powers of the Linux kernel. At their core, they’re pretty similar, but the further out you look, the differences increase massively. At their heart, they’re both still containers - understanding the differences between the 2 takes a…

Docker in LXC

Docker is a great containerization technology for running applications. It keeps multiple applications completely isolated from each other, only allowing connections exactly when you tell them to. But what if you’re on a hypervisor? You want your host OS to be as lean as possible (else it defeats the point),…

Fixing a permissions error on Proxmox backup

2021-09-18

I have a bunch of VMs and LXCs on my proxmox server. Whilst I like to keep as little data in each of them as possible, and instead mount in my storage (in the form of a ZFS and snapraid pool), I still use proxmox’s built-in backup feature to back…

Server build 2020 - Proxmox setup

2021-05-03
11 minutes

Back in December, I fully rebuilt my home server from the ground up based on Proxmox. Being a hypervisor OS, it makes sense to run everything in VMs or LXC containers, not on the host. Therefore, there’s a huge amount of scope for opinions, lessons and customizations. I’ve had quite…

ZFS on home

2021-03-01
3 minutes

ZFS is a great filesystem, especially for any kind of data storage, but the fact it’s not integrated into the Linux kernel makes it a risky choice for the root OS. Canonical are making this easier for Ubuntu users by tightly controlling and testing the kernel and ZFS to ensure…

Unsafe routes with Nebula

2021-02-02
2 minutes

Nebula is a great mesh network I recently deployed into my stack. For connecting nodes spread between networks, it’s great, much better than my previous WireGuard installation. An additional feature of nebula is unsafe_routes. Unsafe routes allow nodes which don’t have Nebula installed to be accessible to other Nebula nodes.

Nebula mesh network - an introduction

2021-01-08
8 minutes

WireGuard has been the “hot new thing” when it comes to VPNs, but it’s not always the best suited for every workload. Nebula is a mesh network originally created by Slack, but now owned by a separate company.TechSNAP 419 - Nebulous NetworkingLinux Unplugged 329 - Flat Network TruthersWhat’s a mesh…

State of the Apps 2021

2021-01-01
7 minutes

It’s that time of the year again: time to look back at how I work, the tools I use, and how the next year might look. I’ve been working from home basically full time since the UK went into lockdown 17th March. It’s been quite an adjustment barely leaving the…

Mount NFS inside LXC containers

NFS is a great protocol for sharing files quickly and simply over the network. Whilst it’s not designed for end user use, it’s great for mounting directories from remote machines, and having them be performant. NFS’ lack of authentication is in a way a feature, honest. Not only does it…

Backing up and restoring Docker containers

2020-12-06
3 minutes

You should back up your data, properly! If you’re not, you’re playing a dangerous game with fate. Computers are pretty reliable, but they also go wrong, often. You should always backup your files, but backing up a containerized application isn’t quite as simple. A container is 3 things:ConfigurationVolumesNetworking The point…

Server build 2020 - Parts

2020-12-01
5 minutes

Black Friday, the only day which seems to last over a month, is a great time to buy tech. Whilst most people will be buying early christmas presents, new gadgets for themselves, or just impulse buying stuff they don’t need (something I totally never do…), I ordered the parts for…

Wiping Hard Drives

2020-11-21
2 minutes

People say there’s no 100% reliable way to wipe a storage drive, and they’re right. By the nature of how mechanical drives work, there’s no real way to say for sure whether the data is ever really gone. With drives, the only way to be sure the content is gone…